The Dragon Tree (24 page)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

             
The cross-country Invitational brought together runners from all over the county. Twenty schools were invited to participate, each one bringing their top two male runners and their top two female runners. It was considered a goodwill event and not a true competition, but the runners themselves and the legions of fans that traveled to cheer them on took the race seriously.

             
A year of bragging rights were on the line.

             
It was impossible to completely eliminate “home field advantage”, but the race organizers minimized the effect as much as possible by moving the race each year. For the first time in over a decade, the organizers had chosen a stretch of coastal forest just south of Hudson and Alpine as the race site and both communities were rallying behind their local athletes.

             
The crowds began gathering in the park that morning. They pulled barbecues out of truck beds and filled coolers with ice. They unfolded lawn chairs and chanted fight songs. The race wouldn’t start until late afternoon, but the race was an all-day event for a community starved for activities.

             
Salvadore wore Alpine colors from head to toe to make sure all the out-of-towners knew which runners he supported. Rosa would have been embarrassed by her husband’s display, but this was the second year the Diaz family attended the race and there was a certain charm to being a rabid fan. The twins got into the fanfare, too. In a rare show of solidarity with their father they painted their faces and drew Eva’s jersey number on their cheeks. While the adults ate hotdogs and drank beer all afternoon, the kids staged impromptu races and created general commotion.

             
Eva and the three other runners from Alpine High School had a designated prep area near the park ranger’s offices. Two other schools prepped in adjacent areas, all the racers eyeing each other for any possible advantage they could bring to the contest. Eva’s teammates stretched incessantly and hopped around nervously. Eva mimicked their actions and joined their whispered conversations about their rivals. But it was all an act. In truth, her mind was on a rocky shelf above the harbor where only the black roots of the dragon tree remained.

             
I wish I could talk to the boys with my mind while I’m in this body.

             
But it wasn’t so. Only her dragon mind allowed her to send thoughts telepathically. Even though she stood in the heart of the packed race grounds, she felt isolated and alone.

***

              Reiko knew Hiroki was spending a lot of time with the boy from Hudson, but she wasn’t happy he planned to attend the Invitational with Billy instead of her. She didn’t want to go to the race alone, so she decided to invite her father.

             
Hideo had recently been spending most of his hours upstairs behind his closed bedroom door. When she knocked and opened the door, she was surprised to find him already on his feet and dressed to leave the house. He held a scrap of cloth in his open palm and gently closed his fist around it.

             
“Yes, daughter. I will go,” he muttered in Japanese.

             
“I didn’t say anything yet, Dad,” she answered with a curious smile.

              Reiko and Hideo ambushed the boys in the parking lot of the event grounds. As soon as Hideo laid eyes on his grandson, he walked toward him with obvious purpose and severity of his expression.

             
“Uh oh,” said Billy. “He looks intense.”

             
Billy waved at Hideo and Reiko and hauled Hiroki away. As they made their way through the crowd in search of the starting line, Billy was surprisingly animated. “Your grandpa was weirding me out, man. Are we sure it wasn’t him who took the tree? Are we absolutely sure?” Billy asked, his voice betraying deep concern.

             
“You said yourself, he’s eighty,” Hiroki reminded him.

             
“Maybe that drop of dragon blood he drank is still in his body and he can still read minds. Do you know for a fact that he can’t?”

             
“No,” admitted Hiroki, exasperated, “but I doubt it.”

              Billy and Hiroki found a spot near the starting line. Neither of them wore school colors or looked very excited to be at the race. Billy scanned the crowd looking for a familiar trio of letterman jackets.

             
“Think my Alpine buddies will come at me again?” Billy asked.

             
“Not after what happened last time,” said Hiroki. “The week after, when I saw them around school, Dudley and Gabe looked like they’d just wet themselves and were afraid someone would find out.”

             
“What about Aidan? How pissed was he, scale of 1 to 10?”

             
Hiroki shook his head. “Never saw him. I don’t even know if he was at school. His dad probably hired tutors or something, until his face could heal.”

             
Hiroki caught sight of the runners moving from their prep areas to the starting line. He ignored everyone not wearing Alpine colors and finally laid eyes on Eva. Her raven hair was pulled back in a ponytail, as usual, but instead of holding her chin confidently high, she was staring at her sneakers.

             
“She’s drawing attention to herself. Just by looking miserable, she’s drawing attention to herself,” Hiroki said.

             
“After what we dumped on her last night, can you blame her? Cut her some slack, man.”

             
Hiroki gritted his teeth and turned to face Billy. “You’ve been in her life for a few weeks and you’ve been nothing but trouble. I’ve been there for her, supporting her through everything, for
years
. When her mother was driving her crazy, when she struggled with her classes, when her dumbass boyfriend treated her like crap. I was there, Billy. No matter what it cost me, I was there.”

             
“All right, calm down,” Billy mumbled.

             
Hiroki jabbed Billy in the ribs with his elbow. “You don’t get to say
anything
to me about Eva.”

             
Billy looked down at his ribs, his own frustration building. “Do that again and we’re going to have a real problem, Hiro.”

             
“Like I care anymore,” said Hiroki.

             
Billy noticed that Hiroki’s lip was quivering. He felt guilty seeing Hiroki in a moment of vulnerability and turned back to the racers now taking their positions at the starting line. The crowd was cheering excitedly, hollering the names of the schools and racers they supported.

             
“Look Hiro, I know you’re in love with Eva,” said Billy.

             
Hiroki felt his hands shaking and crossed his arms to hide them. “Shut up, Billy.”

             
“It’s obvious, man. It’s
been
obvious since the first day you two showed up at my trailer. It’s not like I blame you for it. She’s an amazing girl. If I’d been pining away for her for years, I’d be pissed about a guy like me showing up and… getting in the way.”

             
“Just stop talking, Billy. It’s bad already, but you’re gonna make it worse.”

             
“I want her to be happy. I want both of you to be happy. If she feels the same way about you,” Billy went on, “the last thing I want to do is stand in the way of you two being together.”

             
Hiroki squeezed himself with his crossed arms, once again feeling the buffalo stampeding on his chest. He would have walked away from Billy, but there was no clear path through the crowd that boxed them in. “Just stop,” he mouthed, but no volume came out.

             
The racers were all lined up now, performing final stretching rituals as a race organizer stepped out onto the track and raised a starter pistol to the sky.

             
“We’ll find the tree,” said Billy. “We’ll find it and we’ll destroy it. And then there will be no more reason that either one of you has to know me. I’ll just… You’re right that I’ve been nothing but bad news. For both of you. The only way I can fix it is if I just…”

             
The starter pistol cracked and the racers were off. Billy’s final words were caught up in the noise of the screaming race fans, but Hiroki knew what Billy said:
“The only way I can fix it is if I just leave.”

             
Hiroki could still feel his hands quivering in his armpits. He was furious with Billy for forcing him to feel this way – in public – even while he was relieved that Billy planned to end his relationship with Eva. The news that his world would soon return to normal should have filled him with joy, but he couldn’t shake the fear that no matter how hard the three of them tried to regain normalcy, it was no longer possible.

             
Overhead, an ear-splitting screech confirmed his fear.

              The runners all stumbled a bit at the otherworldly sound of the screech. They looked up at the overcast sky, surely thinking that it was only thunder. The sound was too high-pitched and shrill to be caused by the vacuum after a lightning bolt collapsing on itself but there was no other rational explanation for the sound that emanated from the clouds.

             
Only Eva knew – without a shadow of a doubt – the true nature of the noise.

             
We were supposed to eat the leaves! Billy, Hiro, what are you thinking?!

             
But no, even if either boy were brazen enough to forget their agreement and transform into his dragon body, neither of them was foolish enough to fly over a crowd of people and unleash a call sure to be heard by everyone on the ground.

             
And the sun hasn’t set yet.

             
She picked up her pace again and found herself near the front of the pack, but every time the foliage broke over the forest path she stole an upward glance. She saw nothing but the bellies of clouds.

             
She knew that Hiroki had changed before sunset once. When he was angry. Did Billy do something to make him angry again? She looked up again, fearful of seeing a familiar green streak overhead. But she saw a different color instead, obscured by the clouds but still visible.

             
She didn’t see Hiroki’s green. She didn’t see Billy’s blue.

             
She saw
red
.

***

              Billy knocked a few race fans off balance as he pushed his way through the crowd. Some people shouted angry protests, but Billy’s eyes were wild and no one tried to stop him.

             
Hiroki was right on his heels. “Slow down, Billy. Slow down!”

             
Billy heard Hiroki but he didn’t listen. He had to get beyond this mass of people and find some cover. He had eaten the black powder today, but the sudden anger boiling his blood could trigger a transformation any minute now. He had to be sure – he had to be
certain
– he was nowhere near all these witnesses when it happened.

             
They ate the fruit. They ate the fruit! THEY ATE THE FRUIT!

             
Whoever stole the dragon tree had read Hiroki’s foolish inscription on the rocks and had taken it as an invitation. Of course they had! Who wouldn’t be tempted to eat the mysterious fruit dangling from the mysterious tree? It was an irresistible temptation. And now the person who couldn’t resist was flying over a crowd of people like a lunatic.

             
He was furious. He would soon be airborne.

             
They were sprinting when they reached the parking lot. Billy gripped the door handle anxiously as Hiroki fumbled with his keys. They finally dove inside the Buick and Hiroki piloted the car out of the park.

             
“How do you feel?” Hiroki asked nervously. “Is it happening?”

             
Billy was pressing his hands against the dashboard of the Buick so hard that it shuddered under the pressure. He turned to look at Hiroki and Hiroki’s eyes went wide with surprise.

             
“The white part of your eyes, Billy… almost gone.”
              “Get me into the woods, Hiro!”

             
The Buick was full of a rhythmic popping noise as Billy’s bones expanded. His muscles were visibly throbbing and his skin taking on its bluish tint. He kicked off his shoes and pulled off his shirt.