This choice: Be cautious and do it at the barn. • Go Back...Chapter #43A Second Date with Cody by: Seuzz   "Look, I don't wanna unload all that shit back there one place, only to have to reload it and move it someplace else," you say. "I'll take it home with me, and we'll talk tomorrow about where we'll do it."
"Sounds like a plan," Caleb says.
But when you wake the next morning, you've made a decision and you'll be damned if you'll let anyone talk you out of it. Though there were no explosions when you made the first golem, you have visions of something going wrong the second time, and of the entire Acheson Community Center going up like Nagasaki. One of the first things you do, then, is text Caleb to say you want to do it out at the old barn again.
He still hasn't replied by the time you have to turn your phone off for church, but immediately after services let out, you check and find he has agreed to your plan.
"Yeah, I get why you want to play it safe," he says when you call him directly after. "And if there could be a problem at the other place—like if someone's likely to show up there—Teresa can warn us. I'll call you again after I pick her up."
"You're picking her up? She's coming out with us?"
"We want to include her in this, right?"
"I guess I could pick her up," you suggest dubiously.
"She needs a back seat to change in, Will," Caleb says. "If she's going to come hang out with us as Cody after we're done."
Oh yeah, you think, for you'd forgotten the rest of the plan for the day. Right.
* * * * *
It's nearly two o'clock before you get a text from Caleb, telling you to meet him and the others out at the old barn. You find yourself oddly nervous, not on account of the spell you will be executing, but on account of meeting "Cody" again. It was a shock last night when "he" showed up, and you didn't get a chance to really talk to "him." You're resolved to be a lot cooler about it today, and to put Teresa at ease. But you're worried about freezing up, or saying something really weird and unfortunate.
The others are already there by the time you arrive, and to your dismay you're shocked all over again by the sight of Cody. He was cloaked in darkness last night, but here he is in broad daylight again: a skinny, brown-skinned teen with long, soft, dark-brown hair, and darting eyes, dressed in jeans and a sleeveless pullover. You have a sudden, vivid flashback to the afternoon you spent with him as Mickey, and you are briefly overwhelmed by the same heart-pounding fascination for him that you felt as her. It doesn't fully fade either, so that you feel a colt-like shyness toward him as you get out of your truck.
"Hey," you greet everyone, being sure to meet all their eyes, but you don't hold Cody's. "You been here long?"
"Just got here," Caleb says. "Keith was here long enough he started jerking off."
"Fuck you," Keith snarls at him.
You only nod, then turn your full attention to Cody. "Hey man," you call in a voice that just might have the slightest tremble in it. "Good to see you again."
He raises his palm for a high-five, which you give him, but says nothing.
"Okay," Caleb says. "So how we gonna unload this? I think two of us should get in the back and hand sacks down to the other two, who can carry them in. Sound okay?" There are grunts and nods. "Okay. Um. Keith 'n me'll hand the sacks down. You guys—" He points to you and Cody. "Can carry them in."
You wonder why he made this choice, but don't argue.
By carrying four ten-pound sacks at a time in your arms, you're able to transfer all the dirt to the barn in less than a dozen trips. You and Cody work silently except for a little soft grunting. At the end, when Caleb and Keith transfer the last few sacks themselves, you are aching a little from the work, but it went off much more easily than you'd expected. You're standing with your hands on your hips when Caleb comes back into the barn with the book.
"Okay, here's a problem," he says. "The book's gotta go under the stuff when we set it on fire, but we got two piles of dirt. So it looks like we can actually only make one more thing-um."
"You mean we did twice as much work as we had to?" Keith exclaims.
"We just wound up making a head start on the third one," Caleb retorts. "Now we don't have to make another trip out to the cemetery when we want to make it." He ignores Keith, who mutters, Bad fucking planning under his breath, to turn to Cody. "Will it be okay if we do this stuff over the next two weeks, instead of one?"
Cody squints thoughtfully.
"Kind of risky," he says. "The guys are usually out here only once a month, but sometimes they have to come out early, just to check on things. I think we can get away with one more week. Probably two more will be okay, but if we can get both of them done at once, it'd be better."
"We only have one copy of the book."
"Can't we use it to set up one of them," you ask, "then maybe pull it out and use it again to start the other one?"
Caleb looks skeptical.
"We don't know how it works, right?" he says. "Maybe the book has to stay there the entire time. Maybe the book is what keeps the fire from burning everything down."
"Fuck it, I'd take that risk," Cody says.
"Really?" you ask.
He bites his lip.
"No," he says more quietly. "Cody Larsen would, but I wouldn't."
"Then we'll just make one of them for now," Caleb says. "Come on, let's get the rest of the stuff and get started."
* * * * *
It takes you a while to get the new golem going, for you are as careful with it the second time as you were the first. But after a little more than thirty minutes of work, you're able to watch the cold blue flames with a sense of satisfaction. Then, at Caleb's suggestion, you all part to rendezvous at The Flying Saucer.
This time, Cody rides with you.
"I'm sorry if I seemed really freaked out last night," you tell him. "When you showed up."
"No, I get it," he replies as he buckles himself in. "You were all of you freaked out. Maybe I should'a told you guys what I was gonna do."
"And I'm sorry if Keith, uh, said anything."
"Like what?"
"Oh, anything to piss you off. Or make you feel bad."
He gives you a sidelong look.
"Keith's okay," he says. "Though now I guess you know what it was like for me when I went out with those girls."
You squirm a little, but smile. "That's what I told Caleb," you reply.
But could it have been this bad, this awkward for her? you wonder. And why is it so awkward?
The only thing you can figure, as you mull the question over, is a sense that you wouldn't like this guy she's playing if he showed up in real life. He seems like the kind of kid to hang out at the portables, smoking and talking shit about the classes he's failing. You also can't quite shake the feeling that if you say the wrong thing to her—and if Teresa reacts in character—you could get a fist to the stomach followed by a lot of cursing and a few more blows to the face. He just seems that kind.
And you doubt Teresa was worried about that sort of thing when she was with Mickey and the girls.
"You know, I can change back when we get to the coffee shop," he says, and you suddenly realize you've let a long silence unfold. "If that'll make it better."
"No, stay like this," you reply. "Me and Caleb already talked about it. That's why we're going out there, to hang out with you. To kind of get used to it. Like, we were talking about how it would probably be easier if we were all guys or all girls when we got together. All in the same year. Cody's a senior, right?"
"Larsen? Yeah."
"Well, when we get to the coffee shop, let's just act like all this is normal. Like, we'd got together to do a thing, and now we're doing something else. Like you were Cody and we were, uh, us."
"Sure," he says.
A moment later, he's slid down in his seat and propped his splayed-out feet on your dashboard.
"Got any cigarettes?" he asks.
* * * * *
No, you don't have any cigarettes, and neither of you have an ID that will let you buy some. At the Saucer, Cody pays for your Americano, and sits next to you when your quartet takes a booth.
You all look at each other. No one, it seems, can think of anything to say.
Cody breaks the impasse by pulling out a cell phone. You and the others look at each other, then take out your own phones.
You're only vaguely absorbed in the video you're watching when you feel Cody shift beside you, then nudge you in the arm. You look up. He cocks his head, pointing with it. You look over.
Three girls have entered the shop and are sliding into a booth on the other side of the room.
They look young—too young to be high school seniors, but too old to be freshman—and are dressed in jeans and sloppy tops. All of them wear their hair long, but two of them are light brunettes while the third, who looks Hispanic, has hair that is nearly black. They seem not to have noticed you and your friends.
Before you can wonder why Cody nudged you, he tells you why: "You should go talk to 'em, man. They're cute, an' I bet at least one of 'em'll do something with you."   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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