The performance was held in the school auditorium. Aside from his family, Seth was happy to see from backstage that Hayley had come. So had Becca and Derric. Jenn McDaniels was with them. The kid he’d met at his grandfather’s place—Aidan Martin—was hanging with those others, too. So was a girl Seth didn’t recognize, but he got introduced to her at intermission when he took Parker over to meet anyone he hadn’t yet met.
The girl was Isis Martin, Aidan’s sister, and it turned out she was tight with Hayley. She was a serious babe, and Seth gave a glance at Parker to see if he’d registered this. But he found the young Canadian man eying Hayley, who was also eying him. She was even blushing. Seth heard Jenn McDaniels mutter to Becca, “Whoa, trigger that Romeo and Juliet music,” which told him he wasn’t imagining things about some sort of instant attraction between Hayley and Parker.
People were talking all around him, but he was listening to Hayley tell Parker that she was a senior at the high school, that she was an old friend of Seth’s, and that she lived up island a ways on a farm called Smugglers Cove Farm and Flowers. Then someone started talking directly to him so Seth couldn’t catch the rest but he was relieved when Parker said he was going outside to have a smoke to steady his nerves for their performance. He was quickly unrelieved, however, when Parker added, “See you later?” to Hayley.
Parker worked his way out of the auditorium. Derric said, “Nice score, Hayley.” Isis Martin said, “That guy? He’s, like, totally gay. You c’n tell by looking.” Her eyes were speculatively on Parker as she spoke. He was digging a package of cigarettes from his shirt’s breast pocket. She said something about the way the dude moved his hips. Then she added, “I need a hit, too,” and she followed him out of the auditorium.
Jenn said sardonically, “Uh right. He’s extremely gay. You better hope he gets back in time for your set, Seth, ’cause I betcha what Isis has in mind is going to take a while.”
Hayley spoke. “Jenn! That’s not fair.”
Jenn rolled her eyes. “Come on. Am I the only one who’s noticed that whenever she’s around—” She seemed to realize that everything she was saying was in front of Isis’s brother as well. She turned to him with a “Sorry, Aidan,” but he had already left them.
“He’s a smoker, too,” Hayley told them as if in explanation.
“He’s a weirdo,” Jenn said. “He probably wants to watch.”
Becca said something that Seth didn’t catch because for his part, he was fixed on Hayley. He knew he couldn’t do a thing about her and her feelings, but in spite of this knowledge there were times when he still wanted to change how it was between them. She caught him looking at her. She offered him a smile and the words, “Good luck up there,” and that was it.
At that point, he became more concerned about when Parker intended to come back inside. Time was ticking away and the MC had just taken the stage to tell everyone the concert was about to go on. Someone opened a door and yelled this information to those who’d left the auditorium, and soon enough Parker Natalia returned. Behind him came Isis Martin. It looked, Seth thought, like Jenn was right. Isis was smiling knowingly. She rejoined the others and the last thing Seth heard her say as he walked away was, “Uh . . . maybe he’s not gay after all.”
After that, Triple Threat took the stage with their instruments. A murmur went around the auditorium. This was directed, Seth figured, at Parker. The Canadian was providing the ahhh factor for the ladies. When it came time for his solo, though, the ahhh factor turned into the oh-my-God factor. He was one hell of a fiddler.
After their performance, it was time for the final group of the evening to come onto the stage. But they only got as far as taking up their instruments when the first of the sirens split the evening in two, and an alarm went off.
• • •
THE FIRE WASN’T at the school. But the alarm and the proximity of the sirens put the crowd on its feet and sent them toward the doors. Some people went outside to the front of the school; others went through the New Commons and out to the back. From there, they could see the fire engine on the sweep of hill that led up to South Whidbey Park. It flashed red and yellow lights into the night sky while some distance from this, a group of fire fighters hosed a blaze that was eating up an old shed on the side of one of the baseball diamonds within the park.
A sheriff’s car was there, too. Seth heard Derric say to Becca, “Looks like the plan didn’t work.”
For a crazy second, Seth thought the guy was talking about his plan to burn down a shed in the middle of his concert. But they told him that the sheriff’s department and the fire chief had planned security at every Djangofest venue just in case the summer’s firebug showed up for the thrill of setting another blaze in close proximity to a crowd.
“They thought he’d set a fire right at the event,” Becca said to Seth.
“Looks close enough to me,” Seth said. Then he looked around, although he couldn’t have said what he was seeking in the crowd.
What he found, though, was Hayley and Parker with Parker’s arm around Hayley protectively as if he intended to prove to her that he’d be just the guy to save her if they had to make a run for safety.
SIXTEEN
Jenn McDaniels was the one who brought up Isis. She did it in her usual Jenn way, without putting any icing on the subject. They were at the lunch table and the first thing Jenn noted was that Isis Martin had not graced them with her presence. She was, instead, sitting with her brother across the New Commons where Aidan generally sat alone. Becca wished they were closer so that she could pick up their whispers because their conversation looked intense. As it was, Becca could only get the whispers of her immediate companions, Jenn’s having to do with loathing Isis, Hayley’s having to do with wondering when Jenn was going to come out and admit it because no one really cares, and Derric’s having to do with never knew there was an album and now what am I supposed to, which caused her to look at him and wonder what was going on.
She used the ear bud so that she could focus on what was being said at their table instead of hearing what people were thinking. What was being said was Jenn declaring, “There were no fires till that chick showed up.”
Hayley said, “That’s not something you should even hint at without having proof, Jenn.”
“I’m not hinting. I’m saying. There’s something way seriously wrong with that space case: how she never shuts up, how it’s all about her, her, her, how she pretends to be friends and then . . . like, hey, look at how she followed that dude Parker when he left the Commons the other night when everyone could see he was hot for you.”
“Here she comes,” Derric said quietly.
Isis, Becca thought, looked a little pinched around the eyes. On the other side of the Commons, her brother slouched out of the room. Isis thumped down into an extra chair at the table and said, “He has a bad day and the world’s the problem.” She wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular, but Hayley was the one who asked, “Is something wrong?”
Jenn mouthed at Becca, Here we go, and next to her Becca heard Derric chuckle. She couldn’t blame either of them because the simple question from Hayley was all it took.
Isis said, “He’s all upset about American Lit. I mean, it was a quiz, that’s all, but the teacher had said there would be one and he forgot. And he didn’t read what he was supposed to read in whatever-it-was, a chapter in Moby-Dick or whatever, and now it’s the end of the world to him. Brothers. You’re lucky you have a sister, Hayl.”
“Jenn has brothers,” Becca offered. “She c’n relate.”
Isis looked at her, her eyes rather vague and unfocused as if Becca were on the other side of the room. She said, “Jenn? Oh, Jenn. You do?”
“Two,” Becca said because she knew very well that no way on earth was Jenn going to talk to the girl.
Isis said, “I had two. Only one now but . . . wish I had a sister. Hayley, c’n I
talk to you? In private?” And then to the others, “No offense, you guys, but this is personal.” She got to her feet and said, “Hayl? I mean, if you don’t mind. You’re the only one I can . . . you know.”
Hayley got to her feet. She shoved the rest of her lunch into its paper sack and said, “Oh gosh. Sure,” and followed Isis. They went out of the New Commons in the direction of the stairs to the classrooms above.
“I’m telling you, there is something r-o-n-g with that chick,” Jenn declared.
“You forgot the w,” Derric told her.
• • •
W OR NOT, Becca wondered about Jenn’s aversion toward Isis Martin. Jenn always had a chip on her shoulder and it was especially large if she figured someone came from a privileged background. From Isis’s chatter, all of them had learned about her life in Palo Alto, about her boyfriend, Brady, and about her parents who were both doctors and, in Jenn’s eyes, consequently rolling in cash. Isis had a car, an iPhone, an iPad, and a wardrobe that had not been purchased at the local thrift store. Those facts alone would have made Jenn hate her on principle. But the truth was that Isis Martin hadn’t been the only person newly come to the island and in the vicinity since the time of the first fire. Her brother also was new to Whidbey. But so was someone else.
She went to the library to check on this last person: Parker Natalia. For if Isis and Aidan had both ducked out of the high school auditorium prior to the latest fire, so had Parker. And now Parker was staying in the forest at Ralph Darrow’s place at the end of a very dry summer.
She left Derric with Jenn. They’d just been joined by Jenn’s old friend Squat Cooper, whose “Whassup, you guys?” had to be answered at length with an invitation to enter an argument about who was more inclined to set fires, boys or girls. Squat was more than willing to join in, so it was easy enough for Becca to take off alone with just, “Library,” to Derric, to which she added, “Later?” He nodded.
Inside the library, there was one computer free. She logged on and thought about where to begin. Checking out his story seemed the logical place. He’d said he was from Nelson, he’d said his family had a restaurant there, it was called Natalia and had been there for years . . . If all this was true, it would be somewhere on the Net because everything was if you knew where to look.
This was the case for Natalia, an Italian restaurant that specialized in Sicilian food. Turned out that it had been reviewed by newspapers from as far away as Calgary and Vancouver. So it was real enough, and right where Parker said it would be. As to Parker himself—
“So why’d you lie?”
Becca swung around.
Aidan Martin stood there. He read the computer’s screen over her shoulder.
At the entire idea of lying, Becca knew she had to get more off the boy than merely his spoken words. She flicked the ear bud out of her ear and said, “What’re you talking about?”
Some kind of secret . . . didn’t give her a lot to work with. What was it to him anyway if she had secrets? It was starting to look like she wasn’t the only one.
He said, “You said you were doing an assignment for art class.”
“What’re you talking about?”
“Drawing faces? Comparing faces? That day over at South Whidbey Commons? Only you don’t take art, so I guess you were lying. Why?” All the people to look at in the entire frigging world so what would it really take for her made Becca’s palms start to sweat, especially in combination with the idea of an art class.
She said, “And you know this how?”
“That you aren’t taking art? Because I am taking art and you ain’t in the class.”
“Uh . . . right, Aidan. But there’s more than one art class in this school, you know.”
“Sure. But you aren’t in any of them.”
“And you know this how?”
“Because I checked your schedule.” Something not right all the way around . . . if her and me get talking . . . boyfriend but if I know Isis . . .
Becca felt the alarm bells jangling through her nerves. His whispers were heading in more than one direction and she didn’t like any of them. She said, “What’s it to you? And, by the way, there’re other art classes on this island besides the ones taught at school, okay?”
He sat down next to her, pulling a chair over to do so. He looked at the monitor, where the screen still showed its references to Natalia’s Restaurant in Nelson, B.C. He said, “That’s the last name of that fiddler dude, right? Natalia. You hot for him?” Because that black dude would . . .
“I have a cousin in the same town,” Becca said, going back to the story she’d used with Parker. “She never mentioned the restaurant Parker’s family owns, and I wanted to check it out. D’you want to tell me why this is any of your business?”
“Hey, chill.”
“I’m not gonna chill. You looked up my schedule, you want to know why I’m reading about a restaurant in Canada, you accuse me of lying, and I’m not going—”
“’S happening?” It was Derric’s voice. Becca hadn’t heard him or seen him come into the library. And now there he was and the look on his face told her he was there to make sure that she wasn’t harassed by anyone.
• • •
AIDAN GOT TO his feet. He said, “Hey, man,” and he thought trouble that I don’t need.
“Hey,” Derric said in turn. But that was all. Obviously, he was waiting for an answer.
Becca logged off the Internet site because the only worse thing than having Derric wonder why Aidan Martin was bugging her was having Derric wonder why she was looking up anything having to do with Nelson, B.C.
She said to him, “Hey. You finished up fast.”
“Finished what?”
“Lunch.”
“Bell’s in five minutes. I was planning to walk you to class.”
Like she’d get lost or something was what Aidan was thinking but at least he didn’t say it. What he did say with a lazy slow smile was, “Saved by the bell, then,” to Becca. And “See you guys later,” to both of them.
Derric said to him, “Too bad about American Lit,” although he didn’t sound particularly sympathetic.
Aidan frowned. “What about American Lit?”
“Quiz, test, whatever it was,” Derric said. “Your sister told us—”
Aidan gave a high-pitched laugh. The PTA mom who ran the library at lunchtime hissed at them all to be silent or leave. Aidan said, “That’s what she said?” and then he was gone, shouldering his backpack of books and shoving open the door.
SEVENTEEN
Derric was silent as they walked to Becca’s next class, which was Health. She could tell they were thinking the same thing, though. His whispers were claiming keep him in my sights and while she wanted to tell him that he didn’t exactly need to be her knight-in-armor when it came to Aidan, the truth was that the kid made her uneasy every time she ran into him.
When they got to her classroom, she said, “D’you think Isis lied?”
“About that American Lit thing?” And when Becca nodded, “Maybe Aidan’s trying to make it look like she did. Or maybe Jenn’s right.”
“That Isis is setting those fires?” He studied her for a moment during which the final bell rang, telling them both that they were late for class. He said, “I don’t know. But I have a feeling . . . Could be a good idea to give both of them a lot of space, Becca.”
She could do that, she thought. But her reality was that the last person she wanted getting close to her secrets was someone like Aidan Martin.
• • •
AFTER SCHOOL, SHE realized that there was a good way that she could deal with part of her worries. She rode the free island bus from the school into Langley, and when it dropped her close to the Cliff Motel, she was practically at her destination’s door step. This wasn’t one of the days that Derric acted the part of Big
Brother to Josh Grieder, so the coast was clear. But it wasn’t as clear as she’d have liked it to be. A familiar pickup truck was parked in the lot.
Just as Becca was considering the option of coming back later, Chloe Grieder came out of the motel’s office. The little girl saw her, and shouted, “Becca! You got to see! Grammer made a cake shaped ’xactly like a punkin. It’s for Halloween. For the church bazaar. I mean not yet ’cause it’s not Halloween and she’s just practicing. Only we get to eat it tonight. You got to see, okay?”
Becca smiled. Only when you were seven years old could a pumpkin-shaped cake inspire such joy. She walked over and gave Chloe a hug. She said, “A punkin cake?”
“For church.” She pointed across the street from the motel where the Christian Missionary Alliance had its church. There, on Halloween night, the church’s multipurpose room morphed into bazaar, haunted house, and everything else imaginable to keep small children entertained.
Becca followed Chloe into the motel’s office, which gave way to the apartment’s living room with its family clutter. From there a kitchen opened up. Chloe’s grandmother was seated at the old Formica-topped table, and she and Diana Kinsale were evaluating the pumpkin cake Chloe had been crowing about.
“Hey, darlin,” was Debbie Grieder’s habitual greeting to Becca. “What d’you think? The color’s not right. Too much orange, I say.”
“Let’s eat it!” Unbidden, Chloe climbed up onto Diana Kinsale’s lap.