“That doesn’t mean anything,” Jacob scoffed, as if he were trying to convince himself.
“And this dark mark in the middle of it. I think it was blood.”
He’s so full of shit. Karen turned her back and gestured for Jacob to do the same.
Rachel walked up onto the porch in a Stanford beanie. “Is Lisa still alive?”
What a question to ask, thought Karen. “Of course, she’s alive. An ambulance is coming for her.”
“Since I’ve known Lisa the longest, I thought you might want my input,” Rachel said, as if she was making some kind of public announcement.
What a bitch, Karen thought. Just because their grandparents were interned together, that didn’t mean anything.
The two camp leaders turned to listen. “Whatever information you may have, Rachel, please share,” Wendy said.
“If you ask me, Lisa hasn’t been herself. At our last youth praise meeting, Lisa usually helps lead worship, but she said that she couldn’t do it. She sat in the back of the church. I mean, just sat there. She didn’t sing or anything.”
Karen remembered that night. She was, in fact, relieved that Lisa wasn’t up there in front, hogging the spotlight. Jacob had sat right next to Karen in the third row of the padded pews, for the very first time. The side of his thigh grazed hers. Karen was so self-conscious, she only mouthed the lyrics to the praise songs.
“Maybe Lisa was just feeling sick?” Wendy said.
“But then she dropped out of the worship team for camp too. Something was definitely going on with her.” Rachel took a deep breath. “Maybe Karen would know. Because the two of them took a walk to Mount Hermon during our afternoon free time today.”
Jacob’s head jerked up. “You spent time with her today, Karen?” His voice sounded strange. On edge.
“How did Lisa seem?” Wendy asked.
“The same. Like always.” Karen tried to keep her voice light and normal.
“I mean, I hate to ask something like this, but was she taking any kind of drug?” Tammy stuffed her hands in her front sweatshirt pouch.
“Absolutely not,” said Rachel.
As if she would know, thought Karen.
Tammy kept her gaze on Karen. “Because it would really help Lisa now.”
“No, no drugs,” said Karen. “As far as I know.”
“Maybe a problem at home?”
“No,” Miss Know-It-All Rachel said.
“I don’t know her that well,” Tammy said, “but she’s been super quiet. She asked me to pray for her tonight, but she wouldn’t tell me for what. We even got cooking oil from the kitchen to anoint her. And that’s when all the trouble happened.”
Tammy took her hands out of her pockets and started to cry. Wendy put an arm around her. The campers hung their heads. They didn’t know what to do with a college person’s tears.
Karen took a deep breath. She didn’t know how the words reached her lips, but they dripped out like fresh honey: “You know, I think we saw that pentagram up there. Lisa was checking it out. She was really fascinated by it.” She now had the attention of everyone on the porch.
“You mean you think that Lisa is demon-possessed?” the chubby boy said, almost ecstatic.
“It’s just that Lisa really started acting weird after she saw that pentagram. That’s all I’m saying.”
An ambulance siren pierced the hum of the insects outside. It stopped and restarted. Help had arrived.
Lisa hadn’t been herself, all right. Karen knew it. But she took full advantage of it.
In fact, in the caravan from the Valley to Santa Cruz, Lisa volunteered to ride in a van with one of the parents and the camp supplies. Why would she do that? Karen got a backseat with Jacob and his best friend in the second car. It was pure heaven. She got to be with Jacob for six uninterrupted hours and that was all that mattered.
Jacob’s friend held his pillow to his chest and immediately fell asleep. Most of the drive, Jacob and Karen took turns trying to throw Doritos in the boy’s open mouth. It was hilarious.
After hours on the road, Karen felt that the old Karen was fading away. Wasn’t that even in the Bible? New wine in new wineskins. Her old wineskin — the less popular one, less smart, less pretty — was blowing away. New Karen had everything going on.
When they arrived at camp, Karen was relieved to see that she wouldn’t be sharing a cabin with Lisa. More distance, more independence. More time alone with Jacob, maybe.
Lisa cornered her in the dining room. Karen was still holding her breakfast tray. “Go for a walk with me during free time.” It was a command, not a request.
That was the last thing Karen wanted to do, but Lisa had blindsided her so early in the morning. All Karen could do was nod her head yes.
On their walk, Lisa took the lead, like always. She was smaller than Karen, more nimble. She jumped up and down from rocks with ease. A damn billy goat.
Finally, when they reached a clearing, Lisa stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. “I need to tell you something.”
Karen felt unsteady. Ordinarily she would relish hearing some stain, some sin in Lisa’s life, whether it was true or not. To hear it directly from Lisa herself, though. There was no pleasure in that.
“I was raped by Jacob Connor.”
Karen’s first inclination was to laugh. What a stupid practical joke. But then Lisa didn’t laugh back.
“When?” She was barely able to speak.
“After the car wash fundraiser. A month ago.”
Somehow that didn’t surprise Karen. She noticed how chummy-chummy they’d been. Goofing around and spraying water on each other. Karen was burning with jealousy and left the fundraiser early. “Who knows about this?” she asked.
Lisa started crying. She never cried. There were two dark smudges on her forehead like the ones on the Japanese empress doll in Karen’s grandmother’s house.
“Just you, now. And Jesus.”
This is the biggest sack of horseshit ever.
“I spoke to Jesus. Really, I did. During this morning’s quiet time.” A breeze moved up the mountain, whipping Lisa’s black silk hair over her face. “He told me that I need to talk to my parents; that He would take care of me through all of this.”
“What are you going to tell them?”
“Everything. I have to.”
“You’re not going to mention Jacob, right?”
“He did it to me. He raped me.”
“But you’ll ruin his life.”
“I don’t give a fuck about that. He raped me.”
Lisa never swore either. And to hear the F-word from her mouth in the quietness of Mount Hermon jarred Karen. “C’mon, he didn’t rape-rape you. How can you be so awful?”
“Yes, he did. I didn’t want to do it. I had never done it before. I told him to stop.”
Karen couldn’t stand it. She couldn’t imagine that Jacob had such insatiable passion for Lisa. “You’re the one who kept throwing yourself at him that day. I saw you at the car wash fundraiser. I remember. You were in your cutoffs. You weren’t even wearing any underwear.”
“What, are you saying that it was my fault?”
“I’m not sure. I would’ve known.”
It was Lisa’s turn to look incredulous. “And why’s that? Because of your crush on Jacob? Everyone knows you like him, Karen. I wanted to tell you first because I didn’t want you to hear this from someone else. You know, he even makes fun of you liking him.”
Karen’s anger flip-flopped into shame. No, that couldn’t be true. Beautiful Jacob with his lean swimmer’s body, his long hair tinged light brown from sun. Jacob, who Karen imagined kissing every single night.