“Hey, Rick. How’s it going? This is my friend Jess.”
“Hey, Jill.”
“Hi, Rick. It’s Jessica, actually.”
“Sure. Come on and grab some fire.”
They huddled up around the fire pit. Jessica pulled her hands from her pockets to warm them. Rick offered them a plastic cup of beer each, and Jessica said no thanks. More cars arrived, and their passengers dragged over more wood for the fire. Broken chairs, dried-out tree limbs, a bale of old newspapers that ignited a few pages at a time and lifted up into the sky, carried by the hot air. Someone brought over a stop sign with a clump of concrete clinging to its base, and everyone laughed and applauded when it went on the fire and blackened. Jessica hoped that nobody was going to have a car accident because of this party. Constanza was having fun, and it was a beautiful night, but Jessica felt too young to be here, as if someone was going to ask for ID and throw her out any second.
She looked at her watch: 11:45. In five minutes it would be time to take her walk. Dess had said the snake pit was only a few minutes away, but the idea of being late was too scary to contemplate. She wanted to be safely inside the snake pit before midnight fell.
Jessica rubbed her hands nervously, not looking forward to leaving the warmth of the fire, to being alone out on the desert. She shivered and realized that although the front half of her was roasting, her back was freezing. Jessica turned around and faced out toward the desert. The fire at her back felt like a fur coat slipping on, and she sighed.
“You’re pretty quiet.”
Jess blinked. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she made out the shape of a boy in front of her.
“I guess I am. I don’t really know that many people here.”
“You’re a friend of Liz and Constanza’s?”
“Yeah. Jessica.”
“Hey, Jessica. My name’s Steve.”
Jessica could see the boy’s face now, lit by the flickering fire. He looked younger than a lot of the guys here.
She smiled. “So, Steve, you’re from Broken Arrow?”
“Yeah. Born here. You’re standing in downtown Broken Arrow, actually. As you can see, it’s a city that never sleeps. Kind of like Bixby but without the skyscrapers.”
Jessica laughed. “A burgeoning metropolis.”
“Yeah, except I don’t know what ‘burgeoning’ means.”
“Oh. It means, um…” She shrugged. “Really flat and windy?”
Steve nodded. “Broken Arrow definitely burgeons, then.”
Now Jessica’s face was getting cold. “I think I’m done on this side,” she said, making a space for him next to her as she turned around. She checked her watch again. Two minutes. She held out her hands, trying to store up the fire’s warmth for her walk.
“So, you don’t sound like you’re from Bixby.”
“I just moved here from Chicago.”
“Chicago? Wow. Real skyscrapers. Oklahoma must seem completely weird to you.”
“It’s different, yeah. Except for the wind, which is pretty much just like Chicago.”
“You’re really cold, aren’t you? You want my coat?”
Steve was wearing a down jacket. It looked incredibly warm.
Jessica shook her head. “No, I couldn’t.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” She checked her watch. “Actually, I’ve got to go.”
Disappointment flashed in Steve’s eyes. “You’re leaving the party already? Something I said?”
“No, not at all. I was just going to take a walk. Over to the snake pit.”
Steve nodded. “For midnight, huh? You know where it is?”
“Sort of. I mean, I have a map.”
“I’ll take you.”
Jessica bit her lip. She’d never thought of bringing a non-midnighter along. But what would the problem be? Steve would be safe no matter what happened at the snake pit. He’d be frozen for the whole thing. And in the featureless darkness, the idea of walking away from the fire alone wasn’t a pleasant one. At least with Steve along she wouldn’t get lost.
He was half smiling, waiting anxiously for an answer. “Sure,” she said. “Let’s go.”
The cold clutched her body from the moment they left the fire, creeping into the borrowed jacket like chilly fingers. Jessica’s legs, protected only by tights, were freezing, and her hands grew colder and colder no matter how deep she thrust them into her pockets.
“So who told you about the snake pit?” Steve asked.
“Um, everyone. Constanza was talking about it one day, and it sounded, you know, interesting.”
“And you were going alone? Wow, you’re one brave girl.”
“I have my moments of stupidity,” Jessica agreed. She could hear her teeth chattering.
“You are cold, Jessica.” Steve put his arm around her. The down jacket around her shoulders actually helped, even though it didn’t really feel right to be this close to a guy who wasn’t Jonathan.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.”
As they walked across the desert, Jessica wondered how Steve knew where he was going. There were no landmarks that she could see except the Milky Way, which ran in the direction they were walking. That meant that they were headed either east or west. She’d have to check the compass to be sure.
“You sure you know where we’re going?”
“Oh, yeah. Born and bred in Broken Arrow, I’m not very proud to say.”
“Okay.”
She looked at her watch. Five minutes.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get there by midnight,” Steve said. “Right on time for the evil spirit show.”
She smiled ruefully. “Wouldn’t want to miss that.”
There was a flicker of light at the corner of her eye. It was the bonfire, off to their right. She wondered why it wasn’t behind them anymore.
Jessica looked up into the sky. Now the Milky Way was spread out sideways across their path. They had turned either north or south.
“Steve? How far is the snake pit?”
“Oh, maybe another ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes? But it’s almost midnight.” A shiver traveled through Jessica, more chilling than the cold. “My friend said it was really close to the fire pit.”
“Are you cold? We can stop off in my car if you want.”
“Your car?”
“It’s right up here,” Steve said, pulling her closer to him. “We could warm up.”
She pulled away. “But I have to get there by midnight!”
The row of parked cars was visible now in front of them. He’d led her in a circle.
“Listen, Jessica,” he said. “The snake pit’s no big deal, all right? It’s just this old sinkhole full of rainwater and snakes. That’s Broken Arrow’s idea of magic, I’m afraid.” He moved closer. “I can show you something much more interesting.”
Jessica whirled around and walked quickly back toward the fire, thrusting a hand into her pocket for the map and flashlight. Her fingers fumbled, made numb and clumsy by the cold.
“Jessica…” She heard his footsteps following her.
She ignored him, unfolding the map. It showed the snake pit almost due east of the fire pit. Jessica pointed the flashlight at Dess’s compass and turned away from the fire, heading east.
She heard Steve’s footsteps behind her but ignored them, hoping he would lose interest and go away.
Jessica shoved everything back into her pockets, quickening her stride. Dess had said she couldn’t miss the snake pit. Supposedly the sinkhole stood out on the desert as a long dark patch.
Steve’s hand grabbed her shoulder. “Hey, wait up, Jessica. I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was that big a deal.”
She yanked herself away. “Go mess with someone else.”
“I wasn’t…” He stopped walking, and his voice faded. “You’ll get lost out there, Jessica. The snakes’ll get you.”
“Better them than you,” she said to herself.
“And the evil spirits too, Jessica,” Steve called. “It’s almost midnight. Do you want to be out here all a—”