Adam laughed. “No, it’s not.”
But he went on to tell his friend how they wouldn’t be able to walk around like this at night in Southern California. There were gangs and drive-bys, sickos and psychos.
Scott was incredulous. “You can’t go out at night?”
“Well, you can if you have a car. I mean, my dad or my sister could drive us places like movies or malls or something. But you can’t, you know, just wander around like this.” He grinned. “This is bitchin’.”
Scott nodded, smiled. “Yeah, it kinda is.”
They reached the shopping district and walked down the intermittent sidewalk through the center of town. There were lights on in a few of the stores, but French’s was the only business actually open, and even it was devoid of customers. They stopped by the restaurant, bought two Cokes and split an order of fries to go, then continued on, eating out of the greasy bag they passed back and forth.
At the park, Scott sat down on top of one of the picnic tables. Adam tossed the empty bag into an adjacent trash barrel and leaned against a chain-link backstop. The park seemed different at night, its contours changed, its boundaries expanded by the darkness. They were the only ones here, but while that would have been a plus back in California, where any gathering of two or more people at night signaled possible gang activity, in this place it only served to heighten the disquiet that Adam felt. Leaning against the backstop, he was facing Scott, facing the street, but the bulk of the park was behind him, and he didn’t like having all that empty darkness at his back. Casually, he moved over to the picnic table, sitting next to his friend.
He hadn’t planned on bringing it up, but Scott said, “This place is creepy at night.”
Adam played it cool. “Yeah,” he agreed.
“It’s supposed to be haunted, you know.”
Goose bumps popped up on Adam’s arms.
“A long time ago, two miners were supposed to’ve gotten into a fight. One killed the other one, and before the sheriff could get out here, a lynch mob hung the killer from a tree.” He gestured around. “Supposed to be one of these trees here in the park. Ever since then, people’ve said this place is haunted.”
“You ever seen anything?”
“No. But I’ve never been here at night before, either.”
There was a sighing in the leaves at the top of the closest cottonwood.
Scott leaped off the picnic table. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Adam quickly followed suit. “Wise decision.”
They ran back out to the sidewalk and hung a left, slowing down only when they were safely in front of buildings again, past the periphery of the park.
Scott bent down, breathing heavily. He grinned. “I didn’t want to say anything,” he said. “But you felt it, didn’t you? There was something there.”
Adam nodded.
“I just wanted to test it. I was too chickenshit to go there myself at night, but I figured with two of us… well, I didn’t think I’d get that scared. And I knew I’d get an honest reaction from you, especially if I didn’t say anything about it.” He looked over at Adam. “You were freaked, weren’t you?”
“Yeah,” Adam admitted.
“Cool.”
They remained in place for a few moments, catching their breath. From somewhere far off came the sound of a car engine, followed by the sequential barking of dogs up the canyon. Adam felt good. This was more fun than hanging out at the mall or going to a movie any day. This was exciting. He thought that maybe he’d ask his parents if Roberto could come and visit during Christmas or Easter or next summer. He knew Scott and Roberto would get along, and he knew that Roberto would think this place was totally kickass.
He glanced over at Scott. “So what now? What’s the plan?”
“I don’t know. We could—”
Scott broke off in midsentence, his head jerking to the right, and Adam quickly followed the direction of his gaze.
There was movement in front of the mining museum across the street.
His heart jumped almost all the way up into his throat, and his first thought was that it was a ghost, a vampire, a monster, but he saw almost immediately that it was only a group of high school students, hanging out.
There were no lights here, no streetlamps, merely light from the moon and dim illumination from inside the closed assaying office next to the museum, but that was enough to see by, and he noticed now that a group of tough-looking teenagers about Sasha’s age were leaning on the oversized mining implements arranged in the small open space in front of the building. The four girls all looked the same: dyed black hair, black clothes, black lipstick, pale skin, broad white-trash features. Of the three boys, one had long, stringy hair and was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, one was bald and shirtless and heavily tattooed, with pierced ears and nose, and one had a spiky punk haircut and was wearing a creased leather jacket far too heavy for this weather.
He and Scott started slowly forward, moving up the sidewalk the way they’d originally been headed, away from the park, away from downtown, trying to be inconspicuous, trying not to attract attention.
A loud male voice rang out from the direction of the museum. “Well, well, well! What do we have here?”
Caught.
Adam looked at Scott, who stopped, turned around. They both faced the building across the street.
The bald pierced guy laughed loudly. “If it isn’t the pussy posse!”
The rest of the high schoolers joined in the merriment. “Get ready to run,” Scott whispered.
Adam’s mouth was suddenly dry, and panic threatened to rise within him. “What?”
“Just follow me.”
Scott moved into the street, into the open, away from the shadows of the buildings, and held up a middle finger. “Fuck you!” he called. “And fuck your mama, too!”
He took off, dashing back onto the sidewalk and up the hill, darting into the small space between the hardware store and an arts and crafts shop. Heart thumping crazily, Adam chased after him.
There was the sound of running feet behind them, boots pounding on pavement.
“You’re dead, fucker!” one of the boys yelled, and a girl laughed drunkenly. “I’ll kick your ass so hard your fucking sphincter’ll be pressing out your lips!”
Scott kept running, and Adam followed, moving as fast as he could, feeling the night air burn into his lungs, the muscles of his legs straining so hard they threatened to cramp at every step. He had never been this close to actual danger, had never physically pushed himself to this extent, and the irrational thought occurred to him that he might keel over from a heart attack.
But he knew he couldn’t stop. He had to keep going, and he was right behind Scott as the other boy slid down the rocky slope that led from the back of the downtown stores to the dry wash at the bottom of the canyon.
There was no noise directly behind them anymore, but from the top of the slope came an angry male voice. “I’ll get you, you little shit!”
The two of them scurried through the darkness of the canyon floor, occasionally bumping into rocks and brush but not slowing or stopping for anything. Scott was little more than a gray blur in front of him, and they ran for what seemed like an hour before reaching a road that crossed the wash and led up to McGuane’s east residential district.
They waited for a moment, listening to discover whether they were being followed, but Adam could hear no noise above the ragged sounds of their breathing, and he sat down on a rock to rest. Scott plopped onto the sand.
“What’re we going to do?” Adam demanded.
“What do you mean?”
“What if they see me walking home from school or something? What if—”
“They didn’t see you at all. And they won’t even recognize me in the daylight.” He waved a hand dismissively. “I’ve done this a thousand times.”