Me and Ruby sat up on our knees and looked out the back window. You could see a plane taking off over the trees down the road behind us.
We sat there for a long time, me and Ruby watching the planes and whispering to each other, Wade just staring straight ahead at the house he’d come all the way down here to see.
Finally, Wade unclicked his seat belt, and then he turned around and looked at us in the backseat.
“Y’all stay in the car until I come back,” he said. “And keep the doors locked. You can keep the windows cracked a little bit, but don’t roll them all the way down. And stay in the car. I’m serious.” He looked at us like he was waiting for us to say something. “I’m serious,” he said again.
“Okay,” I said.
“Okay what?”
“Okay, we’ll stay in the car.”
Me and Ruby watched him walk down the street. The day was so hot that heat waves came up off the ground and made his body look all fuzzy the farther away he got from us.
“What do you think he’s doing?” Ruby asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “There’s no telling.”
We watched him until he stopped in front of his old house and just stood there and stared up at it. Then he looked up and down the street. He walked up the driveway and rang the doorbell and waited for a minute, and then he reached out for the doorknob, looked up and down the street again, and then went inside.
“You think that’s really his old house?” Ruby asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe his mom and dad still live there,” she said. “Think they’re still alive?”
“I don’t know,” I said again. “I’ve never seen them.”
On the other side of the street a Mexican girl a little bit younger than me was helping her little brother ride a bike back and forth in their driveway. She’d turn his seat loose and then run and catch up with him before he fell. She kept looking at me and Ruby where we sat in the car. She said something to her brother, and he looked up at us too.
“Those kids are looking at us,” Ruby said.
“That’s okay,” I said. “Let them look. They’re not hurting us.”
“But I hate them staring at us,” she said.
“Close your eyes, then. You won’t even know.”
I closed mine and laid my head back against the seat. I was mad at Wade for bringing us down here without telling us why and for parking outside a house in a neighborhood without hardly any shade. Maybe he had lived here, maybe he’d come back to find something else he’d left behind, just like he’d done when he came and took me and Ruby.
How long I had my eyes closed or whether or not I drifted off to sleep I don’t know, but the next thing I heard was Ruby’s voice saying my name, quiet at first and then louder and louder until I finally opened my eyes and saw what it was that made her scream: it was Wade, running up the street toward us, his hands and the front of his shirt covered in blood, the front door of the house he’d gone into flung wide open. His mouth was moving, but from inside the car I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but by the time I opened the door and stepped out, he was screaming for me to get back inside.
It wasn’t the blood that covered Wade’s hands up to his elbows as much as it was the look on his face as he ran toward us that kept me from reaching over the front seat and unlocking the car door to let him in. He must’ve seen it in my eyes-or maybe he heard Ruby screaming inside-but something made it clear to him that he’d have to get that door unlocked on his own; that didn’t keep him from yanking on the handle and pounding on the glass with one hand and searching through his pockets with the other. Each time he beat against the window it left a bloody handprint until the glass was so full of them that we couldn’t hardly see him on the other side. He found his keys and got the right one into the lock and opened the door-but Wade climbing inside only made Ruby scream louder. Wade slammed the door shut and acted like we weren’t even there, like he couldn’t hear what was going on in the backseat. He started the car and put it in gear without even turning his head to look at us. He pulled into traffic, and I saw that the steering wheel was smeared with blood too.
We stopped at a red light, and Wade sat there with his hands in his lap like he was trying to hide them from the cars going by. “Hold on,” he said to us even though he hadn’t turned around to look at us yet. “Hold on,” he said again. “Just let me think for a second.” Hearing his voice made Ruby stop, and maybe that’s why he turned and looked at us; his face was covered in sweat and his eyes were wide open and crazy-looking. Ruby screamed and pushed her face into my shoulder. “Ruby, baby,” he said. “Please stop. I’m sorry. Please.” His hand came over the seat toward us, and when Ruby looked and saw it she screamed even louder. He pulled it back like we’d smacked at it. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry.” He turned around and held the steering wheel with both hands like he was trying to think of what to do or say next. Then the light turned green, and he wiped his hands on his shirt and kept on going.
We pulled off the street and into a convenience-store parking lot. Wade stopped the car and turned off the engine, and then he sat there staring at the side of the building.
“Easter,” he said real quiet and calm, “I need you to get out of the car and see if the ladies’ room is unlocked. If it’s not, then I need you to go inside and get the key.” I didn’t know what he was talking about, but when I leaned forward and looked out the windshield I saw that he’d been staring at the doors to the men’s and women’s bathrooms the whole time we’d been sitting there. He turned his head and looked at me. “Did you hear me?”
I nodded my head yes, but all I could think about was leaving Ruby in the car all alone and that money that I’d tucked down into the bear’s overalls. It was sitting right in between me and Ruby, and if Wade hadn’t been watching I swear I would’ve fished it out, grabbed Ruby’s hand, and made a run for it. But he never took his eyes off me.
“Go on, then,” he said. “I need you to do this for me.”
I reached for the door. Ruby grabbed my arm and tried to keep me from opening it. “It’s okay,” I said. “I’ll be right back.” She turned me loose, and I opened the door and got out. The ladies’ room had one of those big silver door handles with a dead bolt on it, and I knew it was going to be locked before I even reached out and tried to open it. I gave it a tug, and then I turned around and looked at Wade. His eyes were just as wild-looking as they’d been when he got into the car, and he looked at me for a second before nodding his head toward the convenience store.
The store was empty except for a fat blond-headed woman and a guy with a ponytail who were both standing behind the counter. When I walked in the woman was trying to light a cigarette, but she kept laughing at something the guy had said to her. I stood in front of the register until she’d lit her cigarette and tossed the lighter onto the counter.
“Can I help you?” she asked. The guy laughed again like he remembered what was so funny about what he’d said before I came in. He turned and walked back into a little office, and the woman watched him go. She looked at me again. “What do you need, baby?”
“I need to use the bathroom,” I said. “It’s locked.”
The woman reached under the counter and pulled out a long piece of wood with a key attached to the end of it. “Don’t leave this in there,” she said. “The door locks behind you.” I took the key and walked back to the bathroom. When I had the door unlocked Wade stepped out of the car and went inside. Before I could get back in the car with Ruby, he opened the bathroom door and hollered for me. He was holding some wadded-up paper towels that he’d run under the sink.
“Wipe off that window,” he said. “And then wipe down the steering wheel. I’ll be out in a second.”