“Keep dreaming.”
He laughed, nodded, and walked off.
My parents were still watching television. I told them how good the restaurant was and suggested they try it. I studied their faces. Even my father looked a little amused. Both were happy that I was pleased. It occurred to me that they were probably still concerned about how the drug would affect me. The fact that they had suffered and were still suffering from so much anxiety revived my anger. How pleased Lily and Marsha must be with themselves, I thought. They had bested the school genius; they had shown her who was superior. What angered me the most was that I wasn’t going to sleep submerged in the pleasure of warm and exciting lovemaking. I was going to toss and turn with rage again.
The following day, I concentrated on a research paper on the human genome for my biology class, a subject far beyond the normal curriculum. I didn’t realize until nearly two hours after lunch that Jackson had not called. When he did, he sounded frightened and troubled. He was on his mobile and asked me to meet him at a Starbucks in a strip mall three blocks west of my house.
“Why?” Why wouldn’t he just come over?
“I’ll tell you when I see you,” he said.
Irritated, I hurried out without telling my parents I was leaving and walked to the Starbucks. He was already
there, sitting at a table near the front window. I had a feeling he had called me from there. He was hovering over his coffee and didn’t look up until I said his name.
“Hey. Thanks for coming. You want something? Coffee, tea . . .”
“No. Why did I have to come here? What is it, Jackson?”
He waited for me to sit. “I didn’t tell my parents I was taking you out last night,” he began.
“So?”
“One of our neighbors, Mrs. Goshen, who’s in my mother’s book club, saw you and me go into the house.”
“So?”
“There was a whole to-do about it. My mother called my uncle, who came over, and they all gave me lectures and warnings.”
“Warnings? About what?”
“They don’t completely understand what happened to you. I mean, why it happened, and . . .”
“And now they think I’m exposing you to a dirty, illegal, and immoral world full of sex and drugs,” I said bitterly. “Sounds like a good Christian family meeting.”
“I told them how wrong they were, but my mother gets hysterical easily, and . . .”
“And you want to cool it for a while,” I said. “At least, until you get your awards, like the citizenship award and scholarships.”
He stared at me. “Sure you don’t want anything?”
“No, Jackson. What are you saying, exactly?”
He shrugged. “I thought maybe if we’re a little more discreet . . .”
“You mean, have a secret romance, avoid each other in school, something like that?”
“I really like you, Corliss. This is just a temporary glitch.”
I stood up. “I have some serious work to do. I have this theory that evil is inherited in our DNA. As soon as I’ve completed the research, I’ll get it to you so you can give it to your family.”
“Corliss . . .”
“Relax,” I said. “Don’t you know the good guys always win?”
I walked out quickly. All I could see was Lily Putney’s smiling face. Ripples of trouble were still forming from the disaster at the school dance. Those girls would have another victory over me to claim. As I continued home, the plan of revenge came to me quickly. By the time I was at my front door, I knew exactly what I was going to do, but to do it, I had to violate a trust.
My mother had her rainy-day fund stored in an old teakettle that had belonged to her grandmother. None of us, not even my father, knew how much was in it. On Sunday night, while my parents were out and after my brother and sister had gone to bed, I went to the kettle and plucked out a fifty-dollar bill and a twenty. I didn’t think my mother counted the money. She simply put in the dollars when she could, occasionally took some out, especially for things my brother and sister needed, things my father would say they could do without, and left it at that.