“No, go on,” I said.
“It’s silly. I feel like a teenager.” She pressed the button that called the nurse. “I think I’m all done here,” she said.
“Wait. You can say it,” I said. I could hear the nurse approaching. “Lex. Please say the words.”
“Fine. All right,” she said. “I have a crush on Haden McCrae. We’ve been hanging out down by the lake. You can’t tell anyone. I’ll kill you if you tell.”
Haden McCrae. A nauseous feeling descended on me. A week ago I’d found a luggage tag by the lake with
“Whatever. Sure. You bet,” I said, and went out into the hall.
Through the door I heard the nurse ask Lexington, “Is that your boyfriend?”
“Miles?” said Lex. “No, he just drives me here.”
“Miles,” said the nurse. “I had a toad named Miles when I was a girl. My mom made me throw him out because she said he’d give me warts on my hands. Hmmm.”
“Ugh. Warts,” said Lex.
I wanted to kick in the door and clap their fucking faces together like blackboard erasers.
A few days later I played sick when it was time to drive Lex to the hospital. I had no desire to talk to her; the thought of hearing about her and McCrae made me sick. I spent the day in the gymnasium mopping up leaks. Snow had piled on the roof and caused some damage. Every now and then a trickle of icy gray water would fall from the vaulted ceiling to the floor. I stood in the corner, leaning against the padded wall with a mop in my hand. Some cadets were engaged in backbreaking running drills on the basketball courts. Others trained with weights over by the rope climb. Watching them sprint and heft and pant, I wondered how many would go home and do well, make people proud, and how many would continue sailing toward ruin. Just as I was thinking about this, McCrae passed into my line of vision. He was inside a grid of cadets jogging across the basketball courts, but when he glanced at me, it was as though he were the only one in the room; everyone else rushed by, but for me McCrae was frozen in place, suspended midstride, his sneakers inches off the ground. He had a look of furious anguish on his face, his cheeks flushed and nearly as red as his stubbled head. Staring back into his eyes, which seemed to radiate hatred for me, I felt I could see his true nature, his black, hidden center. It was like when you put a diving mask to the surface of the ocean and can suddenly peer right into the murky depths with piercing clarity. I could hear him talking to me, saying, “I’m headed toward her, music man. I’m plunging down from the clouds and I’m going to knock her on her ass so hard that she’ll never find her feet again. Here I come, music man. Here I come.”
All at once I remembered Sergeant Brill’s words to me on that first day, about fear being the way to expose a person’s true colors, the way to penetrate his facade, and a plan took shape. I knew what I had to do.
I found Lex on the way out of the mess hall that evening. The sunset was gorgeous behind her head, a fiery parachute settling on the pine trees. “How are you feeling? I missed you today,” she said. She was shivering a bit; it was the end of February but still hard winter.
“I’m fine,” I said. “I’ll be up for it next time.”
“I haven’t heard you play down at the lake the last few nights.” She pulled her coat more tightly around her. “I thought maybe you were mad about Haden.”
“Mad?” I said. “Not at all.”
“He’s not the easiest person to like, I know, but he’s different around me. He—”
“Really. Haden seems like a stand-up guy.”
Lex looked at me for a moment. I tried to give my most convincing smile. Then, thank God, she laughed. “I was all ready to defend him to you. I thought you were going to tell me what a punk he is. He’d never hurt me, you know.”
“I don’t go down to the lake because I don’t want to run into you guys,” I said. “Tell me when you head down there, so I can avoid you.”
“We only sneak down on Tuesdays and every other Sunday. Those are the nights Fender is off and I can use his keys. Tonight he’s here, so we’re not going down until Tuesday.”
The muscles of my face began to ache from smiling. “I think that’s great, Lex. I’m happy for you.” Tuesday, I thought. Two days until Tuesday.
“Really?”
“I’ve got to get back to my bunk. I’ll see you soon.” I gave her a quick pat on the arm and hurried off just as the last good light fled the sky.
In the couple of days leading up to Tuesday, I avoided Lex as best I could. She didn’t have to go to the hospital until Wednesday, so our paths didn’t cross. I saw McCrae once, climbing the chain web with some other cadets, but he didn’t notice me.
Tuesday finally arrived. I took it as my day off. I spent the day with Ronald: we ate breakfast together, and then we passed the rest of the afternoon at the golf resort. It was too cold for outdoor golf, of course, but the lodge was open, as were the driving cages beneath it. I preferred the lodge this way, with the course closed, as I sometimes felt my old nervousness act up out on the holes with all the golf balls whizzing by high overhead.
Ronald dressed casually, in a college sweatshirt and patched jeans—to look at him you’d think he worked in the kitchen—but as always, almost everyone we passed came up and congratulated me on having Ronald for a cousin. When we sat down for lunch, people wouldn’t stop buying us things. Every ten minutes a pair of drinks or a plate of hors d’oeuvres found its way to our table and some couple or other across the room would wave or nod or give us a thumbs-up. Sometimes when this happened I pretended that it was me, and not Ronald, that they were applauding; I imagined that they all knew what I was about to do at the camp, what I was going to do for Lex, and admired me for this.
By the time we got home it was past nine, and I encouraged Ronald to go to bed soon. We were both a little drunk and had early days tomorrow. We should try to get more rest in general, I said, clapping him on the back. Captain Marvel knew something was happening. He kept pacing back and forth in the yard, snorting and pawing up big patties of frozen earth. I was afraid that Ronald might grow worried about him, but he didn’t seem to notice. He agreed with me that it had been a long day, and so we said good night and then he headed upstairs to bed. I lay down on the couch and waited. All the while Captain Marvel was trotting back and forth, giving off excited whimpers.
When I was sure Ronald was asleep, I got up and slipped out of the house and into the yard. Captain Marvel reared up a bit on his hind legs when he saw me and then stamped back down.
“Captain Marvel. Stop,” I commanded, and he stood firmly on the grass. I went around to the garage, hitched the trailer to Ronald’s truck, and drove it around in front of the yard. Ronald had left a cup of coffee in the drink holder and the coffee’s surface was skimmed with ice. When I opened the gate, Captain Marvel walked right up the ramp without my having to say a word.
The ride toward About Face was smooth. I drove with the windows down. Deer lined the road like an audience. One appeared every few seconds, standing there with its front hooves on the shoulder. The night air was studded with frost particles that made the skin on my face tingle. A great trill spun out of the cavern of my nose and filled the cab with a high but masculine sound, like the whistle issued from the deck of a warship launching out to sea.
Just before the long driveway up to the camp, I pulled off the road and killed the engine. I got out and opened the trailer gate and down came Captain Marvel, his neck steaming in the cold. I threw the knitted mat that Ronald used as a saddle over Captain Marvel’s back and then I climbed on. Through all this, Captain Marvel stood still as an
