Jumper_ Griffin's Story Part 20

"Yeah, it is." Then, in a rush, "He was aiming for my kidney." I stood up and let the jacket and s.h.i.+rt drop back down. "Cold."

She pulled her coat closed.

"Who did that?"

"I lied to your parents."

She looked confused. "What? Can't you answer a straight question? What do you mean, you lied to my parents?"

"I don't live with my uncle or my grandparents. I don't have grandparents. I don't have an uncle. After my parents wereafter they diedI lived with a friend in Mexico Mexico, then later, I got my own place. The place in the desert I talked aboutthat part was real."

"What's that have to do with the cut on your back?"

I kicked at a pile of last fall's leaves, clumped and decomposing, sending them flying. It was a mistake. "Ow!" I limped around in a little circle, favoring my left side. "What I'm trying to say is that I don't want to lie to you. But I don't want to be thought crazy, too, and some of the stuff I want to say sounds terribly crazy."

She pulled her legs up onto the bench under the coat, and hugged them. "What kind of crazy?"

"The people who killed my parents are still trying to kill me. They were trying to kill me when they killed them."

She looked like she was about to cry. She doesn't believe me. She does think I'm insane. She doesn't believe me. She does think I'm insane. I held out my hand like a crossing guard stopping oncoming traffic. "Wait. There's proof." I held out my hand like a crossing guard stopping oncoming traffic. "Wait. There's proof."

And I jumped away.

She's going to run screaming, I thought, as I ripped the old microfilm newspaper printouts from my plywood gallery.

I jumped back.

She was standing, but she hadn't run. She did have her fist against her mouth. She flinched back and sat down hard as the concrete bench caught the backs of her knees. She began gasping.

I took a step closer and her eyes widened and she leaned away. Well, now I knew how she'd felt when I'd flinched away from her in front of her house, when she'd grabbed my left arm and hurt my back by accident. I moved very slowly and set the papers down on the end of the bench but the minute I let go, the wind threatened to send them flying and I dropped my hand back down.

"Look, they're gonna be all over if you don't take them." I slid them closer to her, careful to stay beyond the end of the bench.

She put her hand down, as far from my hand as possible and yet still on the pages. I straightened up and backed away.

"What was that?" There was suppressed hysteria in her voice. "How did you do that?"

I gestured to the papers. "It ties in. Go ahead, look."

When she'd picked them up I said, "I've got other cuts older scars," I said quietly. "The top two stories are when they came for me when my parents were alive. I know it says drugs were involved but that was bulls.h.i.+t." I pointed to my right hip, the wound I got that night. "They nearly killed me that night."

She read through the pages, glancing up often to keep track of where I was. "So your name really is Griffin O'Conner."

When she got to the third page she said, "Who's Sam Coulton and Consuelo, uh, Monjarraz?" She got the j j right, a soft right, a soft h. h.

"Sam and Consuelo found me in the desert after... that night. They fixed me up. Later, Consuelo took me to Oaxaca Oaxaca and I lived with her niece for almost two years, until and I lived with her niece for almost two years, until they they found me again and I had to leave. After that, I lived by myself. found me again and I had to leave. After that, I lived by myself.

"They held Sam and Consuelo hostage, trying to get me to surrender. When I sent the INS in .. . well, you see what happened."

She read on. She stopped tracking me as she got into the body count. I crossed my right arm over my stomach, pulling my left into my side. I felt my shoulders droop, hunch forward. The accused is in the dock awaiting the verdict of the jury. The accused is in the dock awaiting the verdict of the jury.

"So why do they want to kill you?"

I shook my head. "I wish I knew for sure."

"It's something to do with, uh, what you just did, right?"

"YeahI really think so."

"And what did did you just do?" She licked her lips. "I mean, I saw you disappear, but where did you go?" you just do?" She licked her lips. "I mean, I saw you disappear, but where did you go?"

"My placeuh, Southern Cal Southern Cal. In the desert."

"You're kidding me."

I shook my head. "No. Want to see?" I took a step forward.

She held up her hands. "Whoa, boy!"

I stepped back again, the corners of my mouth tugging down. Please, please, please. Please, please, please.

She pointed at the far side of the cemetery. cemetery. "See "See the corner the corner over by the birth control clinic?" It was about two hundred yards away. "Go there. Show me." over by the birth control clinic?" It was about two hundred yards away. "Go there. Show me."

I did.

How many Sensitives could there be? Hopefully there wasn't one around here.

I stood there, two hundred yards away, and waved. After a moment, she raised her arm and made a large comehere gesture. I returned, my way. She didn't jerk so much this time when I appeared.

"I suppose it could be drugs. Did you put something in my coffee?"

I shook my head.

"How do you do that?"

"I just do it. When I was five, the first time."

"The Starbucks cup, in MontSaintMichelyou said you'd got it in San Diego San Diego. You meant that that morning, didn't you?" morning, didn't you?"

I nodded.

It started to rain, fat drops falling at an angle with the wind.

"s.h.i.+t!" said E.V. "I'm so tired of winter! I want it to be warm." She sounded upset and I didn't think it was the weather.

"I can't make it warm here," I said. "But I can take you someplace that is."

She didn't say no. Her eyes were still wary but her forehead was no longer furrowed.

"How do you feel about Thai about Thai food?" food?"

Chapter Twelve.

Rites of Pa.s.sage We were walking down Kensington High Street on ' our third date when E.V. said, "Let's go in here."

I thought she meant the shoe boutique but she pulled me sideways toward the shop on the corner. "What? The chemist?"

"Yes, the chemist."

I followed her through the doorit was afternoon in New Jersey New Jersey and nearly ten at night in and nearly ten at night in London London and they were about to close. "What do you need?" and they were about to close. "What do you need?"

She looked over her shoulder at me and said, "What do we we need." Then she blushed. need." Then she blushed.

She bought the condoms, Durex brand, and some lubricant but got the cash from me since she only had American.

The clerk looked bored and my ears burned.

Back on the sidewalk she said, "We've two more hours."

I'd offered to show her my place, the Hole, before, but she'd refused. So far she'd let me take her swimming in Mexico Mexico, to Paris Paris for coffee, to for coffee, to Madrid Madrid for tapas, and p.h.u.ket for satay. But not to my place. for tapas, and p.h.u.ket for satay. But not to my place.

"Uh, I've never done it."

She nodded. "I know. I could tell." She stepped up to me and pressed against me. "Don't you want to?"

I nodded mutely.

"Well, then."

It was after, when we were lying in my bed, hip to belly, that she finally found out I was thirteen months younger than her seventeen and a half years.

"Oh, Christ! It's like child abuse!"

I moved my hand sideways and she arched her back. "Well, more fun than selfabuse," I said. "Think of it as charity to a poor orphan boy."

"An orphan boy?"

"An orphan boy."

She sang, "Oh, men of dark and dismal fate, Forgo your cruel employ, Have pity on my lonely state, I am an orphan boy!"

"Huh?" I was thoroughly confused.

"And you an Englishman! Pirates of Penzance. Pirates of Penzance. Gilbert and Sullivan. Got it?" Gilbert and Sullivan. Got it?"

"Oh. Never saw it. 'Modern MajorGeneral,' right? Okay, have pity on my lonely ... ?"

"State. What time is it? Oh, s.h.i.+t!" She pushed my hands away. "Get me back or I'll be grounded for all time."

I jumped her to the corner of her block, depending on the gathering gloom to hide our sudden appearance. She kissed me and ran up the block, her book bag thumping at her shoulder.

I walked between two parked cars on the street and jumped away.

E.V.'s father had a rough commute, fortyfive minutes, so he was rarely home before six. Her mother worked in a middle school in the Neshaminy school district in Pennsylvania across the river and then some. She rarely made it home before fivethirty. So we had that time between threefifteen and fivethirty, most weekdays.

"I'm not burning us out, though," she said. "Three times a week, tops."

I had to buy more condoms.

She drew me naked.

Well, naked with a sketchpad.

We drew each other.

And we swam naked in the moonlight at p.h.u.ket.

And we ate at little cafes overlooking the Seine Seine while she did her cla.s.s a.s.signments. I helped her with her Frenchshe helped me with Algebra II. while she did her cla.s.s a.s.signments. I helped her with her Frenchshe helped me with Algebra II.

"Madame Breskin says my accent is improving remarkably."

"Lefrangais est la langue de Vamour. Let's go back to my place." Let's go back to my place."

She laughed. "No. I've barely got time to finish this essay."

My sigh was eloquent.

"Tomorrow. Homework or not," she promised.

But the next day she wasn't there. We'd been meeting at the Sh.e.l.l station, across Greenwood Avenue from the high school and only a few blocks from her house.

I thought about calling but she told me her parents had caller ID, so if I was going to call, do it from where I was supposed to be. With a small mountain of quarters, I stood at a pay phone in San Diego San Diego's BalboaPark BalboaPark, and dialed.

She answered. "Hey," I said.

"Where are you calling from? Ah, where's sixonenine?"

"San Diego. How are you?" What I really meant was, Can you talk? Can you talk?

"I'm p.i.s.sed. Dad went through my nightstand. He found the sketch I did of you in the nude. When we were sketching?"

"That was a really good sketch. Uh, what did he say? What did you you say?" say?"