The
air was cold and brisk and neither were wearing jackets but thanks to the
faux-warming effects of alcohol, neither really minded. The world had a blurred
quality as they passed into the forest. A wind pushed through the branches and
rustled the leaves and everything seemed to shift around them unevenly. Their
own movement between the trunks and branches did not help matters. Mary didn’t
notice it when her phone vibrated to signal the arrival of a text message.
They wandered in the direction that
Mary had thought they’d find the cabin, but before she’d even expected to
uncover it, she stopped. “He could not
know about it,” Mary said finally.
“The tunnel?” Hana asked, “Why would he be headed for it?”
“I don’t know,” Mary said, “I feel
stupid. Really stupid. Why would I even think that?”
“I don’t know,” Hana said, “I mean…
what? Why? What are we doing out here?”
Mary stood still. She suddenly felt
the cold of the late fall and wished she’d brought a jacket. She turned around
and looked back, and realized they hadn’t gone very far at all. The crisis of
the situation, of Neil possibly having gone on his own out into the woods while
intoxicated, sunk in. She felt sober, although her blood alcohol content hadn’t
changed much at all.
“Where is he?” Mary asked no one in particular. The girl who was watching
them from a tree branch wanted to tell them, but she kept her mouth shut.
Mary pulled out her phone and found
a text message from Neil.
Where did you guys go?
“He’s at the house,” Mary said, “He sent me
a text like a minute ago and I didn’t notice it. Why did we assume he’d run
away?”
“It kind of seemed like he might
have done that,” Hana said, “I mean, maybe. I don’t know.”
“No,” Mary said, “That would be… not…
something Neil would do. Let’s go back and play Kings or whatever.”
“Ok,” Hana said. Her voice was
bright suddenly. She strolled back to the house at a chipper pace, skipping
sluggishly and occasionally; bobbing her head to a tune she had stuck in her
head.
Neil was waiting in the living room,
seated on the couch, staring at the empty television, while the super cool college music played from the
stereo. He looked up and said the same question, verbatim, as he had in the
text message. He didn’t even hardly leave a space between Where
and did,
either.
“Out,” Mary said.
“We thought you’d runned away,” Hana said.
“Why would I do that?”
“Yeah, I asked myself that already,
so I’ve had enough questions for tonight,” Mary said, “We were going to play
some Kings or whatever.”
“Kings?” Neil asked, “I mean… I’m
ok. I think I’m done drinking. I feel pretty golden zoned out right now. In
that good area. You know where that is? That place I’m talking about?”
Hana sat down next to him, “Yeah,”
she said, “Because, I’m there too!”
She punched him in the shoulder.
Mary didn’t feel golden. She felt
like she’d overreacted and had misunderstood her friend. And she felt even
worse for not knowing if she actually had. Mary sat down next to Hana. “Maybe
we should watch a movie?”
But before anyone could come up with one,
Neil spoke. “What do you guys think about Asta?”
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