Skipping a Beat Read online

“Funny, you don’t look like a high school girl either,” he said as his finger dipped into my cleavage. Jerry was done toying with me. Now he’d reveal the real reason why he’d stopped me. My body’s adrenaline took charge, screaming that I had to escape, now. I twisted around to run, but Jerry caught me from behind before I’d gone five yards.

  “Someone’s in a hurry,” he said and then laughed, crushing my upper arms between his big hands as his body rubbed up against mine. His breath felt hot against my cheek and smelled sour. My legs went limp with terror.

  “Let’s take a little walk,” Jerry said. Somehow that high, squeaky voice was more frightening than a shout. He forced me off the path, into a cluster of bushes.

  “Get down,” Jerry said, pushing me roughly to the ground. He leaned over me, in a push-up position, trapping me between his forearms. It was so quiet that Jerry’s ragged exhales exploded in my ears. I was vaguely aware of a rock bruising my shoulder blade, but the pain didn’t even register.

  “Lift up your shirt,” Jerry ordered me.

  Should I obey or defy him? Which would be worse?

  Do what he says, instinct warned me. Don’t make him angry.

  I hiked up my blouse, but only a few inches. My hand froze and I couldn’t lift it any higher. Why did it have to be so warm today? I wondered desperately. Why did I have to be wearing this thin shirt instead of a bulky sweater and coat?

  “Please,” I whispered.

  “Please what?” Jerry asked.

  “Please don’t,” I begged.

  Jerry leaned closer to me. His flat eyes bore into mine. “Lift up your fucking shirt,” he said, spraying flecks of spit on my checks with each f.

  Then I heard something—the crunch of a twig under some-one’s shoe.

  “Get off her!”

  I registered a blur from the left as a guy leapt onto Jerry’s back and punched him in the head. Jerry released me and spun around, shaking the guy off.

  “Run, Julie!”

  It was Mike Dunhill, the skinny boy in my class whose hand always shot up before the teachers finished asking questions.

  I jumped up and started to run, to get help, but a sickening sound made me turn around. Mike was already on the ground, and Jerry was kicking him. Jerry must’ve weighed twice as much as Mike, and he was in a fury. Mike was going to get hurt, bad, unless I did something now. I didn’t even remember that I was still holding the bag of ice cream until I reached into it and sent a half gallon of Breyers strawberry sailing toward Jerry’s head.

  If the ice cream had been frozen, it probably wouldn’t have stopped Jerry. He was obviously a man who could take a hit. But that unseasonably warm day turned out to be a gift in more ways than one. The lid flew off, and the softened pink ice cream spattered across Jerry’s face and eyes. He stood there, temporarily blinded, his foot raised for another kick. That was all the opening Mike needed. He uncoiled and grabbed Jerry’s ankle, yanking him off-balance. As Jerry tumbled backward, Mike sprang up, as if he hadn’t been hurt at all, and shot out the side of his hand to clip Jerry in the throat, hard.

  “Run!” Mike shouted again, and this time, I obeyed. Together, we sprinted another fifty yards down the track, cut left onto the dirt path leading to Becky’s neighborhood, and wove through the streets for a quarter mile, until we’d reached her little single-story brick house. I jabbed her doorbell over and over again, stealing glances behind me, certain Jerry would appear from out of nowhere again.

  “Hang on! Geez!”

  The door opened agonizingly slowly. Mike and I burst inside, breathing hard.

  “What’s wrong?” Becky’s mother asked while I slammed the door shut and double-locked it.

  “It’s okay,” Mike said. He bent over and put his hands on his knees as he sucked in great gulps of air. “He didn’t follow us … I checked.”

  “Who?” Becky’s mother asked, looking back and forth from Mike to me. “Are you guys playing a game?”

  Tears flooded my eyes as I remembered Jerry’s cold smile, and his lazy, insistent finger tracing a hot trail across my skin. Suddenly my stomach lurched and I almost gagged.

  Then Mike saved me for a second time.

  “All the books I’ve read about self-defense,” he said, grinning at me, “and not one of them mentioned the dreaded ice-cream counterattack. Do you have to be a black belt for that?”

  We stared at each other for a second, then started laughing. Mike clutched his ribs and tears ran down my cheeks as we both leaned against the wall, unable to talk.

  “Guess you had to be there.” Becky’s mother shrugged, walking away. That made us laugh even harder, howling and bending over and gasping for breath. And when we finally stopped laughing, I reached into the bag and pulled out the half-melted carton of chocolate ice cream that I’d somehow held on to the entire time.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked Mike.

  A slow grin spread across his face. “Starving.”

  I pretended to be fine, and even though I was so jittery my skin felt electric, I must’ve done a pretty good job, because I convinced Becky’s mom it was okay for her to go to her afternoon shift at the pharmacy. The sheriff was on his way to take my statement, and Mike offered to stick around, in case he could answer any questions. But I sensed the real reason why Mike hadn’t left was that he knew I was terrified Jerry would somehow spring out from behind the shower curtain the moment I was alone.

  I was looking out the window while Becky chattered on about the new Nancy Drew mystery she’d checked out of the library, and I didn’t see Mike take our ice-cream bowls to the kitchen. When he suddenly clattered them into the sink, I spun around, my heart nearly convulsing in panic.

  “Sorry,” he said, even before he looked at my white face. I nodded and swallowed hard.

  “So here’s the thing.” He leaned back against the kitchen counter and casually folded his arms. “All those mysteries Nancy stumbles across? She’s like, what, seventeen? Don’t you guys think it’s a little suspicious that she’s already solved a hundred crimes? Shouldn’t somebody be investigating Nancy?’”

  I forced a smile, even though my lips felt cold and stiff. “Are you accusing Nancy of exaggerating? Careful; she’s Becky’s hero, and she used to be mine, too.”

  Mike raised his hands so his palms were facing me. “I’m just saying someone seems to need a little more attention than the average seventeen-year-old. Sure, Daddy bought her a snappy little roadster, but apparently he doesn’t care that she’s dropped out of school.”

  I nudged him with my shoulder and managed a smile. A bit later, when Becky was drinking a glass of water and accidentally spilled a few drops onto the table, I watched as Mike reached over, casually wiped it up with his sleeve, and winked at her without missing a beat in his blistering imitation of our chemistry teacher, who seemed to hate not only teenagers but also chemistry and small towns (it probably wasn’t the best idea to give a lone white male with anger issues free access to combustible elements, but it’s not like we had a lot of teachers to pick and choose from).

  Up until then, everything I knew about Mike came from the whispering I’d overheard. The mother just up and left, Brenda had told a customer through the bobby pins she held in one corner of her mouth while she fashioned an upsweep. Course, I might, too, if I was married to that S.O.B. But can you imagine leaving your childr—Then Brenda had caught sight of my wide eyes and quickly begun talking about the new yellow Lab puppy she’d just adopted.

  It was the blessing and the curse of a small town; most people knew you, but everyone thought they knew all about you. Yet I hadn’t understood the first thing about Mike.

  Later that day, as he walked me home from Becky’s, he acted nonchalant, but his eyes swept from side to side more vigilantly than any Secret Service agent’s. A few times he even spun around to look behind us. No one would ever sneak up on me with him around, I realized, and for what seemed to be the first time in a long, long while, I breathed deeply and felt my hands unc
url out of fists at my sides.

  “Becky was in a car accident, right?” Mike asked as we turned the corner onto my street. It was dusk by now, but the day still held on to some of its earlier warmth, and a few yellow crocuses bloomed like little spots of hope in the yards we passed. “I remember hearing about it.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Her mom was driving, and it was icy out, and they skidded into a tree. She wasn’t speeding or anything. It was just one of those awful things.”

  We reached my house, and Mike walked me up our concrete front steps. Most of the homes in our town were small but tidy, with neat yards and bright flower bed borders and trimmed hedges. Mine used to be, too, but now the gutters were still clogged with fall leaves and a shutter had come loose and was leaning there lopsidedly, like a party guest trying to hide the fact that he’d had a few too many martinis.

  I paused on the top step. I hated to be rude, but I couldn’t risk inviting Mike inside. Not even after everything we’d been through together. Mike glanced at the front door, then at me, but he didn’t say anything. Maybe he already knew; most people did by now.

  “Is Becky going to walk again?” Mike asked, casually sitting down and leaning back on his elbows as he stretched out his legs, like it was completely natural to carry on our conversation out here rather than inside.

  “She thinks she will,” I said as I plopped down next to him. “But I don’t know what the doctors say.”

  “Jesus.” Mike let out his breath in a long, whooshing sound, then winced and clutched his side, despite his claims that his ribs didn’t hurt. “Being in a wheelchair is the worst thing I could imagine. I’d go crazy.”

  “I guess you don’t know until it happens,” I said. “Becky handles it really well, especially for a kid.”

  “No. I’d go crazy, Julie,” he repeated. “To not be able to move? To have to depend on other people for help?”

  He suddenly sprang up and shifted his weight from one foot to the other, like he was reassuring himself he could still control his body. Mike was in constant motion. I hadn’t noticed it at school, but that afternoon I saw: His leg jiggled, or his fingertips thrummed a beat on a table, or his hand wove endless paths through his curly, dark hair. That was probably how he stayed so skinny, despite the fact that he’d gobbled most of the ice cream and raided the refrigerator to make himself two turkey-and-cheese sandwiches at Becky’s.

  Already, I was learning his mind was as hungry as his body. Mike told me he’d read half a dozen books about self-defense, not because he was worried about being attacked but because he read everything. That’s how he knew about the vulnerable spot in the middle of the throat: Hitting it hard enough with the side of a rigid hand would stun just about any assailant.

  Mike tore through his homework, devoured books at the library, and gobbled up newspapers and biographies of business leaders and World Book encyclopedias. He even read the ingredient lists on the packages of everything he ate (alas, this little habit of his ruined my love affair with hot pink Hostess Sno Balls). He’d skipped third grade, and he’d completed all the high school math courses by the end of tenth grade.

  Everything about Mike was quick. Weeks later, when I lay my head on his bare chest for the first time, I thought he was nervous because I could feel his heart beating so rapidly. But that was his normal heart rate; Mike was just wired differently than anyone I’d ever met.

  Maybe I would’ve fallen in love with Mike anyways, because of the unexpected parts of himself that he’d revealed the day Jerry attacked me: his bravery, and the way he’d joked about how brilliant I’d been to hang on to the chocolate ice cream: “I mean, if you’re going to use something as a weapon, for God’s sakes, use the strawberry! Strawberry’s kind of scrappy, but chocolate’s too mellow. It’s always getting stoned and sitting around listening to Led Zeppelin. You never want chocolate to have your back in a fight.”

  But there was something else—something he said that day on my front steps—that seemed to pierce me all the way to my core.

  Mike frowned at the horizon, as if it wasn’t really me he was speaking to. “Someday I’m going to have enough money to do whatever I want. I’m going to have my own company, and my own house, too, not something the bank owns. I’m not going to end up in this crummy town like everyone else. Nothing’s going to stop me.”

  I stared at him, unable to speak. Mike had just put into words everything I desperately wanted, like he’d peered into my brain and scooped out my deepest, most secret wish. It wasn’t so much the money, though at that point I couldn’t even imagine owning a house. Funny, because now we have two—in D.C. and in Aspen, Colorado. But the security that came along with money … well, I ached for it. The sick, unsteady feeling I’d had ever since my dad had changed—the sense that quicksand was inching closer and closer to me, biding its time before it could suck me down and cover my head and suffocate me—disappeared as Mike spoke.

  I looked at him, this scrawny, twitchy guy with crazy curls and jeans with a ragged hole in the knee, and a rush of certainty enveloped me like a warm blanket: With Mike, I’d always be safe, in every way possible.

  “See you in school tomorrow?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “We’ve got that history test.”

  He nodded, then looked down at his feet. “You always sit by the window, right?”

  “Right,” I said, surprised.

  “Except last week.” He took a deep breath, like he was gathering himself, then lifted his blue, almond-shaped eyes to meet mine. “Shelby Rowan took your seat first. You looked at her for a second, then you went to the back row. You were wearing a white sweater that day.”

  I stared at him, speechless. Mike had been watching me? He remembered what I wore? He hadn’t shown any fear when he attacked Jerry, but right now, he looked nervous. He was worried about my reaction, I realized with a jolt.

  “You sit in the front row, too, right?” I finally said.

  Mike shook his head. “I’m right behind you, Julie. I always have been.”

  Like today, when I desperately needed him there.

  I felt a hot rush of shame. “Sorry.”

  Mike shrugged, but I saw hurt flash across his face. “If you don’t play football, no one notices you. God, I hate high school. Do you know how many days until we graduate? Four hundred and thirty-eight if you count holidays and weekends and summer vacation. I’ve been counting down for years.”

  It was true; our school did revolve around football, and half the town came out for the Friday night games. Suddenly I remembered: Mike had two older brothers. And they’d both played football; I’d heard their names being chanted by cheerleaders during games.

  “I’ll save you a seat tomorrow,” I blurted.

  “Good,” Mike said, and then he smiled. His teeth were a little crooked, but on him it was appealing. “I should get going. Will you be okay?”

  I nodded. “The sheriff said Jerry’s probably already left town. Apparently he was planning on leaving anyway. He just ran into me first. So”—I gave a tight little laugh—“I don’t have anything to worry about.”

  But I was still scared. The touch of that finger was seared into my skin like a burn. And somehow, Mike knew.

  The next morning at seven-thirty, he was outside my house with his overstuffed backpack on his thin shoulders, waiting to walk me to school. From then on, we were inseparable.

  “High school sweethearts?” people always exclaim after they ask how we met. “How wonderful!”

  And it was. For a long time, at least, it really was.

  * * *

  Three

  * * *

  THE FIRST PERSON I saw after I whipped through the hospital’s revolving door made me want to spin right back around onto the sidewalk. Dale, the top lawyer for Michael’s company, had planted himself in the middle of the lobby, next to a young couple holding a screeching newborn baby. I didn’t blame the baby; Dale had that effect on me, too.

  Maybe if I ducked
my head and sprinted—

  “Hi, Julia.”

  “Oh, Dale!” I squeaked. “I didn’t see you there!”

  Did the Learning Annex offer a course in the art of the convincing lie? I really needed to take one; even the bobble-headed baby seemed to pause between outraged wails and give me the stink eye.

  “Where’s Michael?” I asked. I’d talked to Kate on the drive over, and she’d reassured me that Michael was awake and talking. “He won’t stop talking,” Kate had said with a laugh. “That’s how I know he’s okay.”

  Still, there was something in her voice, some off note …

  “Hang on a second.” Dale reached out and grabbed my forearm. I looked down at his thick fingers with the coarse black hairs on the knuckles and remembered the fancy dinner party when I’d knocked my glass of ’82 burgundy all over a snow white tablecloth. Dale had chortled, “You can take the girl out of West Virginia, but you can’t take West Virginia out of the girl.” I’d laughed along with the rest of the table, but for the balance of the night, I kept catching myself twisting a lock of my hair around my right index finger. It was a nervous habit from childhood that I’d finally broken in my twenties.

  “Which way is he?” I asked, wrenching my arm away and suppressing a shudder.

  Dale ignored my question. “There’s something you should know.” His eyes darted around furtively, as though spies might be lurking everywhere in candy striper uniforms. “Michael is … well, he’s …”

  “What?” I asked impatiently. “He’s conscious, right? He’s okay now.”

  “Yeah, but …” Dale’s voice trailed off again.

  Sheesh, you’d think Dale was the one who’d toppled over in the conference room and conked his head on the floor. Not that I was taking any satisfaction from that image. Nor was I embroidering it to include someone sitting astride Dale’s chest and slapping his cheeks to revive him—violently slapping; Dale would stubbornly remain unconscious for quite a while …

  Priorities, I reminded myself. “Dale, where is he?”