Page 3 of Mountain Freedom
I knew enough about life to know she was wrong about that one. But I liked to hear her dream anyway.
She nudged my shoulder. “You’re awfully quiet tonight. What are you thinking about over there?”
I swallowed hard. Talking about feelings was…weird. But tonight felt different. And I had some things I needed to say.
“You’re my best friend,” I said, knowing it was the understatement of the year. She wasn’t just my best friend. She was myonlyfriend. The only good thing in my life. The one who had given me strength to survive these last few years.
Without her? I’d have given up a long time ago.
“You’re my best friend too,” she said, smiling. She picked up a flat rock, kissed it, and skipped it across the dark surface of the creek. Seven skips, each one quietly echoing the sound of the stone when it first hit the water. Seven. Her lucky number.
“I was thinking we should make a pact,” I said.
“A pact?” She turned to look at me again. “What kind of pact?”
“To be best friends forever.”
She gave me a playful shove, laughing that pretty laugh of hers. “Of course we will be, silly. We’ll always be best friends.”
I swallowed hard. “Even if I go to jail?”
“You’re not going to go to jail, Jackson. You’re just a kid, and it’s not your fault Russell makes you break the law. If they ever arrest you, I’ll tell them how he forced you to do it.” She seemed so confident, just like she was about how someday we’d be free of it all.
“Just promise, Allison.” For some reason, it felt crucially important. I couldn’t say why. Maybe it was the conversation Russell had with me earlier, maybe it was my growing fear about getting caught, or maybe it was the knowledge that Allison’s life was moving her a little bit further from mine every day. But something in my gut told me that things were going to change.
And I didn’t want them to.
“I promise,” she said softly, holding up her finger to pinky swear. “We’ll be best friends forever.”
“Forever,” I echoed.
I meant it with all my heart.
The next morning,I rolled out of bed, stuffed my feet into my worn-out sneakers, and grabbed my homework. Then I walked silently through the trailer, taking care to avoid every creaky spot in the floor, and eased the door open so I wouldn’t wakeRussell. If I didn’t slip off to school before he woke, he’d make me run errands for him all day. He saw no value in school. After all, my future belonged to him.
I held the screen door so it wouldn’t bang shut. Then I jumped down the stairs and ran over to Allison’s trailer. But when I knocked, she didn’t answer.
I knocked again, feeling a knot of tension form in my belly.
Silence.
I walked over to her window and threw a rock at it, hoping to get her attention. Then another. And another.
Still nothing.
Allison had never left for school without me.
I glanced around and realized her mama’s car was gone. Had something happened? Had her dad finally kicked the bucket?
I went back to the front door and pounded on it until I heard a groan inside. That was it. I grabbed the spare key from underneath the mat and unlocked the door, rushing in to see Brent, Allison’s dad, in his usual spot: sprawled out in his recliner, surrounded by empty gin bottles.
“Where’s Allison?” I asked, grabbing his shirt and shaking him before I realized what I was doing.
“Gone,” he mumbled before letting out another groan.
Gone.
My entire world stopped.
