Page 3 of Something Like Summer
Ben was used to this littleritual taking place in the evening. Being in broad daylight wasmaking him nervous. He worried that he would stand out too muchjust walking down the road without any clear purpose. Ben wished hehad… What? A clipboard or something? He could at least be outwalking his dog.
Ben cursed himselfmentally. Wilford! He could have been walking his dog all thosenights he had oh-so casually passed by Mr. Blue Shoes. Magazinesalways claimed that dogs were good ice breakers. Maybe Mr. BlueShoes was an animal lover. He probably was and would have stoppedto pet months ago. Was it too late to start bringing the dog withhim?
The rumbling of the lawnmower was close now but Ben didn’t dare look. What was he thinking?This was too obvious! He kept his eyes instead on the row of housesto the right and pretended to seek a specific address.I belong here, I belong here,he kept repeating in his head.Nothing odd about me being here, pay no attention.
The lawn mower buzzed tohis left, then faded behind him as Ben kept walking. A riskedglance over his shoulder revealed Mr. Blue Shoe’s sweaty backturning to continue mowing in his direction. Ben whipped his headaround, hopefully without being noticed, and increased his pace.God, how he prayed that Allison had actually driven home and notturned the car around to watch him. Otherwise this pointlessexercise would be humiliating. She expected that Ben was being allsuave and chatting up a hot guy when in fact he could barely bringhimself to look at him.
At least it was over now.Ben reached the corner of the street and turned, hearing a femalevoice yell something unintelligible. The sound of the lawn mowerdied and the voice repeated itself. “Tim, telephone!” Ben daredanother glace back and saw Mr. Blue Shoes heading for the frontdoor as a woman held out a cordless phone for him.
Once the coast was clear,Ben took off running down the street, laughing. Not only did he nowknow where he lived, but now he knew his name!
* * * * *
Allison was all grins asshe tossed the shopping bag at him from across her waterbed whereshe sat. “Well? What happened?”
“His name is Tim.” Benflopped down on the bed, creating waves that sent them bothbouncing up and down.
“That’s a good start. Sowhat did you say?”
“Well…”
Allison’s face dropped.“Youdidtalk tohim, didn’t you?”
“The lawnmower wasrunning. What was I supposed to do, flag him down just to say hi?Besides, his mom came out of the house too.”
“So you hung around andeavesdropped?” Allison snorted. “I’d call you pathetic if Iwouldn’t have done the same thing.”
Ben smiled and reachedacross to the headboard shelf where she kept her CDs in vinylwallets. He chose one randomly and began flipping through. “So whatdo you think I should do?”
“I dunno. You’ll have toinvent an excuse to talk to him.” Allison hoisted a sarcasticeyebrow. “Maybe go to his door and say you are selling Girl Scoutcookies.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Benreplied. “Hm. I could always say that my cat’s gonemissing.”
“Sure, except you don’thave a cat and what would it be doing inside his houseanyway?”
Ben tossed the CD walletaside and flopped on to his back with a groan. “There has to besomething.”
“Well, there’s school intwo weeks. Maybe he’ll end up in one of your classes.”
“Two weeks?I don’t want to wait that long!”
“You’ll live.” Allisonglanced at the digital display of her alarm clock. “Dad’s home inten minutes. Want to head back out and find thoseshirts?”
The two sentences weren’tunrelated. Allison’s father hated him. The feeling was mutual, butBen dreaded there ever being a confrontation. The man was woundtighter than a spring, the bulging veins on his neck and templesbeating out a warning every time he caught Ben visiting. He neverspoke to Ben, even when greeted politely. In fact the only thing hehad ever said to Ben was “cracker faggot” as he was leaving thehouse one day.
“Shopping it is,” Ben saidwith an uneasy glance at the clock. “But let’s go to the mall thistime. There’s more people there.”
“Just in case?” Allisonasked.
“Just in case.”
__________
Chapter 2
There were only two daysleft before school started and Ben hadn’t caught sight of Tim once,despite having walked by his house almost twice a day. In hisrecent attempts, he made sure to use Wilford as camouflage. He wassimply walking his dog, just like any other chump in the world.This had made Wilford very happy but hadn’t done anything for Benexcept increase his sense of frustration. He blamed the ungodly hotAugust weather that had everyone closing their blinds and crankingup the ACs.
Narrowing down wheresomeone might go jogging was especially difficult in The Woodlands.Countless paved bike paths ran through the entire town, most ofthem winding around the plentiful number of trees that hid awaybuilding facades. Biking across the city without seeing anythingmore than woods was completely possible. Tim might have stuck tothe same path between his house and the small lake when he firstmoved here, but now he was probably exploring in differentdirections. Even so, Ben began worrying that Tim was only in Texasvisiting family for the summer and had already gone back towherever he came from.
