Free Take Me There by Carolee Dean Page B

drive?”
    “Maybe I should,” I say, getting back inside the car on the passenger side.
    “Looks like we’ve landed on another planet,” he tells me as he puts Baby Face back inside the car and sits behind the wheel.
    “We have,” I reply. “This is Texas.”

18
    I PARKED ON H ERMOSA A VENUE AND MET J ESS AT THE PIER . I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but we started walking and talking and pretty soon I was buying her and me and Baby Face chili dogs from a beachside vendor.
    “My dad used to be a beach vendor,” she said as we walked along the Strand eating our hot dogs. “He had a T-shirt truck, and he’d park it by the pier down in Newport Beach.”
    “Is that how he made his millions?”
    “Yes, as a matter of fact.”
    “You pulling my leg?”
    “Think about how many people buy T-shirts,” she said, giving me a sideways smile. She had a spot of mustard on her chin. I wanted to reach over and wipe it off, just for the excuse to touch her face, but I didn’t. “I mean, he had to move up,” she explained. “But it all started out of the back end of a truck. His dream was to get us out of our little apartment and buy my mother a beach house. Before long he was renting a booth in a mall in L.A. and we were moving to north Downey. Thenmy mom started selling real estate. Dad finally saved enough money to get a storefront on Hollywood Boulevard.”
    She was talking a mile a minute and I was glad, because I couldn’t think very clearly. Didn’t want to say something stupid. She was walking a little ways ahead of me, backward, like she was leading me somewhere. Her skirt was blowing in the wind coming off the water, so she looked like she was floating. Watching her move was hypnotizing. “But you ended up here, so it was worth it,” I said.
    “Yeah, sure,” she said, like she wasn’t sure at all. Then she got real quiet and looked out at the water.
    We kept walking until the sun started to set. I figured I should be heading back to my car before I wore out my welcome, but all of a sudden Jess stopped and said, “This is my place.”
    “This?” I looked up at a house not eight feet from the short fence separating it from the beach. I couldn’t believe it. She had a place right on the Strand. It didn’t have much of a yard, but then she didn’t really need one. It was narrow and tall. All the houses there were. But I knew it had to cost a fortune for its location alone. I had a sudden feeling of panic like I used to get when the cops came around checking IDs at the bar, like I was pretending to be somebody I wasn’t. “Don’t you gotta meet your boyfriend or something?”
    “He’s gone to Big Bear for the holiday.”
    “What about your folks?”
    “My parents are out of town until after the Fourth.”
    My parents are out of town
. Those words coming from a girl would usually sound like music to my ears, but something about the way Jess said it made me feel nervous.
    “Jess, there you are,” a voice said, and Jess’s smile faded as Katie and Alice walked up to us. “Alice and I have been texting you for half an hour. Did you forget about the sale down at Chico’s?”
    “I think I’ll pass,” Jess replied.
    “Come on, Jess. Don’t be like that. You know we’re fundage impaired.”
    “Hey, aren’t you that guy who fixes cars?” Katie asked, looking at my grease-covered work pants as if she couldn’t believe I ever left the garage.
    “Yeah, they let me out every now and then,” I said.
    “Where’s Jason?” Alice asked.
    “Gone for the weekend,” Jess said, lifting her chin in defiance.
    “I see,” Katie said, looking me up and down. “Guess you’ve got a thing for bad boys.”
    “We’re friends,” said Jess. “Not that you would understand what that means.” Jess turned to me, and the look in her eyes was so deep and warm it seemed to melt away all the years between Long Beach and Hermosa. I was twelve years old again, wanting nothing more than to find a way