Free A Sudden Silence by Eve Bunting Page A

like blood and I could see it beginning to soak through the pale blue cotton already. My stomach got that fast, empty feeling. My stomach's always the first thing to go anyway. I concentrated on Chloe. "I thought it was you in the middle of the mob. I thought they'd pulled off your top. I was trying to get in. I'd have killed them, I swear." I stopped, aware of what I'd been saying and how ferociously I'd been saying it. "Do you think you can stand if I help you?"
    She pulled herself up, holding onto my arm. "You thought I was in there? And you tried to save me? Oh, Jesse!" Her face had that tender, angelic look again. But this time it was for me. It made me feel strange. That was her Bry look.
    "It might be better if I carried you," I said.
    She had a big, white canvas purse that banged against me as I lifted her. "What about your other things? Didn't you have a chair?"
    "Forget everything. Let's just get out of here."
    The parking lot was a milling mass of people and police and smoke. I staggered up through the soft sand. Guys carry girls easily on TV and in the movies. They must fake it. This wasn't easy at all. Chloe was heavy. My arms got tired and she'd slip lower and lower and I'd have to keep hiking her up. "I'll hop. Just put me down," she said about a million times. I puffed and blew like a big, old whale.
    At the far edge of the parking lot I circled round the back. Once I glanced down at her foot and wished I hadn't. Black smoke drifted lazily around us but down closer to the beach it was thick and dense, billowing into the blue of the sky, hiding the palm trees and the roof of the restrooms.
    "How could something like this happen?" Chloe asked. "It was going so well. Everybody was having such a good time."
    "Who knows? Some loonies. That's all it takes." Never in all my life had I been so glad to see Dads car. "Can you stand for a second, Chloe? Hold onto the roof."
    I found the keys, unlocked the door, helped her to get in. The outside of the car was coated with a fine, gray ash and the inside was blistering. The seat must have been killer hot when she slid onto it, but she didn't say anything. I gunned the motor and backed out.
    "Hang in there," I said.
    "Will my car be all right?" she asked.
    I looked across at her tight, hurting face and down to where the bloodsoaked T-shirt rested on the black rubber mat. "Let's worry about you now and your car later," I said. "And what happened to the people you were with anyway? Why didn't they stay with you?"
    "They ran up to see what was going on. I told them not to, and I sat in my chair like a good little girl." She fingered wearily through her hair. "And then some firecrackers jumped in my direction. I got up, and I didn't see the glass."
    Traffic was jammed at the exit and I had to stop.
    "Was he here, Jesse?" Chloe asked.
    "Who?"
    "The guy in the black jacket. I figured he's the one you came to look for. I figured otherwise you'd never have come."
    "Right." I edged the car in front of a van that almost took my ear
off
with the blast from its air horn. I'd forgotten about the guy in the black jacket. I'd carried Chloe through the sand and it hadn't been easy, but every second I'd been conscious of her hair against my cheek, of the feel of her skin, of the way I could see the pale swelling where the top of her swimsuit had moved. In all of that I'd forgotten him. And I'd forgotten Bry.
    "I don't think he was there," I said at last.
    "I don't think so either. Jim had binocs. I kept checking people out. I saw you," she added, "on the pier."
    I had a sudden flash of Chloe watching me while I watched her. Crazy!
    "I hope you didn't have to abandon the girl you were with because of me," she said, in a cool, casual way.
    "No. I wasn't really with her. We met by accident." But I
had
abandoned Debbie. I'd told her I'd be back and I'd forgotten her, too.
    Chloe shifted and groaned. More than anything I wanted to take her hand and comfort her. But I couldn't. At least we were