Free A Busted Afternoon by Pepper Espinoza Page B

a graceful way to introduce the
topic. Or even explain why he was still thinking about it.
    “What do you think you’ll do in California?” Sammy asked.
    “I don’t know. I want to see the beach.”
    “That’s your big plan? You’re dragging us all the way out to California to see the beach?”
    “I’ve never seen it before. Have you?”
    Sammy paused a beat. “No. Not too many of those in Wyoming.”
    “My point exactly.”
    “But you’ve got to have a plan after that. A guy like you.”
    Ed dropped his head back and stared up at
the ceiling. It was covered in unknown stains. He was pretty sure that
a Coke can left out in his car was the source of most of the stains. He
wanted to believe that it was a simple accident, and not his brother
trying to destroy the one thing Ed owned in the world. He wanted to
believe that, but he didn’t.
    “A guy like me? What sort of guy am I?”
    “Quiet. Bookish. You know.”
    “A nerd?”
    “I never said that.”
    “I think it’s what you were implying.”
    “Maybe, but I always liked that about you.”
    “Really? Until two days ago, I didn’t even think you knew I existed.”
    “I knew.” Sammy pulled at his shirt,
separating the wet material from his skin. “We did have just about
every class together in high school, after all.”
    “Yeah, but we never saw each other outside of class.”
    “Yeah, we did.”
    Ed tilted his head. “When?”
    “When you came up and worked for my dad
last summer. That’s when I noticed you weren’t exactly the nerd I
thought you were. You did a pretty good job of lifting those bales of
hay.”
    Something sizzled down Ed’s spine—it
might have been pleasure. A secret, low sort of pleasure. Sammy had
noticed him working in the barn? Had Sammy stared at him? No, probably
not. That seemed like just a little too much to hope for. On the other
hand, Ed had spent so much time watching Sammy, he was surprised he
hadn’t noticed the other boy looking at him.
    “I was motivated.”
    “That’s my point. You did all that work, and you don’t have a plan for California?”
    Ed snorted. “It’s not very responsible of me, is it?”
    Light and shadows played on Sammy’s face,
reflecting off the rain on the windows, constantly changing shapes. A
sudden, violent burst of water momentarily overwhelmed their
conversation, and the two of them were trapped in a strange silence. He
could smell Sammy’s skin, and his drying hair, and his damp shirt. They
were much too close, physically, to be having any sort of reasonable
conversation. Despite the long hours they had already spent sitting
side by side, they hadn’t been this close. Perhaps because Ed had been
focusing on the road before.
    “Was it really that bad?”
    The question was asked with such obvious
concern, such solemnity, that Ed couldn’t be sure he heard it at all.
He understood what Sammy meant. He just couldn’t believe Sammy knew to
ask. Especially since Ed had always partly believed that Sammy lived in
a different world, one far removed from Ed’s. Their worlds intersected
in a few places, and at a few times, but ultimately their paths were
divergent.
    Except, Sammy had apparently not been
given that memo. Sammy had apparently noticed Ed, even when Ed wanted
nothing more than to be invisible.
    “It was. I had a scholarship to the
University of Wyoming. It covered tuition, but not room and board. And
I know it’s not the greatest school in the world, but it was something.
Enough to keep me from being drafted.”
    “What happened?”
    “My old man wouldn’t help. I couldn’t delay the scholarship for a year. So I lost it and now…”
    “Yeah. Right. And now…”
    “I’ll go when they call me,” Ed quickly
added. “Of course, I will. But before I do, I want to see the beach. I
want to be somewhere other than Wyoming. I want to live a little bit.”
    “Me, too.”
    A new silence, deafening like the roar of
the storm outside. Fat drops of water landed on the