5Chapter 12: The Prettiest Person Ever
I'm sitting on the front porch with some ice cold coke and watching how blank the world looks where I'm sitting. The sun is so hot that the grass on the front of Jackson's lawn is like that crunchy stuff people put in baskets for decoration. Even the ants crawling around the porch are practically screaming.
I can hear Jim and Jackson every once in a while, there'll be a big loud laugh that I know is Jim's, and Jackson will hack up his own too.
I decide to lay down on the porch swing and wait out this heat. I sink into the hard wood of it, and prop my legs over the arm rest. The sway of it makes me feel calm.
I jerk up so hard I almost launch out of the swing when I feel like eyes are on me. When I see the face of Jonah my entire body feels like ice from the shock.
"Jesus Christ kid. Warn me, shuffle around, make a noise, but don't do that anymore." I swing my legs off of the arm rest and they clunk onto the porch knocking the coke over and spilling out a brown hissing puddle.
Jonah stares at it for a second, and gulps, looking at me after I kick the can off the porch and decide not to run around trying to clean it up.
"Well…" I look at his face, redder and redder every second, until he scratches his neck almost raw trying not to look at me.
"OK, I'll start, how is your Mom, how's everything?" I sink down more into the chair and kick my feet over the railing, my butt is almost hanging off the seat. I tap the empty side of the swing and tell him to sit.
He does, but he's so straight a two-by-four-up the ass couldn't make him any stiffer. For such a happy kid, I feel like he's been abducted by aliens and they left me this freak.
He has a scratchy voice, and pink cheeks, "Uhm, my Ma's good. She misses you. I wanted to ask you something, but you're gonna think I'm wierder." His voice makes me snap my eyes back to him.
"Too late. What's up?" I feel myself start to slip off the swing, and pull myself back a little more before he starts.
"Well, I said I-my brother-I uh, I said you-" He gulps so hard I hear it, and his ears go red, "My brother Caleb is back from his job in Alabama, and I told him about you, and I said you were my friend, and that you were the prettiest person I ever saw, and he said-" Jonah's talking so fast I can barely make anything out, "that if you were so pretty then you wouldn't talk to me. I said you would, and he said good, I'll have to see it before I believe you." He gasps for air, and doesn't look in my direction, waiting for my response.
I let it all process for a second, " I'm not the prettiest person around here Jonah. That's first. And why don't you just tell your brother to shove it? Anyone would talk to you, you're a nice kid. Why don't you tell him he should take a look in the mirror first and then think about how many girls talked to his hick butt." I realize after about a minute that maybe I'm being too adult with Jonah, and he's only twelve. I forget sometimes, because of how well he can read me with certain things.
But when I turn to look at him, he's got this huge smile on his goofy face, and his full golden tan is back in all it's glory. He latches onto me in a tight hug, "You're so cool Danny!" He squeezes me a little harder, and then almost catapults himself off the porch in a run.
By the time I even allow myself to raise an eyebrow in question he's a little blonde blob, and I hear Jim walking in through the back door of the house.
The quick snap of the screen door gave him away, so I know he's got to be in here.
We play this game so much-scaring the shit out of each other. He's bad at it because he's so loud in his boots, but I know exactly how to creep behind him.
I go into the kitchen, the only sound in the house is the click of the fan as it makes each round. I try to strain my ears for his breathing. I walk to the other arch and let my head snake around the side to see him in the front room. Where the fuck is he?
That's when I feel a white-hot jolt of fear as a hand runs down the side of my arm, freezing me in place.
My breath stops, and I feel my heart hammer in my chest like it wants to cry. Oh my God.
The jolt of fear is so intense that I cannot remember my limbs. I don't move fast enough. I feel something razor-like in it's sharpness punch into my neck, and I flinch hard. I hear him breathing, a deep and rusty sound. That same ghosting hand.
I hear my throat trying to form words, but my tongue is thick, and my eyes are shut. Then my knees bend and I'm gone.