Chase ignored her at first, simply staring at his sugary stash meant to ward off hunger. Then before he could stop his big mouth from talking, he asked, “Why do you have so much candy?”
“Birthday party,” she said, mouth stuffed with chocolate. “A girl in my class brought them in to share with everyone. Don’t they do that at your school? At my old school, I brought in cupcakes for my class. My mom and I baked them together.” She touched her necklace. “I also got this for my birthday.”
He didn’t care about her stupid necklace. Now was his chance to make her jealous. “I don’t go to school,” he said smugly. “My mom teaches me when the mood strikes her. Or I teach myself sometimes. Real useful stuff too.”
She frowned. “Don’t you ever get bored?”
“No.” It was a lie. Sometimes the boredom drove him crazy. Still, it wasn’t that bad, because hedidget to sneak time in to improve his carving skills, whenever his mother left him alone to learn math and all the other subjects he hated. Other times, Chase was too busy hanging out and driving across states with his grandfather, learning the important things he needed to know. Gramps had even said one day Chase would be the one in charge of AR and everyone in Lee’s Fortress would respect and depend on him to help preserve their strong Confederate heritage. He was looking forward to that day when everyone would listen to him.
As for now, Larke seemed satisfied with his answer and had somehow managed to keep her mouth shut for a couple of minutes. Chase rubbed his hand along the sleeve of his shirt. The temperature had begun to drop. He wondered if that was her reason for not talking anymore. Not that he minded. Wasn’t like he was getting used to her yapping, or anything foolish like that.
He watched her reach into her wonder bag again. This time she pulled out a yellow sweater that he guessed belonged to her mom because it was much too big and long for her. The sweater was definitely for someone older than a... It suddenly hit him he had no idea how old she was, only that she had to be younger than him. Didn’t matter, he reminded himself. He hadn’t asked or planned on asking for her age.
Instead of putting on the sweater as he’d expected her to, Larke threw it over her chest and held out one side. She was silently inviting him underneath it. Chase hesitated for all but a second before grabbing a hold of the sweater and scooting closer while pulling his section up to his neck. Maybe if he was braver and tougher he would’ve turned down her offer, but freezing didn’t seem like it would prove anything at all. So he held himself as still as possible, trying not to accidentally brush up against her. When that proved impossible, mainly because of her constant fidgeting, he lowered his head, determined at least to not make eye contact with her.
Some time later, they pushed the sweater away to stand and call out into the night, hoping that whoever was out there searching for them might be close enough to hear. When that failed and their cries were met by the hooting of an owl and the distance grunt of deer deep inside the woods, both sank back to the ground with their knees drawn up, huddled beneath the big sweater.
“I hope it doesn’t rain,” she said, worried.
“Me too.”
His honesty must have awakened the chatter bug inside her because soon she was starting up again. In no time at all Chase had learned that Larke and her mother had recently moved to North Carolina from Missouri after her parent’s divorce. Even worse, when she’d asked him about his family, he hadn’t hesitated to tell her all about them, including his father who had died in a car crash on his way home late one night.
There was a long stretch of silence before Larke finally said anything to him again. “Now I know why you said those mean things and tried to…” She let the sentence hang and Chase was glad. Because if she tried to make him feel guilty he’d more than likely end up saying other things shedefinitelywouldn’t want to hear. Like how one day life would go back to the way it used to be, when people like her would stay in their own neighborhoods and everything would be separated again. Gramps said since people didn’t like hearing talks of slavery and because it made neo-Confederates look bad if they discussed it as a positive thing, that it was best if they focused on bringing back segregation. In time, they’d also deal with all those immigrants coming in to destroy the white race. Chase wasn’t sure he believed any of those would ever happen, but his family and everyone else around him sure did, including the wealthy people who sometimes gave money to AR.
As the night wore on and continued to get colder and scarier, deep in the back of his mind, was also the worry of that wild boar he’d been after. What if the animal came running through the edge of the woods and fell into the sinkhole with them? He knew it was probably a stupid concern, but still, it was there. Along with the damn rainstorm. For a second he thought about sharing his worry with Larke, but decided against it. The last thing he wanted was for her start acting stupid and get all panicky about something that wasn’t going to happen anyway.
But she didn’t panic once since we’ve been down here.
Chase ignored the voice in his head, the one that was trying to make it seem as if he doing something good by not giving her another reason to worry.
“Do you want to hear a story?”
No.He shrugged. “Why ask? You’ll still keep talking even if I say no.”
He thought he heard her laugh. He wasn’t sure. Didn’t care. On second thought, maybe her storywouldbe a step above listening to the annoying chirping of crickets and all sorts of critters occupying the woods.
“A hedgehog and a firefly lived in the same building. Every single day they saw each other but never ever talked…”
The last thing Chase remembered was the sound of Larke yawning as she finished her childish story. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he realized they’d both fallen asleep. Also, it wasn’t as dark as before. The other thing he noticed was the weight on his shoulder. His first instinct was to push her away, uncaring if she hit her head in the process. But he didn’t. Since being trapped down here, somehow it no longer seemed to make much of a difference that he hated or wassupposedto hate the girl next to him. They had bigger things to worry about.
Like the loud clap of thunder and the fat drops of rain hitting their cold skin, that caused Larke to suddenly wake up screaming. Bolting upright, Chase turned to face her. Their gazes locked and held. Larke’s eyes were huge and wide with fear. He wondered if she could see the same in his, despite trying so hard to remain brave.
“It might not last long. Sometimes we get these five minutes rain,” he said, unsure if he was trying to make Larke or himself feel better.
It wasn’t a five-minute rain shower. A flash of lightning split the early morning sky, in a violent display of might. The clouds ripped open, pelting them with drop after drop of torrential rain. In unison, they both began shouting, frantic screams as they tested their luck of escaping before the water piled in, filling the sinkhole. Not a single sound came back except for the violent downpour pounding the dirt.
Soaking wet, with the rain coursing down their faces, they stared at each other. Larke was crying, her shoulders jerking up and down. “I don’t want to die in here, Chase. I want my mom. I just want to be home with my mom.”
He wanted to cry too. Chase looked down, wondering how long it would take for the hole to completely fill with water if it was already on his knees. He raised his head, numb and unsure if he was crying or not. His mind became a tangled mess. For some reason, he was thinking about that dead chink reporter again. His death had happened so fast. The man hadn’t really…suffered. He and Larke, though… They were so young. And drowning would mean a whole lot of suffering. Painful and slow, he imagined. His heartbeat thumped inside his chest as he inched closer to Larke. Chase stretched out his hand, reaching for hers. She was gazing up at him, her lips trembling as she continued to cry. His eyes burned the moment his fingers brushed lightly against Larke’s. He opened his mouth to lie, assure her that drowning happened quickly. He never had the chance.
A booming voice from above called out to them. “Hey, is anyone down there?” A bright light beamed into the hole. Chase jumped away from Larke. Peering down at them was a man with a thick beard, wearing a silver badge.
“Jesus Christ,” the man muttered, shaking his head. “Don’t worry kids. I’ll be back in a second.” Behind him, a woman could be heard asking the sheriff if he wanted the rope.
From that point on, everything else happened in a whirlwind. After the sheriff and his officer freed them from the sinkhole, still shivering and dripping wet, Chase watched as Larke, also shivering and soaked, slowly reached around her neck and unclasped her necklace. She held out her trembling hand. “I want you to have this.”
He gaped at her, knowing fully well they were being watched. The sheriff knew who he was because moments ago the man had asked him if he was Joseph Butler’s grandson.
Chase shook his head. ‘I don’t want it.”
“Maybe you will,” she insisted. “I go to Heron Glades Elementary School. Miss Allen’s fourth-grade class. Keep it and let me know when we can be friends, okay?”
Because he didn’t want to embarrass her in front of the sheriff and the policewoman, Chase took the necklace and shoved it into the pocket of his soaking wet jeans. He gave her a fleeting glance as the policewoman helped her into the car. Steeling himself for whatever was to come, Chase turned to the sheriff, pushing Larke from his mind. What she was obviously still too stupid to understand was, the day of ‘friendship’ she was hoping for would never come. What happened to them—being so close together, along with his decision to reach for her hand in what he’d assume was one of their final moments—was a mistake. An abomination, a word he’d recently learned from his Bible studies. A big one, that he would never, could never let his family find out about. As far as he knew, he’d been trapped inside that sinkhole all by himself.
