Year of the Guilty Soul by A.M. Leibowitz

Author:A.M. Leibowitz [Leibowitz, A.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-08-20T22:00:00+00:00

July

This is my favorite time of year—high summer, far enough from either end of the school year to almost forget about it for a moment. There’s a traveling carnival in Cari’s part of town, and we all make plans to go for my birthday. It’s only a few streets over from her house, so we walk there. Even Gwen comes along. She’s seeing a new guy, Mark, and she brings him with her. He’s older than we are, almost nineteen, and just back from his freshman year of college. I guess he used to go to our church, but I barely remember him. He was a senior when I was a freshman, and we didn’t hang out much.

It’s different between them than it usually is with Gwen. More serious. They’re not all over each other the way she sometimes is with the boys she brings to church. They hold hands while we walk up the crowded street.

Noah doesn’t say anything, but I can tell he doesn’t like Mark. Aside from jealousy, there’s no good reason for it. Mark’s about the most polite person I’ve ever met—soft-spoken, not a harsh word about anything. He’s the kind of guy I’d bring home to meet Gran and Gramps. A little old-fashioned, I guess, but the type adults praise for having good manners. Gran would call him a “fine young man.” Come to think of it, he doesn’t seem at all like Gwen’s usual boyfriends.

Whatever it is, he rubs Noah the wrong way, and it’s making our time at the carnival strained. I ignore Noah’s pouting and concentrate my attention on Hannah, Cari, and Elliot. There are only a couple of tame rides, which we try out. The rest of the time, we browse the booths and watch people trying to win at the games.

There’s a guy in one of the booths who yells out to us. He winks, making Cari scowl and Hannah giggle. He’s pretty cute, and Hannah forces us to walk past him a bunch of times so she can stare at him. I don’t know how I feel about the way he licks his lips and calls us babes.

The sky is darkening, and the carnival is going to close for the night soon. We stop at one of the food vans and buy french fries in cups, eating them on the way back to Cari’s house and licking the salt and grease from our fingers.

Gwen says Mark’s going to take her home, and they leave. The rest of us aren’t ready for the night to be over yet. Hannah and Cari are both seventeen and legal to drive after ten, so Noah suggests we all go down to the beach. We pile into their two cars and hit the road with the windows down.

The main part of the beach closes at eleven in the summer, but that’s not where we head. We go around to the more secluded side of the lake. There are signs posted saying, “No Lifeguards” and “Swim at Your Own Risk.

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