American Falls by Barry Gifford

Author:Barry Gifford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Published: 2010-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

Cherry and Billy made love this way for several months until one night his parents returned earlier than expected, heard unusual noises coming from Billy’s room and discovered them. Neither Cherry nor Billy said anything to the Celines. She got up, got dressed, left the house and never came back. Billy refused to talk about it, despite threats of punishment by Amos and Dorothy. Matthew wanted to know why Cherry didn’t come to the house anymore. His parents just told him that she was too busy with her schoolwork to babysit or visit.

Billy became a stranger to the other members of his family. He went to school as usual but both his teachers and his friends felt that he was almost a different person—distant, uncommunicative. Nobody, other than his parents, knew about the situation with Cherry Layne. Amos and Dorothy decided not to talk to Norman and Gretchen Layne about it after Billy threatened to kill both them and himself if they did. The Celines told Billy they would honor his request if he agreed never to see Cherry Layne again. They chose to interpret his silence as assent.

Billy and Cherry, however, met as often as possible, their rendezvous occuring most frequently in the woods that surrounded the town. They were careful never to be seen together. After Cherry had graduated from high school she surprised and dismayed her parents by turning down scholarship offers from several prestigious universities, enrolling instead at the local college. Unbeknownst to Gretchen and Norman, of course, was that remaining close to Billy Celine was her main reason for doing so.

On the evening of her 22nd birthday, Cherry told Billy that she thought that she was pregnant. Her parents had presented her with a new red Saturn automobile that afternoon and they talked as they cruised the less traveled roads through the forest.

“We’ll need money,” said Cherry. “I’ve got a little.”

“I’ll get some more,” Billy promised.

“How?” Cherry asked.

“I’m the man,” he said. “Let me worry about it.”

The couple agreed to meet the following day at noon, each of them bringing only what they considered items indispensible to their flight. Neither of them were to leave a farewell note to their respective parents or friends.

Four days later the following item appeared in newspapers across the country:FUGITIVE YOUTH KILLS SELF, BABYSITTER IN CHASE

Nacogdoches, Texas—A 14-year-old boy fled from Crowley, Louisiana, to Texas with his former babysitter, then killed her and himself during a police chase, authorities said yesterday.

William Celine and Cherry Layne, 22, held up the Moor Hotel in Sheik, Louisiana, where they had spent the previous night posing as sister and brother. They robbed the desk clerk at gunpoint and fled in a red car, police said.

Texas Highway Patrolmen were attempting to stop the car when Celine opened fire on them. Celine then shot Layne in the head before turning the gun on himself, authorities said. The weapon was registered in Louisiana to the boy’s father. Their car crashed into a light pole. An autopsy showed that Layne, who was driving, died instantly.

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