Irrevocable Acts by Jonnie Hyde

Author:Jonnie Hyde [Hyde, Jonnie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jonnie Hyde
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

They woke early and scrounged their own breakfasts: toast and coffee for Mac, cereal and coffee for Anna, eggs, toast and coffee for Danny. Lethargic from staying up so late the night before, they ate slowly, then leisurely washed and put away their dishes. Anna stepped onto the patio, and with a spark in her heart that had come to feel all too rare, heard herself cheerfully announce that the weather was absolutely perfect: sunny and not too warm. Danny made a second pot of coffee and they moved outside, arranging themselves around the wrought-iron table. Mac rolled a joint, but when the others showed no interest, set it aside.

“Okay, Anna, where do you want to start?” Danny asked.

“God, Danny, you sound like you’re asking me which limb I’m going to amputate first. This doesn’t have to be a horrible experience. I don’t know where I want to start, not exactly.” She turned toward Mac, as if he might have an idea of how to begin.

“Don’t look at me,” he said. “I don’t know where the hell you want to go, so how can I pick the route?”

She squeezed the bridge of her nose between her fingers and closed her eyes for a few moments. “How about when we were kids, just to get our feet wet?”

“How far back?” Danny asked.

Mac rolled his eyes and yawned. “Kindergarten should be safe enough territory. Oops, how childish of me,” he quipped.

“Mac!” said Anna, and Danny gave him a dirty look, but that didn’t stop him from forging ahead. “Middle school? No? Okay, okay, I’ve got it. How about our junior year at Lincoln High, when we sneaked out of our houses in the wee hours and met up at the elementary school?”

Danny smiled. “I supplied the Pall Malls. I cadged three a week from my mom. More when she was distracted during her fights with my dad. I don’t think she ever suspected, but I’ve never been sure. She may have just been indulging me.”

“It’s hard to imagine ever liking cigarettes, Mac said, “but I did then.”

“I have such a clear memory of those nights,” Anna said. “Lying on our backs on the grass, staring up at the sky, talking about how dull our lives were, and how great they were going to be.”

“Remember graduation night?” Mac asked. “We climbed down the bluffs to that isolated little cove in Santa Cruz. It was our first time tripping. We dropped windowpane acid and chased it down with rot-gut Red Mountain wine.”

“It was pitch dark,” Danny said.

“Until you started a driftwood fire,” Anna said. “The flames illuminated flakes of mica in the soil. When I ran my fingers through the sand, I felt like I was dipping my hands into a galaxy and scattering stars.”

Mac nodded. “And when Danny took off running down the beach, it looked like his heels were shooting fire.”

They grew quiet, each, she supposed, thinking of those long-ago nights when their hearts were open and the world was still a place of magic and mystery.

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