The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys by Scott William Carter

Author:Scott William Carter [Carter, Scott William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781416971566
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2010-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

chapter eleven

Anju hung out in our room another hour, just shooting the breeze about important stuff like why Coke was better than Pepsi and whether Vin Diesel could really act, and by then I was so wired that I couldn’t settle my mind down. I lay there in the dark, listening to the occasional truck rumble by on the road, a few hotel doors opening and closing, some footsteps passing by on the sidewalk outside, but mostly silence. Jake didn’t have any problems, though. Ten minutes after turning out the light, I heard his breathing become deep and regular. When you’re sleeping in the same room as someone who’s sleeping, and you can’t sleep, it makes you angry that that they’re able to sleep when you’re not. Which, of course, only makes it harder to fall asleep.

Jake finally rolled out of bed a little after nine in morning—I had been watching a Little House on the Prairie marathon with the volume muted, while working on Dad’s portrait—and we got cleaned up and headed next door. My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton balls, and the back of my eyelids felt as sticky as flypaper. Anju was just finished packing her little tan suitcase. Steam hung in the air from her shower, and her hair, loose instead of in a ponytail, still looked slick. She wore a white sleeveless T-shirt and blue jeans rolled up at the hems. The dark circles under her eyes made me wonder if she’d slept either.

About ten o’clock, we’d managed to check out of the hotel and pile into her silver Honda Accord, me in the back, and head east on Highway 20. The sky was a dirty gray with strange circular cloud streaks that made me think of a manhole cover. The inside of the car smelled strongly of cigarettes.

“I don’t smoke,” she said, as if she was expecting us to ask. “I just bought this from a guy who smoked, that’s why it smells.”

“Smoking should be banned everywhere,” Jake said. “Nasty habit.”

I wondered if Jake even had to put out any effort to lie, or whether it was something that happened automatically for him, like sneezing. I was tired of letting him get away with it all the time.

“That’s funny,” I said. “I kind of remember you having some cigarettes just yesterday.”

Anju laughed. I expected Jake to get angry, but he just shrugged.

“I was just smoking so you’d feel comfortable,” he said.

“I don’t smoke, Jake.”

“Oh sure, I know. Still.”

I wasn’t quite ready to let it go. “Still what?”

“Oh. You know. You have this certain image of me. I just didn’t want to, you know, change your image of me. When so much other stuff was happening. Thought it would be easier. Enough change as it was. Give you something to count on. The old Jake, still the same.”

I wanted to keep nailing him to the wall, but then we might have to explain to Anju the real purpose of our trip, plus maybe the whole Leo incident, and I didn’t want to do that.

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