Page 11 of Paper Ghosts

“Don’t ask the feather, ask the wind.” He took one more puff from his cigarette and tossed it to the ground. “I’m usually pretty good at going with the flow. But I’m staying in a damp basement bedroom and giving lessons to teenage boys who dream about being in a band with all the booze and girls they want, but who don’t give a fuck about the music. And I lie awake at night thinking about a beautiful girl I just met whose grandmother has made her believe that she can only exist here, that she will vanish like magic if she steps outside of this place, so she’s too afraid to leave. And I can’t stay.” He shifted his weight to stub out the cigarette still smoldering at his feet. “So I actually agree with you, Wills. We both would have been better off if I hadn’t come here.”

She thought he was turning to leave her. And in a moment of sheer desperation, she dropped her hat and grabbed his denim shirt, pulling him into a kiss. Surprised, he put one hand to the brick wall beside her head to keep from falling forward.

She’d kissed Terrence before, but it was nothing like this. Nothing was ever going to be like this, the pull of him, as if he had his own gravity. He slowly drew back.

Suddenly there was a burst of light to the side, like maybe someone had opened the gymnasium door for a second, causing a flash from the strobe lights. They jerked away from each other, startled, but no one was there, only the sound of quickly retreating steps.

“I should go,” he said, but didn’t move.

“I was good at going with the flow, too,” she whispered. “Then I met you. You’re not the flow, which is why you scare me so much.”

“That’s the opposite of going with the flow, Wills. That’s resisting it.”

“Okay, then. Meet me in the east pasture of the Holloway farm tomorrow night.” She couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth.

He smiled, and then he kissed her again quickly, but deeper this time.

“You’re going to be the death of me, Wills Wester,” he said as he backed away, watching her with such passionate intensity that it made her breath hitch. Then he finally turned and disappeared.

CHAPTER FIVE

Wills pulled Dorothy out of the line to greet the preacher at the door after church the next morning. Jani’s family had stopped attending long ago. “I need to borrow her for a minute. School stuff,” she said to Dorothy’s family—her dad with his straight brows, her very thin mom, and her three gigantic brothers.

“What school stuff?” Dorothy asked as they walked outside.

Wills led her to the street corner, trying to seem casual about it. The street to the left was a dead zone, and as soon as they stepped onto it, Wills stopped. Gram always got through the line quickly, because the parishioners ahead of her never wanted her angry with them for making her wait. So this had to be done fast. “Will you cover for me if I say I’m spending the night with you tonight? Your parents are leaving after church for that convention this week, right? So Gram wouldn’t be able to check with them. And I don’t want Jani to know, either.”

“What are you up to?” Dorothy asked with a smile.

Wills didn’t smile back. She had a lot to lose if her grandmother found out and turned on her. No home. No money. She knew the sacrifices she had to make, but one night wasn’t too much to ask, was it? One night of secret freedom. “I’m meeting Jack.”

“Wills, no,” Dorothy said immediately. “Don’t do it.”

“I have to. If I don’t, I’ll go dead inside.” She took Dorothy’s hands in hers, imploring. “Wouldn’t you take the chance, if you knew it was the only chance you’d ever have?”

Dorothy stepped back and swatted at a bug flying too near her, attracted to the sweet scent of her hair spray. “Dean is my chance,” she said defensively.

“That’s not what I’m talking about.”

“I know what you’re talking about. It may not be passionate, but Dean is my only way out of here and away from my family.”

That surprised Wills. This was the first she’d ever heard of Dorothy being unhappy with her family. They’d always come across as absurdly close-knit, the way farm families tended to be. “I thought you were marrying Dean because you weren’t going to inherit your family’s place because of your brothers. Otherwise, you’d stay.”

Dorothy rolled her eyes. “Oh, I’m not inheriting the family farm. That’s true. But it’s not because of my brothers.”

“What’s going on?”

Dorothy hesitated. “Don’t tell anyone this. Especially not your grandmother.”

“Okay,” Wills said slowly. “But I can’t guarantee she doesn’t already know.”

“No one knows, not even my dad,” Dorothy said. “My mom told me last year that she was leaving him as soon as I graduated. She said I should find someone to marry quick, because there was no way my dad would let me stay after she left, and I couldn’t go with her.”

Everyone could see that Dorothy’s mother was a shell. She gave everything of herself and got nothing in return, but she was told to be grateful, because wasn’t it so easy, simply being a housewife and mother? Wills was impressed by her bravery at leaving all she knew at her age, no money or skills, no safety net. But Wills didn’t get why she wouldn’t take Dorothy with her if she thought her dad was going to kick her out. Or why he would blame Dorothy, anyway. “I don’t understand.”

“You don’t have to understand. It doesn’t matter. When I marry Dean, we’ll move to Georgia and I won’t have to worry about it anymore.” Before Wills could ask more questions, Dorothy said, “Of course I’ll cover for you. That’s what friends do. But only if you’re sure.”

“I’ve never been so sure.”