“You knew the parents?”
“I knew who they were.Their mom grew up here.She was all right.Sick, you know?Couldn’t ever seem to do anything for herself.I guess today people would say she needed to see a therapist.I saw one once after I hit a girl at school.You know what she told me?The therapist lady?She said if you get real angry, you’re supposed to breathe through your nose.”She demonstrated for them, inhaling deeply through her nostrils, even going so far as to close her eyes.Then she opened them again, beamed, and said, “Calms you right down.”
“What kind of sick?”Jem asked.
“Like I said, couldn’t do anything.Lay in bed all day.Read books.She had so many books you couldn’t walk in there—that’s what Sarah said.”
“What about the dad?”
“Oh, he was something else.He was a veterinarian.”
For a moment, Jem was standing in the barn again.The thick musk.The black bulk of the kennels.
“Is that how Rydel got those scars on his arm?”Tean asked.“An animal?”
“Oh that was a dog.Up and down his arm.Got him bad.”
And then Jem was in that stinking basement, Antony out of his head and trying to bite.He took a deep breath.He breathed through his nose.He fought a wave of laughter that made him feel like he was unraveling.
“You better believe he thought he hit the jackpot when he married her.Once he was living on that ranch, it was like he was the king of England.”The words had a rote quality, and they sounded older, as though Tess had heard them from someone else.A parent, maybe.Or someone in town.“All that money didn’t do him any good, though, did it?He was driving that fancy car way too fast, went off the road, and rolled.Wouldn’t have happened to him if he’d been driving a truck.”
“How long ago was that?”Tean asked.
“I don’t know.Ten, fifteen years.”
“The kids weren’t grown?”
“Oh no.Zeb and Rydel were in high school, I think.Maybe a little younger.”
“How close are they in age?”
“Three or four years.Rydel’s older.Nobody could stand him when we were in school.He wouldn’t talk to anybody.He was always picking at himself.And when hedidtalk, he was so weird.Mean.And Zeb didn’t get big until a lot later.You’d better believe Rydel took advantage ofthat, but you look at him now, and he’s a little guy.Zeb’s the big one.”
It was such a strange comment that it hooked Jem’s attention.“What do you mean, Rydel took advantage of it?”
The light in Tess’s face had everything to do with the lure of good gossip.“Oh, it was terrible.I shouldn’t even tell you.”
“That bad?”
“Honey, Rydel issick.Why do you think he’s running around killing all these homosexuals?”
“I don’t know.Why?”
“He’s just a little guy now,” she said again, “but when they were growing up, he was bigger than Zeb until they were almost done with high school.”
“Did he pick on Zeb?”Tean asked.
“I shouldn’t tell you,” Tess said.“I’m not even supposed to know.He told Kai, because everybody tells Kai everything, and one day, I was asking Kai what Zeb’s tattoo meant.Did you ever see it?”She touched her neck.
“We saw it,” Tean said.“Old things are done away, and all things have become new.”
“Kai and Zeb are real spiritual, you know?Anyway, Kai took him to get it.And when they came back, I asked him, what does it mean?Why’d he get that?I said he should get one of those nice ones that look like a lion or a river or sometimes it can be the lines from a song.”
This apparently deserved a response, because Jem said, “Yeah, those would be better.What did Kai say?”
“He told me all about it.How Zeb had—” For the first time, genuine embarrassment crept into Tess’s voice, and a hint of color rose in her cheeks.Her voice shrank.“He hadthoughts, you know.But it wasn’t his fault.It was because of what Rydel did to him.Rydel put that in his brain.That’s what happens to kids.It’s how they become homosexuals.It was after his dad died, so there wasn’t anybody to make Rydel stop, and Zeb was too little.”With a half-suppressed thrill, she added, “Zeb said Rydel used to choke him.”
And now Jem was back in Decker, with Blake and Antonio holding him while Tanner pulled down his pants.