Hurricane Lamps - 1. Hurricane Lamps

Hurricane Lamps

It was the summer of their thirteenth year, a ripe and hot summer, still sizzling with shared secrets and hidden hopes when Elijah mentioned the idea of a secret hideout. Their old hangouts, the sandlot and basketball court, had been taken over by local bullies and drug addicts, respectively. It was still several years before they would be able to drive to the mall or cinema--places where the teenagers hung out.

Tony, who secretly wondered if they were getting a little too old for this crap, had still agreed with Elijah’s idea, because Elijah had the uncanny ability to make every idea he came up with sound irresistible and brilliant. Deep down, Tony had felt a pull of excitement at the idea...a special, secret place for just the two of them that no one else would know about or be able to find.

The place was an old shack on the south edge of Elijah’s property. It was set far back behind the endless rows of corn and other crops in Elijah’s backyard, bordering the heavy woods that ran just outside his property. It was full of rusty and broken junk, and it was obvious that the tiny building would need some work before it would be suitable to do anything in, but it was something to do that summer besides watching TV and eating popsicles.

They started by hauling out all of the rusted junk piled high inside, but their progress was hampered by the current occupants of the building: a large colony of wasps had built a nest in one corner of the building, and they guarded their home with aggressive zeal.

They were chased away by the buzzing swarm, but Elijah returned the next day, riddled with stings and extremely pissed off, with two bottles full of wasp and hornet spray and drenched the place. Tony had gotten sick from the fumes and left before Elijah was finished. They spent several days at the pool near Tony’s house, then went back. Elijah knocked the nest down with a stick. It later took a place of honor in the building. Tony, who was paranoid about the possibility of some wasps remaining inside, brought in his sister's old aquarium to set over the nest...just in case.

They cleared out the rest of the debris, which was hot, sweaty, miserable work, while speculating what the remnants of the equipment was actually used for. Elijah, who was more familiar with farm equipment, didn’t recognize most of it. Tony pretended that they were pieces of torture equipment, stained with blood instead of rust, and terrified Elijah with stories of what evil misdeeds they were used for. He rambled on and on, becoming more and more gruesome in his descriptions until Elijah, white and shaking, threatened to pop him one if he didn’t stop.

They were both scared out of their minds when they picked up an old tire, and found a skinny black snake curled up underneath. Tony might have screamed. After Elijah poked it several times with a stick, it remained motionless so Elijah used the stick to carefully pick it up and throw the dead reptile into the brush.

They took a break for lunch, lying among the spearing towers of green corn, watching what they could see of the sky drifting by. Tony’s mom had packed a couple of sandwiches and some sodas in a cooler for them. Elijah usually ate weird sandwiches with bizarre combinations of ingredients...sometimes it was pickles and popcorn, other times marshmallows and horseradish sauce. Tony sometimes got the impression that Elijah would just make his sandwiches from whatever was in his pantry. This time; however, when Tony offered him a perfectly ordinary ham and cheese sandwich with a Coke, Elijah took it.

Tony watched his friend as he devoured the sandwich. Elijah was always thin, even though he ate like a panda...fast, often, and in great quantities. He had brown hair that grew too long and fell over his eyes--which might have been green--and had a smattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks, which became more pronounced during the summer under the sun. His pale skin always burned and never tanned.

Elijah belched loudly and flopped back down on his back, sighing as leaves crunched underneath him. “Thanks for helping me out,” he said, turning his head and smiling at Tony through the stalks of corn.

“No problem. It’s going to be a place where we can hang out, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So, it’s cool. I’ll be glad to go somewhere where my sisters aren’t around to bother us. And maybe when we get girlfriends we can bring them here to make out and stuff.”

“Mmm,” Elijah said, noncommittally. “When do you think we’ll have the place ready?”

“Probably by the time we have to start back at school,” Tony said with a grin.

“Whatever. Long as I have a place to go to that isn’t home,” Elijah said, finishing his drink. Tony glanced at him curiously, but Elijah was already getting to his feet and walked back to the shed. Tony sighed and got to his feet as well.

He knew that Elijah had something going on at home, but he wasn’t sure exactly what. Elijah’s mom and dad died when he was little and now he lived with his Uncle John. He did know that Elijah liked coming over to Tony’s house a lot after school and in the summer. Tony’s mom wouldn’t let him go to Elijah’s place, and Elijah never seemed to be able to get enough to eat or have clean clothes that fit his rapidly-growing frame.

A couple of times Elijah had come to school with bruises on his arms and shoulders. He played hockey and claimed they were from practice, an excuse that he continued to give even when hockey season was over. Tony had thought on more than one occasion that he should say something to somebody, but what if it turned out to be nothing and Elijah got mad at him? Besides, why couldn’t Elijah tell somebody, like a counselor at school? He had never come in with broken arms or anything, and Elijah was a rough player and a bit accident prone. Maybe he really did get all those bruises the way he said he did. And maybe he disliked being home because he just didn’t like his uncle. Sometimes Tony didn’t want to go home because he didn’t want his sisters to start bugging him. He was the only boy in a family of five girls, not including his Mom, and he hated it sometimes.

They continued hauling out the equipment and left it heaped in a pile behind the tree line. Elijah got his revenge on Tony for freaking him out earlier by telling his own version of what happened in this shack--a story about a slave who used to live there and had died in a horrible accident and whose spirit still haunted the building. Elijah knew that his story wouldn’t scare Tony out in the daylight, but once he was in bed, in the dark, and unable to sleep, Tony would think about it. They had been friends long enough that each one knew how to press the other’s buttons. Tony was frightened by ghosts, and Elijah was frightened by everything else.

The next day, Tony was already at the shed, waiting, when Elijah arrived. He was lugging a cooler and a small radio.

“Hey, what do you have?” Tony asked.

“Well, you brought lunch yesterday. So I decided to bring it today.”

“What did you bring?” Tony asked with a bit of trepidation.

“Bologna and mustard sandwiches, Fritos, and some mint chocolate chip ice cream. Your favorite, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I snuck it into the grocery cart when I had to go shopping with my uncle last night,” Elijah said with a grin. “I know you like it.”

“Thanks, man.”

They set to work, hauling out the rest of the equipment and sweeping out the leaves and dirt. Elijah turned on the radio, which ran on battery power since there were no AC outlets in the shed, and turned it to the local pop station. The two teens listened to the top twenty while they worked on getting the place cleaned up. Tony used the broom to knock down some webs in the corners and up near the ceiling. A lone spider fell on his shoulder and he brushed it off. Elijah ran over and stomped on it.

“Did it bite you?” Elijah asked.

“I don’t think so,” Tony said, brushing at his shoulder. “It just landed on my shirt.

Elijah stepped back and looked at Tony for a minute. As soon as Tony turned away, Elijah took a running start and leapt on top of him, shouting, “Banzai!”

Tony let out a cry, a mix of surprise and annoyance, as he was knocked down, banging his head against the wooden floor. He could hear Elijah laughing on top of him. Growling in mock anger, he grabbed Elijah around the waist and pulled him off. They wrestled around for a few minutes, before Elijah pinned Tony and started to tickle him until tears were rolling down his face and his lungs burned for air.

“Uncle, uncle, I give,” he gasped out and Elijah released him. Tony scrambled to his feet and brushed off his clothes. There was still a lot of dust and grime on the floor even though he had already swept it. “What the hell was that for?”

Elijah smiled and shrugged, tossing his head back to get his hair out of his face. “Just for the heck of it.”

“Freak,” Tony muttered.

Elijah was bouncing on his feet, seeming to brim over with energy.

“What is up with you today?” Tony asked. “You’re like the damn Energizer bunny.”

“Just in a good mood,” Elijah said.

Tony pulled his sweaty T-shirt away from his sticky skin. Their brief skirmish had worked up a sweat on Tony, but Elijah looked perfectly cool and composed. Tony frowned. Elijah might be skinny, but he had some surprising strength hidden in those tiny bones of his. Elijah was scrappy, athletic, and strong, while Tony considered himself more of the artistic, dreamy type. He wasn't as interested in sports or athletics as he was in drawing or playing his guitar. But still, he was a little bigger than Elijah and this was the first time Elijah had ever bested him in a fight.

Elijah let out another shout and did a cartwheel, losing momentum halfway through and falling on his ass. Tony started to laugh, holding onto his broomstick for support.

Elijah smiled and laughed too. His laughter died off though, and he frowned as he saw a long splinter embedded in his palm.

“Well, shit.”

Several days later, some real progress could be seen. The place was as cleaned out as it was going to get. Tony had managed to find some leftover paint from when his sisters painted their rooms. He had broken a little bit of their secret code by telling his mom why they needed a little more paint. She drove him to Home Depot and added to his saved up allowance so he could buy a couple of small paint tins and brushes.

Elijah’s idea was to paint each wall a different color. Tony had red and yellow from his sisters and had gone to Home Depot for the blue and the green. Tony had the red paint in his dark hair and spotting his shirt and face. Elijah, on the opposite wall, was having the same kind of luck with the blue. The radio sitting on the newspaper was playing the hottest new songs, with Elijah singing along. He had a nice enough voice, but it was a little unnerving for Tony to hear Elijah singing along with Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" and shaking his butt along to the beat all the while.

“Dude, you’re freaking me out,” Tony said.

“Why?” Elijah said, turning around and grinning at him. He had worn a bandana to keep his hair back today, and Tony was able to see that he was right...Elijah did have green eyes.

“Well, it’s just that song.”

“What wrong with it?” Elijah asked.

“Well, isn’t it kinda mean?”

Elijah raised an eyebrow. “Mean?”

“Yeah. Well, it’s like she’s trying to steal this other girl's boyfriend. I mean, that sounds kinda like a bitchy thing to do.”

Elijah shrugged. “Girls are mean. They do that kind of stuff all the time.”

“I’m glad I’m not one of them then. But I wouldn’t want Avril Lavigne to come up to me and say that she doesn’t like my girlfriend.”

“Why not?”

“Well,” Tony said, dipping his roller into the paint. “For starters, she’s insulting my girlfriend, who I should like since I’m dating her. Secondly, I wouldn’t want to date Avril.”

“Why not?”

“Because she’s a freak.”

Elijah grinned. “Yeah, but she’s a hot freak.”

“No, she’s a scary freak. And she’s not that pretty.”

“So, if you were to have a girlfriend from school, who would it be?” Elijah asked as “Hey There Delilah” replaced “Girlfriend” on the radio.

“I don’t know. Jessica Byrd, maybe?”

“From Strickland’s class last year?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Tony shot back, feeling defensive. “So what?”

“Nothing. She’s hot,” Elijah said. “Why haven’t you asked her out yet?”

Tony shrugged, even though he knew why. He was too shy, too scared that he might ask her out and then she would blow him off, tell her friends, and then the entire school would know and laugh at him. “I don’t think she likes me,” Tony said.

Elijah snorted. “Yeah, right.”

Tony looked at Elijah over his shoulder. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Dude, half the girls in school are hot for you. Are you fucking blind?”

“They are not,” Tony muttered, blushing.

“Yes they are. I mean, try looking in the mirror every once in a while. You’re pretty hot for a guy.”

Tony wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he kept quiet and continued painting the wall. He knew that he got his looks from his Italian mother who, despite having six kids and working part time, was still beautiful. He had olive skin, large, dark brown eyes, and thick, curly black hair that girls would sometimes pull on to annoy him. He knew he wasn’t the ugliest guy in the world, but he wouldn’t consider himself hot.

“Well, let’s consider that the world's gone crazy and she doesn’t like you. You could ask out Alicia Spinnaker,” Elijah continued.

“I thought she was with somebody.”

“Uh-uh. You’re thinking about the other Alicia. The one I’m talking about has short, blond hair and braces.”

“Oh. How do you know she likes me?”

“She drew a heart around her name when she signed your yearbook.”

“So? She does that to everybody.”

“She didn’t do it when she signed mine. Or when she signed Luke’s, either. And she signed it in hot pink ink.”

“How come you know so much about my yearbook?”

Elijah shrugged. “It’s more interesting to look at than mine. More signatures.”

Tony cleared his throat nervously. Elijah was well known around school for many things, but being popular was not one of them. Tony wasn’t sure why. Elijah was funny and extroverted and not bad looking himself...he should have lots of friends. But he never really made an effort to hang out with anyone but himself and, occasionally Luke.

The song on the radio changed again, to Rihanna’s "Umbrella" and Elijah resumed his singing, no less cheerful but a little more subdued, and Tony didn’t bring up the subject of girls and yearbooks again.

Tony lay in his bed that night, his pillow tucked up underneath his chin. Being the only boy in the family meant he got his own room. Granted, it was the smallest room in the house, but considering that his sisters didn’t even have this small amount of privacy, he felt lucky. But on nights like this, he would have appreciated having someone else in the room with him.

That afternoon, Elijah, having grown bored of his sing along, had embellished his old ghost story. Tony could still hear his voice.

“...and he accidentally cut off his own foot with an axe. He fell down into the dirt, blood pouring from the wound and staining the ground around him. And he screamed in agony, calling out for help. But no one came, no one would lift a finger to help this man as he lie dying in the dirt with the blood pouring out all around him. And you know why?”

Elijah had been staring at Tony, who was listening raptly, holding the forgotten paintbrush up in midair, paint drizzling carelessly onto his shoes and the newspaper on the floor.

“Why?” Tony whispered.

“Because he was a slave, stupid,” Elijah continued. “No one was going to stop their work to help a slave. Because they were considered lower than low. Even if they wanted to, they couldn’t because the overseer would whip them until they were dead. So this poor slave laid there, screaming and dying in the middle of a plantation full of people. Died because no one would help him.”

“That’s bullshit,” Tony said, his voice trembling. “People would not just stand by and let someone bleed to death. Someone would have tried to help him.”

Elijah shrugged and grinned wickedly. “Sure, whatever. When you’re in bed tonight, be quiet and listen carefully. You can hear him, even all the way over where you live, calling for help. That’s what he does, wanders around all night, calling for help that he will never receive. And if you follow his voice, get closer and closer, you’ll sometimes see him, deep in the night, wielding his bloody ax, looking for the next unfortunate victim. And if he finds you, he’ll cut your foot off, too.”

Tony had scoffed and laughed it off as he always did, but now in the dark and the silence, his imagination took hold. It told him that if he was quiet, so, so quiet, holding his breath hot inside his chest, he could hear it, just barely, a thick agonized voice calling out.

“Help me, help me, O Lord Jesus, someone help me please...”

Tony shivered and pressed his face down into the pillow. It was his imagination, it was always his imagination, but inside his mind he could see that slave, standing outside his house, looking up at his window, with that ax in his hand and his amputated foot dripping blood onto the ground.

His heart beating too fast in his chest, Tony turned over on his side and drew his covers up over his head. He knew it was stupid and childish of him, but he couldn’t help it. If he didn’t, he knew he would look out the window and see the slave. Whether he was there or not didn’t matter, he would think he had seen him and would probably end up sleeping all night with the lights on. Not the best scenario in the world; it would annoy his parents, and his sisters would make fun of him, call him a sissy. So he cuddled up underneath the comforter, feeling hot and uncomfortably stuffy, but safer.

He let out an annoyed breath. Elijah’s stupid stories always did this to him. He was going to totally kick his ass the next time he saw him.

To distract himself from the thoughts of vengeful slave spirits running around in the night, he rehashed the conversation they had about girls. Truth be told, he had been a little bothered by it. Why had Elijah been so interested in who he dated? Why should it matter to Elijah if he asked out Jessica or Alicia? Why would he care unless...Tony closed his eyes and sighed, grinned at himself a little for being so clueless. Unless Elijah liked one of them too.

Probably Elijah liked Jessica and was trying to prompt him to ask out Alicia, so Elijah could have a shot at asking Jessica out. Tony tucked his hand under his head. That made sense. He didn’t really want to ask out Alicia, even if she did sign his yearbook with pink ink and drew a heart around her name. He just didn’t like her. Girls with braces creeped him out. How was he supposed to kiss them without cutting his lips or something?

Well, this was a problem that was easily solved. The next time he saw Elijah, which would probably be tomorrow at the shack, he would just tell him that he changed his mind. That he didn’t like Jessica, and he wouldn’t care if she went out with someone else. Then he wouldn’t have to ask out Alicia, and Elijah would know it was okay to go out with Jessica. Tony did like Jessica, but not that much. Not so much it was worth the risk of ruining their friendship. And Tony wanted to do something nice for Elijah. He was still feeling guilty about not telling anyone that maybe Elijah was having some trouble at home and perhaps doing something like this would help him feel a little better about it.

Tony sighed and closed his eyes, finally finding the sleep he needed to hide in.

The next day was gray, bloated with rain-heavy clouds and it was already pouring when Tony woke up. No going out and working on the hideout today. He lay in bed for a few more moments, listening to the soothing sound of the rain. A flash of lightning, brilliant white, lit the sky, and he counted the seconds before the answering rumble of thunder.

He was tired and discontented. Tired because he had lain awake most of the night, scared half out of his mind. Discontented because of the decision he had made about Jessica and Elijah. A decision he had made and was willing to stick with, but that didn’t make him happy and felt awfully unfair.

The problem, horrible as it was to admit it, was that he did like Jessica. He liked her short, red hair and warm smile, and also liked her cute vintage clothes and hemp jewelry. In the wintertime, especially, she wore lots of corduroy and suede, materials that his fingers longed to touch.

He paused in his thoughts, chewing on his lip, as something else occurred to him. Would he be willing to give her up for Elijah? Right now, yes he would. But would he be as willing, he wondered, if he knew for a fact, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Elijah wasn’t suffering any kind of abuse at the hands of his uncle?

That he wasn’t sure about.

There was a knock on his door, and he looked over as his youngest sister, Belinda, came inside. She was five years old and she smiled brightly at him, revealing a gap caused by losing her first tooth a few days ago.

“Hey, Be-Be,” Tony said.

Belinda climbed up onto Tony’s bed, sitting on his chest. “Watch cartoons with me.”

Tony didn’t want to watch cartoons. He wanted to stay in his bed and watch the storm. He wanted to think about Elijah and Jessica and himself, and why they all had to be involved in this mess. But if he said no to Belinda, she would cry and his sisters would all turn on him and make him miserable for the rest of the day. Not that they didn’t do that on a regular basis, but still...

“Fine. I’ll come down in a sec, Be-Be.”

“Now,” Belinda insisted, grabbing his hand and pulling on it.

“I have to get dressed.”

“‘Kay.” Belinda climbed off of him and left the room. Tony sighed and reluctantly got out of bed, pulled on some jeans and a white T-shirt, and left his room to go watch some cartoons with his little sis. He would rather be at the shack.

The storm passed and the next morning dawned bright and clear. Tony was out of bed, dressed and running out the door before his mom had managed to get out of bed and find some chores for him to do. Consequently, he was the first one at the shack and started sweeping out the twigs and other debris that the storm had swept in. There were several spots of standing water, which meant their roof had a couple of leaks.

When Elijah showed up, Tony did a fairly poor job at disguising his shock. His friend sported a large black eye, the eye itself swollen shut and the skin around it a deep, angry-looking purple.

“Christ, Eli, what happened?” Tony said, stepping forward and lifting his hands. Elijah winced and stepped back before Tony could reach him.

“Don’t touch, it’s still pretty sore,” Elijah said, his face a bright shade of red, except for the discolored skin around his eye.

Tony froze and dropped his hands. “What happened?” he asked again, his heart beating hard in his chest. He had a pretty good idea of what had happened...Elijah had run into something face first, probably his uncle’s fist, but he wanted to see what Elijah would say. Silently, he pleaded for Elijah to tell him the truth. Tell him that it was his uncle that gave him that bruise all over his face. For a minute, from the way Elijah was looking at him, Tony was sure Elijah was about to do just that. That Elijah would admit what was going on and Tony would go to him, hug him and tell him that it would all be okay. Then they would go tell an adult, his mom maybe, and then the police would come and put Elijah’s Uncle John in jail and then Elijah could go live with some people who wouldn’t hurt him. Maybe he could even live with Tony and his family if his mom was all right with it. They could share Tony’s tiny room, and Tony could finally have a brother.

But Elijah just gave him that same easy, carefree grin he always gave when he showed up with unnecessary bruises in weird places. “I just learned a valuable lesson about not skateboarding when it’s raining.”

Tony lifted his eyebrows. “You were skateboarding in the rain?”

“After it had rained. It stopped yesterday afternoon for a couple hours and I was so sick of being cooped up inside the house, so I went outside and was riding my skateboard. But the streets were wet and the wheels slid and I couldn’t stop. Took a pretty nasty fall. I have a big bruise on my right side too. Banged myself up pretty bad.”

Elijah’s voice tightened and cracked a little on the last sentence, and when Tony met his eyes, they were shiny with tears. Without saying a word, Tony approached Elijah. Elijah didn’t step away this time and stood passively as Tony hugged him. Tony was sure to keep his arms wrapped around Elijah’s shoulders, remembering his offhand comment about his side. Elijah didn’t say anything, didn’t move at all except to let his head rest briefly against Tony’s.

“Are you going to be okay?” Tony asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Elijah said. “Just clumsy is all.”

“Be careful,” Tony said, stepping away.

“I will.”

And that was that.

Neither one of them felt much like doing any work on the shack after that. Tony pointed out the places in the roof that had leaked, and Elijah assured him that he could fix them. After that, they went back to Tony’s house, and his mom took the two of them and several of his sisters to the community pool. It was too crowded to really swim, which was fine for Elijah, who liked hanging out in the shallow section, playing around and splashing people. Tony had the sneaking suspicion that it was because Elijah couldn’t swim, although he wasn’t completely sure. When Elijah pulled off his T-shirt to rub on some sunblock, Tony could see the bruise flowing over his rib cage, the same vividly stark purple that was on his face.

His mom called him over to put some sunblock on his shoulders, even though they both knew he had already done so. She asked about Elijah's bruises in a low voice, and Tony gave her the same story that Elijah had given him about the skateboard. Tony didn’t feel like he was lying to his Mom as he told her this...it was what Elijah had said happened after all. He could see from his mom's face that she thought Elijah’s story was just as likely to be true as he did, and she asked if Elijah would like to stay the night.

Elijah said yes. So they played in the pool, ate at Pizza Hut, and then stayed up most of the night drinking Coca Cola and playing on the PlayStation in the living room until Tony’s mom came downstairs at three A.M. and told them sternly to go to bed.

A few days later, Elijah arrived at the shack with a large box wrapped in his skinny arms. The bruise around his eye had faded to a rather pukish shade of yellow and the swelling was down enough so Elijah could actually see out of it, although the whites still looked rather red.

“What have you got?” Tony asked.

“Lots of stuff,” Elijah replied. “First and foremost, I got some stuff to patch up the roof so it won’t leak anymore. I also found some old lamps. They run on oil instead of power, so we can use them here. They’re called hurricane lamps, cause if there is a draft or a strong wind or something, the flame is protected and the smoke goes up this glass chimney. It’s really cool. But you can’t knock them over or break them or anything, because they’ll set the whole place on fire. Oh, and check this out. I found out that in the 1940's this guy named O‘Brien needed to get rid of a bunch of rum so he could buy some other type of alcohol. So he poured the rum into these type of lamps and gave them to sailors. And now, it’s an alcoholic drink that they give people in New Orleans. Wild, huh?”

“Cool,” Tony said, lifting out one of the old fashioned lamps. It was heavy and looked old, like the antiques his mother used to sell.

“I also brought this air mattress. We can blow it up and set it on the floor. That way we’ll have something soft to sit on. And for when we bring chicks over, then we can...you know?”

Elijah wiggled his eyebrows when Tony glanced over, and Tony felt himself turn red.

“You look sexy when you’re blushing there, Moretti.”

“Shut up,” Tony said. When Elijah had brought up that last sentence, his brain had provided him with an entirely inappropriate visual.

“And I also brought lunch,” Elijah added. “That’s about everything.”

“What did you bring to eat?” Tony asked with trepidation.

“Boring ol’ turkey and cheese with mayo, potato chips, and a pack of Oreos. You should try to be more adventurous with what you eat.”

“Adventurous is not what I would use to describe your eating habits," Tony countered. "Insanity, maybe.”

“Shut up and help boost me up to the roof,” was Elijah’s only response.

While Elijah was up on the roof with several tubes of unidentifiable stuff doing whatever he was doing to fix the roof, Tony was watching the air mattress slowly inflate as he worked the pump with his foot. He had promised himself several times that he would talk to Elijah about Jessica, and each time he would find some excuse not to. Maybe it was high time he just stopped putting it off, but without Elijah bringing it up, it just seemed like a really weird thing to mention out of the blue. If he said that he didn’t like Jessica out of context, Elijah would think it was fake--which it was. But Tony didn’t want Elijah to think that. Tony wanted Elijah to think that his path to Jessica was clear, if he wanted it.

Soon. Tony promised himself. The next time he asks, I’ll tell him. Before the school year starts, I promise.

He was jarred out of his unhappy thoughts by Elijah's voice coming from outside. "Shit."

Tony went out to see if he needed help. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's not myself that I'm worried about." Elijah was sitting on the edge of the roof, holding something in his hand. He jumped down, landing on his feet and held his hands out to Tony.

Cradled in Elijah's hands was a bird. Tony wasn't sure what kind. It was staring up at them with beady eyes, a wing fluttering helplessly. The other lay aside sadly, the feathers broken and the wing mangled.

"Oh God," Tony said, his heart sinking. "What happened to it?"

"I don't know. I found it up on the roof."

Tony stared at it sadly. If it weren't for the occasional fluttering of the undamaged wing and the twitching of its legs, he would think it was dead, it was so still and sad-looking.

"What should we do?" Tony asked helplessly, thinking maybe they should bring it back to his house and call a vet. He could look one up in the phone book.

Elijah knelt and deposited it gently on the ground. "Eli, I don't think we should leave--"

His words died off abruptly when Elijah lifted his foot and brought his heel down hard on the bird's head. The bird's wing fluttered briefly then lay still. Tony stood frozen, his mouth hanging open.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked as Elijah lifted his foot. He couldn't bring himself to look at the bird on the ground.

"What?" Elijah said, blinking at him. "It was hurt, Tony. It was dying. I couldn't let it suffer."

"You didn't need to kill it! It was hurt, but we could have helped it. Taken it to a vet or something."

"It was broken, Tony. You saw its wing. It wasn't going to be able to fly again. It's better that it died this way, quick and painless. It didn't need to suffer."

"It's wrong that it wasn't even given a chance," Tony said, still believing somehow that they could have helped it.

Elijah stared at him, his eyes cold. "It's a wrong world we live in then, isn't it?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Elijah shook his head. "Never mind. It was going to die, Tony; that's nature's way." He turned around and walked away. Tony picked up the mangled remains of the bird and wrapped it up in his shirt. Later that afternoon after Elijah had left, Tony buried it alone.