Page 88 of Turn

Pritchett pocketed his phone and took his sweet time lighting up a cigarette. I could feel Deck’s eyes on me in the darkness, warning me not to lose my temper. I wouldn’t, no matter how badly I wanted to wrap my hands around Ray Pritchett’s jowls and shake out whatever he might know of Tristan’s whereabouts. He kept puffing away on his stupid cigarette and I was sure he was going to tell us to go chew sand when he suddenly sighed, dropped the nicotine stick and snuffed it out under his boot.

“I think I know where he is right now. I can go tell him you’re here. If he wants to come outside and have a chat then I don’t really give a shit but if he doesn’t then you both should fucking leave.”

“That would be much appreciated, Ray,” Deck said as if the offer had been much more generous than it was.

I couldn’t see the man shrug in the darkness but I imagined it when he said, “It’s the best I can do.”

Deck clapped a hand on my shoulder in case I was tempted to argue. “Thanks again, Ray.”

Pritchett disappeared in the direction of the lights. I counted five squat structures among the lights, probably the stomping grounds of those calling themselves Evil Emblem. What a fucking joke, all this gang bullshit with their fake loyalty and endless brutality. When I was jumped in I remember being sure it was the greatest thing that could happen to me. I was part of something, a brotherhood. I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking. Those guys out there among the lights wouldn’t be any different from the Emblem Rioters. Just a pack of losers and lost souls putting on an act that they were tougher and better than they really were. It took me a long time to understand that real brotherhood was a whole lot more. It meant love and sacrifice and heart and home. It meant family.

Deck seemed to understand that I was too tense for conversation and there wasn’t much to look at out here so I looked up at the sky. The stars had never meant much to me until I walked outside one summer night and saw the world’s most beautiful girl staring up at them. Now it seemed like an act of magic that they even existed, that this sky was the same one Cassie might be standing in her backyard and observing right this minute.

“He’s coming,” Deck said. “Or at least someone is.”

“Where?” I craned my neck and made out the shape of an approaching figure. I couldn’t see much. It might have been my brother. It might have been Ray Pritchett.

“Tristan?” I called.

The figure came to an abrupt stop approximately twenty yards away.

“It’s me, Curtis,” my brother said. His voice was rather flat and unfriendly but I didn’t care. I ran to him.

“Goddammit, I’ve been so worried about you,” I choked out, closing the distance at a run and grabbing him in a bear hug whether he wanted it or not. He smelled like smoke and beer. Tristan tolerated the embrace for a few seconds and then pulled away.

“You okay?” I asked him.

“I’m just fine.”

I wished there was more light, that I was able to see his expression. This was like confronting a ghost in the darkness.

“Come home,” I begged. I’d meant to be less emotional but the words just popped out. “I miss you. Brecken misses you. Whatever happened, whatever you were running from, we can fix it. I swear I’ll never let you boys see the inside of a shitty motel again. We’ve got a new place, a real apartment in a good neighborhood. Everything will be better now, I promise. Just come home with me.”

He sighed loudly. “This is home. Emblem is home. I told you I didn’t want to leave in the first place.”

“There was nothing here for us anymore. Besides, you’re a kid.”

He scoffed. “The fuck I am. Five weeks, Curtis. That’s how much time is left until my eighteenth birthday. You were younger when you took off.”

I was younger. And I’d learned everything the hard way. I didn’t want him to do the same.

“What are you going to do?” I asked him. “Steal shit and crack heads until you wind up dead, burned out or vacationing in that damn prison? There are a lot of opportunities up in the valley, far more than there are down here.”

“Everything sucked up in the valley.”

I took a breath. This wasn’t going well. I changed my tone, tried to sound more like Cord sounded when he talked to Cassie, more like a caring parent than some clueless big brother who didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about.

“I know you’re in trouble, Tristan. Please tell me about it. Tell me and I’ll help you.”

He sniffed and shifted. “You can’t help me,” he replied sadly. “And I can’t show my face there anymore without losing at least one body part so just forget it.”

“We can figure it out together,” I said. “We’re not alone. We’ve got great friends who can help.”

Tristan acted like I hadn’t spoken. “I think I can really make good things happen down here.”

“Tristan. Please listen to me now. Nothing good is going to happen down here, not as long as you’re slumming around in a fucking gang. You think I don’t know what I’m talking about? I already learned this lesson. That’s why I’m begging you to get in that car and leave with us. I don’t want you to live the dirty life like I did and then wake up one day and discover that you’ve wasted years and abandoned your family. Come back, finish high school. I swear to you, whatever mess you’re in can be fixed.”

“High school.” He cackled. “Fuck high school. You never even finished fucking high school, Curtis. I was already held back a grade once. That should tell you it wasn’t meant to be. Besides, no high school can offer me the kind of education that’s worth anything.”

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