Page 100 of As the Rain Falls
The three of us move fast, rushing through the hallway, our footsteps too loud because we can’t fight the adrenaline flooding in our veins.I expect Mrs. Yun to appear out of thin air any second now, but surprisingly enough, she doesn’t. Nobody does.There are no alarms, no angry voices, or angry brothers waiting for me as we push through the exit door.
“We’re showing her the spot,” Antony finally decides.
Mateo brings me into a quick side-hug, messing with my hair, laughing like he’s just won the lottery. I can’t help but join in as we cross the road, leaving the tall buildings of Sainte Madeleine far behind us.
A PERFECT HIDING SPOT
Cassandra
NOVEMBER, 2016.
The spot in questionisLa Raffinerie,an abandoned sugarcane factory that’s been left to rot since the late ’90s. It’s about a twenty-minute walk from Sainte Madeleine, but we stop by a corner store on the way, grabbing sodas, barbecue chips, and candy.
Antony insists on paying for our snacks, waving Mateo off when he reaches for his wallet. “I have enough. Don’t worry about it.”
“Thanks, man,” Mateo says, and I catch the flicker of gratitude in his expression before we walk out of the store.
“You actually work… for your money.” Antony tears open a pack of sour candy with his teeth, words coming out muffled. He hands me a few, then offers the rest to the other boy. “Don’t waste it.”
“Where do you, uh, work?” I ask, wanting to fill the quiet and make casual conversation.
The heat is making me sweat, and I can’t wait to be seated again. Somewhere cool, preferably. I don’t want to have to deal with my face burning today.
“At my mom’s hair salon.” Mateo pops a candy into his mouth and winces. “I help her manage the bookings because she doesn’t know how to use the computer yet.”
Antony’s eyebrows shoot up as he speaks, “Yet?”
“I’m teaching her how to handle the program soon. I have to intern at the clinic this summer, remember?”
“Oh, okay.”
“Do you know how to cut hair?”I wonder.
“Not as well as she does,” Mateo admits, passing the candy back to Antony. “But I know how to do simple stuff if I have to.”
“Mateo helped me twist mine the other day,” Antony tells me, nudging me with his elbow. “Isn’t that so cool? I always have to ask my mother to do it because no one else knows how to handle long hair like she does.”
“It is,” I nod, popping a candy into my mouth and chewing slowly.
The taste of bubblegum and lemon explodes on my tongue, sweet and thick. It tastes like childhood, and reminds me vaguely of the kind of candy Nathaniel used to give mesometimes, if I behaved myself. He’d keep a pack in his bedroom, hidden in places I could never reach.
“I thought we weren’t supposed to come here,” I say, trailing after them. The building is half covered by vegetation, wild green vines reclaiming space. Mateo holds one of the Coca-Cola cans open for me. “Thanks.”
“Says who?” Antony snickers as I take a long sip.
I roll my eyes but choose to ignore him.
The place looks even worse than I imagined from the inside. Rusted, empty, with water dripping from the ceiling steadily.Mateo tries kicking a loose door open, but it doesn’t move.
“Abre aqui, Toninho.”
“Calma,”Antony groans, dragging his feet to join him. “I know it looks a bit rough, but Mateo and I like to hang out here. Skip class. Listen to music. You know how it goes.”
“Right, I get it,” I say, absolutely not getting it. I wouldn’t come here alone, and this is not what Kayla and I like to do when we hang out together in town. She’s not a big fan of the outdoors, and to be honest, neither am I.
We push further inside after Antony opens the door. Mateo leads us to what would’ve once been an office. It’s more preserved than the rest of the factory, mostly because the material seems more resistant to Le Port’s humidity.
“You think they ever made good candy here?” I ask, finding a plastic chair at a corner.
