Solstice - Of The Heart Read Online Free Page B

up my collar. Now would be a good time to let my hair
down. Keep my neck warm. For six short blocks I didn’t feel like
bothering. I turned left to Cherrie’s house rather than right
toward the cabin. If I couldn’t sleep in on Saturday, neither
should she.
    Cherrie had her own entrance into
Grandpa Garl’s house. She lived down in the basement, which was
made up of one big room with a small bathroom off to the side. I
swung around the back, tip-toed down the steps and, before
entering, kicked and then knocked on the door.
    I found Cherrie, fully dressed, lying
on top of the covers of her bed. She wasn’t the neatest housekeeper
I knew, so I had to side step clothes, magazines, and a lawn
mower.
    Lawn mower?
    I tapped Cherrie on the shoulder. If
somebody crept into my house and poked me in the shoulder while I
slept, you would have to peel me off the ceiling.
    Not Cherrie. She rolled
over.
    “Jason’s not here,” she
muttered.
    I searched the dim corners of the room
for a Jason. The bathroom door stood open, so I figured he wasn’t
in there.
    “Who’s Jason?”
    “What?”
    “You awake?”
    Cherrie sat up. She pulled the covers
around her.
    “Julis, what are you doing
here?”
    “It’s Saturday.”
    Cherrie glanced at her watch. “It’s
Saturday night!”
    “Morning for most people.”
    “Why aren’t you in bed?”
    “Someone talked me into skipping
school. Remember?”
    “It’s a free world. You made your
choice.”
    “Yeah. And ditching class got me a
date with the janitor.”
    “Cherrie looked at her watch again.
“Then what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be scrubbing toilets
or something?”
    Obviously Cherrie had done a stint or
two in detention.
    “I was let go early for good
behavior.”
    “You?” Cherrie chuckled. “Since
when?”
    “Since I started hanging with
you.”
    “Yeah. Right.” She attached the unlit
cigarette to her bottom lip. She sat up, stiff backed, against the
wall. “What’s up?”
    I curled up on the bed in front of
her. “Mr. Bernard made me clean lockers.”
    “Sounds intriguing. What other earth
shattering news do you want to share before I go back to
sleep?”
    “Just that I got a peek inside Aaron
Delmon’s locker.”
    Cherrie shrouded her face with her
hand. “Oh my god! And?”
    “He doesn’t have any girl pictures in
his locker. I don’t think he has a girlfriend.”
    Cherrie guffawed. “Duh. Join the club.
Thought I told you, once or twice, the Delmon gang doesn’t
associate with us lower class peons.”
    “I don’t think Aaron’s that
way.”
    “Okay,” Cherrie said. “Let’s back it
down a bit. This love-sick puppy stuff is about to gag
me.”
    “Who said anything about
love?”
    “Then what are you
planning?”
    “Just want to get to know him. He
seems interesting.”
    “I’ll tell you what is making you all
hot and bothered.”
    “What?”
    “He looked at you. You never had a boy
look at you before?”
    “Sure. But not a god-man. So you admit
it. He wasn’t looking at you.”
    “He’s had his chances. I confess. He
looked at you. So now what? You’re going to go bug-eyed over
him?”
    “Maybe. You said he isn’t a
climber.”
    “He isn’t. Not in the truest sense of
the word.”
    “Why do you suppose his locker is
lined with pictures of Shasta?”
    “The mountain?”
    “Yes.”
    Cherrie nodded to the one window in
her room.
    “Because it’s there?”
    “More than that, I think. He seems
infatuated with the mountain.”
    “Maybe so. Bernard takes them up on
Shasta all the time.”
    “Bernard?”
    “Yeah. Their brother.”
    “You mean Bernard the janitor at
school?”
    Cherrie sat up. She removed the
cigarette from her mouth. “Bernard was at school today?”
    I could feel Cherrie stiffen as I
answered. “Yes. He said he runs detention.”
    “Not all the time. Usually it’s an
administrator. He didn’t see you in Aaron’s locker, did
he?”
    “Why?”
    “Because he’s Aaron’s
brother.”
    “Are