Damage Read online

  Damage

  * * *

  Robin Stevenson

  ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

  Copyright © 2013 Robin Stevenson

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Stevenson, Robin, 1968-

  Damage [electronic resource] / Robin Stevenson.

  (Orca soundings)

  Electronic monograph.

  Issued also in print format.

  ISBN 978-1-4598-0361-9 (PDF).--ISBN 978-1-4598-0362-6 (EPUB)

  I. Title. II. Series: Orca soundings (Online)

  PS8637.T487D36 2013 jC813’.6 C2012-907481-0

  First published in the United States, 2013

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2012952957

  Summary: What starts out as a harmless road trip becomes a desperate search for the truth.

  Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

  Cover photography by Getty Images

  ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

  PO BOX 5626, Stn. B PO BOX 468

  Victoria, BC Canada Custer, WA USA

  V8R 6S4 98240-0468

  www.orcabook.com

  16 15 14 13 • 4 3 2 1

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  From where I sat, the view was pretty sweet. Above me was a wide-open sky without even a trace of a cloud. In front of me, the pool shimmered cool, clear and blue. To my left, a line of palm trees bordered the motel courtyard. All very California—but none of it compared with the view to my right. From behind the mirrored lenses of my sunglasses, I sneaked yet another peek at the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.

  I kid you not. This girl was dazzling in a way that no one is dazzling in real life. She looked Photoshopped. Her wet hair was slicked back from her face, a white towel was draped across her tanned shoulders, and her long bare legs were stretched out in front of her. There was something oddly familiar about her. Maybe she was a famous actress or a model or something... though you wouldn’t expect to find a famous person at a cheap highway motel. Whoever she was, she was breathtaking. And there she was, in a red bikini, sitting three plastic lounge chairs away from me.

  Too bad the two chairs between us were occupied by the reclining, swimsuit-clad bodies of my mother and father.

  I heard a splash behind me and turned around. A dark-haired toddler was holding an upside-down red bucket and staring at me solemnly. I smiled at him, and his eyes opened a little wider, but he didn’t say anything.

  I looked around for a parental figure but didn’t see one. “Nice red bucket,” I said. Lame, I knew, but I didn’t have much experience with kids.

  “Mmm,” he agreed and then delivered a long speech that I couldn’t understand. He might have said something about unicorns, or possibly raisins, but I wasn’t sure.

  “Where’s your mom?” I was no expert on these things, but I was pretty sure he was too little to be at the pool by himself.

  “Sorry. Is he bothering you?” The girl from three chairs over sat up and beckoned to him. “Come here, Zach.”

  “No. I mean, it’s fine. He’s fine,” I stammered. “I mean, he’s not bothering me. He was just telling me about his bucket. I think. Though he might have been saying something about raisins.” I sounded like an idiot. Shut up, Theo, shut up.

  “Ah. Raisins, huh?” She smiled, her lips parting to reveal white teeth.

  She had a slight overbite, which only the son of a dentist would notice. Even on vacation, Dad was compelled to point out every dental defect he observed. Not that her overbite was a defect. It suited her perfectly. As did her dark hair. And her full lips. And the dimple in her left cheek.

  “Mmm,” I said. If I kept my mouth shut, I couldn’t say anything stupid, right?

  “Zachy, did you want raisins?” She reached for a bag under her chair. “Are you hungry, Zach? Time for a snack?”

  “Raisins,” he said.

  “He’s yours?” I couldn’t believe she had a kid. So much for my fantasy that we might hook up—not that there’d been any real hope of that anyway.

  “I was watching him.” There was an edge to her voice. “I watch him all the time when we’re at the pool.”

  “I didn’t think you weren’t,” I said quickly. “Um, you just don’t look like a mom, that’s all.”

  She was still glaring at me. God, she looked familiar. I just couldn’t place where I’d seen her before. TV, maybe. She had to be someone famous.

  “And what exactly does a mom look like?” she asked.

  “I don’t...I didn’t mean...it’s not like I think there’s anything wrong with being a mom,” I said. “Just, you know, I thought you were my age. And I think of moms as, you know, older. Arrgh. Sorry.” I groaned, stood up and took off my sunglasses. “Can I start over? Please?”

  She raised one dark eyebrow.

  “I’m Theo. And that’s my mom and dad right there.” I pointed at them. They were both out cold, and Dad was snoring softly. “See? Way older.”

  She laughed. “Ronnie,” she said. “And I’m twenty-two.”

  “Yeah? Nice to meet you.” Should I add a couple of years and say I was nineteen? Maybe she wouldn’t ask. “So, um, Ronnie...” Gears turned in some rusty part of my brain and something clicked, slid into place. “Oh my god. Ronnie? Ronnie Gleeson?”

  She stared at me, eyes wide.

  “Theo Dimitropolous,” I said. “You’re from Portland, right? You used to...” I trailed off.

  “Babysit you!” She crowed. “Theo! Holy crap. I can’t believe this. Look at you.”

  “Yeah, well...” I grabbed my damp towel from the lounger behind me and wrapped it around my waist.

  “You were, like, ten years old the last time I saw you.”

  My face was on fire. “Yeah. Eleven, actually.” I’d been a nerdy kid obsessed with Star Wars, making stop-motion animation movies with my LEGO Millennium Falcon. My earliest fantasies had all been about Ronnie. Back then, I would’ve traded my whole Star Wars action-figure set for one glimpse of Ronnie in the bikini she was wearing right now.

  “I can’t believe this.” She shook her head slowly, staring at me.

  I hoped she wasn’t picturing me in my R2-D2 pajamas. “You moved away, right?”

  “Yeah, after grade eleven.” She made a face. “I finished high school in Seattle.”

  “I remember that. I was so bummed out when you left.”

  “Well, you didn’t really need a babysitter anymore.” She looked over at my parents, snoring on their loungers. “I didn’t even recognize your folks. Are you guys on vacation?”

  “Yeah, sort of. We’re going to visit my brother. He lives near Santa Rosa.”

  “I don’t think I ever met him,” she says.

  “He’d already moved out. He’s ten years older than me,” I said.


  “Raisins,” Zach said.

  “Right.” Ronnie scooped him up with one arm. “Come on, little guy. We better get you dressed before you get cold.”

  I picked up her bag. “Do you need a hand or anything?”

  She took the bag from me. “I’m fine. But thanks, Theo. I’ll see you around.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Great. I mean, I hope so.”

  And then I watched Ronnie carry her squirming toddler out of the pool area and around the corner, out of sight.

  Chapter Two

  We ate dinner that evening in the motel restaurant. I was still daydreaming about Ronnie. Mom and Dad were grumpy from their pre-dinner nap. Not that they hadn’t been grumpy before. The three of us had been arguing since we left Portland. In fact, we’d been pretty much locked into one long argument for the last couple of months, ever since my buddy Koli got busted selling pot at school. My parents refused to believe that I wasn’t involved, and I refused to stop hanging out with him. Koli and I had been best buds since sixth grade. Sure, he’d screwed up, but I wasn’t about to drop him.

  “Everything on this menu is deepfried,” Dad complained. “Fish and chips, fried chicken, onion rings...”

  “Mmm. Onion rings.” My favorite.

  “Look at this,” he grumbled. “Even the salad has tortilla chips on it.”

  “So ask for it without the chips,” I said.

  He just grunted.

  Mom peered into the mirror on the wall beside our table. “I’m sunburned! Look at this.” She tapped her nose and then her forehead before turning to frown at my father. “You might have woken me up instead of letting me lie there getting skin cancer.”

  “Don’t exaggerate,” Dad said. “You’re barely even pink.”

  “Dad was asleep too,” I said. “Out cold. Maybe you guys should skip the happy-hour drinks, huh?”

  Dad snorted. “I wasn’t sleeping. I just closed my eyes for a few minutes.”

  “You were snoring like a freight train.” I kept glancing over to the restaurant entrance, hoping that Ronnie and Zach would make an appearance. I hated the thought that I might not see her again. “So, I guess we have to hit the road bright and early, huh?”

  “Your brother’s expecting us for lunch,” Mom said. “We should be on the road by nine at the latest. Breakfast, pack up, head out.”

  My brother. Darrell Junior, following in Dad’s footsteps like a good son. At twenty-seven, Darrell had graduated from dentistry and was already middle-aged. He lived with his wife in a four-bedroom house in the suburbs of Santa Rosa and had just joined a family dental practice where he fixed rich kids’ cavities while they watched cartoons on TV screens set into the ceiling.

  “You won’t believe who I just ran into,” I said.

  “Who?” Mom took a sip of her water, eyeing me over the rim of her glass.

  “Ronnie Gleeson. Remember? She used to babysit me.”

  Dad raised his eyebrows. “The Gleesons. I remember them. I used to golf with Patrick. They moved to Port Townsend, didn’t they?”

  “Seattle.”

  “She was a lovely girl,” Mom said. “You had such a crush on her, Theo.” She sighed sadly, like she missed the good old days when I was eleven years old and she didn’t have to worry that I was turning into a drug addict.

  “Yeah, yeah.” I lifted my water glass and set it down again, making overlapping water rings on the table.

  “So how is she? What’s she doing here?”

  “Fine. She’s on vacation, I guess. She looks good. Got a kid now.”

  “Really? She’s a bit young, isn’t she?”

  “No,” I said sharply, even though I’d thought the same thing. “She’s twenty-two. And her kid’s really little, just a toddler.”

  “Well, you should’ve invited them to join us for dinner.” Mom fanned herself with the menu. “Phew. I can’t take this heat.Thank God your brother has a pool.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Thank God Darrell’s perfect.”

  She gave me a look.“Don’t start,Theo.”

  I stared down at the menu. “Can I get a Corona?” I was pretty sure I already knew the answer, but what the hell—we were on holiday, right?

  “Theo...” Mom frowned.

  Dad gave me a steel-eyed glare. “Sure you can. In four years, when you’re legal drinking age. You start drinking now, you’re breaking the law.”

  “Take off those sunglasses, Theo,” Mom said. “You’re in a restaurant.”

  I took them off.

  Dad put his elbows on the table and leaned forward so that his face was inches from mine. “Your eyes are very bloodshot.”

  “Chlorine,” I said. “I was in the pool, remember?”

  “Hmmm.” He didn’t move.

  “Dad, are you trying to smell my breath?” I blew at him. “Here. How’s that? Doritos, extra cheesy.”

  “Don’t get smart with me, young man. We’re just looking out for you.” He sat back. “Marijuana kills motivation. You smoke that stuff, you’ll go nowhere.”

  I wasn’t into anything harder than an occasional cold beer, but I was tired of trying to convince them of that. “I’m not smoking anything and I don’t want to go anywhere,” I said irritably.

  “Look at Koli,” Mom says. “He got into drugs and he’s having to face the music now. Is that what you want?”

  I rolled my eyes. “All I want is to eat dinner without you two getting on my case. All right?”

  “On your case?” Dad repeated. “On your case? What the heck is that supposed to mean?”

  “Maybe Darrell can talk to him,” Mom said in a low voice, as if I wasn’t sitting right there.

  That did it. I stood up.

  “You know what?” I said. “You’re right. This restaurant does suck.” And I stormed out, leaving them opening and shutting their mouths like a pair of goldfish.

  Chapter Three

  I had cut across the courtyard and was heading toward my room when I saw Ronnie, sitting on the cement walkway near the pool. She’d changed into denim shorts and a white T-shirt with a big pink flower on it, and she had a stroller beside her. I grinned at her, my bad mood vanishing like fog in sunshine. “Hey, Ronnie. Where are you off to?”

  “Nowhere.” She leaned against the brick wall. “I’ve been walking around for an hour, trying to get Zachy to go to sleep.”

  I looked at Zach. He had a glazed look on his face, and his thumb was firmly planted in his mouth. “Can I get you anything? I mean, if you’re hungry or...” I trailed off.

  “I’m fine. We’ve got food in the car. It’s easier than taking Zach to restaurants. And cheaper.”

  “Right.” I leaned against the wall too. Heat radiated from the bricks. “So, we’re leaving in the morning.”

  “To see your brother, right? That’s nice.”

  “No, actually. It sucks. It’ll be three days of all of them ganging up to convince me to quit smoking pot and study hard so that I can be a dentist.” I groaned and rubbed my hands across my face. “And I don’t even smoke pot.”

  She laughed out loud. “And do you want to be a dentist?”

  “God, no.” I made a face. “I can’t think of anything more disgusting. Sticking your fingers in people’s mouths, seeing all the little bits of food stuck in their teeth, scraping off plaque and poking around...” I shuddered. “Just the thought makes me gag.”

  “So what do you want to do?” Ronnie’s voice was low, and she sounded amused.

  “I don’t know.” I didn’t want her to think I was still a dumb kid with a dumb dream.

  “Come on. You must have some idea.”

  “Nah.”

  She laughed. “Liar. Spit it out—I won’t laugh.”

  “Yeah, okay. I guess I like film. It’d be cool to make movies. Direct them, maybe, or just work on them.”

  “Ha! Remember how you used to make those little videos? With your action figures? Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda...”

  “Yeah. And Han Solo.”
I lowered my voice. “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.”

  Ronnie laughed out loud. “He was always my favorite.”

  “Yeah, he had the best lines.” I decided not to mention that I knew most of them by heart.

  “So you want to make movies for real, huh? That’s cool.”

  I shrugged. “Dunno how realistic it is.”

  “Lots of people do it.” She stuck her hands into her shorts pockets. “You should come with me and Zachy. We’re leaving as soon as I can get him to go to sleep. Driving down to Los Angeles. Ten hours, and you could be in Hollywood, baby.”

  I stared at her. Was she kidding? She had to be kidding.

  “I’m serious,” she said, as if I had spoken aloud. “I’d love the company. We could split the driving.”

  “You’re leaving tonight?”

  “Yeah, we’re checked out already. Our bags have been in the lobby since lunchtime. I know it seems weird, but Zach hates being in his car seat, and if I travel at night, there’s more chance that he’ll sleep.”

  “I don’t know...”

  “Come on, it’d be fun. I’ve got a friend in LA who’s been in movies. She knows all kinds of people. I bet she could hook you up with a job.”

  My heart was pounding hard and fast, and my mouth was suddenly dry. Some choice—drive with my parents to see Darrell and get some sense talked into me, or drive to Hollywood with Ronnie, aka the Most Beautiful Girl in the World.

  “I can’t just take off on my parents,” I said. Though really, I thought, why shouldn’t I? They’d done nothing but nag me and accuse me of lying since we’d left home the day before.

  “I didn’t mean you should run away.” She laughed. “Jeez, give me some credit.”

  “You mean, ask them?”

  “Yeah, doofus,” she said. “Ask them. And hurry up.” She nodded at Zach. “He’s finally conked out, which means I can put him in his car seat without a total meltdown.”

  Ronnie obviously didn’t remember my parents very well. There was no way in hell that they would agree. On the other hand, I couldn’t imagine letting this opportunity slip away.