Beside a barn down the hospital road, Wiley “found” three eight-foot-long poles. He couldn’t find two-by-fours, but the posts would do. He also found ten feet of rough hemp cord looped over a fence post. Wiley had to haul the big uprights in three trips back to his trailer. Afterward, he had a good night’s sleep.
At sunrise, Wiley went to work building his tripod.
He turned an empty, metal water can on its side as a prop to hold the three poles’ ends off the ground. He put two side-by-side on top of the can, and the third pole on top of those two, making sure they stayed even. Wiley looped the cord around the three posts eight inches from the ends. Then he tied the three poles together using a clove knot. Wiley wrapped more rope around the poles’ end four times and secured it with a square knot.
He lifted the tied end of the tripod and walked it hand-under-hand until it stood straight. He began pulling the legs out a little at a time. The job would have gone smoother with help, but he managed to get the legs spread and twisted to tighten the bindings.
Wiley stepped back, rubbed his fingers through his curly brown hair, and admired his work. He nodded and headed for the trailer having one more vital step. Wiley appeared carrying the twin bell alarm clock, the aluminum can, and the ruby shard on the cord.
Wiley scooted the empty metal water can under the apex of the tripod and stepped on it. He wrapped the string over the three-pronged top and tied it. Wiley stepped down, removed the water can, satisfied with his finished work. The ruby shard glinted as it turned, catching the morning sun. When he finished, the thing looked like a wind chime.
His stomach growled. Wiley hurried to the trailer, found a clean shirt, and went to his full water cans to wash.
Soon, Wiley faced the hospital’s boiler door, felt the rain diverter above the door, and found his key. Once inside, he found Rhonda sitting on the edge of the boiler’s concrete foundation. Wiley tried hard not to smile. When Rhonda smiled, her lips curled up at the ends. Wiley’s defense broke, and he smiled back at her.
“Hey, you! Took you long enough!”
“Hi, Rhonda. What do you mean, long enough?”
“I’ve been checking on you.” Wiley raised his hand to speak. “And before you come unglued, yeah, I went out there,” Rhonda said, her voice taking on a somber tone. “After the tornado and all, I checked on you.”
Wiley sat beside her and scooted close, touching her shoulders. Rhonda had sparkling blue eyes and a broad nose. Girls with wide noses look unusual, but Rhonda’s full nose made her cute. She had freckles everywhere, even inside her ears. Her voluminous red hair set everything right.
Wiley chuckled. “Do you know what I like about you? When I committed breaking and entering,” Wiley said, nodding toward the door, “and you were down with it.”
She shrugged. “And do you know what I don’t like about you? You live in a little, run-down wrecked trailer out in the woods,” she said, frowning. She pouted and pooched her thick pink lips. “Wiley, it’s falling apart. After the tornado, I went to the trailer, and no Wiley,” she said, gesturing with her upturned hands. “I thought the tornado blew you away. Dang Wiley! It took me forever even to find the thing, and I hate tromping around in the woods.”
Wiley took his phone from his back pocket. “The church shelter on the east end had breakfast and a shower, and then I went and did some other things.”
She slapped her leg. “You have a phone and didn’t tell me!” Her mouth hung open. She pulled her phone from her hip pocket. It had dazzling sparkles and an Elvis silhouette on the back.
Rhonda’s red hair hung in her face, hiding her eyes.
“You’re right. It would have helped if you had my number.” They exchanged numbers.
“GOSH,” she said, flipping her hair back. Her eyes had gone teary. “When the civil defense men said It was safe to back outside, I looked for you. You should’ve come to my house until the storm blew over.” She doubled her fists and smacked her leg with her phone. “Dang! You scared me. Let’s get you some food and pay for it this time!” Rhonda rose to leave, and Wiley put his hand on her shoulder.
“Let me say something. Thank you for looking for me. Thank you for thinking of my safety. Nobody ever does that.” She paused, looking down at him, her blue eyes big and round. “Nobody.”
“I don’t go tromping around for anybody.” She eased down and sat close to him and put her hand atop his. After a couple of seconds, she said, “Aren’t you going to kiss me, Wiley?”
Wiley’s heart pounded, and it hurt, but he ignored the pain. He puckered up.
She giggled. “Why are you making a lemon face? You’re doing a mirror kiss,” she said. He opened his eyes, and his cheeks burned red with embarrassment. She giggled again. “Your mouth and eyes got all squinched up like this.” She made a face.
Wiley’s face went redder, down to his chin. “Let’s go,” he said. He stood and put his phone in his pocket. She stood, too, and hooked her arm through his elbow. He tried to walk away, and she resisted.
“Talk,” she said. “Don’t sulk. You’re blushing, and it’s okay.” Wiley looked away, shaking his head. An uncomfortable silence ensued.
“You’ve never kissed a girl, have you, Wiley?” She raised her pale red eyebrows, turned his chin to her, and stepped closer. “You’re twenty years old and never kissed a girl.”
He went red again. “Don’t rub it in. I’ve been alone most of my life.”
“Well, let’s fix that. Sit.” She pulled his arm. “You’re not going to starve. Sit with me a minute.” They sat on the concrete. “All you need to do is tilt your head to the right, part your lips, and lean into me, and we’ll kiss. It’s simple.”
“Like this?” Wiley leaned his head to his shoulder.
Rhonda slapped her hand to her mouth to keep from laughing. “You look like Stephen Hawking! Wait a minute! Are those hickeys on your neck?”
“No. I got in a fight, and the person choked me.” He wanted to change the subject. “A foster sister used to come in with hickeys all over her neck,” Wiley said. “I didn’t know why she had them. The way the kids talked, I thought it meant she was going to have a baby.”
“You were in the system,” Rhonda said, anxious to hear more.
Wiley sighed. “You missed the point. I never had a chance with girls, but now I’ve said too much. I don’t want to kiss anymore. Let’s go.”
Rhonda nodded. “Sure. Let’s go. I’m not prying.”
They took the elevator up to the ground floor and walked the halls to the cafeteria. Entering, Rhonda put a tray in his hand. “Get what you want, on me.”
The cafeteria had stragglers eating alone at tables. They read the newspapers and sipped coffee while others in blue scrubs read tablets. He followed her down the serving line. “Don’t you ever work?”
Rhonda laughed. “Not much. I’m an unpaid volunteer. They can’t order me to do anything, so they ask me if I wouldn’t mind doing this and that. It’s like, Rhonda, if you don’t mind, could you run these blood samples to the lab for us? My junior year in high school is over, and I’m doing this, and other things, to build a big splash.”
“A big splash, by not working much?” Wiley asked and chuckled. The woman serving hot food asked what he wanted. The woman recognized him from Wiley begging at the kitchen door, but she didn’t say anything. She had that knowing look, though, and Wiley told the woman he wanted scrambled eggs and sausage. Rhonda got a grapefruit half and sugar-free cereal with skim milk. Rhonda paid, and they found a table beside a window. Does anyone like grapefruit?
She sipped her milk and scooped out a grapefruit slice. “You asked about my splash.” Wiley nodded while chewing. “When I drop my college application in the pool, it will either ripple or splash, so I want mine to get people wet!”
Rhonda laughed a chesty laugh and coughed, putting her fist to her mouth, and clearing her throat. She already had a smoker’s cough. His foster parents smoked and hacked like that.
“You’re a junior in high school. You’re what, sixteen, seventeen?” Wiley asked.
She nodded. “Seventeen, a couple of weeks ago. You have a more interesting story. How did you wind up in a broken-down trailer in the woods? What’s up with that?”
He didn’t want to tell her that he had five different foster homes in ten years. He didn’t want to say he went from a manor beside the country club into the foster system at six years old. He couldn’t tell her about hitting his drunken foster father at the age of sixteen. The man had beaten his little foster brother.
Wiley left that night in his socks and t-shirt. The foster father told him to get out and never come back. He ran out into the dark and never saw another foster home.
“Wiley? Where did you go? Every emotion ran across your face.”
“Let’s leave the past alone.”
“Sure. If it upsets you so much, I’m sorry,” Rhonda said, and her blue eyes watered. “But I have one more, small thing I need to ask you, and it’s not about where and how you live, I promise.” She reached out had put her hand on his.
“Okay, ask it.”
Rhonda leaned over and whispered. “Through all your teenage years and into adulthood, why did you shut yourself off from girls? You didn’t even kiss. Priests do that.”
“When I got old enough to get interested in women, and women started looking at me, I was already living in the trailer.” Wiley shook his head and tried to smile. “Rhonda, I’m lucky to have made it to the ninth grade, never mind high school. What would I have to offer a woman? Let’s leave it there, okay?”
She nodded. “I’m not prying, promise. Any girl would have questions. You understand, don’t you?”
“Yes, I understand. Girls who smiled at me were all addicts looking for cash. It’s great you’re looking ahead to college. Let’s change the subject. There’s something special I’ve built. Would you like to see it?”
***
“If I didn’t have on these slacks, I wouldn’t come out here,” Rhonda said as she stepped high over thorns. She still wore her volunteer uniform. “Did I mention I hate tromping around in the woods? The thorns are in my pants! OW!” A barb pricked her finger.
Overhead, dark clouds gathered. The meteorologist said more thunderstorms could form today.
“You’re in some blackberries,” Wiley said, smiling. “They have hellacious prickles. Try to walk around this way,” Wiley said, taking her hand. He peeled the vine off her leg and guided her around the side of them.
“We’re here now. You made it,” Wiley said as the last of the berry vine let go of Rhonda’s slacks. “They grow fast, and it’s a lot of work trimming them.”
The tripod stood before them in a small oak grove fifty feet from the trailer. Wiley pointed at it. “What do you think?”
“What is it?” Rhonda asked as they approached. “It looks like a teepee without the skin.”
“This is the heart of it,” Wiley said, taking the ruby and can in his hands. He showed her as if it were something valuable in a store. “This is what makes the portal work.”
Rhonda squinted one eye. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s a thing I dreamed of.”
“Dreamed of.” Rhonda took a crumpled pack of cigarettes from her slacks and stuck one in her mouth.
“Dad showed me this when I was six, and I had forgotten about it until I had a dream of him during the storm. Before the witch, or Mom, or whatever, blasted in the door, he showed me this mechanism.” Wiley went to her. “He said it had to do with quantum physics!”
“Your Mom blasted in the door?” She lit her cigarette with her Elvis lighter. It had a picture on the back of Elvis in a white jumpsuit holding a microphone. She snapped the lid shut and blew.
He held out his palms. “It sounds crazy, but Dad built this and made it work. Give this a chance. Please.”
“Okay, Wiley. Don’t get excited. What does it even do?”
“Dad said it opens a portal to a wormhole, and he and Mom went through it.”
“You’re saying your Mom and Dad left you through some portal, and now you’re trying to find them?”
Wiley frowned. “Yes, and no. I don’t care anything about seeing them, but I need to know where they went! The monster woman who looked like Mom came through the rainbow membrane and tried to steal my ruby piece.” He pointed at it. “The piece of glass is valuable. If it weren’t for my magic phone stopping her with its blue fire, she would have taken it from me!”
Rhonda had the cigarette in the corner of her mouth. She squinted and blew smoke out her nose. “You’ve gone bat-shit crazy, Wiley.”
“Okay, watch,” Wiley said, backing away and turned. At the tripod, he adjusted the clock until it hung straight. Wiley stood back and scrutinized the entire apparatus, clock, can, and ruby shard. Satisfied, he turned to her.
“Come with me.”
“Come with you? Where?”
“Wherever the portal takes me,” Wiley said. “Into the unknown. Doesn’t that sound exciting?”
“Mmmmm, no,” Rhonda said. “In some weird mental way, you’re reaching out for your father.” She blew smoke and waved a bug away. “Look, you try it out, come back, and let me know how it went.” Lightning flashed in the distance, and seconds later, thunder boomed. A pat or two of rain fell onto the leaves.
Wiley sighed and shook his head. “I don’t think I’m searching for my Dad, although I’d like to find out what became of him, for curiosity’s sake. I’m more into adventure. If you come, I can prove I went somewhere.” Wiley thought about what he said and figured stretching the truth a little wouldn’t hurt. He didn’t want to sound like a desperate orphan in search of his father.
“That’s okay, Wiley. But if you leave here not looking for your father,” Rhonda said, using air quotes, “then I’ll know you went. You don’t have to prove anything.” She blew a long stream of smoke and waved the insect from her face again. “If you’re going somewhere, you should hurry. We’re about to get rained on.” She pointed to the sky.
“Okay,” he said. “Dad said the hands of the clock had to point to the stars.” He turned the clock hands to ten and two, the way his father had them. “It’s ready to go.”
Rhonda stood with an arm under her breasts, cupping her elbow, smoking her cigarette.
Wiley backed off, trotted toward the portal, and ran through it, brushing his hair on the ruby shard. Nothing happened. Rhonda had her cigarette in her two fingers, and smoke from the ember trailed up in the calm air.
“Don’t leave yet!” Wiley said. He held the ruby shard until it stopped spinning, then backed off. He trotted at the portal from the opposite direction ducking a little so he wouldn’t brush the ruby shard.
Nothing happened.
Rhonda crushed out her cigarette with a twist of her toe and left smoke rising through pine needles. She waved with a wiggle of her fingers over her shoulder. “You’re tripping, Wiley!”
“Wait! The portal is for real. It worked for Dad!”
“Okay. Get inside before you get soaked.” Rhonda said without looking back. She reached the overgrown fire road and walked out of sight.
The storm burst and rain fell in sheets soaking Wiley’s shirt, pasting it to his back. He fetched the metal water can beside the tripod leg and stood on it. He jerked the cord, cursed, and blew the water off his nose while he untied the twin bell clock. Holding the apparatus high, he stomped to his trailer.
