Read Online The Clearing by Dan Newman - Free Book Online

with her balled fists pressed firmly into her sides. She was talking to Nate, but the scolding was designed for two. “And since when is thieving acceptable behavior?”
    All the guests were watching now, many with expressions of amusement hiding behind feigned adult concern.
    â€œCome on now, Patricia The boys are just having a bit of fun. No harm, no foul.” Oddly enough it was Sweaty Scoocher who had come to their defense, but his protest was short-lived once he got a sharp glance from Patricia Mason.
    â€œJohn, I’ll thank you to keep your nose out of this,” she said, and the gallery of gently glazed guests let out a collective ooh . It was enough to break the tension, and finally Mrs Mason cracked a smile and shook her head. “Tristan, you get on home. And you’ll be lucky if I don’t call your father in the morning.”
    And then she turned to Nate. “And as for you, young man, march yourself inside and into bed. We’ll discuss this tomorrow.” Nate looked up and caught his father – to the right of the group, beer in hand – looking at him with a bemused expression on his face. Nate knew that later, when the moment was right, his dad would come in, smile, and tell him everything was OK. He had the power to do that, and with a few kind words, everything would be made just fine again. Nate would suck it up for now, take the heat, and wait for his father.
    An hour later, Nate was lying on top of his sheets, watching geckos stalk their prey on the high bedroom walls. He tried hard to ignore the antics at his window. All three of them were there – Tristan, Pip, and Richard – ducking down low and popping their heads up and doing anything that came to their minds by way of getting a reaction from Nate. It was a silent pantomime, conducted through the wrought iron burglar bars, entirely in actions and expressions. There were pulled faces, hand gestures, mimed antics, fake strangulations, and all manner of death scenes, and of course, a treasure trove of prisoner and caged animal performances.
    Finally Nate succumbed. “Can’t you guys see I’m in enough trouble already?” He was whispering as loudly as he dared, but in truth there was no way the partygoers on the other side of the house could hear a thing. “Jeez, if my mom finds you out there, she’ll kill me – and you guys, too.”
    Tristan put his hands to his mouth in feigned fear. The others soon followed. “Come on, you big baby. You’re free and clear now. You’re busted and jailed – everyone’s forgotten about you. Come on. Come on out. We’ll go spy on old Judge Harding.”
    â€œNo way, guys. I’m staying put.”
    Tristan pressed it. “Come oooon! ” he said.
    â€œNaw. I can’t.”
    â€œPussy.”
    â€œScrew you, Tristan.”
    And then Richard chimed in from the window sill; all Nate could see of him was his eyes, a tuft of blonde hair and a set of fingers on either side. “Leave the guy alone, Tristan. He doesn’t have to come if he doesn’t want to.” Richard’s eyes flicked up and over to Tristan’s, and the reaction was instantaneous.
    Tristan clipped Richard at the back of his head with an open hand, hard enough to make Richard’s head pitch forward and hit the window sill. Tristan laughed and Richard’s head sank below the sill. In the background, Pip took a step away from them.
    Nate watched the exchange and, inside his head, called Tristan an ass. He would do something about that one of these days. He would do something about the way Tristan always treated Richard.
    Just not today.
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    The Recent Past  
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    The voice was somehow familiar, Nate knew, but that wasn’t enough to pull him from the edge, away from the promise of heavy dark sleep that offered an escape from all this – from everything. It was the tone in the voice that opened his eyes.
    At the