Accidental Evil (8 page)

“Yes?” he asked.

The inside of the house behind him was lost in darkness. She could only see his face and the bright outline of the window on the backside of the house behind him.

“I just thought you should know—I walked Ms. Yettin home.” She pumped her finger up towards the second floor so he would know what she was talking about. “She was down near the Grill.”

“Okay. Thank you so much,” he said. He didn’t move to shut the door.

“She seemed a little confused,” Lily said, as she tucked her hair behind her ear. She wanted him to acknowledge that it had been wrong for the woman to be walking around. It didn’t seem like she was going to get her wish.

He angled the door slightly more closed so she was just looking at the center of his face.
 

When he spoke again, his voice was lower, like he was telling her a secret. “It’s harder now that Roger is back in jail. I’m not sure why, but his visits helped level her out.”

Lily tried to think of something to say. It wasn’t her place—she was just a kid. Lily desperately wanted to help. “If there’s anything my family can do, Mr. Yettin… We all feel bad about what has happened, and…”

She didn’t get to finish the thought. The door was finally all the way closed.

Lily picked up her bike and walked it back out to the street.

[ Winding ]

Lily walked her bike along the shoreline. It was tough going, but it gave her time to think. Nobody ever took her seriously. When she attacked a problem, she could make real changes, but nobody ever believed in her enough to let her help. She was too young, too skinny, and too blond. Mr. Yettin had just closed the door in her face. Why should he listen to a little girl’s ideas about his niece?

The worst part was that Ms. Yettin had been one of the few adults who had believed in Lily. They had tackled the cat shelter problem together, and that had been all Lily’s idea. Together, they had saved the lives of countless cats and helped a couple of families understand how they could help control the stray cat population. Everyone had won. It never would have happened if Ms. Yettin hadn’t believed in Lily, but it also never would have happened if Lily hadn’t kept pushing. Now Ms. Yettin was the one who needed help and there was nobody who would believe in Lily enough to help.

She stopped her bike.

A group of three kids—mushroom heads—were squatting on the grass, feeding the ducks. Lately it seemed like most of the Summer Kids were mushroom heads. It was Sarah’s term for those kids who had big round bowls of hair on top of their heads. These kids looked like they were wearing helmets of hair.

“Not too much,” Lily said. The three kids had a whole loaf of bread in a bag. Her sister Elizabeth said that ducks were too stupid to know when to stop eating.

“Too much what?” the girl asked. Lily was lucky. She was able to talk to the Summer Kids without them sneering at her. If Sarah or Jenny tried to instruct the kids, they would have been quickly dismissed. Lily had been born less than ten miles from Kingston Lakes, but she would always be “From Away.” Some families were locals and some were From Away, and the two were never confused by Summer Kids. Lily didn’t know how they detected it, but they always did.

“Too much bread,” Lily said. “It’s good to give them a little bread—maybe a slice or two—but if you give them the whole loaf, it can be bad for them.”

“They’re stupid,” one of the boys said. Lily nodded.
 

“Is it true that these ducks are the ones they have for dinner?” a boy asked.

“No,” Lily said. The Kingston Village Inn restaurant was famous for its duck dinner. “No, those ducks come from up the road. There’s a farm on the left as you’re headed up towards Farmington.”

“Those are turkeys,” the girl said.

“They have ducks there too,” Lily said. Maybe it was the fact that she was willing to talk to the Summer Kids—maybe that’s why they didn’t sneer at her. The only time Sarah talked to Summer Kids was when she was taking their ice cream order. She would have never talked to these kids. Sarah probably would have never even walked along this part of the shore. This was a place where people vacationed. Sarah stuck to more practical places.

One of the boys snatched the bag of bread and that seemed to break the spell. The mushroom head Summer Kids all ran back around the building to find their parents. Rooms at the Kingston Village Inn were small, but nice. Lily couldn’t even imagine how much their parents were paying for the privilege of staying there in the height of summer. With all that money, they should be able to afford a nanny to watch the kids and make sure they didn’t overfeed all the local ducks.
 

Lily cocked her head—maybe that was the solution. Maybe Ms. Yettin could be a nanny for Summer Kids. There were always tons of them running around, and Ms. Yettin had nothing but time. She shook the idea out of her head. It was stupid. Ms. Yettin seemed way too crazy. Nobody would ever trust her with their kids.

Lily pushed her bike through the grass and rolled it up the stone path that led back up towards the road. It was easy to save the ducks, and at one point in the past she and Ms. Yettin had managed to save a bunch of cats. Now she just had to think of a way to save Ms. Yettin.

When she saw a familiar stride walking up the road, Lily pushed faster. As soon as she was close enough, she called.

“Jenny!”

[ Job ]

J
ENNY
SPOTTED
L
ILY
DOWN
the path. She picked up her pace and hoped that the girl didn’t see her.

“Jenny!” Lily yelled.

Jenny stopped with a sigh. She had been spotted. It wouldn’t do any good to keep walking. The girl would catch up with her eventually. The town wasn’t big enough for Jenny to avoid Lily for long.

She put on a fake smile as Lily approached. “Hi,” she said.

“How did it go?” Lily asked.

Jenny knew exactly what she was talking about, but it wasn’t something she wanted to discuss. She played dumb. “What?”

“The job!” Lily said. She bounced the front tire of her bike with excitement. It made Jenny sick. Lily was a girl who would never have to work for anything. It was nauseating that she would get so excited over someone else getting a job. And to make things worse, Jenny hadn’t even gotten the job. Without the work, she would never have enough money to buy a car, and she was going to be sixteen before the school year started. If she didn’t have a car to drive on the first day of school, she would be devastated.
 

Now Lily—who would never have to work for the money to buy a car—wanted a news report on Jenny’s failure.

“I didn’t get it,” Jenny said.
 

“What?” Lily asked. Her face froze with shock. She stopped bouncing the bike.

Jenny frowned and started walking again. “I didn’t get it, okay? What else is there to say?”

“But why? What about your dad? Couldn’t he put in a good word for you?”

“He doesn’t have to put in a good word for me,” Jenny said. “He owns the whole damn building. If he wanted me to have the job, I would have it. He must not want me to work. That’s all it can be.” She walked quickly and barely gave Lily enough room on the sidewalk for her and her bike. Lily was forced to slip behind Jenny and shout her end of the conversation.

“Did you hear about Jeffrey Cormier?” Lily asked.

Jenny’s stride hitched a tiny bit. She couldn’t help it. His was one name that would always make her pause. “What about him?”

“He ran off with Carla Gault,” Lily said. Jenny slowed down and let her come even on her other side.
 

“Where did they go?” Jenny asked. Her eyes darted around as she tried to remember the last time she had seen Carla. Was there a chance that Carla had maybe been sporting a little extra bump at her waistline? Did Jeffrey get Carla in trouble? The last she’d heard, Jeffrey and Carla weren’t even a couple. Yes, they liked to hang around together, but there was nothing romantic. But who knew what had happened once Jeffrey had moved out of his father’s house and into the bunkhouse over the big barn. Jenny had heard stories of really good parties up there, but she had never been invited to any. Those parties were for older kids.
 

“Nobody knows for sure,” Lily said. “Listen, you can’t tell anyone. I’m not even supposed to know. If Mr. Cormier finds out, Sarah will kill us.”

“Relax. Who would I tell?” Jenny asked.

One of the cars rolling slowly by honked their horn. Jenny raised a hand to the boy.

“Who was that?” Lily asked.

“Danny Crosby. He goes to Maranacook. You don’t know him.”
 

Lily whipped her head around to try to get a better look at the boy and Jenny smiled. Truth be told, she wasn’t entirely sure it was Danny Crosby. The license plates were from New Hampshire, so it could have been some random boy. She liked the look of awe that settled on Lily’s face though. She ought to be in awe. Jenny was way more mature than Lily or even Sarah, who was nearly a year older.

“Are you going to the show tonight?” Lily asked. “Maybe we could ride bikes down there and sit together.”

“I might go,” Jenny said. “But I’m not riding bikes.” She frowned down at Lily’s bike. The thing was absurd. It was way too big for Lily and clearly a hand-me-down from her older sister, Elizabeth. Her sister was way taller, way more pretty, and had looked completely natural on that bike. Lily looked like a child when she tried to ride it.

“How will you get there?”

“I’ll get a ride from someone. I don’t know,” Jenny said.

“Find me if you go,” Lily said. She angled her bike towards the crosswalk. The cars already started to slow down as she neared the crosswalk. Everyone—even the Summer People—knew you had to stop for the crosswalk.
 

“Okay,” Jenny said. She didn’t mean it. If she went, and she probably wouldn’t, she would find someone better to sit with.
 

“Bye!” Lily said. She rolled across the road between the cars before she got on her bike again. Jenny watched as it wobbled until Lily got enough speed to be stable.

Jenny shook her head. With a car, she could hang out with fun people. She could go to the decent parties and find some older boy who was interested in more mature things. Sarah and Lily seemed like they were trying to stay little girls forever. Jenny wanted more, and she had no intention of waiting any longer.

With that in mind, she picked up her pace. She knew just where her father would be.

[ Boss ]

She saw him from fifty yards way. It was his yellow hat that made him stand out. All the people who worked for her father wore orange hats. His yellow one let everyone know that he was the boss.

She marched right up to him and folded her arms, just like his.

“Dad, we need to talk,” Jenny said.

“I’m a little busy at the moment, sweetheart.”

To her eyes, he didn’t seem to be doing anything at all. He just stood there, watching the other men as they carried supplies from the truck into the little camp. It must have been like a clown car inside—there were way too many men going in and out of the tiny building. She couldn’t even imagine where they were putting all the lumber, pipes, and shingles.

“It won’t take but a minute,” Jenny said. The important thing with her father was to be assertive and not take “no” for an answer. She knew she had to press on, even if he it seemed like she was being a bitch.

“Sweetie, we can talk over dinner,” he said. “Right now I’ve got thirteen guys on a two man job. This has to get done pronto or I’ll lose a lot of money on this place this summer. Don’t you want to go to a nice college when you get older?”

“Of course.”

“Then you have to let me do my job now. You can’t let your immediate needs overshadow your long-term goals, sweetie. You have to always remember that.”

“Okay, but you can listen to me talk while you watch them for mistakes or whatever, right?”

Her father sighed. “What is it?”

“I need a job. I was turned down at your Bottle Redemption Center today.”

“Hold on,” he said, putting up his hands. His eyes were locked on the men, but he seemed to be listening. “First off, that’s not
my
Bottle Redemption Center. I’m on the board that manages the collection of them.”

“You started it, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but then in…”

“And you make decisions about which one stays open and which one closes, right?”

“We have performance-based metrics that we consult…” he stopped himself and cupped his hands around his mouth to yell. “Gary! You and Frank take that upstairs to the loft, got it? Don’t leave that on the first floor.” The men shifted the heavy box in their arms. One of them glanced at the building and then back to her dad. He seemed to want to say something, but instead Gary and Frank exchanged a few words and carried the box into the building.

Kirk Hilliard nodded and then turned back to his daughter. “What was I saying?”

“You were saying that I would be a great employee, and any of your stores should be thrilled to hire me. I know the business and I’m a hard worker.”

He reached to ruffle her hair, like he used to do when she was a little girl. She pulled back and gave him a warning look. She was a little girl when
she
wanted to be. Now was not the time.

“Listen,” he said. “They have to make their own decisions because they’re responsible for the outcome. I wouldn’t let them come to me in a month with lower-than-average profits and make some excuse about how their margins were down because they hired the boss’s daughter. I won’t let them make that excuse, so I won’t tell them who to hire.”

“This is me, Dad. I have to get that job or I can’t get the car. Remember?”

“I’m not saying you can’t have a job. I’m just saying that I’m not going to pull the strings to get you one. You don’t want to work in bottle redemption anyway. Those guys bust their humps for pennies. Trust me, it’s not a fun summer excursion.”

“I don’t care about fun,” she said. She held herself still so she wouldn’t stomp her feet. That would be a fast way to being dismissed. “I want a job.”