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I decided to ignore her. It wasn’t my fault Mom didn’t like our days at the beach, but I was usually the one who ultimately paid for it.
Joey joined me at the water’s edge. “You know, if you want it to skip, you’re going to have to hold it the right way.”
He picked up a stone and showed me how to hold it, flat between the thumb and forefinger. I watched as he bent down and sent it skimming across the top of the still sea water. It bounced at least four times.
“See, it’s all in the angle.” He grinned proudly. A gentle wind came off the water and played in his floppy, sun-kissed hair as he picked up another rock and handed it to me. “Now you try.”
I looked down at the water lapping at our feet and then at the rock in my hand, but when I looked back at Joey, he wasn’t the sweet boy with the dimpled smile anymore. He was a grown man with facial hair and sweaty armpits. He looked strung out and impatient. Drugs had taken their toll, and his skin was pale and his cheeks hollow, his eyes yellow and sickly.
But it was what I saw in them that really sent a shiver rolling through me.
Menace.
There was something not right with him. Something frightening and cruel that I’d never seen before.
I glanced over to my mom and dad, but they were gone.
So had the sun.
Gray clouds gathered at the horizon, and an oppressive heaviness hung in the air.
“This is what you wanted, wasn’t it?” he said angrily.
“What do you mean?”
“You wanted me to be dead.”
I took a step away from him. “How can you say that?”
“Because you know.”
“Know what?” He wasn’t making any sense. “Joey, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
And suddenly, we weren’t at the beach anymore. We were in the garage of our family home in Dorchester, standing in a tiny ribbon of light beaming into the room from inside the house.
“Why are you looking so frightened of me, sister?”
The darkness in his voice sent a shiver up my spine.
“I’m not frightened,” I lied.
“You believe what they say about me, don’t you… sister?”
“No, I don’t,” I snapped out.
“Then why haven’t you done it yet?”
“Done what?”
“You know.” He circled me like a predator stalking his prey. “It.”
“I… I don’t know.” I hugged my arms around my waist. I didn’t feel safe, and I wanted to leave this garage. I wanted to get far away from my brother, and I didn’t know why. I’d never seen him like that before, and I didn’t like it.
“It’s because you’re in love with him.” He stopped moving, but his stillness was just as creepy. “And you love him more than you ever loved me.”
I met his gaze and saw the madness there.
“That’s not true,” I whispered.
