back to Shawn. Sadie placed the Snickers in his palm like a peace offering
and waited, staring at the carpet. Shawn pulled her onto his lap and ate the
bar in three bites.
“You have lovely eyes,” he said. “Just like a fish.”
Sadie’s parents were divorcing and the town was awash in rumors about her
father. When Mother heard the rumors, she said now it made sense why
Shawn had taken an interest in Sadie. “He’s always protected angels with
broken wings,” she said.
Shawn found out Sadie’s class schedule and memorized it. He made a
point of driving to the high school several times a day, particularly at those
times when he knew she’d be moving between buildings. He’d pull over on
the highway and watch her from a distance, too far for her to come over, but
not so far that she wouldn’t see him. It was something we did together, he
and I, nearly every time we went to town, and sometimes when we didn’t
need to go to town at all. Until one day, when Sadie appeared on the steps of
the high school with Charles. They were laughing together; Sadie hadn’t
noticed Shawn’s truck.
I watched his face harden, then relax. He smiled at me. “I have the perfect
punishment,” he said. “I simply won’t see her. All I have to do is not see her,
and she will suffer.”
He was right. When he didn’t return her calls, Sadie became desperate. She
told the boys at school not to walk with her, for fear Shawn would see, and
when Shawn said he disliked one of her friends, she stopped seeing them.
Sadie came to our house every day after school, and I watched the Snickers
incident play out over and over, in different forms, with different objects.
Shawn would ask for a glass of water. When Sadie brought it, he’d want ice.
When she brought that he’d ask for milk, then water again, ice, no ice, then
juice. This could go on for thirty minutes before, in a final test, he would ask
for something we didn’t have. Then Sadie would drive to town to buy it—
vanilla ice cream, fries, a burrito—only to have him demand something else
the moment she got back. The nights they went out, I was grateful.
One night, he came home late and in a strange mood. Everyone was asleep
except me, and I was on the sofa, reading a chapter of scripture before bed.
Shawn plopped down next to me. “Get me a glass of water.”
“You break your leg?” I said.
“Get it, or I won’t drive you to town tomorrow.”