The Boy in the Tunnel

Fall 1997, Chapter 37: Kenya

When Kenya woke up alone in her room in Miss R on Monday morning, it was the first time in a week that she hadn't felt alone. Joanie's absence was no longer a presence unto itself. She hadn't expected to see Joanie there, and so she felt no disappointment when Joanie wasn't there.

It would have been a lie to say she forgot about Joanie. She couldn't just forget about Joanie. But she could let Joanie, and Charlie, and Sarah and Audrey and everything else, recede from the forefront of her mind. Let them drift off into the stars like aliens sucked out of an airlock, until they were no more than pinpricks of light against the great black void.

Chet was waiting for her outside, shoeless on the freshly mowed grass of the quad. He looked asleep on his feet, but when he saw Kenya walk out of the dorm his face exploded into life like he'd been given a jump-start. He was smitten, and Kenya couldn't help but bask in the light he reflected back to her. At least for now.

He met her at the bottom of the steps with a kiss. He smelled like toothpaste and Right Guard, barely masking the just-woken-up funk. It wasn't a bad funk. She reserved the right to change her mind in a few weeks, or a few days, but for now his smell intrigued more than it disgusted. "You need a shower," she said, half expecting him to say Only if you join me. If he did, she would.

"I don't have class till noon." He walked her to the bus stop instead, and waited with her until the Blue Line showed up to take her to class.

The bus rolled up Suttledge to the next stop at the Student Union. Students swarmed onto the bus. A girl sat in the empty seat next to Kenya, her bony elbow poking into her side. Kenya tried to make herself even smaller in the cramped space next to the window.

The bus took off again. "Kenya, it's me," said the girl. Kenya looked up at Sarah sitting next to her. She looked terrible. A funk came off of her, not unlike Chet's.

"Sarah? What happened?"

"What happened?" Sarah picked at a scab on her arm. "What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"We were supposed to keeping tabs on this Alex guy, remember? I've been following him all weekend."

"Come on." It seemed so long ago, Charlie telling them to follow Alex. It was light from a dead star, one of billions in the galaxy that now occupied her mind.

"You come on. You're the one who said he was a Dead Man."

"When was the last time you slept?"

"Don't worry about it." She picked at the scab again.

"You need to go take a shower and get some sleep. Maybe not in that order. But you definitely need both."

Sarah put a finger to Kenya's lips. "Shhh." The bus pulled to a stop in front of Thorn Hall. Before Kenya could even get mad at Sarah, she was out of the seat, fidgeting as passengers disembarked. "Come on!" Sarah grabbed for Kenya's wrist.

"Just stop touching me, all right?" Kenya got up and followed Sarah off the bus. "What are we doing?"

"Quiet," Sarah said. She pointed to a head of artfully disheveled black hair, part of a scrum of students moving up the path to Thorn Hall. Alex.

"I didn't think he was ever up this early," said Kenya.

"He's always up," said Sarah. She stared at Alex's head, like she was trying to will it to explode. Sarah's own hair was starting to mat and clump, ends sticking out at irregular angles. She had a food stain of some kind on her cheek. Kenya had never seen Sarah this agitated. She was always so in control. Even when she threw up on Kenya, the night they met, she seemed like she knew exactly what she was doing.