BEFORE

Walker

At first, I think the tapping noise I hear is a branch hitting on our living room window. As I come to, however I realize that someone is throwing pebbles against the glass from the outside. Since the window is half-way open, whoever is doing it has good aim; the rocks are only hitting the top portion of the glass. None of the rocks land inside the cabin.

I look over at the cable box clock and read the numbers on it; 12:30AM.

Who in the world?

I toss my lap blanket off and get up to check it out. I tip-toe over towards the window and stand back behind the drapes to peak out. I can't see who it is; it's too dark. Whoever's throwing pebbles is in the shadows, out of my line of sight.

Leaving me no choice, (I don't want to wake the house up around me) I stick my head out of the bottom part of the window and whisper-shout, "Hey, who's out there?" For my efforts, I am promptly beaned in the eye with a small, hard projectile.

"Ouch! Shit!" I curse, trying to duck back inside, but adding insult to injury, knocking my head on the window frame behind me. "Dammit."

"Walker?" I hear a quiet, female voice call out. "Is that you? Walker?"

I rub the back of my head, before leaning back out to answer her. "Yeah. I'm coming back out. Don't throw anymore rocks at me, Jenny."

"Oh, sorry, Walker."

"On second thought, Jenny, just meet me at the front door," I tell her. "I'll let you in. Just be quiet; everyone is asleep. I don't want to wake any of them up."

"OK," I hear her reply in a whisper.

As I move across the living room, I trip over Cian's sneakers and bang my shin into our coffee table. "Aw! Jeez. Son of a..." I hear a noise upstairs and go silent. I don't know if anyone is up but if not, I want to keep it that way. Limping my way to the door, I creep a little slower, trying to avoid sharp objects and lost articles laying around the floor. Mom is going to flip a lid when she sees the living room in the morning. Cian and I hadn't cleaned up before going to bed.

As I open the front door, and slip outside, Jenny rushes at me. She hugs me tight around the waist. The air goes out of me and I stand frozen to the spot, not having expected her to grab onto me the way she has.

"Ah, Jenny, is everything alright?" I ask tentatively.

"I'm 'fraid cn u sov m hs," was all I could understand when she answers me. Her face is hidden in my chest and she's trembling. I pull my front door closed behind me and walk Jenny over to our porch steps, where we sit down together.

Once we we're comfortable, I look at her and ask, "Ok, you wanna repeat that? I didn't understand a word you said."

"I said", she answers too loudly. "I mean, I said," she repeats much more quietly. "Can I sleep over your house tonight? Will you hold me until I fall asleep?" And she follows that with, "I'm scared."

"You're scared?" I ask in surprise, looking down towards her cabin. "Why? What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"No, nothing like that," she says. "We had a sleepover at my cabin tonight. All the girls from school came, even Suzy Cambridge. I don't know why Siofra even invited her. Anyway, we ended up playing truth or dare. When it was my turn, I accepted a dare," she replies.

"Ok? Then what happened?" I'm still not sure where all this is going.

"So," she sighs. "I take this dare and Suzy Cambridge says I have to sleep outside, overnight, ALONE, in a tent. I couldn't tell her no. I mean, turning down a dare? So not me. Anyway, after watching the movie, "It" with the girls it's time for me to go outside. I was having a fit inside my head, but I'd never give Suzy the satisfaction of knowing she got to me, you know? Fifteen minutes after the movie ends, here I go, trudging into our yard with my tent and a sleeping bag."

I can only imagine, I think to myself. Worrying my lip, I let her continue.

"I'm laying there, and everything is fine until I start to think about that crazy clown from the movie. And, well, I start to get scared. I can't go back inside; the girls would never let me live it down. So, I'm laying in the dark outside, and I'm alone, which by the way, Walker, I hate. I hate being alone, especially in the dark."

"You do?" I ask her, surprised at this confession.

"Yeah," she answers quietly, not meeting my eyes. "When my parents died, I was at the hospital and with everything going on, the nurses kind of forgot about me. I was left alone in this one room overnight, and this patient next door, he came in my room and tried...whatever...I...he never had a chance to do what he wanted...but...well, let's just say, it was a really bad experience for me. Ever since that night, I've slept with a night light on and the door to my bedroom open, just so I can hear my grandparents snore down the hall. I don't ever want to be alone in a hospital, or anywhere else for that matter, ever again."

I close my eyes and try to imagine the scene. I hold my breath and look away so Jenny can't see the instant protectiveness I feel towards her, or the outrage I feel towards the man who tried to hurt her.

"Anyway," Jenny says, rubbing the palm of her hands together, "so there I am tonight, laying under the stars...which should be cool, you know? They're so beautiful..." she exclaims, and then shakes her head before sighing. "and, so I'm in my tent and all of a sudden I hear this grunting noise nearby. I think of that dumb "It" clown, knowing I'm just being crazy, when out of nowhere, here comes this stupid opossum. He pees right on the corner of my tent!"

I can't help it, I start to crack. This is too much.

"Walker, don't. It's not funny!" she says, trying not to laugh herself. "I'm serious! I almost had opossum pee on my head!"

And that's it. We're both rolling around my porch in a fit of hilarity.

"You know," she laughs between our cackles, "it's not all bad."

"Oh, no?" I gasp.

"Nah, before I left for the night, I put Suzy Cambridge's bra and underwear in our freezer. My grandmother taught me that trick. She said kids used to do that to people at slumber parties all the time when she was a girl. Hah! Well, thank you, Grandma, because good ol' Suzy's going to have one frigid wake-up call tomorrow morning. And it'll serve her right for trying to make me sleep outside in the dark like this." I picture Suzy and her frozen underwear and start laughing all over again.

I shake my head and try to clear my mind. Thoughts of Jenny's request quiet me up pretty fast. Jenny wants to sleep over. With me. Oh boy...ah...

"Please, Walker, can I stay here?" she pleads. "It's just for tonight, I promise. I'll set the alarm on my Fit-Timer and it'll wake me up before dawn and I can go back to my tent before anyone sees me."

Out of curiosity, and instead of giving her a response, I ask "How did you know I was sleeping in the living room and not the bedroom I share with Cian?"

She looks a little embarrassed just then, tapping her feet on the porch steps.

"Well, I kind of woke Cian up before I woke you up," she responds nervously.

"What? How? Did you try to crawl into our bedroom window?"

"No. NO! I threw rocks at it and eventually he opened up the window." She rubs her hands together for warmth and scoots a little closer to me, making my heart beat a little faster in my chest. "I hope his eye isn't bruised in the morning..." I hear her mumble to herself.

"His eye?" I ask, amused. I already know what she's going to say, but I ask anyway. "Why would his eye be bruised?"

"Well, I kind of threw a pebble right into his eyeball before he could get out of the way." She answers sheepishly. "I didn't mean to hit him, honest, but, he, well...Anyway, he told me where you were and here we both are."

I can't help myself. I burst out laughing again. Looks like both of Ma's boys will be sporting a shiner in the morning.

"Walker?" I hear her say.

"Huh, what, Jenny?"

"So, can I?" she repeats.

"Can you what?" I ask.

"Can I stay here?" she whispers, looking up at me with her big, green, innocent eyes. "I can't stop thinking about that clown. Why does Stephen King have to write such scary stories? Anyway, it'll just be for tonight. Please?"

Of course, I let her. We sneak back into the house and down the hall to my room. When we get inside my bedroom, I shut the door behind me. Cian turns over to see what the commotion is all about. When he sees Jenny, he raises an eyebrow at me. I tell him I'll explain later. As Cian rolls over towards the bedroom wall, I lift the covers for Jenny and let her get in under them first. Then I crawl on top of them so that we aren't touching in the blankets. Jenny falls sound asleep in seconds. Sometime later, when she flips over and reaches out to hold onto me in her sleep, I forget to breathe. I lay there, thinking about Jenny, all night.

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