The Serpent's Kiss

71

Michael Church and Ray Moretti were crashed out in Ray’s bedroom, door closed, playing Battlefront on Ray’s Playstation 2. Michael was getting creamed. Generally he and Ray ran neck-and-neck with video games, though Ray had a slight advantage because he played more than he did. But today his concentration was a mess. He couldn’t keep his mind off the dead body he’d seen, what he’d learned about his dad, and everything else that was going on, including the feeling that something had happened between him and Ray’s sister, Ann. Some connection, or something. He really couldn’t keep his mind off her.

Ray crowed as his storm trooper took out an enemy outpost with a grenade. “Take that, rebel scum!”

Michael rolled his eyes. Ray was wired. Wired even more than usual. He wondered if Ray had popped something, ecstasy or more likely speed. He didn’t know if Ray was into stuff stronger than pot, though it wouldn’t surprise him. He sensed he and Ray were coming up on some sort of crossroad. He felt like maybe there were choices he had to make. Choices like: be like Ray and get high and spend all your time chasing girls and playing video games, or think about his life and get serious about doing things, getting things done, like Ann and her plans for college and medical school. It was coming, though he really only sensed it. He couldn’t identify it or verbalize it. Just a sense that more was being demanded of him and it was up to him to make those choices.

Maybe it was the concert tonight that had Ray so manic. Michael felt uneasy about that. His mom had definitely not given him permission. He knew that what he should do is just pass, say, “No, man, Mom said no, I’m going to go home.” Go home, workout, do his homework, watch some TV.

“When’re your parents getting home?” Michael asked.

Ray shrugged. “We’ll be gone before they get here. You know, Mom won’t be home ‘til six, six-thirty, and Dad, who knows. He works all the time.”

If there was any bitterness in that, Michael couldn’t hear it, though he wasn’t really listening for it, either.

“They’re cool about us going to the concert, huh?”

“They don’t give a shit,” Ray said, shifting the game to another planet.

“I don’t know if I should go.” He threw it out there tentatively, trying to convince himself, see what Ray’s reaction would be.

Ray froze, then jerked toward him. “Hey! What the fuck are you talking about?”

“My mom, you know, she, like, you know, she didn’t want me to go, and all this shit today…”

“No fuckin’ way! Pussy! Don’t back out on me here. This is going to be fuckin’ great! J Slim! And shit, I got those I.D.s I was telling you about.”

“What?”

“I showed you, didn’t I?”

Michael shook his head.

“Oh man,” Ray said. “That’s right. I got them this afternoon. You remember the picture I took, right?”

Michael shook his head. Ray was always fooling around with his digital camera, though he used it mostly to snap shots of girl’s asses and tits.

Ray jumped up and scrounged through his backpack, coming up with two Michigan driver’s licenses. He tossed one to Michael. It looked like an official driver’s license. And there was his photograph. But his birth date had been changed, making him twenty-one years old.

He didn’t know what to say.

“Isn’t that bomb, dude? We can get drinks, no problem. Hell, we can go anywhere. There’s got to be a topless place around somewhere. Or maybe later we can head over to Windsor, you know…”

If anything, Michael felt even more uneasy than before. Going to the concert would get his mom all worked up, no doubt about it. He didn’t expect her home tonight, though he was mildly surprised he hadn’t heard from her yet. Usually she was real good about calling him if she was going to be late. And that made him worry for her a little bit. Just a tiny bit of fear, because he knew that this Serpent guy was a scary dude. Anybody who could murder somebody by taping their mouth and nose shut was evil.

If she didn’t come home and he went to the concert and she found out, she’d be pissed. But if she found out they had used fake I.D.s, well…

“I don’t know, Ray.”

“Hey, I paid good money for these. Just stick it in your wallet and shut up.”

“I—”

Michael’s phone chirped. He just about jumped out of his skin. He yanked it off his belt, noted that it was from his mom and held the phone to his ear.

“Michael, it’s mom.”

“You okay?” It was the first thing that came to his lips. Not, “Yeah,” or “hey” or “Hi.” But, “You okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m sorry, Michael, but I’m still working this case. I don’t know when I’ll be home tonight. There’s some hamburgers in the freezer, or you know, spaghetti. You can fix—”

”I’m eating with Ray.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Mom, what’s going on? I mean, with The Serpent? Do you know who he is? Was there another attack?”

“There was something planned at the Greektown Casino, but the… Michael, I really can’t talk about this now.”

“Mom!”

“Michael, I’m on a cell phone!”

“But you told me—”

”Michael, you can’t talk about this. All right? Dr. Stillwater and I are still working on this. I want you to be… look, Michael. If you watch the TV news or the radio, you’re going to hear some things—”

”What things?” Michael sat bolt upright, alarm radiating through his body.

“Just some things. Things about me and about Dr. Stillwater and some things about The Serpent. Don’t believe them. Okay? They’re not true. But we’re still working this case. Just don’t tell anybody we’re still working this case.”

“I don’t—”

”You’ll be all right? I’ll call you later. I’ve got to go now, Michael. I love you.”

“Mom—”

She clicked off. Michael stared at the phone, unbelieving. He lurched forward and popped off the video game and turned the TV to channel 7 to catch the news. That dopey guy, Steve Shay, was doing a report at the Greektown Casino. “…and the Special Agent-in-Charge, Matthew Gray, says an FBI agent, Jillian Church, has been suspended pending an investigation into allegations of inappropriate conduct—”

The picture jumped to Gray’s statement. Michael scowled. He hated Gray. His mom had some sort of thing going with him at one time or another, something, he didn’t know exactly what. Not like they were dating or anything, but something. He didn’t know if they’d screwed or what, and he didn’t think of his mom like that, found it hard to believe. He knew there had been some time when she had been kind of gushy about the guy, “Matt says this” and “Matt did that,” like she was hot for the guy, like he was the king turd of shit mountain. Then something happened and she got real tense at work and at home and she never talked about Matt any more. And now the guy was dissing her on TV, and saying the same thing about Stillwater.

“Fuck, dude,” Ray said. “That sucks.”

“Shut up.”

“Oh, defending your mommy?”

“Shut the fuck up. Asshole.”

“Hey, chill. You know your mom’s cool.”

Michael gritted his teeth. But she wasn’t telling him what was going on. He felt so confused. His thoughts were like a school of fish that twisted and turned just out of reach. Like trying to catch smoke with your hands.

“Hey,” Ray said. “You want to go test out these I.D.s? We’ll go to Hoops before the concert. They should be open. We can have a couple beers with dinner. What ya think?”

Michael felt a wave of anger wash over him. Why wouldn’t she treat him like an adult? Why was she always locking him out? Dammit! He nodded his head. “Yeah. Fine. Let’s do that. Let’s go.”