Souls in Peril (3 page)

JD picked himself up, shut his locker, and started for home. He missed the bus in his failed attempt to locate Tim's pen
,
so he now had to walk. That meant he
’d have
to watch out for
The Jerks,
as he and Izzy called them.
His stomach twisted painfully.
They were a gang of kid
s
who found sport in terrorizing geeks like
them
. They didn't say stupid things like Max and his friends did. That he could live with. It hurt, but he'd gotten used to it. Besides, Max seldom bothered him since he started dating Emma. No, these kids, these
jerks
were downright evil. JD wouldn't let his mind dwell on their past escapades.
Too painful.
He also needed to stay in the here and now if he wanted to avoid them
on his way home. He barely escaped yesterday
.
C
ould he be that lucky again?

JD darted
across the open field toward his house. Only two more blocks and he'd be home. He stopped to catch his breath. He knew the risks, but what choice did he have? He was a fat, lazy, butthead
,
and he knew it. The kids who teased him didn't tell him anything he didn't already know.

Squealing tires
meant
he
’
d been spotted. He took off with all the speed he could muster, which wasn't much at this point. His breath came hard now
, and
he worried his chest might explode. The sweat careening down his forehead burned his eyes. He turned into an all
e
y behind a strip mall to his secret refuge: a dumpster behind Pet City, the local pet store. No one in their right mind would hide in a dumpster filled with animal waste.
Unless they were desperate.
And JD was despera
te. He cracked open the lid, sucking
in the last lungful of clean air he'd be breathing for a while, and dove in just as the enemy car bolted down the alley
, skidding to a stop
.

“Where is he?” shouted Nate, the ring leader. JD feared him almost as much as he did Tim. He slowly exhaled as the car door slammed shut.

“I'll bet he's in the dumpster,” Pam, Nate's girlfriend, said. She loved to taunt Izzy. It made JD's blood boil when she did, but he never said anything.
Ever.

“Not even Lumpy would dumpster dive in there,” Nate laughed.

“Come on. Who cares? Let's go get something to eat.” This voice didn't sound familiar to JD and he sig
h
ed
with
relief
knowing
whoever it was wanted food over JD'
s
blood.

“Keep your pants on,” Nate shouted. “Pam, see if he went in the pet store. I'll check the drug store. Mike, you go and—”

“Forget it. I'm not that interested. Either we leave now, or I'm out of here.” JD heard a car door slam again. Footsteps made their way to the dumpster
,
JD to start shaking.

“Nate, if he leaves, we'll have to pay to get into the drive-in. He has the free passes, remember
?
” Pam said.

Nate groaned. “Fine, but tomorrow we don't stop
until
we find Lumpy, got it?” The footsteps retreated before disappearing completely
,
and
the car drove away. JD waited five more minutes
,
just to make sure they were gone
,
before climbing out of the dumpster. He shook off the animal mess from his jeans and t-shirt and started for home,
peering
around carefully as always.

Relief washed over him as his hand landed on the front door screen.

“Where's my pen,
f
at boy?”

The relief was short lived.

Chapter 3

“Max, slow down.
That's your fourth helping of rice.” Sofia
Sánchez
removed the blue glass platter
he’d
emptied and loaded it in
to
the dishwasher. No need to rinse it off, Max
scrapped
the rice dish clean.

“Great rice, Madre.”
Max sprinkled some herbal concoction his mother had put together across his brown rice. It was her way of cutting butter out of the family diet. Max missed not having butter, but as his mother always said, “Your body is a temple. Treat it right and it will treat you right.” Max agreed
,
he just wished butter was on the
okay to eat
list
she
stuck to religiously.

“Everything
wa
s wonderful. Thank you for having me.” Emma smiled at Sofia.

“You are very welcome, dear,” Sofia replied.
Max knew his mother thought that Em
was the perfect girl for
him
.
Strong, smart, and kind.
She often told him that she
couldn't have found a better girl for Max if she tried. He knew she hoped their love would survive the often turbulent years of college. She
loved to talk about
how
beautiful
her grandchildren would
be when the two of them started a family,
and she'd grown quite attached to her fantasy.

“Hey, what about me?
I made the scampi.” Tom
Sánchez
waltzed in from the kitchen holding the last of the shrimp. He dumped it on his plate. Max frowned. “Son, after dinner I think we had better take you to the hospital. I do believe you have a tape worm.”

“I'm a growing boy,
P
api
.” Max leaned back and scrubbed his stomach. “And if I don't beat you at a friendly game of B-ball after dinner, I'm going to be growing the wrong way.” His dad chuckled as he popped one of the shrimp into his mouth.

Emma and Max grabbed the basketball while his parents cleaned the kitchen after dinner. “Max, I think we should help your parents,” Emma whispered to
him
.

“Em, every time I try to help them, they kick me out. My mom has a system for everything
,
and if I don't do it right, she goes behind me redoing it. Anyway, I think she actually likes cleaning.” Max took the ball and swooshed it through the hoop.
“Nuttin’ but net.”

Ten minutes later
,
Max's parents joined him and Emma
,
and the game began
.
Max and his mom on one team, Emma and his dad on the other.

As Max predicted, he
and his mom won, hands down.
“Best three point shooter in the family, right,
dear
?” Sofia bragged to her husband.
And rightfully so, she was indeed the best.

“Yes, dear, you are the best.
After me, naturally.”
His dad grabbed the ball, and with a fancy twist
,
he shot the ball, and missed. It ricocheted off the rim and back into his hands. He playfully bowed before Sofia, presenting her with the ball.

“I have to get going,” Emma said, after a long
,
cold drink of herbal iced tea. “Thanks again for dinner.”

Max walked her out to her car.
“
Are you sure you can’t stay for a little while longer?
I’ll bet my mom will talk my dad into taking us out for frozen yogurt.
”
He
wrapped his arms around her waist and tugged her close.

“Sorry.
Big math test tomorrow.”
She kissed him, a long sweet kiss,
Max’s
favorite kind.
“I love you.”

“
Times ten,” he answered back
, repeating their little ritual
. “
See you tomorrow.” She waved and got in her red Acura. Max watched
her
until
her
car rounded the corner.

“I think
the
loser should buy the winners ice cream at the Burger Barn,” Sofia suggested
to her husband
as
Max strolled into the backyard. Max smiled.

Max turned to his mother, scooped her up in his arms, and set her down carefully in the grass. “Dad, get a cold compress. Mom's delusional. She said the words
ice cream
.” Max fell on the ground next to his mother
,
laughing.

“Very funny.”
Sofia playfully smacked her son on the butt. “If you remember correctly, they sell frozen yogurt.”

“Of course they do.
How foolish of me to forget.”
Max helped his mother up. The family climbed into Tom's new silver sports car and drove to the Burger Barn. As they ate their yogurts, Max couldn't help but reflect on how lucky he wa
s. He had an awesome girlfriend and wonderful parents who loved and
supported him in everything he did.
Life's good
.

Sitting half asleep in the back seat admiring the majestic sunset on the drive home,
Max decided to lay out a plan to help
Larry
. Emma had a good idea. He
should
befriend the guy. He made it his mission to get
Larry
to the gym if it killed him, and he'd teach him the importance of eating right.
Yup.
Larry
would be his project.

Max smiled to himself. He indeed had a good life, a very good life. He laid his head back against the headrest as his father changed the rock and roll radio station to talk radio. Not even that could dampen his spirits tonight.

His mother, however, felt differently. “Dear
!
” she snapped. She hated talk radio more than he
did.

The next sound Max heard was the squeal of tires before his world went black.

Chapter 4

Max struggled to open his eyes, but they wouldn't budge, probably because of the fifty
-
pound weight
s
on each. He felt a bed under him, and soft sheets—very soft sheets, silk maybe? Once again
,
he elongated his face in an effort to open his eyes, but no luck.

“Relax,
Maximiliano
. You're trying too hard. Take a deep breath and count to ten.”

Max freaked
. Who
told
him to relax, and why couldn't he open his
stupid
eyes yet?

“Maximiliano, you must relax. Your spirit is still trying to adjust to life without a body. Stop fighting
it
,” the high-pitched
,
male voice insisted again.

That stopped Max. He even stopped breathing.
Wait, am I breathing?
Max
couldn’t tell
because now he wasn't doing anything but panicking. He strained to hear sounds, any familiar sound, but there were none, familiar or otherwise. No calming voice of his moth
er, no laughter from his father.
Nothing.

Max had enough. He jerked his body upright. The silky sheet covering
his body
, his very
naked
body, slid to his waist. The shock of being naked in a strange place was just what he needed
to
infused him with the energy
necessary
to open his eyes. He blinked twice, fell back on the bed, and slammed them shut again.

He was dreaming. That alone br
ought relief to his poor heart
as he calmed himself.

Okay, Max, what's the last thing you remember doing?
A slow wave of memories flooded over him: scooping up rice, playing basketball with Emma, and eating ice cream. He frowned. Not ice cream, frozen yogurt. An icy cold feeling started in his toes and crept up his body as the memories grew stronger and more vivid. Emma cheering him on as they played basketball with his family
,
even though they were on opposing teams,
kissing Emma good night,
the car ride to
the Burger
Barn,
screeching tires before the world went black. He'd been in a car wreck. His
family
had been in a car wreck.

He opened his eyes again, this time grateful he didn't have to work so hard
at it
. He peered about the room, the
white
,
cold
, immaculate room. He shifted his head to one side and caught a glimpse of someone holding a
clipboard
in his hand. Max sat back up slowly, keeping the sheet tight around him. He realized he wasn't in a bed, but rather on a table, like those in doctor's offices, only this one was extremely comfortable.