Never Wake by Gabrielle Goldsby Page A

naked women?” Hoyt sounded like he had just heard a funny joke. He sometimes sounded like that during football season and he’d already had the first of what would be several beers. The Boy almost liked him then. Almost.
    “That’s it, ain’t it? You think if you become a doctor you get to look at girls’ bodies and shit. Bet you’d get to do all kinds of nasty shit, too.”
    Heat started in his hands and radiated up his arms and neck and to the top of his head. He was getting angry, so angry that if he didn’t know for a fact that Hoyt would hurt him, he would lie on his back and try with all his might to kick Hoyt’s head through the window. Hoyt didn’t know shit about being a doctor. He swore up and down that he had never even been to one. Doctor Rose had let The Boy use the stethoscope to listen to his own heart. He had told him about the operations he had performed. The Boy hadn’t told him about his own operations, but he wanted too. He could be a doctor if he wanted to. And once he became a doctor, he would show Hoyt.
    “I bet you think you’re smarter than me, don’t you, boy” The question was quiet, too quiet, and all of the anger that had been settled on the top of The Boy’s head now eased down to his pelvis. He had to pee again.
    “Naw, sir,” he said out loud. But secretly, way in the back of his head, he was screaming. Yes, you big dumb bag of shit on fire. I am smarter than you. Ms. Carter thinks I can be a doctor. You ain’t even smart enough to go to one when you’re sick. I am smarter than you and better than you. All of this flew through his head at the speed of light with so much anger and power that it surprised even him. Up until that point, he hadn’t realized that he hated Hoyt.
    The first blow caught him by surprise. He rocked up against the door, but didn’t utter a sound. Crying made it worse. He didn’t look at Hoyt either; he just waited for the next one. The threat of it hung in the air between them the same way it had for as long as The Boy could remember.

    *

    “I was just thinking.”
    “About how much you suck at spades?” Emma asked without looking up from the copy of Little Women that Troy had “checked out” of the library for her.
    “No.” Troy still felt miffed at having lost to Emma. The smirk on Emma’s face would have been annoying if she wasn’t so damned cute about it. Troy was sprawled on the floor next to Emma’s window seat. The copy of Pride and Prejudice that Emma had insisted that she read was between her elbows. She hadn’t admitted that she was enjoying it yet, and she wouldn’t for a while.
    “No, you weren’t thinking about how much you suck at spades or…?”
    “I do not suck at spades.” Emma looked up then, and Troy had to back down. “I really like that game,” she said in a quiet voice.
    A small dimple appeared at the side of Emma’s mouth. “Yeah, but you suck at it.”
    “I taught you how to play!”
    Emma gave her a perfect “your point is?” look, which Troy had also taught her.
    “Yeah, well you suck at Monopoly,” Troy said, quite smug in the knowledge that she had beaten Emma the last three times they had played.
    “We’ll see who sucks tonight.” The dimple disappeared behind the cover of Little Women , and Troy picked up her mug of tea and filled her mouth with the hot liquid to keep from laughing. Would she ever get used to being around someone so innocent? Emma would say things like that and not have the least idea how sexual it sounded. At least Troy didn’t think she did.
    “As I was saying, you rude little thing, if everyone was just asleep, wouldn’t they be emaciated? Dying from starvation?
    Frowning, Emma looked up from her book. The little dimple was gone.
    “I can’t believe I didn’t think about that. Sleeping or not, it’s been two weeks; they should all be either dead or dying.”
    “That’s what I thought, too.”
    “Have you seen any dead people?”
    Troy shrugged.
    “I don’t