The Orphans of Race Point: A Novel by Patry Francis Page A

mouth.
    Gus laughed. “Who’s Stuart? And what does he know about how bad I needed to kiss you?”
    “Stuart’s my next door neighbor, and he’s very intuitive, especially when it comes to things like this. Last night when I was up on the widow’s walk thinking about you, he heard me.”
    “He heard you thinking ? Wow, I guess the guy is intuitive.”
    “Okay, I was talking to myself, all right? Talking to myself and pretending I was talking to you. Are you happy?”
    “Yeah, to tell you the truth, I am . This last month, I’ve been happier than I’ve ever been in my whole messed-up life.”
    “Me, too,” Hallie said softly, but she didn’t dare to speak the words too loud. She knew about that kind of happiness and she mistrusted it almost as much as Gus did. It was in every photograph of her parents together. It beamed from Liz Cooper’s eyes as she smiled at the man behind the camera. Briefly, it had made her and Nick invincible, and then it stripped them naked. Happiness, Hallie thought, had ruined her father’s life. But now she understood Nick’s secret: it had been worth it. For him, it was still worth it.
    “One favor?” she said.
    Gus lifted his chin.
    “Promise me you won’t fight this anymore. Promise me you’ll let us have it.”
    Gus didn’t say anything. He just stood there with his hands resting on his hips. The answer was a blaze in his eyes, a subtle upturning of his lips.
    “I’ll be over to get my bike later, okay?” she said, signaling she didn’t want him to come any farther. Then, while Gus stood on the corner where he had grazed her lips with his mouth, she wove through the colorful street. She started off walking, but by the time she reached her house, she was running. And breathless.
     
    L ater, Hallie went to the phone and dialed his number. It was after midnight, but she was sure Gus would be awake. He answered on the first ring.
    “Do you want to see my roof?” she said.
    “ Now? Nick would probably nail me with Captain Thorne’s whaling harpoon if he caught me.”
    “There’s a wrought-iron fire escape out back. No one’s used it in years, and it’s pretty rusted, so be careful. I’ll bring a flashlight.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “I went to your church,” she said. “Now it’s time for you to visit mine.”
    When she heard the dial tone, Hallie thought they must have been disconnected. But within ten minutes, she saw Gus smiling up at her from the bay side of the house. She shone her light on him as he climbed the precarious fire escape to the roof. Then he sat beside her on the quilt. The stars were particularly bright against the black night. Her cathedral had never been more glorious.
    When Hallie tried to speak, Gus put his finger over her lips. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to talk in church?”
    “My church isn’t like that,” she started to say. But he shushed her with his mouth. The kiss began as gently as the one on the street, but this time nothing could keep back the hunger behind it. When a loose board crackled beneath them, Hallie pulled away. “Maybe we should go inside.”
    Gus lifted the hatchway door that led to the attic. “You’re sure your father’s asleep?”
    “He gets up at five,” Hallie said, as if that were an answer.
    The attic was dark and littered with the detritus of the past. Stuart’s lights were still on next door, and not wanting to attract his attention, Hallie resisted the impulse to illuminate the space. In the weak moonlight, they could see the outline of old boxes filled with Liz Cooper’s possessions, things Nick found too valuable to throw away, though no one would ever use them again.
    Gus kissed her in the center of the room. He lifted her up and spun her in a slow circle, still kissing her until they moved dizzily across the room, then pressed her against the wall. All the riotous emotions they had been storing up in the past month, maybe for all their lives, were in that kiss—wonder and