‘Pretty Lies: Eyes Full of Moon’ by Mel Anastasiou

Malcolm Lee dropped his hand, and the green Ford Galaxie sped by with Jenny Riley at the wheel. She didn’t wave back, which came as no surprise. He swung the bag of marshmallows at his side, thankful to be young, employed and unloved by any woman.

“That Jenny is worth knowing.” Adrian pulled up his yellow shirt and slapped at an insect on his chest. He missed. “Bloody hands and a mysterious way about her. I think I’m in love.”

“I know where she lives. I saw her house.” A skinny kid named Ketchup followed this announcement with kissy noises. Adrian gave him a barbecue chip and he subsided.

“In love? Be my guest.” Malcolm kicked a cluster of white everlasting at the side of the road. He and Adrian had been friends since kindergarten, and these days he had to work hard not to hate him. “Anyway, the only thing you love is — ”

“Shut up.” Adrian shot him a deadly look and then laughed. “Poor Malcolm. Do you want to know what love is, Malcolm? Do you want to know the secret?”

Malcolm looked away. “There is no secret. It’s all on TV.” 

“The secret is that love is all around. Look — over there, love is an alder tree. Male and female in the same plant.” 

“Tie a can to it,” Malcolm said, without hope. 

Adrian pointed at a stand of evergreens. “Love is a small brown bird twittering in a tree. Love is pinecones with their dark seed pods no man has ever seen. Look around you, Malcolm, because here are the most beautiful fruits of love — these horrible children in yellow shirts. That’s what love produces.”

Malcolm snatched up an alder branch from the side of the road and snapped off the twigs, then cursed as someone stepped on the heel of his shoe. He turned to find Ketchup at his back. Ketchup wrestled the stick away from him and ran off, whacking the salmonberry bushes. 

“Get off the road,” Malcolm shouted. Ketchup stuck out his thumb at a pickup. It rolled by him. 

“You can’t protect them,” Adrian said. “It’s impossible.”

“It’s literally our job, Adrian.” 

“Then we’re earning money for nothing. What a happy thought. To celebrate, I’m going into the woods for a pee.”

“I’m coming too,” Ketchup called, waving his stick and nearly taking out the eye of the kid on his right.

Adrian said over his shoulder, “No, you’ll pee out your cabin window the way God intended.”

Malcolm watched him go. He switched the bag of marshmallows to the hand furthest from the kids and jerked the stick away from Ketchup. He threw it towards the trail Adrian had taken into the woods. 

Adrian wasn’t going for a pee. You can’t protect them. 

He pushed the thought away. Instead he considered his encounters with Jenny Riley, yesterday on the ferry and today in the store. He thought about her grey eyes, warm when they looked at you, sad when they looked away, and how the wind had caught her long brown hair as she’d stood on the ferry deck and gazed out to sea.