Pamucklian for Chocolate

Chapter Eleven

211 eleven B art—whom, even though he had been very polite to Josiah and always shook Josiah’s hand and had helped Josiah hold the pipe to his lips, Josiah did not like that much and wished would go away—drove his car into the farming area outside of town, Bree directing him where to go. It had become dark, Josiah watching as the sun spread pink across the sky before dropping from sight. On a long, straight road with fields on each side and only occasional houses far back from the road, Bree told Bart to begin slowing down, and then to slow down more, and then abruptly ordered him to turn off of the paved road and through a small gate leading them onto a narrow dirt road that ran between two large fields. “What are those?” Bart asked. “Miniature trees?” “Grapevines,” Bree answered. Bart drove along this road for several minutes. Josiah thought that it looked quiet out in the dark fields. He also thought—mostly because the fields were dark and quiet—that they would be good fields for a spaceship to land in. The dirt road they were on intersected another dirt road at the edge of a new set of fields, one on each side of the road, each also quiet and dark. Bree instructed Bart to keep going, until finally they could see ahead of them the outline of trees—full size trees—against the dark sky, growing larger 212 • parnucklian for chocolate until the trees overtook their view of the sky and the road ended and Bree told Bart to stop. Everyone got out of the car and followed Bree into the trees and down a small slope, Bart carrying a paper bag filled with bottles, and all of them stepping on and over sticks and leaves and rocks, until they were standing in the sand of a dried creek bed, slightly lit by the moonlight coming through the gap in the trees that opened over the tiny creek. “Here we are,” said Bree. “I need a cigarette,” said Ariel. “I need a drink,” said Bart. “Let’s sit down,” said Bree, and everyone sat down, forming a skewed circle as they lowered themselves to the sand. Bree pulled her pack of cigarettes from her purse and pulled from the pack a cigarette for herself and a cigarette for Ariel, and Bart pulled from the paper bag six brown bottles surrounded by cardboard, similar to the cardboard surrounding Bree’s ball, and handed two bottles to Bree, Bree passing one to Ariel as they each lit their cigarettes, and Bart passing one to Josiah. The bottle felt cold in Josiah’s hand. It had water running down the side of it. The other members of the circle grabbed and turned the caps of their bottles, removing and tossing them into the sand. “Cheers,” Bart said, and everyone began holding their bottles up and clinking them against each other, Ariel reaching across with her bottle to clink her bottle against Josiah’s, which was still unopened and which he held hovering over his lap. He tried to grab and turn the cap as he had seen the others do but it would not come off, and Bree, who was sitting across the circle from Josiah, was going to tip forward onto her knees and reach across the circle and help Josiah when Ariel, who was sitting next to Josiah on the side opposite, grabbed the bottle from Josiah’s hand and quickly twisted off the cap, dropping it into the sand and handing the bottle back to him, motioning with her own bottle for him to hold his in the air, as the others had done earlier and which Josiah now did, Ariel then clinking her bottle roughly against his. b.h. james • 213 Josiah took a drink. He was surprised by the bitter taste. It seemed to Josiah, as he swallowed the beer, that the strong, bitter taste moved over his tongue and through his throat in layers, each layerstrongerandmorebitter,andhecouldnothelpbutmakeaface. “Try again,” Ariel said to him. As Josiah drank from the bottle the second time, he could tell that across from him Bree was watching , and as the layers again passed through his throat and Josiah again made a face—but less of one—Ariel, who had also been watching, asked, “Better?” Josiah nodded, and continued to take...