of what they’d seen. It was all about showboating, of course: making the newbies and little kids gape in wonder at what a real rider could do.
“You knock out another tooth?” Dag said. Kai grinned widely, showing Dag and Maria his jack-o-lantern mouth.
“It’s my trademark,” Kai told Maria, finally looping her into the conversation. Maria sidled over towards the bar to catch this better.
“He still can’t afford to get them fixed,” Adam said.
“I don’t want to any more,” Kai said. “Everybody recognizes me.”
“He did it last week at the Ripzone meet,” Jeff said to Dag. “Everybody saw it. You were there.”
“No, I wasn’t,” Dag said.
“Sure, our whole tribe was,” Jeff said. “That was his face-plant after he corked his switch Alley-Oop 360. He stood up and took a bow with blood all over his face like he’d been eating corpses.”
“I’m hoping someone got a photo to send to Frequency,” Kai said. “Or that I can post on the net.”
Dag shook his head. “I haven’t been at any event this season except that first run in September.”
That confirmed what Maria had thought, that Dag was an ex- snowboarder. That was one of the things she liked about him, that he wasn’t trying to be a snowsports star like everybody else in town.
There was a light of recognition in Jeff’s eyes. “Oh, shit, yeah, was that the day when you punched your tricks all over the half-pipe? That was a fucking yard sale.”
Dag shrugged. “Yeah, well, once you’ve laid down your masterwork, there’s no point in going back out trying to top it.” He wasn’t laughing it off very convincingly. Another foursome came in the door just then, and he quickly ducked behind Maria to go to the cash instead of her. “Gotta serve the trendoids,” he said. “Try not to get rider sweat all over the chairs, willya?”
The guys turned to take their coffees and sit at a table by the window. The fourth cup still sat on the counter, steaming away. “You’re going to need a hazmat team in there when he’s done,” Adam said to Maria, heading off with his cup, jerking his thumb toward the restroom.
Jared emerged a moment later, looking relieved but sheepish. “Sorry,” he mumbled to Maria. “It’s kind of rank back there. Just the reek, though, no skidmarks,” he added hastily. “This mine?” He grabbed his coffee off the counter. “Who do I owe?” He looked over at the other guys.
“Hey, Jared,” Dag said. “It’s a freebie.”
“Hey, thanks,” Jared said, then did a double take. “Hey!” he said again. “I haven’t clapped eyes on you in eons. What’s it been, six months? How’s it hanging? Where you staying?”
“Jared,” Dag said, and to Maria, he was starting to sound kind of irked, “we live in the same goddamn house. I’m still in the room right below yours.”
“Get the fuck out!” Jared said. “You’re screwing with me!”
“No,” Dag said, “but you’re screwing with Kelly. I hear you guys just about every damn night.”
Jared grinned. “Sorry, dude. We keep you up?”
“Yeah,” Dag said, “you do, actually. I haven’t kept boarder hours for, like, six months now. I work a lot of days here. But it’s not quite as bad as when I had to get up at five all summer to work at the golf course and be in bed by ten every night.”
“Was that you? I thought I heard someone going out just after we came in all the time.” Then a kind of embarrassed look crossed Jared’s face. “Hey, sorry, but I think I’ve been using your shaving cream. Is it a blue can in the upstairs bathroom?”
“You mean the one with my name on it?” Dag said.
“Yeah, that one.”
“Fuck, Jared,” Dag said, “there’s a reason we label all our shit. No wonder I’ve been running out so fast.”
“Well, I thought you moved out and left it behind, so it was up for grabs. Sorry, dude.” He paused. “My coffee still free?”
“You been eating any of my food out of the fridge, too?”
“Uh-uh,” Jared said, shaking his head. “I thought you moved out ages ago—no way was I going to trust food I thought had been around that long.”
“Thank god for that,” Dag said. “Take the damn coffee, dawg.”
When Jared joined the others, they got up to leave. Jeff called over to Dag, “You going to be on the half-pipe tomorrow?”
Maria heard Dag sigh. “I don’t ride any more, Jeff,” he said, still keeping up the friendly tone. “Don’t you remember? You took my goggles when I let all my gear go.”
“Okay, then, see ya around. Thanks for the java.”
The quiet in their wake was deafening. Maria wanted to engage Dag in conversation, especially with Heathen not around. And because she wanted to stick up for him.
“Okay, I followed most of that,” she said as Dag pulled espressos for some new arrivals. “Except for two things. One: were these guys supposed to be your friends? Because it totally sounded like they didn’t even notice you haven’t been hanging with them for two months. And that’s so totally wrong.”
Dag shrugged like he didn’t care. Maria would bet he did, though. “It’s just the snowboarder way of life,” he said. “These guys live in the moment. It’s all about what ride you can get right now, what high you want this minute, what party’s going on tonight. If you’re there this minute, they don’t waste time thinking about whether you’ve been there all along, or whether you’ll be there tomorrow. Whoever turns up to ride, turns up. If somebody doesn’t, no harm, no foul.”
“So once you stopped doing what they were doing and showing up where they showed up, you dropped completely off their radar,” Maria said.
“It’s not exactly like that,” he said. But Maria had seen what she’d seen and heard what she’d heard, and it did sound exactly like that. Dag was starting to look a little tense, though, so she said, “The other thing I didn’t get—‘yard sale’?”
Heathen suddenly arrived from the back, tying her apron on. She jumped in to answer that one without even saying hello. “That’s when you crash so bad that pieces of your clothes and your gear come off, gloves, hat, whatever, all over the snow. It’s like, the most embarrassing kind of wipeout. Who did that?” she asked gleefully. “Anybody I know?”
Maria glanced over at Dag. Without any warning, Dag hurled a coffee cup, which shattered against the wall over the sink.
“I have got to get the fuck out of here,” Dag said. He ripped off his apron and stormed out.
“Jesus!” Heathen was shocked. He was the last person she had expected that kind of behaviour from. Everyone in the place had jumped a foot. Heathen had no idea
