by Alia Hess
She chuckled and took the container, pulling off the lid. “Oh, wow. Thanks! Hope you like this color, because when I kiss you you’re going to be wearing it.”
He pulled the necklace from his shorts. “Got this too.” Sasha unhooked the clasp and leaned in, sliding the chain around her neck. Her chest grazed his as he fumbled with the tiny latch, managing to hook it back together without dropping it. He slid the askew heart charm along her collarbone, his fingers grazing her skin, and let the pendant rest in the hollow of her neck.
Dusty touched the heart, then caressed his jaw and kissed him.
“So, that mean you like it?”
“Yeah. Thank you.” Her brows pushed together, eyes taking on a wet sheen, then she stood up. “You’re so sweet.”
Sasha dug for a shirt in his pack. They didn’t smell quite as good now that he was only scrubbing them with water and the occasional piece of soap, but at least they passed as clean. He probably washed his clothes more often now, on the road, than he ever did in Priyut. He paused.
“What is going to happen when we get to Hammerlink? You going to stay there? You have place to live?”
“No. I don’t like living in Hammerlink. I walk the roads mostly, looking for trades and parts to sell. I did, anyway. When I had enough money to buy some orphans, I’d meet up with John and we’d escort them here. I crashed in this place sometimes.” She cocked her head and ran a finger through the dark hair on his chest. “I’ve got another little place too. This little house outside the city. Kinda decorated it up, y’know? No one’s been there but me, but maybe we could—”
Footsteps rang up the stairs and John emerged on the balcony. His dreadlocks were gathered back from his strong jaw, and his baby blue dress shirt only had the two bottom buttons fastened, exposing his muscular pecs. Sasha looked at his own pasty, narrow chest and pulled on a shirt.
“Hey.” John panted with a grin. “I was starting to get worried. Wasn’t sure where you ended up last night.” He looked at Sasha and his smile wavered. “Hey, man.”
“No reason to worry.” Sasha stood and put an arm around Dusty. “She was with me.”
“Uh-huh. Hey, Dusty, come downstairs in a minute, will ya? I need to show you something.” He turned and ran back down the stairs. Dusty’s eyes crinkled as she looked at the stairwell.
Sasha bent down to zip up the sleeping bag and put it away.
“Hey, you got a mirror?”
“Eh, no. You could use camera on my tablet, though.” He rolled the sleeping bag up and tied the string.
Dusty picked the tablet up from the floor, and Sasha eyed her as she ran the lipstick across her lips. Once she was done, she cocked her eyebrow and whispered. “You got anywhere you’d like a kiss mark?”
He chuckled, face flushing. “I can think of some places—”
“Dusty! You coming down?” John’s voice reverberated off the theater walls.
Sasha squeezed his eyes shut, groaning. Dusty took his face in her hands and planted a kiss on his cheek.
That was not what I had in mind…
“I better go see what he wants. Thanks for the presents.” She disappeared through the arched doorway.
He stood for a moment, staring at the floor, then gathered his things and descended the stairs. The only things occupying the theater when he reached the bottom were vacant seats and an empty moonshine bottle in the aisle. Voices and laughter drifted from outside the door.
“Thank you! This is so wonderful!” Dusty hugged John as Sasha entered the lobby. There was a bright pink lip print on John’s dark cheek.
I hope she didn’t ask him where he wanted a kiss mark.
A table sat against one wall, crowded with candles, teddy bears, and pink and white flowers. A hand-painted sign hung above, proclaiming: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DUSTY. Several cardboard boxes sat on the surface.
Gentlewave reclined on the concession counter, eating an ear of corn. Lucky and Dewbell stood by, admiring the decorated table.
“I can’t believe you set all this up for me. It’s so nice!” Dusty turned to Sasha and gestured. “Sasha, look what John did.”
Sasha folded his arms and leaned against the wall, brows furrowed.
John shrugged. “It’s not that big of a deal. Got a little more decorations than last year is all. Same sign. But I have some presents for you too.” He picked up one of the cardboard boxes and handed it to her.
Dusty pulled a lacy white halter top from the box and gasped. “You got me a shirt?”
“Something a little girly for you, sweetie, so you don’t have to wear those big baggy tee shirts anymore.”
Sasha’s lip twitched as he compared his rainbow cat shirt hanging loosely from Dusty’s frame to the white halter top.
John continued. “Bought this in Hammerlink. They make the nicest clothes there. That’s where I got my shirt too.”
Maybe you should learn how to button it.
“I’m going to try this on right now.” Dusty hurried into a darkened hallway and came back a moment later in the lacy top, the tee shirt and her bra hanging from one hand.
The top hugged her curves and delicate ruffles of lace folded around her exposed collarbone and the tops of her small breasts. Sasha swallowed, unable to look away. She turned in a circle, the open back of the top revealing the welt on her neck as well as several fading bite marks on her shoulders.
He shut his eyes, stomach turning.
“So? How do I look?”
“Beautiful.” John grinned.
Dewbell frowned.
At least someone else is noticing what I’m seeing.
John handed Dusty the other cardboard box. “I don’t know if this is even something you’d like, but it looked kind of neat.”
“Anything you give me is wonderful.”
Sasha rolled his eyes as Dusty opened the box and pulled out a sphere of interlocking, curved glass rods. She turned the object in her hands.
“It’s a puzzle,” John said. “You take the pieces out and then put them back together again. It would be way too hard for me to figure out, but you’re smart, so I thought you might have fun with it.”
“Cool. It does look fun. Thank you. It’ll give me something to do while I’m traveling. And it looks like it cost a lot. You didn’t need to get me these things, John. Spending all your money on me. I never get you anything fancy for your birthday.”
“You deserve it, honey. I wasn’t even sure you’d be here on your birthday, but I figured I could give you this stuff when you showed up.” John glanced at Sasha and the others, smile faltering. “Didn’t know you’d be traveling with a group, but it’s all good. We should still have plenty of food for the party tonight.”
“What party?”
“Your party, silly. The kids wanted it to be a surprise, but I thought you’d probably keep walking toward Hammerlink today if I didn’t tell you.” He tugged at the ruffles on the hem of her shirt and lowered his voice. “I don’t get to see you that often. Might be nice to hang out for a while this evening. You’re not in that big of a hurry, are you?”
Sasha’s frown deepened. How could Dusty not know that guy likes her? Or is he just making a big to-do because I’m here? “Just protective,” my ass.
Lucky spoke up. “It’s the girl’s birthday. If she wants to stay here another night that’s fine with me. All I got to look forward to when I get back home is the dishes I forgot to do before I left. You got more moonshine, or do I need to find a caravan?”
“I have more. Can’t break it out until the kids go to bed though, or they’ll drink it.”
Dusty grinned and hugged John again. “Thank you, John. You’re so good to me.”
Sasha let out a huff and pushed off the wall, skirting around Dewbell and walking out the lobby doors. He headed through town, throat tight and chest burning.
Where was John when she was out doing trades with awful cowboys? What kind of guy would let her keep doing that? Maybe all he cares about is saving slave ki
ds too. But Dusty is the one buying them all! Why isn’t he spending his money to save kids? Letting Dusty do unsavory things, then giving her that shirt that shows off all her bruises. And he acted like he didn’t even notice them. What’s wrong with that guy?
Sasha kicked an apple core in his path, hands stuffed in his pockets and a scowl on his face. He weaved around unwashed children fencing with sticks, girls carrying eggs and vegetables, and a group of kids kicking a semi-deflated rubber ball down the street. Two boys were playing with a corn kitten in a nearby field. He walked sullenly over to them, purrs filling his head, as the cat knocked one of the boys into the grass with its huge paw. The kids and the corn kitten looked up as Sasha approached.
“Oh, hey. You’re Dusty’s friend, right?” The boy looked like he was around thirteen or fourteen, and a bit more hygienic than many of the other children, his dark hair pulled into a ponytail.
“Consort. I’m Sasha. You guys like to play with the kitties?”
The younger boy on the ground wrestled with the corn kitten’s huge paw, pulling at the loose folds of skin on its arm. He grunted. “Yeah, they’re pretty fun. This one’s name is Spike. There’re two more that live in the other fields here: Chubby and Whiskers. Sometimes they come out of the corn and eat the apples off the trees.”
“Yeah, and sometimes we can get them to chase the little kids. It’s pretty funny,” the ponytail boy added. “Especially the kids who just get here from Hammerlink. They don’t know the cats are nice.”
The boy on the ground shoved away the corn kitten’s paw and stood. The cat stuck its face against the top of his head, sniffing his unruly hair. “So you’re Dusty’s consort? You’re so lucky. She’s hot. And nice too. She bought both of us a couple years ago from the same Boss.”
“Yeah… What you guys have to do for your Boss? Was it bad?”
The boy with the ponytail shrugged. “Factory work. Had it better than some. We melted down plastic pieces to make into thread for clothes and stuff. I think Dusty felt sorry for us because when we met her, we had both finished working a twelve-hour shift and I had a burn on my arm from some of the plastic.”
“I got asthma from breathing in the fumes every day.” The corn kitten took a playful swipe at the younger boy. He pushed the cat’s paw away. “When I turn fifteen, I’m going to go back to Hammerlink and buy kids too. Save them like Dusty did for us.”
At least these kids appreciate Dusty. And she’s set a good example for them.
Ponytail boy shook his head. “Not me. I’m going to become a professional gambler. Like those guys on Beech Street. I was a pool shark, but I got beat up too many times. What do you do?”
Sasha scratched his head. Nothing good enough. “I had computer job. Flew drones. You know those things?”
“Oh! Those are so fun to shoot down. We got one once. Knocked it down and beat the shit out of it.” Sasha cringed and the boy said, “So you’re one of those Russian guys?”
“How you know about that? They go into town sometimes, or what? I’m Russian guy, but from West Coast.”
“Yeah. We would see them walking around, asking people questions and buying machines and stuff. They have some compound outside of Hammerlink with a bunch of trailers.”
The boys and corn kitten looked beyond Sasha. “Whoa. She’s hot too. What’s her name?”
Sasha turned, his frown softening a little. “Dewbell.”
Dewbell smiled as she approached. She petted the corn kitten’s head and it pushed its muzzle against her, throaty vibrations growing louder. She tugged at Sasha’s arm and cocked her head.
“Someone even care that I’m gone? Not Dusty, for sure. Not when John is giving her expensive gifts.” He sighed and waved to the kids, following Dewbell. She tapped him on the shoulder, then made a writing gesture. He handed her the tablet.
“Yeah, but John’s are much better. And he’s making party for her. Not your fault, though. You did great job finding things.”
He gave her a small smile. “She probably really like John now too.”
“Yeah. I don’t even know why. Wasn’t my fault, I swear. Think she drank too much. I just sat with her until she fell asleep.”
Sasha pouted and shrugged, looking away. Dewbell tapped his shoulder again.
He grinned, mood lightening. “That’s sounds like good idea. Hope you know how, though, because I don’t.”
Dewbell was quite creative. Sasha never would have thought about using a watermelon as the base for a cake. They didn’t have much of an option though, considering neither of the caravans they found carried flour. The kids in Fortland had cornmeal, but any more corn and Sasha thought he might puke.
As evening drew near, he helped Dewbell make meringue in an Old World house’s messy kitchen, folding sugar into the white peaks as kids laughed in another room.
“This good enough?” Sasha looked up, focusing on a blob of meringue on Dewbell’s cheek. “Hey, you got some on you.”
Dewbell wiped at her face. She scooped off a bit on her shirt, smirked, and dabbed it on the end of Sasha’s nose. He laughed. “Whoa, now. You making me dirty boy.”
He brushed off the meringue as Dewbell put her hand over his, smiling and taking the wooden spoon. Sasha inhaled her powdery scent; it transported him to the bean bags in the strip mall, her blonde hair teasing his bare skin and hot breath on his neck.
Once Dewbell frosted the large watermelon cylinder, Sasha took out a small bag of hard candies and poured them into his palm. He set them in a ring around the top of the cake. “Looks like cake to me. You think Dusty will like it?”
Dewbell nodded. She picked up the plate and left the kitchen. In the house’s front room sat a sagging couch and a random assortment of filthy plastic toys. Someone had shoved a teddy bear with a cleaver in its head into the broken TV set.
Sasha followed Dewbell out of the house and across the street. Children were gathering around the theater and crowding the lobby. They murmured at the sight of the cake and Sasha hoped there were more watermelons somewhere. He plucked a candle from John’s decorated table and set it in the middle of the cake. Dewbell frowned at him.
“What? You guys don’t put candles in cake? Dusty got to make wish and blow out candle. Where is she?”
He waded through children, heading for the theater doors. One of the other adults—he thought his name was Tom—came through the doors with a box of items.
“Hey, can you set this stuff on the counter? I need to go get the food.”
“Uh, sure.” Sasha took the box as the man headed for the lobby doors. There were jugs of water and several moonshine bottles inside. He glanced at the kids around him, then set the box on the counter and took out the moonshine, heading back for the theater.
The projector room would probably be the best place to keep the booze so the kids didn’t get into it, and was likely where it had been in the first place. He headed up the steps and pushed open the door. John stood inside, digging through a box.
Sasha stopped. “Oh, sorry. Didn’t know you were in here. Tom brought—” Words stuck in his throat. There was a hot pink smear on John’s lips, and his shirt hung untucked. He wiped beads of sweat from his brow.
“Sorry, what?”
Same thing all over again. Says she wants to be with me until some new guy comes along to tempt her. I want to help her, but she keeps breaking my heart. I can’t stop her from being her old self.
Sasha clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, then turned, hurrying back down the steps. He strode through the aisle, dropping the bottles of moonshine on the carpet, then paused and scoo
ped one back up, unscrewing the lid and taking a swig. The alcohol burned in his chest, but didn’t hurt as much as the tears stinging his eyes.
He batted the rotted velvet curtains away from the theater’s back door and walked outside, squinting in the evening light. He took another drink, then spotted a ladder against the side of the building. It rattled as he climbed it. A large metal vent sat on the rooftop and he dropped onto it and wiped his eyes.
I was trying so hard. I turned down alcohol last night. Turned down sex. I did those things for her. She was happy this morning. Then John swooped in with his fancy presents.
He tilted the bottle of moonshine, evening light bouncing off the liquid inside.
Fuck it. Maybe this is the universe telling me I shouldn’t even try. Being a sober gentleman isn’t who I am.
After a while of staring out at cornfields and drowning his hurt and inadequacy with moonshine, Dewbell appeared, climbing from the ladder onto the roof. She sat next to him.
“Hey, baby.” Sasha blinked slowly, mind numb. “How come you always know how to find me? You got Sasha-detector?”
She frowned and shook her head, looking at the moonshine, then tugged on his arm.
He jerked back. “No way. Not going anywhere. Going to sit here and get drunk. You want drink? There’s little bit left. Stay here and have party with me.” Sasha took a swig, then offered her the bottle.
Dewbell took it, then flung it off the roof.
“Aw, come on! Why you do that? You are naughty girl.” He leaned toward her, grinning. “But I can be naughty boy too. Thinking about you today. About fun time we had on those bean bags. You are so beautiful. Blonde hair, freckles… I love it. And you are so nice. You take good care of my heart. Not like other girl we know. She stomp on my heart—all the time.” Sasha rubbed his face and sniffed. Dewbell looked at him sadly, then gave him a hug.
He pressed his face into her hair and inhaled, running his hands along her back. She pulled away. “I know you say I’m too young, but I can make you feel good again. We had fun time, yeah? I can give you company like last time. That’s what you want, right?”
Dewbell made a writing gesture.