Gutter Child

by Jael Richardson

  Her voice is high and tight, and it’s impossible to ignore what we all know as she follows the Jung brothers and the other four graduates out of the tent: this is exactly what she feared, a hiring package that will require her to work well beyond sixty in order to earn Redemption Freedom.

  THE SKY IS navy and smooth on the way back to the academy. Mr. Gregors whistles from the front seat, fiddling with the radio, while Rowan and I sit in the back and look out our windows, our heads leaning against the glass.

  “You worried about Violet?” I say.

  “Nah. She’ll be alright, I think.”

  But I can tell by the way he looks out the window, with his leg bumping up and down, that he’s just as worried as I am.

  “I don’t have a good feeling about those Jung brothers,” he says.

  “Me neither.”

  We sit quietly for a while, listening to the tires rumble and grind against the road.

  “We’re going to be okay, Elimina,” he says.

  He tries to smile, and I do too, but there’s a heaviness in my chest that only grows as the van gets closer to campus and the iron gates come into view.

  Should I tell Josephine that I’ll be going to the Hill with David? Or should I wait until we can work something out for her too?

  “Rowan,” I say, turning to him and placing my hand on his arm, “I don’t think we should tell Josephine about the Hill until . . .”

  Before I can finish the sentence, the van stops in front of the Main House, where a dozen vans with “MG” stamped on the side are parked—the vehicles of the national defense service, the Mainland Guard.

  “What the hell?” Mr. Gregors says, turning off the engine and climbing out. “What the hell is going on?”

  He steps toward a crowd of Mainland Guards who are holding guns and long black flashlights that remind me of clubs, their dogs pulling on their leashes, barking loud.

  “What is going on?” I say, but Rowan just shakes his head, helping me out of the van as Miss Templeton runs toward Mr. Gregors, her hair tumbling down, her makeup smeared like she’s been crying.

  She pulls Mr. Gregors aside, and despite her best efforts to keep her voice down, Rowan and I hear every word: “Josephine is missing.”

  12

  DOGS BARK AND GROWL, BARING SHARP WHITE FANGS, AS the Livingstone Academy security guards and the crowd of Mainland Guards wait for direction in front of the Main House.

  “How does this even happen?” Mr. Gregors says, his voice high and loud.

  “We’ll find her, sir,” Mack says. “She can’t hide for long. That forest is deep. Real deep. No way she survives out there and no way she got me at the gate.”

  “Well, let’s find her already, then, Mack. For heaven’s sake, it’s pitch-black out. I don’t know why everyone’s just standing around doing nothing. What are you all waiting for?” he yells. “You’ve searched all of the buildings?”

  “Our guys have been all over campus. Searched every building,” Mack says.

  “But the dogs. Have you sent the Mainland Guard dogs?”

  “Well, no, sir—”

  “Then do that. Have those dogs tear through every building until she’s found.”

  “But sir,” Mack says, “if we want to make some ground, I think—”

  “Listen to me,” Mr. Gregors shouts. “We’re going to find her. But before we do, I want all of these kids to see those dogs, so they know what’s coming if they decide to follow Josephine’s lead.”

  Mack nods and heads over to the Mainland Guards, who turn on their flashlights and shout out orders before spreading out in organized lines.

  “Sir, should I tell the Decos to go home, or do you want to talk to them? Do you want them to help with the search?” Miss Templeton says, her voice quiet and gentle, like she’s almost afraid to be heard.

  “I have no interest in talking to them right now, Miss Templeton. But what I do want from them is a written account of every action they performed today. I want to know everything Josephine did and every person who saw her, and I want every car searched inside and out before they go anywhere.”

  I GRAB A flashlight from the supply closet in the office, but instead of entering the front doors of the West Hall and climbing into bed, I head down the path toward the back stairwell. If Josephine ran away to be with David, she would need to hide in a place where she couldn’t be found until she got word of his whereabouts.

  “Josephine? It’s me, Elly. Are you here? Josephine?” I say in the loudest whisper I can manage, holding the door open with one hand and pointing the flashlight at all the dark corners.

  When I hear footsteps coming down the path behind me, I stick the hem of my coat in the door so it doesn’t make a noise when it shuts.

  “Tell me again what happened,” I hear Mr. Gregors say, his words choppy and staggered, as though he’s out of breath.

  “She was sick. According to everyone I spoke to, she stayed in bed. She was there all day . . . I think,” Miss Templeton says with a shaky voice that’s so quiet, I have to put my ear against the small crack in the door to hear.

  “You think? Did anyone check on her?”

  “No. I mean, I don’t know,” Miss Templeton says as the two of them get closer. “No one I spoke to had checked on her.”

  Mr. Gregors exhales loudly, stopping in front of the door. “This is why they go to the infirmary if they’re not well, where Nurse Gretchen can supervise them. This is why we have rules, Miss Templeton!” he says, like he’s talking to a child.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Gregors.”

  “Who saw her last?” he says slowly, trying to remain calm.

  “Elimina was the one who told me she wasn’t feeling well.”

  “Elimina? You mean to tell me this happened before we left? And no one saw her after that? We’ve been gone for twelve hours, Miss Templeton! You’re telling me she’s been missing for twelve hours?”

  “I don’t know . . . I’m sorry, sir.”

  “Do you even know if Elimina was telling the truth? Is it possible it could have been longer?”

  I hold my breath, resisting the urge to defend myself.

  “I-I-I don’t know. I can check,” Miss Templeton stammers. “Let me go check. I can go ask Elimina right now.”

  I prepare to run up the stairs to get to my bed.

  “No. Leave her for now,” he says, and I exhale quietly. “I’ll talk to her in the morning.”

  “Do you think she’s involved?”

  “I don’t know what to think right now!” Mr. Gregors says. “But if Elimina was the last one to see her, we’ve got a very large search area to cover in a short period of time. And if she lied, or if she was involved, it’s even worse. Damn it, Miss Templeton!”

  “What can I do to help?” she says.

  “Nothing. You can do nothing. But I would like these dogs to rip through this forest until they find her. Alive preferably. Although I just might kill her myself when she finally turns up.”

  I PULL THE hood of my red coat over my head and make my way to the only other hiding spot I can think of. I move my flashlight around the Fieldhouse, whispering Josephine’s name. When I hear a shuffle in the corner of the back stall, I point the flashlight toward the noise, where a figure is huddled in a ball on the floor with one hand raised toward the light.

  “Turn that off, Elimina!”

  “Rowan? What are you doing here?” I say, crouching down and creeping forward in the dark until we’re shoulder to shoulder against the wall.

  “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you back in the dorm? You want them to send the dogs for you too?”

  “She’s gone,” I say, even though he knows this, and I bite my lip to stop the tears from coming down hard. “Why would she do this? What will they do if they find her? What if they make me leash her? We need to find her, Rowan.”

  But Rowan just waves his hands across the ground, moving the straw.

  “You need to go to bed, Elimina.”
r />   I tell him about the conversation I overheard between Mr. Gregors and Miss Templeton and he shrugs.

  “You were the last one to see her, that’s all. Just tell them what you know.”

  “But I don’t know anything! I just told Miss Templeton she was sick and that she’d be staying in bed, and now they think I was involved.”

  “Then tell them what you just told me.”

  “Something bad must have happened. I’ve got to find her.”

  I put my hands on the ground to stand up, but Rowan grabs me.

  “Don’t, Elimina,” he says.

  “But, Rowan, those dogs. Did you see those dogs?”

  “If they find you out there, don’t you think they’ll be suspicious? You’ll get in even more trouble.”

  “I’m a Red Coat, Rowan—”

  “That red coat doesn’t make you invincible, Elimina! That’s the Mainland Guard out there. Not Mack and his gang. Real Mainland Guards with their marked vans that will take you away to god-knows-where. You think they care if you’re the campus snitch?”

  I turn to him, sitting up tall, my finger pointed toward his mouth. “I’m not a snitch.”

  “Josephine broke the law. That’s all the Mainland Guard know or care about. And so long as they’re here, that’s all Mr. Gregors is thinking about as well. He’s going to try to save face, Elimina. If they think you’re involved or if they want to think you’re involved, that red coat isn’t going to protect you, and running around out there when you’re supposed to be in bed isn’t going to help. God, that coat is not a magical shield. It’s just a stupid coat.”

  “She’s my best friend, Rowan,” I say, swallowing the hurt. “You might be fine doing nothing, but I can’t just let those dogs find her and tear her apart.”

  “So you’ll let them tear you apart? That’s just silly, Elimina.”

  I grab the flashlight and stand.

  “Don’t go looking, Elimina. It won’t help,” he says, rising to follow me as I head down the hallway. But I don’t stop moving. I slide my hands against the walls and make my way to the entrance based on touch until Rowan grabs me and pulls me back.

  “Stop, Elimina. Don’t do this.”

  “I’m going, Rowan, whether you like it or not,” I say, trying to pull away.

  “Don’t, Elimina,” he says, and something in his voice makes me pause and study him closely, like there’s something he’s not telling me.

  “Rowan, what is it?”

  He grasps his hands behind his head, his elbows pointed out wide. “She’s not here,” he says.

  “What do you mean she’s not here?” I say, moving closer as he steps away. “How can you be so sure?”

  “Don’t worry about it. Just know that she’s not here,” he says. “When they talk to you tomorrow, just tell the truth. Just repeat what you know and you’ll be fine. She was sick, and you told her to lie down, and then you left for the fair.”

  “What’s going on, Rowan?”

  Flashlight beams slice through the walls, growing brighter and brighter as the voices get louder, as the dogs and the guards move closer. Rowan pulls me into a stall with one of the horses, and crouches down, wrapping his body around me with his hand pressed tight across my mouth.

  “Listen to me carefully,” he whispers. “Don’t fight me or scream or this could go very badly. Just trust me and stay really quiet and really still. Do you understand, Elimina? You gotta trust me.”

  I nod as the dogs sniff their way through the Fieldhouse, closer and closer, until one of the guards shouts, “We’ve got something!”

  “Boss, we found something too!” another guard says, his voice much farther away, like he’s coming from the south yard.

  “What is it?”

  “Shoes. Found them near the forest.”

  “Uniform was found in one of the stalls.”

  “Found a shirt on the other side of campus,” another guard says.

  “Her scent is all over. Someone tell the headmaster that the girl planned this, and that she probably had help. For now, we’ll have to get the dogs to scan the perimeter on all sides, then tackle it section by section. It’s going to be a long night for everyone. Where is campus security?”

  “Right here,” we hear Mack say.

  “Any truck or van comes in or even pauses in front, you check. Especially if it’s driven by a Gutter. You know how they help their own.”

  “Yessir,” Mack says.

  WHEN THE GUARDS are all gone and it’s quiet in and around the Fieldhouse, I stand and turn to Rowan as the dogs bark in the distance. “What is going on? Did you put Josephine’s things all over?” I say, but he doesn’t respond. “Tell me, Rowan!”

  “He’s her brother,” Rowan says, like this explains everything. “What else was he supposed to do? If you had seen her when she arrived here, you’d get it. She was May Bennet, Elimina. She couldn’t make it without him. But she’ll be fine at the Hill. We don’t have to worry. They’re going to be fine, Elimina. They won’t turn her away or report her.”

  “The Hill?” I say, stepping away from him.

  I think about the way David was so sick in the car whenever Mr. Gregors went too quickly or stopped too abruptly, the way Rowan kept disappearing from the tent, the way they both ran off so quickly to move his belongings when David got hired. I think of the look on David’s face when I mentioned Josephine and said goodbye, and I feel my legs wobble, my skin turning cold.

  “She was in David’s trunk.”

  I can hear the muscles on Rowan’s face shift into a crooked kind of grin, as though he’s proud of what they did. But I don’t grin back at him.

  “She’s gone? To the Hill?” I say, like repeating myself will help it sink in.

  Rowan nods, and I shove him as hard as I can. “What the hell, Rowan? How could you do that?”

  “Do what? Help a friend?”

  “What if it had been someone else, some other employer?”

  “But it wasn’t,” he says.

  “But what if it was? What if they didn’t want Josephine? What then?”

  “What employer wouldn’t want two kids for one price? I mean, that’s why it’s so great that they went with the Freemans. That’s what they do. They rescue kids like us. And now they’ve helped two. It’s going to be fine. It worked out better than we could have imagined.”

  “For who? For Josephine?”

  “Yes.”

  “But what about her debt? How is she going to pay off her debt if she’s not even supposed to be there?”

  “She’s at the Hill. I’m sure they can figure something out.”

  I shake my head, my face warm and squeezed in a scowl.

  “David loves Josephine and she was a mess. He had to do something,” Rowan says, stepping closer. “They’ll figure it out.”

  “He shouldn’t have done it,” I say, placing my hands on my waist. “They shouldn’t have done that.”

  Rowan tilts his head, as though he’s confused. “Ooooh, I see. You’re worried the Freemans won’t hire you now. You think that if they have another girl, maybe they won’t need you. This isn’t about Josephine at all.”

  “That’s not true,” I say. But maybe it is. What if having Josephine means the Freemans won’t come back, that I’ll have to go to an employer fair? “You should have told me. You all should have told me.”

  “Were you planning to tell Josephine about the Freemans’ offer?” Rowan says. “That they asked to hire you next year?”

  “It’s not the same thing,” I say.

  “It’s exactly the same thing.”

  “I would have told Josephine eventually. Once I knew that she was going too. I would have been doing it to protect her, until I knew for sure.”

  “And if you were going to the Hill without her? Would you have told her? Would you have stayed behind and given it all up for her?”

  I look around the Fieldhouse and clutch the flashlight against my chest. I think of how Rowan let me into
the group, how just last week he coached me to keep an eye on things in the office, to report back to him if there were any changes with the fair. I feel a pain in my chest that makes my whole body ache, like there’s a wound on the inside of my bones.

  “You . . . You all used me. You used me from the start,” I say.

  Rowan shakes his head. “That’s not true.”

  I move backwards toward the door, tears filling my eyes.

  “Elimina—”

  “You told me to watch out for Mr. Gregors, Rowan. Don’t trust him, you said. But it’s you who can’t be trusted. I can’t trust anyone here.”

  “That’s not true. Josephine, David, they’re your friends. I’m your friend, Elimina.”

  “No. I don’t have any friends! I’ve never had any friends,” I hiss.

  Rowan steps toward me, careful and slow. “Elimina, you think Mr. Gregors cares about you, but it’s Mr. Gregors who’s been using you. It’s why he made you a Red Coat. To keep you from us.”

  “Well, maybe I should have listened to him,” I say as Rowan moves closer.

  “Elimina, why do you think he didn’t let the Freemans take you now? You think he cares about some Mainland government rule? If someone comes for you who’s willing to pay more than the Freemans, he will hire you out. He’s making sure he’s got the highest bidder, Elimina.”

  I stare at Rowan, horrified.

  “You saw how Mr. Gregors pushed you aside to try to get the Freemans to take Violet. You saw the way he hired her out for almost nothing when he saw that that was all he could get. Mr. Gregors does not care about us.”

  “Shut up, Rowan. Shut up. Shut up!” I say, turning away and placing my hands on the door, leaning my head against the wood.

  “Listen, Elimina, those were the only friends I’ve got, other than you, and now they’re gone,” he says, placing his hands on my shoulder and turning me around. “They’re the only people I really know in this world and I helped them leave. And I would do it again. I would do it for you too. Please. Don’t tell Mr. Gregors. Please, you’re all I’ve got,” he whispers, and all I can think about as I stare at his face in the dim light is whether the tears that are filling up his eyes are real or part of the act.