Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town

by Cory Doctorow

he'dbuilt for it, it seemed awfully unimportant. Such a big and elaborateenvelope for such a small thing. He saved the file and went back up tobed. Mimi was asleep, which was good, because he didn't think he'd beable to fall asleep with her twice that night.

  He curled up on his side of the bed and closed his eyes and tried toforget the sound the Allen had made.

  #

  "What is wrong with you?""Not a thing," she said. Her brother's phone-call hadn't beenunexpected.

  "You're fucking insane.""Maybe," she said."What do you *want from me*?""I want you to behave yourself.""You're completely fucking insane."

  He woke to find Billy gone, and had a momentary panic, a flashback tothe day that Fred had gone missing in the night. But then he found anote on the kitchen table, terse: "Gone out. B." The handwriting senthim back through the years to the days before Davey came home, the dayswhen they'd been a family, when he'd signed Brad's report cards andhugged him when he came home with a high-scoring paper.

  Mimi came down while he was holding the note, staring at the few sparewords there. She was draped in her wings.

  "Where did he go?"

  "I don't know," Alan said. "Out."

  "Is this what your family is like?"

  "Yeah," Alan said. "This is what they're like."

  "Are you going to go out, too?"

  "Yeah."

  "Fine," she said. She was angry. She stomped out of the kitchen, andstepped on her own wing, tripping, going over on her face. "Tomorrow,you cut these tomorrow!" she said, and her wings flared open, knockingthe light fixtures a-swing and tumbling piles of books. "Tomorrow!" shesaid.

  #

  "Good morning, Natalie," he said. She was red-eyed and her face waspuffy, and her hand shook so that the smoke from her cigarette rose in anervous spiral.

  "Andy," she said, nodding.

  He looked at her across the railing that divided their porches. "Wouldyou like to join me for a coffee?"

  "I'm hardly dressed for it," she said. She was wearing a pair of cutoffsand house slippers and a shapeless green T-shirt that hung down past herbutt.

  "The Greek doesn't stand on ceremony," he said. He was hardly dressedbetter. He hadn't wanted to go up to the master bedroom and face Mimi,so he'd dressed himself out of the laundry hamper in the basement.

  "I don't have *shoes*, Alan."

  "You could go in and get some," he said.

  She shook her head.

  Her shoulders were tensed, her whole skinny body a cringe.

  "We'll go barefoot and sit on the patio," he said after a moment,kicking his shoes off.

  She looked at him and gave a sad laugh. "Okay."

  The sidewalk was still cool enough for bare feet. The Greek didn't givetheir bare feet a second look, but brought iced coffees and yogurt withwalnuts and honey.

  "Do you want to tell me about them?"

  "It's been bad ever since -- ever since Mimi left. All of a sudden,Krishna's Link's best friend. He follows him around."

  Alan nodded. "Krishna beat Mimi up," he said.

  "I know it," she said. "I heard it. I didn't do anything, goddamn me,but I heard it happen."

  "Eat," he said. "Here." He reached for a clean napkin from the nexttable and handed it to her. She dried her eyes and wiped her nose andate a spoonful of yogurt. "Drink," he said, and handed her thecoffee. She drank.

  "They brought those girls home last night. *Little*girls. Teenyboppers. Disappeared into their bedrooms. The noises theymade."

  "Drink," Alan said, and then handed her the napkin again.

  "Drunk. They got them drunk and brought them home."

  "You should get out of there," Andrew said, surprising himself. "Getout. Today, even. Go stay with your mom and find a new apartment nextmonth."

  She set her cup down carefully. "No," she said.

  "I'm serious. It's a bad situation that you can't improve and the moreyou stay there, the worse it's going to get."

  "That's not a practical suggestion."

  "Staying there, in potential danger, is not practical. You need to getout. Staying there will only make things worse for you."

  She clenched her jaw. "You know, there comes a point where you're notgiving advice anymore. There comes a point where you're just moralizing,demonstrating your hypothetical superiority when it comes to doing theright thing. That's not very fucking helpful, you know. I'm holding myshit together right now, and rather than telling me that it's notenough, you could try to help me with the stuff I'm capable of."

  Alan digested this. She'd said it loudly, and a few of the other morningpatrons at the Greek's were staring at them. He looked away, across thestreet, and spied Billy standing in a doorway, watching. Billy met hiseyes, then looked away.

  "I'm sorry, Natalie," he said. "You're right."

  She blew air out her nostrils.

  "What about this. You can knock on my door any time. I'll make up thesofa for you." He thought of Mimi and cringed inwardly. She'd have tostay upstairs and be quiet if there were strangers in the house. Then heremembered his promise about her wings. He bit his lip.

  She let out a harsh chuckle. "Will I be any safer there?"

  "What does that mean?"

  "You're the weirdest person I've ever met, Alvin. I mean, sorry, nooffense, but why the hell would I knock on your door?"

  She stood and turned on her barefoot heel and took herself away, walkingat a brisk and gingerly pace.

  Barry moseyed over and sat in her seat. "She'll be okay," he said. Hepicked up her spoon and began to finish her breakfast. "You know, Ican't watch the way I could yesterday, not anymore. Too visible. What doI do now?"

  Aaron shrugged. "Find a job. Be visible. Get a place to live. We canhave each other over for dinner."

  Brett said, "Maybe I could get a job where I got to watch. Securityguard."

  August nodded. He closed his eyes.

  "She's very pretty," Barry said. "Prettier than Mimi."

  "If you say so."

  "Kurt's awake."

  "Yeah?"

  "Yeah. You could introduce me to him."

  I did it for your own good, you know. She couldn't bring herselfto say the words, for the enormity of what she'd done wasoverwhelming her. She'd found three of his friends and treatedeach of them to an evening of terror and hurt, and none of themwould tell her where her brother was, none of them knew. Maybethey'd been innocent all along.

  "Where are you?""Far from you," he said. In the background, she heard a girlcrying.

  #

  "It's going to happen, we're going to cover the whole Market," Kurtsaid. He had the latest coverage map out and it looked like he wasright. "Look at this." The overlapping rings of WiFi false-colored overthe map were nearly total.

  "Are those our own nodes, or just friendlies?" Alan asked, all hisconfusion and worry forgotten at the sight of the map.

  "Those are our own," Kurt said. "Not so many friendlies." He tapped akey and showed a map of the city with a pitiful sprinkling of fellowtravelers who'd opened up their networks and renamed them "ParasiteNet."

  "You'll have more," Buddy said. Kurt looked a question at Alan.

  "My brother Brent," he said. "Meet Kurt."

  They shook.

  "Your brother?"

  Adam nodded.

  "Not one of the missing ones?"

  He shook his head. "A different one."

  "It's nice to meet you." Kurt wiped off his palms. Adam looked aroundthe little private nest at the back of the shop, at the small, meshed-inwindow on the back wall. Danny watched at that window sometimes.

  "I'm gonna send a screengrab of this to Lyman, he'll bust a nut."

  It made Anton smile. Lyman and Kurt were the unlikeliest of pals, butpals they were.

  "You do that."

  "Why aren't you wearing shoes?"

  Anton smiled shyly. "No volunteers today?"

  Kurt shrugged, a jingle of chains. "Nope. Slow day. Some days justare. Was thinking of seeing a movie or som
ething. Wanna come?"

  "I can't," Anton said.

  "Sure," Brett said, oblivious to the fact that the invitation hadn'treally been directed at him. "I'd like that."

  "O-kaaay," Kurt said. "Great. Gimme an hour or so and meet me outfront."

  "It's a date."

  #

  He was half a block from home when he spotted Natalie sitting on herporch, staring at the park. Kurt and Link were gone. The patio at theGreek's was full. He was stood in his bare feet in the middle ofKensington Market on a busy shopping day, and he had absolutely nowhereto go. Nowhere he belonged.

  He realized that Natalie had never put him in touch with her boss atMartian Signal.

  Barefoot, there wasn't much of anywhere he could go. But he didn't wantto be home with Mimi and he didn't want to walk past Natalie. Barefoot,he ended up in the alleyway behind Kurt's again, with nowhere else togo.

  #

  Blake and Kurt got back around suppertime, and by then Alan had countedevery shingle on the roofs of the garages, had carefully snapped thesharps off of two syringes he found in some weeds, and then sat andwaited until he was ready to scream.

  Blake walked confidently into the shop, through Kurt's nest, and to theback door. He opened it and smiled at Adam. "Come on in," he said.

  "Right," Alan said. "How was the movie?"

  "It was fine," Kurt said.

  "Incredible," Burt said. "I mean, *incredible*. God, I haven't been tothe movies in ten years at least. So *loud*, Jesus, I've never heardanything like that."

  "It was just A&E," Kurt said. "Asses and explosions."

  Alan felt a wave of affection for his friend, and an indefinite sadness,a feeling that they were soon to be parted.

  Kurt stretched and cracked his knuckles. "Getting time for me to go outdiving."

  "Let's go get some dinner, okay?" Andy said to Brad.

  "G'night guys," Kurt said, locking the door behind them.

  "I'm sorry," she said. There had been five minutes ofnear-silence on the line, only the girl crying in the backgroundat his end. She wasn't sure if he'd set the phone down or if hewas listening, but the "sorry" drew a small audible breath outof him.

  "I'm really, really sorry," she said, and her hands felt stickywith blood. "God, I just wanted to *save you*."

  #

  Mimi was back in bed when they got home. Alan took a shower and scrubbedat his feet, then padded silently around the shuttered bedroom, dressingin the dark. Mimi made a sleepful noise.

  "I'm making dinner," he said. "Want some?"

  "Can you bring it up here?" she said.

  "Yeah, sure," he said.

  "I just can't face --" She waved a hand at the door, then let it flopback down to the bed.

  "It's all right, babe," he said.

  He and Brad ate dinner in silence in the kitchen, boiled hot dogs withcheese and sliced baby tomatoes from the garden and lemonade fromscratch. Bradley ate seven. Mimi had three bites out of the one that hebrought up to her room, and when he went up to collect her plate, shewas asleep and had the covers wrapped snugly around her. He took a sparesheet and a blanket out of the linen closet and brought it downstairsand made up the living room sofa. In moments, he was sleeping.

  This night, he was keenly aware of what had roused him from sleep. Itwas a scream, at the back of the house. A scared, drunken scream thatwas half a roar.

  He was at the back door in a moment, still scrubbing at his eyes withhis fists, and Bennett was there already.

  He opened the door and hit the switch that turned on the garden lights,the back porch lights, the garage lights in the coach house. It wasbright enough to dazzle him, but he'd squinted in anticipation.

  So it only took him a moment to take in the tableau. There was Link, onthe ground, splayed out and face down, wearing boxer shorts and nothingelse, his face in a vegetable bed in the next door yard. There wasKrishna, standing in the doorway, face grim, holding a hammer andadvancing on Link.

  He shouted, something wordless and alarmed, and Link rolled over andclimbed up to his feet and lurched a few steps deeper into thepostage-stamp-sized yard, limping badly. Krishna advanced two steps intothe yard, hammer held casually at his waist.

  Alan, barefoot, ran to the dividing fence and threw himself at it goingup it like a cat, landing hard and painfully, feeling something smalland important give in his ankle. Krishna nodded cordially at him, thenhefted the hammer again.

  Krishna took another step toward Alan and then Natalie, moving so fastthat she was a blur, streaked out of the back door, leaping ontoKrishna's back. She held there for a minute and he rocked on his heels,but then he swung the hammer back, the claws first.

  It took her just above her left eye with a sound like an awl punchingthrough leather and her cry was terrible. She let go and fell overbackward, holding her face, screaming.

  But it was enough time, enough distraction, and Alan had hold ofKrishna's wrist. Remembering a time a long time ago, he pulled Krishna'shand to his face, heedless of the shining hammer, and bit down on thebase of his thumb as hard as he could, until Krishna loosed the hammerwith a shout. It grazed Alan's temple and then bounced off hiscollarbone on the way to the ground, and he was momentarily stunned.

  And here was Link, gasping with each step, left leg useless, but haulinghimself forward anyway, big brawny arms reaching for Krishna, pasting ahard punch on his cheek and then taking hold of his throat and bearinghim down to the ground.

  Alan looked around. Benny was still on his side of the fence. Mimi'sface poked out from around the door. The sound of another hard punchmade him look around as Link shook the ache out of his knuckles and madeto lay another on Krishna's face. He had a forearm across his throat,and Krishna gasped for breath.

  "Don't," Adam said. Link looked at him, lip stuck out in belligerence.

  "Stop me," he said. "Try it. Fucker took a hammer to my *knee*."

  Natalie went to him, her hand over her face. "Don't do it," shesaid. She put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll call the cops."

  Krishna made a choking sound. Link eased up on him a little, and he drewa ragged breath. "Go ahead and call them," he rasped.

  Alan took a slow step back. "Brian, can you bring me the phone, please?"

  Link looked at his sister, blood streaming down her face, at Krishna'smisshapen nose and mouth, distorted into a pink, meaty sneer. Heclenched each fist in turn.

  "No cops," he said.

  Natalie spat. "Why the hell not?" She spat again. Blood was running intoher eye, down her cheek, into her mouth.

  "The girl, she's inside. Drunk. She's only 15."

  Alan watched the brother and sister stare at one another. Blaine handedhim the phone. He hit a speed dial.

  "I need a taxi to Toronto Western Hospital at 22 Wales Avenue, atAugusta," he said. He hung up. "Go out front," he told Natalie. "Get atowel for your face on your way."

  "Andrew --" she said.

  "I'll call the cops," he said. "I'll tell them where to find you."

  It was as she turned to go that Krishna made a lunge for thehammer. Billy was already kicking it out of the way, and Link, thrownfrom his chest, got up on one knee and punched him hard in the kidneys,and he went back down. Natalie was crying again.

  "Go," Alan said, gently. "We'll be okay."

  She went.

  Link's chest heaved. "I think you need to go to the hospital too, Link,"Alan said. The injured knee was already so swollen that it was visible,like a volleyball, beneath his baggy trousers.

  "No," Link said. "I wait here."

  "You don't want to be here when the cops arrive," Alan said.

  Krishna, face down in the dirt, spat. "He's not going to call any cops,"he said. "It's grown-up stuff, little boy. You should run along."

  Absently, Link punched him in the back of the head. "Shut up," hesaid. He was breathing more normally now. He shifted and made asqueaking sound.

  "I just heard the cab pull up," Alan said. "Brian can help you to thefront door. You c
an keep your sister company, get your knee looked at."

  "The girl --" he said.

  "Yes. She'll be sober in the morning, and gone. I'll see to it," Adamsaid. "All right?"

  Brian helped him to his feet and toward the door, and Andrew stoodwarily near Krishna.

  "Get up," he said.

  Mimi, in his doorway, across the fence, made a sound that was half amoan.

  Krishna lay still for a moment, then slowly struggled to his knees andthen his feet.

  "Now what?" Krishna said, one hand pressed to his pulped cheek.

  "I'm not calling the cops," he said.

  "No," Krishna said.

  "Remember what I told you about my brother? I *made him*. I'm strongerthan him, Krishna. You picked the wrong Dracula to Renfield for. You aredoomed. When you leave him, he will hunt you down.