Alley boy took the phone from my hand and studied it. “They look like good friends,” he said with a frown.
“We are, I’ve got to find her, she doesn’t belong down here,” I said and then realized I might have said something to upset him.
He chuckled and shook his head. “Few of us do.”
He hadn’t been hurt, or if he had he hid it well. Making a snap decision, I held out my hand and said, “I’m Casey, Have you seen her?”
He smiled and shook my hand then frowned. “Sorry, no I haven’t,” He said handing the phone back. My heart dropped and I’m sure I might have hiccupped a little. “I’m Austin by the way.”
Austin, hm, not the kind of name you expected for a street kid. Weren’t they usually named Ponyboy, or Spike or something tough? Austin sounded like he should be working in a biology lab or the library. He read my mind and his eyes narrowed a little. Careful Casey, you’re not in Kansas anymore, remember. You don’t know this guy from an Ice Cream salesman. He could be one of those deserted lot serial killers for all you know.
“Um… I…. A….. You don’t want to go down there,” He said nodding towards the tunnel.
Just like that he almost ruined everything, the long connection on the bus, the bad boy smirk. The fluttering dragonfly wings in my stomach. All of it disappeared because he was a bossy idiot. How dare he tell me where I could and couldn’t go? “Last I heard, it was a free country,” I said as I turned to head down that dark, scary tunnel. My mother always did say I have a habit of cutting my nose off to spite my face. Not a pretty picture but my mind was rushing a mile a minute. Alley boy behind me, scary tunnel ahead, Jeanie somewhere around here, skipping the field trip, creepy rapists, and upset parents. All of it was buzzing around inside me like a washing machine on spin cycle.
Alley boy jumped around me to place himself between me and the tunnel. He held up his hands in the international halt symbol. “Hold on a second, what’s so important?”
Placing my hands on my hip, I gave him my mom’s look. The one that could turn grown men into quivering Jell-O. The look worked best when you didn’t say anything. Just scowled and let them know they weren’t measuring up. I held his stare and waited for an explanation.
“It’s usually got a couple of Junkies shooting up. You don’t want to walk in on them unannounced. There’s no telling what they might do.”
I'm sure my jaw dropped open in a very unflattering look.
Austin started whistling as he turned and headed for the tunnel. I think it was the theme song from some old TV show. Something about a little boy fishing with his father the sheriff. He wasn’t bad but it seemed sort of out of place for this dark tube. The place smelled like a trash can in the boy’s locker room. I can’t think of anything worse. A strong overpowering stench that burned the back of my nose and made me breathe through my mouth.
“What are you doing?” I hissed as I pulled at his hand to slow him down.
“Letting them know we’re coming, the last thing you want to do is surprise them.” He said as if he was talking about a jungle cat in the Amazon rainforest.
You have got to be kidding me, I thought. No way was this for rea…
A movement to my left drew my attention to a tall skinny man leaning against the wall. Staring at us with beady eyes as if we were bugs he wanted to pin to a piece of cardboard. He reminded me of one of those pictures of a refugee from a concentration camp. Hollow cheeks, straggly beard, thin white arms like two chopsticks. His long dirty nails looked like falcon claws. I’d seen cardboard cutouts with more substance.
Holding his arm against his side, he twitched in place like a strumming guitar string. The man continually flicked a lighter down by his side while he waited for us to pass.
Austin took my hand and pulled me to the other side, placing himself between the guy and me leaning against the wall. I liked the way my hand fits into his, almost as If they were made for each other. A dry warmth radiated up my arm. Making me feel good about myself.
He stopped his stupid whistling and kept his head up and eyes forward. I could tell he was completely focused on the guy but not in a challenging way. Is that what you’re supposed to do? I wondered. Squeezing his hand, I drew in close to him as we passed the man. Austin threw an occasional glance over his shoulder as we pulled further away.
Letting out a sigh of relief I started to let go of his hand but he pulled me in close and shook his head. The far end of the tunnel was approaching and the fresh sunlight illuminated a young woman walking towards us. She had to have been about twenty but her face looked like a crinkled piece of paper. Wrinkles spread from the corners of her eyes and mouth. They were way too deep for somebody so young. Her long brown hair hadn’t been washed since the beginning of last summer. My stomach lurched as I realized how low a girl could fall.
She smiled at Austin and cocked a hip a little more than she needed too but the whole effect was ruined by the absence of three front teeth.
“Hey Austin,” she said. The S in Austin whistling through the missing teeth.
“Hi Harlow, how you doing,” Austin answered as he swerved to move around her.
She glanced at me and gave me the quick once-over before dismissing me and returning her full attention to Austin. “Great, Great. Uh, om, You got anything man?” she said raising her eyebrows and smiling with her eyes in the international signal of a woman offering something for trade.
Had she just offered him sex for Drugs? Really? Drugs? My mouth dropped open like a fish on a scale. What kind of world had I fallen into? I’m not a total innocent I’d been around people stoned and drunk at parties. Seen kids spaced out on speed. But this was different.
It made me realize that I had absolutely no idea who this guy was, I mean I’d only met him a few minutes ago and I’m walking through a dark tunnel holding his hand like Hansel and Gretel.
“No, sorry, Harlow, you know that’s not my kind of thing,” Austin said over his shoulder as he pulled me towards the tunnel entrance.
“Yeah, I know, but a girl’s got to ask, you know?” she said as we walked out of the tunnel.
The sunlight hurt my eyes and I immediately pulled my hand out of his and stepped back. I glanced at him waiting for an explanation. Maybe I’d misread her meaning. It was bad enough offering herself like that, but she’d done it with me standing right there. As if I didn’t figure into the equation somehow. My blood boiled and it wasn’t being helped by the silly smirk on his face. Stomping my foot I turned and headed up the path. I needed to get away from this guy.
“Hey Casey, hold up,” he said. The way my name danced when he said it sent a shiver down my spine. Every part of me wanted to stop but my Irish temper wouldn’t let me. What was funny was I didn’t even know what I was mad about.
“Come on,” He said, gently pulling me to a halt. “You don’t know where you’re going. How are you going to find your friend?” The fact that he was right only irked more.
Jeanie, that’s right. That was why I was here I reminded myself, figuratively hitting myself upside of the head. Quit being an idiot Casey. Tearing my eyes away from my shoes I looked up at him waiting to see what he had to say.
He sighed and slumped a little when he realized I was willing to hear him out. Rubbing his hand across the back of his neck like a little boy. “Do you have any idea where to look?” he asked, raising his eyebrows in doubt. “No? I didn’t think so. Um well, it looks to me like you could use some help. You want to find your friend and you have no idea where to look and no idea who to talk to. More importantly, no idea who not to talk to. So….”
“What’s in it for you?” I asked with my little girl snotty voice. The one I used when I forgot not too.
He laughed, “Well, you’ve got something I want, and you could use my help. It seems to me we should make a deal.”
My eyes bugged out of my head. Did he just hit on me? What kind of girl did he think I was? Or did he think all women were like that skank in the tunne
l? I stammered for a moment and my mouth got ahead of my brain. I was trying to come up with some momentous put-down but failing miserably. “If you think I’m going to sleep with…..”
“No, no not that,” he said throwing his arms into the air and taking a step back. “Although… now that you mention it.” I took a step to get around him. “I’m kidding, come on Casey, you set me up. Lighten up. I’m talking money. You could hire me to help.”
I stopped, was he serious, was this some kind of trick? “How much?”
“I don’t know, how much you got?”
“A little over two hundred dollars,” I said.
“On you?” he asked, his voice rising in shock as he quickly looked around to see if anyone had heard me.
“No, of course not. In savings. I’ve got about forty on me, two twenties.”
We paused for a moment each studying the other. “You’d really pay two hundred dollars to find your friend?”
“In a heartbeat, but nothing if we don’t find her. That’s the deal take it or leave it.”
Chapter Four
Casey
Austin reached out his hand and held it there waiting for mine. I stared into his eyes trying to figure out if this was smart or not. Come on Casey, so much of what you are doing today is not smart but it’s the only chance you’re going to get. Whatever it takes to find Jeanie. I shook his hand. It was rough and enveloped mine in a warm electrical buzz.
He smiled and said, “Come on, I’ve got some ideas where we can start.”
Before I knew it, we were headed down the path.
“What’s your friend’s name?” he asked.
“Jeanie,” I answered sneaking a look at him from under my brow. He walked fast and I had to hurry to keep up.
“Why’d she run away?”
I hesitated a moment. How much should I tell him? This was still Jeanie we were talking about. She’d be pissed if she found out I’d been sharing her secrets with some strange boy. “I don’t know why. We had a big fight about a week ago, but that couldn’t have been it. Something happened and because of our fight, she couldn’t tell me.”
He glanced back at me and I could tell he knew I was holding out on him. Shrugging his shoulders he accepted it. He definitely looked like a boy who understood about secrets.
“How long have you lived here?” I asked as we stepped out of the park and onto the sidewalk. A yellow cab honked its horn and somebody yelled an obscenity.
“About three years,” Austin answered as he scanned the neighborhood. His eyes checked each nook and cranny. Lingered on certain people, assessing, weighing them before moving on to the next dark shadow. “Nope, I hoped she might be down here,” he said then pulled me into traffic. The nearest crosswalk must have been a hundred feet away and he stepped into the street like he was walking into a store. My heart jumped and I pulled back but he gripped it tighter. “Don’t stop or you’ll get hit for sure,” he said throwing me a silly grin over his shoulder.
Cars slowed, letting us weave our way through. Angry stares and an occasional honk pushed us along our way. I could feel everyone looking at us, wondering why we were breaking the rules. It really wasn’t necessary, like I said; a hundred feet away and we could have used the crosswalk like anyone else.
Austin stepped up onto the far sidewalk and looked both ways as if deciding which way to go. I wondered if he knew what he was doing and realized that I was getting farther and farther away from the museum and Mrs. Tompas.
“Let me have your phone.” He said holding out his hand.
“Why?” I demanded.
“Casey, not everything has to be a fight.” He said studying me for a moment. “I want to show the picture to some people. Come on, we need to hurry if we’re going to get you back in time.”
I started to give him my phone then pulled it back and locked the picture of Jeanie as the background. I didn’t need him searching through my other pictures. He nodded then immediately stepped into a small produce store. The kind of place with wooden crates of yellow crookneck squash and tangerines outside. I watched him walk up to an old Asian guy behind the counter and show him the picture. The old man studied it for a moment then shook his head. Austin thanked him and came back to me.
We started down the street with Austin occasionally popping into a business to ask if they had seen Jeanie. Several times he stopped people on the sidewalk, people he obviously knew. Each time they shook their head my heart sunk a little lower in my chest. We had to find her and I had to get back to the Museum before I was found missing.
I watched him as he interacted with the people in the neighborhood. Everyone knew him, most greeted him with a smile. The girl at the candy store slipped him a piece of fudge then critically examined me as if I was an entry at the county fair. An older woman at the convenience store came from behind the counter to give him a quick hug before examining the phone. But again, like all the others, she shook her head. Flashing him a frown that said how much she hated disappointing him.
“Why did you skip that place?” I asked as we passed an art gallery.
“They wouldn’t have remembered her if they’d seen her.”
I began to worry. Hadn’t anyone seen Jeanie, Had Stephany seen her? Was this all some kind of a stupid waste of time?
He took my hand and pulled me towards a solid red door. The familiar electric tingle radiated up my arm and my feet followed before I could think about it. As he pulled the door, a strong push of alcohol and stale air rolled over us. A tinny jukebox was blaring some kind of classic rock song that my parents would have thought was old school. “We can’t go in there,” I said as I pulled back on his hand.
“It’s okay,” he said with a smile. “Come on trust me.”
Who was this guy I wondered as he positioned me inside the door and to the side? “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”
Small wooden tables with rickety chairs were strategically placed on a hardwood floor that looked like it had been built before my grandmother was born. Two old men sat at the bar, both of them in rough work clothes, their hands clasping glasses with ice and a warm brown liquid. Their unshaven faces stared at us as if we were alien invaders from another world.
The bartender stepped out of the back room with a couple of bottles. His face broke into a big smile when he spotted Austin. “Hey boy, how you doing? I don’t need any help right now, maybe later.” He said. Was there anyone who didn’t know him? The bartender saw me at the door and his eyebrows rose in surprise. He stared at Austin obviously waiting for an explanation.
“Thanks, Sam, that’s okay. I was wondering if you’d seen this girl?” Austin said showing him Jeanie’s picture. Sam studied the picture for a moment then shook his head. He handed it to one of the old men at the bar.
“Jason, you seen her around?” he asked. My skin shivered. I wondered how I would ever get my phone clean again. There was no telling how many germs it had picked up.
The old man with the scratchy unshaven face studied the screen for a moment then nodded. “Sure, saw her yesterday, over by the Pizza place on 3rd. You know the one that sells it by the slice.” My heart leaped into my throat. Jeanie was here. Steph had seen her. It wasn’t all a waste of time.
“Couldn’t miss that hair, as red as a fire engine, you know?” The man continued then handed the phone back to Austin.
I immediately left my assigned spot and hurried over “When? What time of day? Was she with anyone? Did she look alright?” I asked, the words burbling out of my mouth before I could think.
Austin placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and pulled me back a little. Enough to remind me to slow down. “Thanks, Mr. Miller. We appreciate it. Can you tell us anything else? Was she with anyone else?” He said to the old man. Even I was impressed with his charm and soothing calm voice. How could anyone not give him whatever he wanted? The guy could talk the birds out of the trees with that voice.
Mr. Miller pondered the question for a moment then smiled. “Yep,
she was with someone. That Charlie guy. The new guy came into town a few weeks ago.”
“What Charlie guy? What’s he look like?” Austin asked his face falling into a deep frown.
“You know, one of those chicken hawks, usually working over by the bus station. Shiny brown jacket, gold tooth. He’s been nosing around for a couple of weeks, setting up business.”
My heart dropped out of my throat and into my back pocket. Gold tooth was it the same man from the park. Had Jeanie gotten mixed up with that creep? I grabbed Austin by the shoulder. “We have got to find her.”
Austin shot the bartender a knowing look. Something was bothering him. Sighing to himself he leaned towards me and whispered: “Give me one of your twenties.”
I stepped back. Surprised at his request, I reached into my jacket pocket and gave him the bill. He turned and laid it on the top of the bar. His fingers trembled a little as he slid it over to the man. “Thanks, Mr. Miller. We appreciate it. Thanks, Sam,” Austin said with a smile and slight nod of his head. Taking my upper arm, he half pulled, half pushed me out of the door.
“Why are we leaving, maybe he knows more.”
Austin quickly scanned the street then turned back to me. “He doesn’t know more. He saw your friend Jeanie yesterday. She could be anywhere by now.”
“What do we do now, where is this Pizza place?” I asked as we stepped outside.
Austin ignored me as he studied the street and its people. Coming to some kind of internal decision he turned and smiled. “It’s up on third, back towards the museum. But like I said, that was yesterday.”
My heart turned over when I remembered the whole field trip thing. If Mrs. Tompas discovered me missing, she was going to skewer me to a lamp post. That was nothing to what my parents would do. I’d be twenty-six before they let me out of the house again. And a grandmother before I got my driver’s license.
Too Many Rules Page 20