Austin stepped outside and I did what I needed to do then gave him a few moments inside. As I stood there, I looked around. The street lights were coming on. The red and green neon sign over the pizza place was brighter. Several people passed on the sidewalk, their hands in their pocket as they bent their way against the cold wind. No one saw me; no one cared, all of them involved in their own problems, their own lives. It made me feel small somehow. As if I was a very small jelly bean in a giant jar full of jelly beans.
Austin stepped outside and locked the door behind him then took my hand as we started up the street. He kept looking everywhere at once. I knew now he was worried about the police. But I think he was searching for someone. I wondered who.
“Can we stop somewhere so I can get some Neosporin and band-aids for that cut.”
“I’ve got some at home.”
At home! Is that where we were going. To his home. My heart jumped and my pulse began to race. Was I going to be spending the night there? What did he mean by home? Did he mean under some bridge somewhere or maybe curled up behind a dumpster?
My skin crawled as I thought about rats. Their scurrying around with those long naked tails would be enough to send me into a screaming fit. I knew it. Maybe I could get a hotel room somewhere. But that would take all my money.
My insides clenched up, it was important to me that I pay Austin. He’d never accept the money just because he needed it. He had to earn it. I knew how some men could be. My dad was the same way. It would have killed him to accept a helping hand.
We turned down an alley only a block from the gas station. “There you are,” Austin said to an old man leaning up against the building. It was the same man from the alley yesterday. The man I’d seen Austin helping. Had it been only yesterday that Steph and I had been on the school bus?
He smiled a semi-toothless grin when he recognized Austin. His smile dropped a little when he saw me, then dropped a little more when he saw us holding hands.
“Billy, I’d like you to meet Casey. Casey this is Billy. The one person besides me you can trust.” Billy’s eyes grew a little bigger at Austin’s compliment.
The man smelled of sour sweat, dirt, and cheap alcohol. He examined me for a moment then held out a grime-encrusted hand in greeting and looked me in the eye to see what I was going to do. Without hesitation, I dropped Austin’s hand and took Billy’s. He didn’t squeeze too hard like some men do but it was firm enough.
Coming to some kind of decision he nodded his head before he turned to Austin.
“The cops are looking for you. Now I see why,” he said, looking up into his bruised face. “Who were you fighting?”
“Charlie Dover, white guy with a gold tooth, do you know him.”
“Charlie? Charlie? Charlie’s a little brown man, kill you in your sleep.” His eyes lost all focus. Just like that Mr. Billy had left us and drifted to a different world, a different time. I’d seen those glazed eyes on patient faces in the nursing home. They weren’t aware of this reality. A fearful frown creased his brow and he took a step back as if a terrible threat in his new world was standing right there before him.
Austin swallowed hard and gently placed his hand on Billy’s shoulder. The old man flinched for a moment but the eyes were still lost. “Sorry Billy, don’t worry about it. It’s me, Austin, you’re okay,” he said over and over calming Billy. “Are you going to the shelter again tonight?”
I could see how worried Austin had become. He shifted from foot to foot, his brow creased in concern. Billy started to pull himself back. I don’t think he got all the way there but it was enough to nod his head. “Yeah, shelter, sure I’ll go to the shelter, it’ll be safe in the shelter.”
“Good,” Austin said, “I can’t take you. Will you be able to make it on your own? No stopping along the way.”
Billy nodded and said, “Yeah, I’ll do that. It’ll be good to stay in the shelter tonight.”
We watched him walk down the alley and turn left at the street. He had a slight limp on his left side. My heart went out to him. Would he be all right? “You can go with him if you need to,” I said. “We can go together, make sure he gets into the shelter. In fact, why don’t we stay in the shelter tonight? It’s got to be better than on the street. Warmer at least.
Austin looked down at me and smiled slightly. “He’ll get there fine if he has any problems he has enough friends on the street to help him. As for us? Who said we were staying on the street. It’s the penthouse for you tonight. Besides, there’s no way you’re spending the night in a shelter.”
Seeing my confused look he only smiled then jumped into the air and caught the bottom rung of a fire escape ladder and pulled it down. He looked both ways up and down the alley to make sure no one was watching. “Up you go, I’ll be right behind you. You won’t fall.”
The rusty metal ladder hung there in mid-air waiting. I glanced at him and then back at the ladder. Was he serious? Of course, he was serious. Shrugging my shoulders, I grabbed the cold metal and started pulling myself up. True to his word Austin got on the ladder. His head only inches from my backside. Not the most flattering position.
I climbed the ladder and snaked my way through the small square opening to stand on the metal landing. Austin pulled the ladder up behind us and latched it in place as if pulling up a drawbridge. No one would be following us now. Our chests rubbed against each other as Austin scooted past me and to the window. He lifted the sash and crawled inside.
Is this what they call breaking and entering? Well, he hadn’t really broken anything, did that make it okay? He reached under the window sill and turned on a small flashlight, waving the light back and forth as he motioned me inside. Well Casey, try explaining this. You see dad, mom. I broke into a building so I could spend the night with a boy I met yesterday. Oh, they’d understand, Sure they’d understand and I’d be in military school until I was twenty-nine.
Feeling a little like Alice, I laughed to myself and followed him through the window. A large, very dark, empty, cavernous room greeted me.
“It used to be a glove factory, shut down last century. I found it about six months ago.”
The room felt like the size of a football field. Weak light filtered in through the dirty windows and only reached a short way. The wooden floor was layered with a fine white dust giving the place a stale, dry smell that tickled the back of my throat. Metal pillars were spaced every ten feet. Rows and row of them like soldiers in a parade.
“Come on, this way,” Austin said, using the flashlight to lead the way. Our footsteps echoed off the far walls. The small beam was swallowed by the darkness. It threw out only enough light to make sure we didn’t run into one of the pillars.
Everything had been removed, the place was abandoned. My stomach began to relax, we weren’t breaking into someone’s home. We weren’t trespassing. Well, we were, but they’d never know.
In the far, far distant corner, an office marred the perfect squareness of the giant room.
Austin held the door open and motioned me in. The room was darker than the factory floor. With no windows, it was as if I’d stepped into a closet. I tried to swallow the rising fear that had begun creeping up the back of my throat. Austin followed me in then fumbled with something to the left. A spark flew and I saw him light an old-fashioned storm lantern. He adjusted the wick, reset the glass chimney and then lifted the lamp up so I could see the entire room.
I gasped a little. He’d made himself a home. Or at least, tried. A single mattress lay on the floor in the corner. Covered in a sheet and six blankets. Two pillows in olive green pillowcases rested at the top of the bed. Next to it, a wooden crate turned on its end. Two books sat on top and more were stacked inside the makeshift bedside table.
I slowly turned taking it all in. Three more crates had been arranged, one on top of the other creating a bookcase. In these, he’d placed neatly folded clothes, jeans, and T-shirts. On top of the case, a snow globe flickered in the yellow lamplight. A
folded army duffle bag rested on the bottom shelf and I realized that everything he owned could fit into that bag. Austin could pack up and leave within minutes if necessary.
As I continued around a small desk had been pushed into the opposite corner from the bed and to the right of the door. A large porcelain bowl and several folded towels sat in the middle of the desk. An old-fashioned wooden office chair on wheels sat before it. He’d made a crude shelf above the desk and I saw several glasses, the kinds you get at McDonald's with a kid’s meal. Some utensils and salt and pepper shakers. At the very end of the shelf, a small fish bowl filled to the brim with ketchup packets.
“The heating duct for the bakery downstairs passes up through the wall,” He said. “It keeps the room from getting too cold. It still gets cold enough to freeze my b… It gets cold but I’ve got enough blankets to make it through the coldest of nights.”
I couldn’t believe it. He had created this out of nothing. I thought of my bedroom at home. Almost as big as this room. The fluffy comforter, my desk that looked out over the backyard. The closet full of clothes. The bathroom down the hall. What would I have done if I’d lost all of that? “Where did you stay before you created all of this?” I said. I know my jaw was hanging open. Sure it wasn’t much but it was so much more than I expected. The boy had his own apartment at sixteen.
“Uh … wherever, under bridges and behind dumpsters. Any place I could find that was warm and protected from prying eyes.” His face turned slightly red, mixing nicely with the blues and greens around his eye. The guy was embarrassed I realized with a start. He doesn’t have any idea how amazing this was. That he did all of this on his own.
Chapter Nine
Austin
I couldn’t believe Casey was standing in my room. And she wasn’t freaking out or laughing her ass off. I’d been dreading this moment ever since she refused to get on her bus. Swallowing hard I put the storm lantern on the bedside table slash wooden crate and let her wander around the room. She stopped at my books and kneeled down to look at them running her finger along the spines.
“The library sells old books real cheap every month. I check out most of my books but when a special one comes up for sale, I can buy it for a buck. I like having my own books, you know. Someday I’m going to have my own library full of books.”
She looked over her shoulder at me and smiled that sweet Casey smile that let me know she didn’t doubt me for a moment. “Here,” I said pulling the office chair out for her to sit in. She sat down and twirled slightly then glanced up. I continued to stand there with both hands in my back pockets.
“I should have found another chair, but in all honesty, I never thought I’d be entertaining.”
“Haven’t you had people here before?”
By people, did she mean girls? “No, never, you don’t know who you can trust. There aren’t any back ways out. It’d be too easy to get trapped. The only protection is to not let anyone know.”
Casey bit her lip and narrowed her eyes for a moment then smiled to herself. “What now. How do we get Jeanie back? How do we find out where she is?”
“I know where she is,” I said with more confidence than I should have. “She’s in Dick Wad’s apartment.”
Her eyes grew larger. “How do you know?” She turned to touch the porcelain bowl.
I quickly peeled my bloody T-shirt off, pulling a blue sweater on while Casey had her back turned. “He was lying, I knew it. Don’t ask me how I know because I couldn’t tell you, I don’t know how but I can always tell when someone is lying to me. She’s in his apartment.”
“How are we going to get in or do we wait outside until she comes out.”
“I can get us inside, but not until tomorrow morning.” The fact that she would be spending the night here with me hung in the air between us like a heavy cloud.
She accepted my pronouncement about Jerk Idiot without question but seemed to be worried. I watched her look around the room. Taking in everything except the bed. Noticing her discomfort made me queasy. Was she worried about me attacking her? She should know me well enough by now to know I wouldn’t do that. Although, in reality, she didn’t really know anything about me. All she knew was that I got into fist fights, ran from cops, and was poorer than an East European farmer.
An awkward silence fell over us again. I felt as if the walls were closing in on me. She pushed a strand of hair behind her ears and smiled weakly. It sent a burning pain to my stomach when she looked at me like that. As if I was some kind of hero and she needed me to do the right thing. I had to get Jeanie, tomorrow I promised myself. Afterward, Casey would go home. The thought no longer scared me. I wanted her too, I realized. The thought shocked me. She didn’t belong in this world. She deserved so much more. The fact that I hadn’t lost that part of my humanity made me feel good about myself.
“Listen, I’ve got to step out for a few minutes.” Her eyes flashed with fear for a moment but she steadied herself and nodded. “I’ve got to set up tomorrow morning.” I continued “Do you need anything? You’ll be fine, just stay in here until I get back. Okay?”
She stood up and stepped over next to me. “Can’t I come?” She said placing a hand on my shoulder.
“Um, no not really,” I said. Her face fell and I hated disappointing her. “Achmed doesn’t do real good around pretty girls. He gets all tongue tied and I don’t want to scare him off.” She nodded. “Believe me I won’t be long.”
Casey
I watched the flashlight beam sweep back and forth as Austin left. My heart stopped when he crawled through the window. He waived before sliding it shut. The silence settled over me, sending a chill down my spine like a blanket of snow. I shivered and tried to push it away as I closed the office door. The room felt smaller without him there. If I tried hard, I could hear distant street sounds, car horns, buses chugging up a hill, a woman’s high-pitched laugh. The sounds were reassuring for some reason.
So what now, how long would he be gone? Most girls would have loved the idea of exploring a boy’s apartment. But with Austin, what you saw was what you get. No hidden secrets. At least on the outside. No not Austin, all of his secrets were on the inside.
I walked around the room twice, both times avoiding the bed. What was he expecting tonight? My stomach tumbled every time I thought about it but the rest of my body reacted strangely also. Tingles and tightening, flushing of skin, racing heart and sweaty palms.
A lot of girls my age would have jumped at the chance to spend the night with Austin. They’d have fought each other like a bunch of Bloomingdale shoppers for the chance. But I’d never been that type of girl. Always hesitant, conservative. Hey but then I wasn’t the type to play hooky from a field trip either. Things change. What had happened to Jeanie with that jerk Tommy flashed through my mind. Shaking my head, I looked at the bed and its six blankets. None of them matched.
I removed my jacket and hung it over the back of the chair. A faint puff of my breath reflected off the yellow lamplight. It was going to get cold in here tonight. Folding my arms, I waited,
I didn’t have to wait long. A faint squeak had me jumping from the chair and to the door. Austin was stepping through the window. My heart skipped then jumped into hyper-drive as the small flashlight beam swept back and forth towards me.
“See, not too long,” he said, holding up a plastic shopping bag, “Dinner.”
The sweet smell of teriyaki made my stomach rumble. He plopped onto his bed and crossed his legs under him and motioned for me to sit on the bed also. Taking a deep breath, I sat across from him. He removed two water bottles and gave me one then handed me a plastic fork and opened the white Styrofoam container. Sliced grilled chicken covered in syrupy sauce and two mounds of white rice greeted us. “Hmmm, interesting, Mrs. Chang put in an extra egg roll,” he said with a slight frown.
“Why is that interesting?”
“I don’t know. It’s not like her.”
“Mm, it’s good,” I said around
a small mouthful. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was.
“Yeah, I promised to help out next week washing dishes so they fronted me a meal tonight.”
My fork halted halfway to my mouth. Talk about working for your dinner. For some people, it was the literal truth.
The tension in the air slowly leaked out of the room as we fell into a comfortable silence as we concentrated on filling our insides.
“Did you talk to Achmed?” I asked.
“Yeah, He’ll let us in tomorrow around eight. He knew who I was talking about. He saw Jeanie earlier this morning. She’s in apartment 3C he thinks. So no problems.”
“He saw her? Did he say what she looked like? How she was?”
“No, nothing special. When I mentioned the flaming red hair and the Gold tooth creep. He nodded and said, sure 3C.”
I let out a long breath and returned to my meal. Tomorrow, we were so close. Why had she run away and would she want to go home. Was I going to have to drag her out of there kicking and screaming? Because if I had too, I would.
We started talking about other things. He had a ton of questions about my school, what the kids were like, what the classes and teachers were like. I could feel a yearning in him. A burning thirst for information. As if he was a castaway watching a distant ship on the horizon.
I asked him what he was going to do with the money and he told me about the whole fake Social Security card thing. I looked around his room and realized he was going to make it. If anyone could crawl their way out of here, it’d be him. I thought he might have a chance. My insides fluttered when I thought I might be able to help, my money would be the thing that set him on his way.
We both ended up leaning against the wall, talking for hours. He told me very funny stories about the people he knew and I told him semi-funny stories about my friends.
Too Many Rules Page 24