Page 84 of But For You

“What was that?” Hannah asked me.

“Roosters,” I told her as we walked, me carrying three reusable bags, Kola one.

At the car, we heard it again.

“Pa, it’s coming from there,” Kola said, pointing to a parked Ford pickup.

“It’s not our business. Get in the car,” I ordered him, opening the door.

“But what if they’re stuck?” Hannah looked up at me, her big brown eyes worried.

“Fine, you two get in the car. I’ll see what it is.”

With my kids safely ensconced in the car, I checked around and then leaned over into the bed of the pickup and lifted a tarp. There, underneath, were three large wire cages with roosters in them. I had never been a big bird lover; the wings fluttering in my face was just cause for hyperventilation. Clowns, birds, wasps, and flying cockroaches—which had gotten added to the list when I was in Hawai’i—all gave me the shivers. I was not thrilled to find roosters, but that they were there at all seemed odd to me. They looked like they had been trimmed weird; they didn’t look like the ones walking around the petting zoo.

“What the hell are you doing?”

I turned, and two men were walking toward me fast.

“My kids heard the crowing, and we thought the birds were in trouble.”

“Oh,” the first guy said.

Suddenly, I was looking at a badge that he had pulled from under his T-shirt. The other man followed suit. I heard the window roll down beside me, and Hannah poked her head out.

“Are the chickens okay, Pa?”

“Yes, B,” I assured her.

The policemen, Detectives Gonzales and Everman, explained to the kids, as one leaned against the truck and the other on my minivan, that they had taken the roosters from bad men who were going to fight them.

“Why do they fight them?” Kola wanted to know.

“People bet on which bird will win.”

“How do they know who wins?” Kola was tenacious when it came to something he didn’t understand. “Is it like boxing and there are points?”

I had to remind myself to talk to Sam’s father about watching the fights with my kid.

“No, they let them go at it until one of them dies.”

“Dies?” Kola was horrified.

Hannah, who was tired at that point, burst into tears.

“Really?” I scowled at both detectives, even though Everman was the one who had said it.

Gonzales elbowed his partner in the ribs, looking sheepish. “Sorry.”

But I had to comfort my girl and had no time for them anymore.

They left the parking lot first, and I noticed as I took a right out onto the street that we were following them.

The Chevy SUV that flew by me didn’t even blip on my radar until it slammed into the side of the pickup and forced it off the road. I was easily a hundred yards behind, but I quickly turned off my lights and pulled over to the side of the road.

“Pa?”

I hushed Kola and called 911 as the officers got out.