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“Yeah. What’s it to you?” the kid asked, primed to run again.
“Are you new?”
He clamped his lips shut and looked anywhere but at us. I didn’t recognize him, couldn’t place who his parents might be, and had no idea which trailer was his. And I pretty much knew everyone in the park, so he must not have lived here for long. He was probably eight, maybe ten, small for his age but street smart for it, and resourceful, by the looks of it.
“Hungry?” I asked him.
“Fuck you.”
“Yeah, fuck you, too.” I shook my head and bit back a laugh because that was totally something I would have said at that age. Hatred for the world and nothing much to smile about. At least I had Xavi. Did this kid have anyone that made him smile? “Alright, well, get goin’ then.” I shooed him away, mostly because I wanted to see where he’d go.
He looked at the two of us all sketchy-like, and then kept on running. One shared look between me and Xavi, and we split up to follow him. The kid wound his way through the park, made it look like he was going to three different trailers, eventually figured he lost us, and then… he did. We couldn’t find him anywhere. He straight up vanished, and that shit was weird.
“Fuck, did we have that talent at that age?” Xavi asked beside me.
“Yeah. Fuck knows what happened to it since then.” I looked at him. “He’s feral.”
“Pretty sure I saw him steal a blanket off a clothesline once.”
“Yeah, he’s wild. Stray.” I stared at him, hoping he could read my mind. I widened my eyes just in case the message wasn’t clear.
Xavi tilted his head back and sighed. “We’re stalking him, aren’t we?”
“Maybe he doesn’t have an older brother like our brothers did, Xav! He looked half snapped and mostly wild, but he’s just a kid with no good home.” I knew that because I’d been there. I’d recognize that look on any kid’s face. He lived in the park, I had no doubt about that, but he didn’t feel safe going home, or he’d been told to make himself invisible. Which meant that he fended for himself and had no one to count on. “Think about it, Xav. What is the only thing we’ve ever done in life worth mentioning?”
Xavi smiled at me, nodding. “Being in our brothers’ corners.”
Xavi got to be important to Karen, and I wanted to be depended on. If I could find this kid again.
“Alright, Detective Neegs. Let’s start asking around.” Xavi linked his fingers with mine and led me through the park to start knocking on doors.
It took hours, but he wasn’t unknown to the residents of Garron Park. He was actually pretty well known, like a legend.
“Oh, he’s the Voreneau boy. Runs around all hours of the night with no supervision. Just disappears whenever someone tries to talk to him.”
“He won’t let anyone get close enough to help.”
“Police have come looking for him a time or two. Children’s Aid, too.”
“His dad’s the new guy on Lot 31. Windows are always covered.”
“Rude kid. Won’t talk to nobody, and when he does, he’s telling them to fuck off.”
“Don’t think he goes to school.”
“Little prick stole a burger right off my BBQ. Wasn’t even done cooking.”
By the time we had a few leads on this boy, I felt absolutely positive that he’d talk to me. He could be as rude as he wanted as long as I could be rude back. He didn’t need manners. He needed to know someone was in his damn corner.
I’d be his corner.
Andrea came by to give Naomi something for her hangover and perhaps the start of her withdrawal if she could stick with it, and when she closed the bedroom door and Maddox let Seth back into the trailer, we all sat around the living room.
“I don’t know about his dad, but the kid is quiet, self-reliant, and doesn’t want help. He cut his arm pretty good a few months ago, and it took four days for him to let me clean it. Had to corner him in the park at night,” Andrea said. “And he wouldn’t accept a snack or a place to stay. Wouldn’t say anything other than that he was going home. Doesn’t talk much.”
“I don’t think he goes home,” Seth chimed in. “Maybe a few nights here and there, but he leaves when his dad shows up and doesn’t go back until his dad disappears. Sometimes his dad is gone for days, and other times the guy doesn’t leave the trailer for days. He rented it about four months ago. No one in the park really knows them yet.”
“Reminds me of you and Devon when you were that age.” Andrea looked at us.
