The way I figured it was this: First, I did need a book— and bad—to slow down my head. I’d always been a reader. I had to be. In the Bad Time, it was sometimes the only way for me to escape. TV was always the first thing they took from you when you messed up. Second, I had Shan’s ten in my pocket, but I had to have a way I’d gotten the money. If Matt told Shan I had ten dollars in Canadian money with me, she was going to wonder where it had come from and maybe check her purse. Nobody was going to believe I’d gotten it in Tucson. The library was perfect. All I had to do was brush against somebody or bump a purse, then flash the ten at Matt, and he’d think I’d picked someone’s pocket. If he was in on it, he couldn’t tell Shan. I’d be an outlaw superhero and he’d be an accessory. It’s all about leverage.
Inside, there was a three-sided counter with a lady behind it and scanner bars to walk through on the way out. I could see a kids’ section and stairs leading up to the rest of the library. “Come on,” I said to Matt.
Upstairs was another desk with another lady, public computers and books. Tons of books.
I felt myself relax a little. Man, if I could just hang here by myself, I thought. One of my worst times was when the neat freaks threw away my books. That might have been the last time I cried. There was one book I loved, about this girl named Gilly. She was a Bad Timer like me. She was great at messing with people’s heads. The difference was, she had a mom, and even a picture of her, but the mom turned out to be a shit, and Gilly had to get it together for herself anyway. Me and Gilly. I loved that there wasn’t a happy ending, even though she had a grandma. I would have been so pissed if she’d gotten out and I hadn’t.
“Just go with this,” I whispered to Matt. All at once I had to be alone in there, just for a minute.
“Can I help you boys?”
The lady at the desk had a name badge that said Jo-Anne and MOM stamped on her forehead. I jumped right into it. I nodded at Matt. “Well, ma’am, he’d like to use a computer and I’d like to look at the books.” Matt stared at me. I didn’t care. Sticking Matt at a computer would give me time to breathe and steal a couple books. Then I could fake stealing the money.
“Do you have cards?” the lady smiled.
I looked at Matt. He did the family look again. It was starting to bug me. I didn’t let him see that, though, because I’d just realized something else: someone was offering me more ID. “No, ma’am,” I said. “I’m new in town.”
“Well, welcome,” said Jo-Anne. “Anyone over thirteen can get their own card, but I’ll need to see something with your address. Do you have anything with you?”
I looked at Matt. He shrugged and did the stupid smirk again. “I guess not, ma’am,” I said. I decided to steal the little jerk’s Wii money for sure.
“That’s okay.” Jo-Anne smiled again. “I can do a temporary sign-up for the computer, but you can’t take any books out until you get a card. You’ll have to come back for that.” She pointed behind her. “There’s a computer free over in the teen section.”
I nodded back. “Yes, ma’am. Thank you, we’ll do that. Can I still look around though?”
“Oh, sure. Take your time. If you find something you really want, they’ll hold it for you at the desk downstairs.”
“That would be super, ma’am.”
Jo-Anne turned to Matt and asked his name. I nudged him forward, then headed into the book stacks, fast. Matt wouldn’t last very long. I grabbed a few paperbacks. I’d leave some at the desk and come back for a card, but I needed at least one for now.
Boosting books from a library is not exactly hard, especially when you have big pockets in your cargo shorts. I ducked into the second-last aisle for a quiet spot where I could find the sensor stickers and tear them out and almost ran into one of those rolling carts they move books around on. A tall skinny girl in jeans and a sweater was sticking books back on a top shelf. We both kind of jumped. She had long mousy hair and ugly glasses and a name badge. She stared at me. I wheeled around and ducked down the last aisle instead. I found the sensors. When I heard her roll the book cart away, I ripped out the pages they were stuck on and slipped the two smallest books in my pockets. Then I went to run the fake theft.
There were a bunch of old folks I could bump into, but I wanted Matt watching. Then I looked down the stairs and saw a chance to get more money. At the checkout, the clerk was opening a cash drawer under the counter with a little key. Somebody was saying, “I’ve got five photocopies.” I looked around, saw the photocopier over near Jo-Anne, and it all just fell into place.
I palmed the ten-dollar bill, then went and got Matt. He followed me as I went to the copier and grabbed a sheet of paper from the wastebasket. I gave it to him. “Hold this, stand by the stairs and watch me.”
I started walking away from Matt, my head down. I bobbled the books I was carrying in front of me as if I was busy looking at them and bumped into a guy. There was no way I was really going to pick his pocket—I’m not good enough. Harley was pretty good at it, and he’d started teaching me, but not even he did it unless we really had to. Then I’d just be the stall while he was the mechanic. Now all I did was apologize and walk back to Matt. I flashed the ten in my hand and we started downstairs.
“How’d you do that?” Matt whispered.
“Never mind. I had to learn it. Now, c’mon.”
I led him to the kids’ section. “Grab five big books.”
“Why?”
“Never mind. Just do it.” I was getting really tired of Matt.
We took all the books to the desk. I balanced them there in a stack.
The lady there was no bigger than me. Her name tag said Daphne. “We need to come back to get cards, ma’am, but Jo-Anne upstairs said you could hold these for us.”
“Absolutely,” Daphne said. She looked at us over those half-glasses. I told her our names and address and she wrote it all down on a slip of paper. She was quick, like a bird, which was not good. I decided to go for it anyway. Before she could touch the stack of books, I said, “Oh, and we have to pay for a photocopy.” Matt was still holding the sheet of paper. I passed Daphne the ten. As she opened the cash drawer to make change, I tipped over the books. They hit the floor on her side of the counter. “Oh, sorry!”
She went for the books. I leaned over the counter like I was trying to help. Instead, I slipped the first bill I could reach out of the drawer and scooped it behind my back to Matt. Then I ran around to help for real. As I did, the tall girl from upstairs came to the desk. I was pretty sure she hadn’t seen what I’d done. I kept my back to her. She didn’t say a word.
We got the books gathered up again. Daphne gave me change from my ten for the photocopy. It had cost a quarter.
When we got outside, Matt was bug-eyed. I said, “How much did we get?”
“Five dollars.” His voice was shaky. He started to reach into his pocket.
“Not here! Get your bike.”
He pulled his bike out of the rack, and we crossed the street into a park. I pulled the books I’d boosted out of my pockets. Matt’s eyes got even bigger. “Okay,” I said, “so we made five plus nine seventy-five…Wait.” I put the books down on a picnic table under a tree. I fished the money out of my pocket and dumped it on the table. The Canadian five was blue, and there were a couple of those weird two-dollar coins. The ten had been purple. I pushed it all toward him.
“What’re you doing?” Matt said.
“You helped,” I said. “You did great. So we’re partners. You won’t tell, right? ’Cause if you do, we’re screwed. Can I trust you?”
“Y-yeah. Sure,” Matt stammered.
“And to show I trust you, I’m going to let you hold it for us. You got a secret place at home where you keep your money safe?”
He nodded.
“How much you got?”
“Twenty-eight bucks.”
“Good. Plus this. Put it all there. But you got to show me where it is, so I’ll know you haven’t skimmed it. Okay?”
“Okay.” He stuffed the cash in his pocket. His hands were trembling.
“Cool. I guess we got money for drinks, huh? See why I like going to the library? And believe me, your mom will like it that we went there too.” I picked up the books. I was feeling good. Thanks to Matt, who’d be too scared to talk, I now had a hiding place for cash, ID on the way and books. Matt didn’t know it yet, but he’d just donated his twenty-eight bucks to my escape fund too.
As we went to the variety store, there was only one thing niggling at me. The tall girl in the library: as we were leaving, I’d seen her name tag. I could’ve sworn it read Gilly.