Several nights later, Juju spotted Maggie coming out of a vacant lot, followed by a tall young man who couldn’t have been more than twenty.
“Maggie! What’s up, girl?” Juju yelled.
Maggie smiled and waved. Then she turned to the man, who put money into the palm of her hand. She quickly walked toward Juju.
“OK, Seth has to be at school by eight fifteen in the morning,” Juju said.
“Were you able to find out what time he leaves the house?” Maggie asked.
Juju smiled. “Sure did. He leaves around seven forty-five. Let’s meet up at the Salvation Army store on East Alleghany Avenue. He’s gotta walk by there to get to school.”
“Perfect. Juju, I’m so excited. I can’t wait,” Maggie said with longing. “Juju, how did Rock get Seth into school? I mean, doesn’t the principal ask questions?”
“Are you kiddin’? Rock runs this town. He’s been payin’ off the principal at that school for years. That way, the kids he brings to Thelma to ruin can go to school without a bunch of questions. Almost every person in that school is paid off by Rock. Once they get too old, Thelma doesn’t want them no more, and then she gets a new kid to send there,” Juju explained.
The next morning, just as planned, the two girls were standing in front of the Salvation Army store. In the distance, Maggie saw a young kid walking toward them, and adrenaline began to pump through her veins. As the child got closer, she noticed the long blond hair of a cute little girl. Her excitement faded until the child was only ten feet away. Then she recognized Seth.
“Seth?” Maggie proceeded with caution.
The child looked up, noticed who it was, and sprinted toward Maggie. Their arms were wide open as they came upon each other, and Maggie scooped him into the air in a loving embrace.
“Aggie! Oh, Aggie. Where have you been? Why didn’t you come back for me?” the naïve seven-year-old asked.
“Oh, Seth, I wanted to come back for you. But they wouldn’t let me. Then I found out that you go to school, so I came here to see you,” Maggie explained, heartbroken.
“Can I come and live with you now?” Seth asked hopefully.
“Not yet, baby. Let me take a look at you,” she said, holding the child at arm’s length to scrutinize him.
Seth’s hair hung well below his shoulders. His blue eyes were devoid of life and swallowed up by dark circles, an indication that he was suffering. He was pale and bone thin. Maggie’s heart broke as she looked at him. She wanted more than ever to save him.
“How are they treating you?” Maggie asked, afraid of the answer.
“Thelma is mean to me,” he cried. “She smacks me for nothing. She only leaves me alone when she’s not taking her needles. And, Aggie, she doesn’t let me do nothin’. She says I’m bad, and I don’t even do anything bad. I hate her, Aggie.”
“You’re not bad, Seth. Thelma is wrong, OK?” she stated, at a loss for words.
Maggie turned to Juju. “This is our new friend, Juju.”
“I see her come to the house,” Seth said shyly, afraid she’d tell Thelma that he was bad because he talked to Maggie. “Is she gonna tell Thelma on me?” he asked in a whisper.
“No, Seth. Juju is our friend. She helped me find you. Remember Cali and Max?” she asked.
Seth nodded.
“Well, Juju is like them. We can trust her. But listen, when you see Juju come to the house, you have to pretend like you don’t know her, OK? If not, then we’ll all get in big trouble.”
“OK, but when am I coming to live with you?” he asked again, wanting desperately for Maggie to stay with him and take him far away from Thelma.
“I’m working on it, Seth. You need to be patient. Do you know what that means?” Maggie asked, wanting to be certain he didn’t blow their cover.
Seth shrugged.
“It means that you’ll have to wait until we can get you out of there safely. If we make Thelma or Rock angry, they might hurt us. Do you understand?”
“Like John William hurt Max?” Seth asked.
“Yes, like that. Until then, I’m going to come here and meet you every day before school. I can walk you to school, and we can be together,” Maggie explained.
Juju stepped forward and knelt to put herself at Seth’s eye level. “Hey, little man,” she said, “we’re gonna be good friends. We’re gonna be like the Three Musketeers, all for one and one for all.”
Seth tilted his head. “Who are they?”
“They were three friends that never left each other. They stayed together all the time. They watched over each other and did everything together,” Juju explained.
Seth visibly relaxed and smiled at Juju. “OK, we can be the three musky tears,” he said with a smile.
Maggie felt warmth rush to her heart at Juju’s words. She hugged Seth closer to her and as she held him, she mouthed, “Thank you” to Juju.
Maggie and Seth talked the rest of the way to his school. He told her how Thelma treated him, and that he wasn’t able to talk to her unless she asked him questions. “Sometimes, she doesn’t let me eat dinner ’cause she says I need to get tough. She told me I can’t have everything I want, or I’ll be a spoiled brat,” he said solemnly. “But I’m real hungry when she does that and my tummy makes bubbly sounds when I try to go to sleep.”
“Well, when we meet you in the mornings, I’ll bring you something to eat,” Maggie pledged.
As Seth left the girls to head into the school, he kept looking back over his shoulder to make sure Maggie and Juju were still there. He wanted to run away with them and go to a place where people were nice. He hated school. All the kids were mean to him. However, he did have one teacher who was nice to him, even though the rest of his teachers looked at him like a worthless piece of white trash. But now that Maggie was back, he had a tiny sliver of hope that he would get to leave his school and, better yet, get to leave Thelma and all her nastiness.