CANNOT BELIEVE this is happening. How did he get stuck with this runt? What was he doing anywhere near Tattooer anyway? He’s losing it. He’s off his game. And he knows why. It’s Jack. But not what Dusty thinks. Dusty can’t see farther than the snot at the end of his nose. It’s not the stolen-bike-and-girl thing. It’s something else. Something he saw back at the tracks. But what he saw wasn’t the thing itself. What he saw was like a rustle in the bushes, a hint of something. He doesn’t know what it is. He doesn’t understand it. He can’t see it. He doesn’t want to see it. He only knows this: it’s bad. Way worse than a stolen bike. Way, way worse.
William the runt keeps pulling LaJo’s finger. “What’s your name?” the runt whines. “What’s your name? What’s your name?”
“LaJo!” he yells, and yanks his finger away. The runt staggers backward, falls on his butt as if hit by a gust of wind. The runt is getting ready to cry but sees LaJo is laughing—LaJo can’t help it—so the runt joins in. He pops up. He starts skipping along, pulling the big finger, piping to the world: “LaJo! … LaJo! …”
The runt points. “LaJo—what’s that?”
“Cartoons.”
“What’s Cartoons?”
“Pictures.”
“What’s—”
“Don’t ask.” Up on the big screen Road Runner is chasing Wile E. Coyote. By law LaJo is supposed to stay with the runt the whole first day. And do everything the runt wants. But who’s going to know if he sneaks off while the runt is staring gaga at some cartoon? “Why don’t you stay here and see for yourself,” he says to the runt.
The runt thinks about it for two seconds. “No!” he blurts, and lurches off, dragging LaJo.
It’s LaJo’s ordinary world but it’s all new to the runt. “What’s that? … What’s that? …” It’s not enough just to see. The runt has to touch everything, try everything.
Trucks. “You can drive them.” The runt does, his tiny legs churning pedals. Garbage truck. Semi. Tanker.
Doll Farm. “For girls,” LaJo says, but the runt goes and digs up his own anyway.
Tantrums. “It’s where you go bananas,” LaJo tells him.
“What’s bananas?” says the runt.
Hippodrome. The runt makes LaJo join him in the mouth of the green hippo. Then the pink one.
Snuggle Stop. LaJo waits outside while the runt goes in. When the runt comes out, he shocks LaJo, cuddles LaJo’s leg. LaJo shakes him off.
Jailhouse. Thousand Puddles. Playground.
LaJo is getting desperate. Every step along the grand tour of Hokey Pokey, he’s on the lookout for a chance to ditch the runt. And finally it happens. Halfway between the DON’T sign and The Wall he spots a herd of puppies—followed, as always, by a herd of Newbies. “Look,” he says, stuffing excitement into his voice, “puppies!”
The runt is already taking off when LaJo remembers the Four Nevers. He has to give them to the runt. It’s the law. He grabs the runt. “Wait.”
The runt wails, “Puppies!”
“Just a sec. I gotta tell you something.” With the runt squirming in his hands, LaJo recites: “Never pass a puddle without stomping it. Never go to sleep until the last minute. Never go near Forbidden Hut. Never kiss a girl. OK, go.”
William the runt runs screaming after the puppies.
LaJo scuffs dust, walks. He sees something in the distance, on Great Plains. He shades his eyes. It’s a dustpuff, rolling across the shimmering vastness. Too small to be the mustang herd. And now he hears it, a mere speck of sound riding the morning breeze off the Mountains. His boy’s ear identifies it instantly: Girl … whoop … happy.