Why didn’t you take me with you?” Livvy asked. They were riding in the back of the truck along with dozens of flowering annuals in plastic pots.
“It was kind of spur-of-the-moment. And anyway, you were at the dentist.” He hadn’t planned to tell Livvy about his visit to the old neighborhood, but who else could he talk to about it?
Now that he’d told her what had happened, she sat in silence. Socko figured she was still mad at him, but then she stretched out a leg and touched his foot with hers. “I know it didn’t work out, but what you did yesterday was really brave. You’re a stand-up guy, Socko.”
Despite all her rich-girl weirdness he was starting to like her, at least as a friend—and maybe as a girl of the opposite sex. And even though it was just sneaker to sneaker, not skin to skin, her foot was touching his. So maybe she liked him too.
But if she did like him, it was only because she didn’t know the real him. He pulled his foot away. “I’m not who you think,” he said.
“You’re not Socko Starr?” she joked.
“I’m not brave. Sure, I’m big, but I’m harmless. A leaf-eater.” He told her about the scene with Rapp on the roof—the primo example of how brave he wasn’t. “Junebug saved Damien, not me. I was too scared.”
She paused. “Were you scared yesterday?”
He stared past her. “What do you think?”
“But you did it anyway. Being scared was smart. Doing what you did even though you were scared? That was brave.”
“Like it did any good.” But he felt a little better. Not about Damien, but about himself. Maybe he wasn’t the biggest wuss that ever lived.
Maybe just the second or third.
Riding in the back of the truck after a day of hard labor, surrounded by a sloshing sea of empty plastic pots, Socko stared at his hands. In the last few days he had planted so many bushes, trees, and annuals that his fingertips were cracked. Both he and Livvy had pink, peeling sunburns.
Watching the parade of vacant houses go by, Livvy looked as worried as he felt. “Hear this, Universe!” she announced. “I don’t want anything for my birthday or Christmas. I just want people to buy houses here at Moon Ridge.”
“They will,” he said, but he didn’t believe it. Why should things start going right all of a sudden? Moon Ridge would go bust and Livvy would disappear just like Damien.
Socko needed a shower, but when he got home he felt too tired to haul himself up the stairs. Instead, he fell onto the sofa and stared at the ceiling.
His view of the ceiling was eclipsed. A wrinkled face hovered over him. “What’re you doing, Socko, worrying about Damien again?” The old man didn’t wait for an answer. “Worrying never solved a thing. You either fix the problem or you forget about it. You tried to fix it yesterday, but it couldn’t be fixed. It’s time to forget it and move on.” He turned the wheelchair toward the kitchen.
“What if I can’t forget it?”
The wheelchair turned slowly back his way. “You have to. It’s time to cut your losses, private. Damien is collateral damage.”
Socko pushed himself up on his elbows. “What’s collateral damage?”
“The unintended damage caused by an action. You moved out of the neighborhood and Damien joined the gang. End of story, so forget about it.” The General wheeled his chair into the kitchen.
“Not gonna happen,” Socko mumbled. He was an elephant when it came to not forgetting.
Socko was still splat-flat on the couch when Delia came waltzing in from work an hour late. “Big news!” Her face was flushed.
Socko turned his eyes her way, too tired to do more. He hadn’t even noticed she was late. Between worrying about Damien and the collapse of Moon Ridge, he was way overscheduled in the worry department.
“Didn’t anyone hear me? I said big news,” Delia repeated, enunciating carefully.
“So spill it, Delia Marie,” demanded the General.
Delia folded her arms on top of her stomach. “Guess!”
“I’m not dead yet?” the General ventured.
“Bigger! I overheard a guy in the Home Depot say the day manager at the fast-food place next door got caught helping himself to money out of the cash drawer.”
The General raised his bushy brows. “A clerk with sticky fingers, that’s your big news?”
“They fired him—which he deserved—and just like that, no more day manager! I walked myself across the parking lot and told them I was there about the job.”
Socko sat up fast. “Why?”
“Why? Don’t be a doof! Because I need a new job.”
Socko had never thought about her leaving the Phat. Didn’t she always call it her place? “Did you get the job?”
But Delia was spinning the story out, making it last. “The manager looked me over and right away, the usual came up.”
“Which is?” the General quizzed.
Delia spread her arms. “Let’s just call it my full figure. I dropped the word ‘discrimination,’ and the temporary day manager got the regional manager, a little bitty thing named Nikki. My manager, Paul, would have said, ‘So, sue me,’ but Nikki folded fast. They’re not very tough out here.”
The General was wearing one of his rare smiles. “But you sure are!”
“I take after you, old man.”
“You got that right, big girl.” They both grinned.
“So,” she said, “long story short, I start next week.”
“But … you can’t!” said Socko. “What about Damien and Junebug?”
“Damien …” She waved a hand. “There’s no talking to him anymore. And Junebug? Before I leave, she’s dumping Rapp. I’ll make sure of that if it’s the last thing I do. Without that loser she’ll be okay.”
“Get real, Mom. If she dumps Rapp she’ll need her own witness protection program! You will too. He’ll know you made her do it.”
“If he does, so what? I’ll be long gone. Junebug’s a big girl, Socko. She can do this thing. She’ll be fine.”
“No she won’t. She’ll be dead.”
Socko stormed up to his room and fell onto his cot. He was mad—and something else. Relieved? With the connection broken, he couldn’t be responsible for Damien. He could concentrate on the life he had here.
But what kind of guy tosses away a friend like a burger wrapper?
If only yesterday had gone down different! What would have happened if Rapp and his boys hadn’t come out of Donatelli’s? Would Damien have climbed into the truck? Would he be here now? Socko couldn’t let go until he found out. Luke would never take him to the old neighborhood again, but what if he drove himself back to the Kludge? He knew the fundamentals of driving. He could feel his heart beating hard in his chest, but he had to find a way to do it. He had to be the stand-up guy Livvy thought he was.
He had barely begun to plan how and when to sneak off in the car when he heard a faint knock on his door.
“Socko, can I come in?” Delia didn’t wait for an answer. She walked in and stood over his cot. “I have something for you.”
The blue envelope she put in his hand was from the electric company. It was addressed to Louise Rivera. Socko turned the envelope over. On the back was a mess of Scotch tape and the words: FOR SOCKO STARR ONLY. He looked up at his mother.
“No,” she said. “I didn’t read it. But if Damien asks you to do something stupid, you say no. I didn’t have to give this to you, but I trust you, Socko.” She made a big point of closing the door behind her when she left.
He wished she hadn’t said she trusted him, because this had to be the word he’d been waiting for from Damien, saying to come get him. He tore open the envelope.
The Riveras had a past-due balance of four hundred and thirty-seven dollars—by now their lights had been cut off for sure—but that couldn’t be his friend’s message. He turned the bill over. Damien’s note was scrawled on the back.
Socko—thanks for coming back but this is the way it is now. I owe Rapp and the guys. Mom’s boyfriend sent her to the ER a couple times and I couldn’t do nothing. Rapp and Meat made it so he won’t bother her no more. The gang’s not bad like we thought. I got brothers now and plenty 2 eat. Don’t show up or try to call. If you were still here it would be different. But I gotta think about now.
Lil’ D
PS: Tell your mom to quit messing with Rapp’s GF. The message on the car means bizness.
Socko stumbled to the window. Rapp’s message was tagged on the front passenger door, black and heavy. The blast of paint had been so strong it had run under the stencil and dripped down the car door. The tarantula was oozing black blood.
“Mom?” He took the stairs two at a time. He had to make Delia promise to forget about breaking up Rapp and Junebug.
But his mother refused to take the threat seriously. “Once I change jobs, how’s Rapp gonna find me?” Like the General, she told Socko to forget about it.
Later, lying in the dark, his elephant brain worked overtime wondering what Rapp had done to Louise’s boyfriend, afraid it would happen to Delia when she got between Rapp and Junebug—because that was just what she meant to do.