Mr. Costanzo led me to the library and introduced me to a black kid sitting at a table and reading a magazine. “Cody, this is DeMarco.”
DeMarco smiled and held out his hand. I shook it. Mr. Costanzo said, “I’ll let you two get to know each other. I’ve got work to do,” and then he left.
DeMarco looked me up and down and shook his head. “I don’t mean to be rude, but you gotta get some new threads.”
“Threads?”
“Clothes. Look, I know Mr. C. says you’ve been living in the woods and all, but if you don’t want to look like 1962, you better get with the program.”
Just then something on the table buzzed, and DeMarco looked at it. It was a mobile phone. There were words on a tiny screen. DeMarco nodded and started tapping it with his fingers. I was amazed how kids seemed to spend so much time on their phones. I had never had one.
DeMarco read the look on my face. He smiled again. “Tell me you’ve never seen someone texting before.”
I shrugged.
“Never had a cell phone?”
“I never had a reason to use a phone.”
That made DeMarco laugh. But it wasn’t a nasty laugh. He gave me a gentle slap on the shoulder. “Well, this is going to be interesting. Welcome to the twenty-first century, cowboy. I’m just gonna have to bring you up to speed. Time to get your white ass to your next class, Code.”
I decided to keep my mouth shut for the rest of the day, fearing I’d say something wrong, like I’d done with Alexis. The plan worked well enough until the final bell rang.
“End of the day, Code,” DeMarco announced. “Let freedom ring.”
But as we were walking out the school door, we passed Alexis, with a couple of other girls. Alexis gave me a look like I was something on the sole of her shoe and pushed past us.
DeMarco had no idea what was going on. “Just keep walking, bro.”
We walked in silence for a couple of blocks before he asked, “What was that all about? How’d you make girl enemies on your first day of school?”
I tried to explain as best I could. DeMarco’s eyes went wide. “So let me get this straight. You meet a nice girl like Alexis and try to impress her by telling her you’re good at shooting bunny rabbits and stripping the skin off a deer?”
DeMarco registered that look in my eyes. I guess it had been my trademark look all day—dazed and confused and not having a clue. “Codeman,” he said. “We’ve got some serious work to do. Serious work.”
But DeMarco had a part-time job at a coffee shop that he had to get to. He said goodbye and left me on my own to walk down a city street full of busy people, all walking and talking on their little phones or tapping away on them like it was the most important thing in the world.
I almost got hit by a couple of cars while crossing the street, and a few people yelled at me. I longed for the quiet and solitude of the forest. I just wanted to sit by the little brook and listen to it. I suddenly realized, too, just how hungry and thirsty I was.
I saw a fountain in front of a big building, with a pool of water around it. I leaned over the concrete edge and drank deeply from the pool. It tasted different from the well water at home and the stream I sometimes drank from when I was in the forest. But it helped.
Once again I noticed people looking at me in an odd way. What was I doing wrong? The more I looked at their faces, the more I realized they thought I was crazy or had something wrong with me. One young man with long hair walked by and nudged me and said, “Easy on it, my friend. I think you’re takin’ the wrong drugs.” But I had no idea what he meant.
In spite of all that, I took another drink from the pool. When I looked up and around, I realized I had no idea which way to go to get back to the apartment. I was totally lost in a city I didn’t understand. And I wanted to cry.