When I left the apartment the next morning, I decided not to go to school. I figured it might be a way to avoid more trouble. Instead, I found my way to the public library and sat down by the water fountain out front. I watched as people hurried by. Everyone seemed so unconnected to the world around them. Some were talking on cell phones, some were texting, and most just seemed in a rush to get somewhere. I didn’t see a whole lot of smiles in that crowd. It wasn’t my world, and it was a world I really didn’t want to be part of.
No one looked at me. I played a game of trying to make eye contact with people, but as soon as they saw me looking at them, they looked away quickly. And then I started thinking about my dad. We were here because of him, because of his cancer. I wasn’t sure I trusted Dr. Musgrave or anyone else at the hospital. Maybe we were doing the wrong thing. Maybe we should just get the hell out of here, go back home and let my dad heal there. Up until now, we’d been able to cure or recover from any injury or illness that had come our way. Up until now, we’d been able to handle anything on our own.
That’s when I noticed someone lying on his side, asleep on a wooden bench. I got up and walked over, circled the bench. Yep. It was Ernest. Maybe I should have just let him sleep, but I wasn’t sure he was okay. So I touched him on the shoulder, and his body jerked. He sat up and looked around, dazed and uncertain.
“Ernest,” I said. “Sorry, man. I was just checking to see if you were okay.”
Ernest blinked a few times and then shook his head. He focused on my face and took a breath. “Cody, right?”
“Yeah. You okay?”
Ernest sat up. “I haven’t been okay in years. But thanks for asking.”
“You slept here last night?”
“I think so.”
“Weren’t you cold?”
“Of course I was cold.” He hawked up some phlegm, leaned over and spit on the ground. “Hey, why aren’t you in school?”
So I told him about the trouble I had gotten myself into.
“Yep. Trouble will find you. It always does. Probably nothing you can do about it but be prepared for it.”
“You sound like my father,” I said and then told him about my visit to my dad and what the doctor had said.
“That’s why you have to be strong for your old man. That’s why you need to go back to school.”
It seemed like an odd sort of thing to say, coming from this guy. But he was probably right.
“So you made an enemy,” Ernest continued. “We all do that sometimes. You’ll need to be ready to do what needs to be done if your enemy persists.”
“I’m just going to try to avoid him.”
“Good plan. But have a backup. Now get your ass to school.” It was an order, not mere advice.
I smiled. “Okay,” I said. He was right. I didn’t know where else to go anyway. So I walked to Citadel High and waited for the bell to ring. I checked my schedule and then walked the crowded hallway until I found my English class. DeMarco smiled and waved when I entered the room. “I was worried, Caveman. I thought you’d got lost again in the urban jungle.”
I decided not to tell him about the meeting in Costanzo’s office or about the police. That was my problem, not his.
When noon rolled around, DeMarco said he had to go home to check on his mom, who wasn’t feeling well. So I sat down in the noisy cafeteria, but I didn’t have a lunch or any money to buy anything. I watched as kids dumped barely eaten meals into the trash and thought about grabbing something from there. But I knew it would only draw more attention to me. More of the wrong kind of attention.
I saw Alexis walking my way and started to stand. I didn’t want any of whatever she’d have to say. But before I could get moving, she sat down across from me. “Sit,” she said. “Just sit down, Cody.” Her voice was insistent. So I sat down and waited for her to pounce.
“I heard about yesterday,” she said. “I heard you got into a fight.”
I shrugged and waited for a lecture about nonviolence.
“I heard you stood up for DeMarco.”
“Sort of.”
“Not too many kids take on Austin or his buddies Jacob and Todd. They’re like the local mafia.”
“Unfortunately, it got me in trouble with Costanzo and even the police.”
“That’s not fair,” she said.
“Guess it’s just the way it is.”
She looked at me in a completely different way now. More like the girl who first introduced herself to me. “Cody, I’m sorry about the other day.