Part 5 (2/2)

Drowthers were more complicated than anybody in the Family thought. They always lumped them together as if drowthers all thought alike. But she was smart enough to see through him, yet lenient enough to help him get away with at least a small amount of theft. And her grip on his shoulder had been almost as strong as Great-uncle Zog's, and he he was beastfriend with the eagles! was beastfriend with the eagles!

Peril is everywhere, but there are also allies in places least expected. Sometimes even the people who know you're lying will help you and trust you a little. The things he had learned in his first hour of freedom.

Pus.h.i.+ng his cart, he went back to the boys' clothing section. Danny soon learned that he was exactly the wrong size for everything. Too tall for most of the boys' clothing, and too short and skinny for most of the men's. He stripped off his s.h.i.+rt and pants again, not caring who stared, so he could try things on right out in the open-he figured it would be pus.h.i.+ng his luck to try to get permission to use a dressing room. There was the detective again, watching him from afar-let him see how Danny carefully hung things back up when they didn't fit, or put them neatly in the cart, so his mom could decide which ones to buy.

It was getting so Danny was almost disappointed to remember that she didn't exist, and no one would ever come to pay for anything he took.

Getting shoes that fit was the hardest, because he couldn't tell anything about the fit unless he had socks on, and he couldn't buy any socks. He ended up taking two pairs of socks, each clipped together at the top, and then put on one from each pair, slipped the shoes on and tied them, and then walked around with the extra socks flopping around his ankles. Then he took off the shoes and socks, tossed them in the cart, and put the flip-flops back on his feet. Then he set out to get the rest of his drowther wardrobe.

Don't be greedy, he told himself. The detective won't believe the story if I overload the cart-or put in any toys. A package of three tee-s.h.i.+rts, a package of three more tighty-whities, four pairs of socks, one pair of shoes, a pair of jeans and a pair of nicer pants maybe for church, two long-sleeve b.u.t.ton-up s.h.i.+rts, a small backpack, and a nice winter jacket. Exactly what Danny imagined a mother might buy for her son, if the Christmas check had to go entirely for clothes and other useful things.

Then, just to gild the lily, he went to the Christmas card section and stood there reading cards in the ”to Mother” section. Every now and then he'd look toward the entrance as if looking for his mom.

Time to go.

As he looked toward the door, he suddenly brightened, stood taller, waved. Then he began to push the cart at a run, weaving among people heading for the checkout counters. But-as if his mother had gone up one of the aisles-he suddenly cut to the left and started racing up an aisle. Let's give Mr. Detective some exercise, Danny thought. At the end of that aisle, Danny dodged down one of the central corridors, with narrow aisles going off to either side. As soon as he reached one that contained no shoppers-an office-supply aisle-he called out, ”Mom!” and whirled and raced into the s.p.a.ce...

And then he was in the woods behind the store, shopping cart and all.

It was such a relief to know that he could bring the cart with him. He had almost stopped in the aisle to load up his purchases in his arms, but then he thought, why not hold tight to the cart and see if I can bring the whole thing with me through the gate? And it worked.

Danny stripped off his old clothes and discarded them, including the now-useless flip-flops. He put on the jeans, a tee-s.h.i.+rt, and one of the b.u.t.ton-up s.h.i.+rts over it. Then he pulled the jacket on over everything, and stuffed the other stolen clothes into the backpack.

He was warmer right from the start. And the Nike shoes were comfortable enough that they didn't bother him much-and it felt good not to have the stones and sticks on the ground be more than b.u.mps under the soles of the shoes. These were a lot better than the ”best dress” shoes that got pa.s.sed from child to child. Danny had never been the first to wear a pair of shoes in his life.

He looked at the now-empty cart and it bothered him to leave it there in the woods. So he hitched the backpack up over one shoulder and then wrestled the cart through the woods and bushes until he reached the asphalt that ran along the back of the Wal-Mart property, where several trucks were getting offloaded. He left the cart behind as soon as it was on asphalt, and walked south, toward the small row of stores separated from Wal-Mart by more parking. He toyed with the idea of sauntering along in front of the stores just like a regular person, but decided to go behind them, after all.

And that decision shaped the next few years of his life.

There were a couple of guys smoking behind one of the stores, sitting on some steps with a handrail. They were teenagers, eighteen years old or so, Danny guessed. One of them was dressed in an employee uniform of some kind, and the other one was scruffier, with a sad-looking jacket and a beat-up backpack beside him. They looked at Danny as he walked by.

”Kid, you must be the dumbest shoplifter ever,” said the scruffy guy.

Danny stopped and turned to look at him. ”Shoplifter?”

”Come here,” said the guy. ”Look at him, Tony. Look! He didn't even take the store tags off.”

”Yes I did,” said Danny.

”Maybe you took off some of them, but look at that, what's that sticking out of your collar? Is that from the s.h.i.+rt or the jacket?” Scruffy Guy Who Wasn't Tony was standing up now, and Danny let him yank something out of the back of the jacket. He held out a tag as big as a brochure, touting the virtues of some kind of fabric and some designer's name that Danny never heard of.

”Thanks,” said Danny.

”Dumb as my thumb,” said Tony.

”Naw, he's not dumb,” said the guy who had called him the dumbest shoplifter ever. ”He's just un.o.bservant. That right kid? You un un.o.bservant?”

”I guess,” said Danny.

”Take off the jacket and let me see if anything else is dangling. And let me guess what's in the backpack-more stuff with the tags on, right? So if somebody stops you they don't even have to ask ask if you stole it?” if you stole it?”

Danny took off his jacket and the guy pulled something else off the back of his pants.

”How did he miss that that one, Eric? You going to tell me he's blind?” one, Eric? You going to tell me he's blind?”

Danny now had his backpack open and was pulling tags and labels off the other clothes. ”Where can I put these?” he asked, when he had a fistful of them.

”Just drop them in a trash can somewhere,” said Tony. ”Or toss them in the woods. But not not here. Manager would just make me come out and clean it up.” here. Manager would just make me come out and clean it up.”

Eric had his hands on his hips now and was looking Danny up and down. ”So I wonder what you were wearing before.”

”Other clothes,” said Danny.

”But not anything you wanted to keep.”

”Old, lousy, ugly hand-me-down clothes,” said Danny. ”Since you seem to want precision.”

”Oh, listen to him, Eric,” said Tony. ”A real intellectual. Pre-ci-sion.”

Danny kept looking at Eric. ”You said 'un.o.bservant.'” said 'un.o.bservant.'”

”Because I'm a high school graduate,” said Eric. ”Not college material, mind you-my counselor was very clear about that. But I did attend enough days to graduate. Next day I was out of the house and on the road.”

Danny liked hearing that. ”That's what I'm doing.”

”Yeah, I can see that,” said Eric. ”In brand-new clothes that say, 'Come rob me and beat me up too.'”

”That what you're going to do?” asked Danny. He wondered if he should disappear right now.

”What are you, twelve?” asked Eric.

”Fourteen,” said Danny.

”Thirteen then, right?”

Danny nodded.

”See, here's how it is, kid. The road's a tough place. How you going to live? Me, I'm eighteen. If I felt like it I could get a job. Or join the army. But what are you going to do? Look for some nice man who'll give you a good place to live as long as you let him do do a few little-?” a few little-?”

”I'm not looking for anybody like that,” said Danny. He remembered what he had accused the Wal-Mart detective of, and now he had a sick feeling that all by himself, he might run into somebody who really was like that. Not that he couldn't get away easily enough. But what if somebody drugged him? Or knocked him out? He couldn't make a gate and get away in his sleep.

”Yeah, but, see, they they're looking for you, you, and a kid your age-a little bit pretty, too-new clothes, looking like you ain't got a brain in your head and ain't scared of nothing... tell him, Tony.” and a kid your age-a little bit pretty, too-new clothes, looking like you ain't got a brain in your head and ain't scared of nothing... tell him, Tony.”

”As long as he stays away from my stepdad, he's got nothing to worry about,” said Tony.

”Your stepdad isn't the only a.s.shole on planet Earth,” said Eric.

<script>