Part 4 (1/2)
”Ah, I see you know Betwixt and Between,” Professor Isabella chuckles.
”Is that its name?” Abalone giggles. ”Neat. She always feeds it, so I've given in.”
”You and me and everyone else,” Professor Isabella sighs. ”Sarah is amiable but she turns mean if anyone tries to take Betwixt and Between away. She will leave them for short periods of time-if she must-but heaven forbid if they are not where she left them when she returns.”
Between comments, in a dreamy voice, ”Remember the goons who hid us in the linen cupboard?”
”How can I forget?” Betwixt retorts. ”You wouldn't stop whimpering and I knew we would need both of our heads to yell loud enough for Sarah to hear us.”
”Me whimpering?” Between is indignant. ”You whimpered! I planned how to get Sarah to us!”
”Did not!”
”Did so!”
”Not!”
”So!”
Abalone and Professor Isabella keep talking as if they cannot hear the dragons.
”You seem to be Sarah's protector,” Professor Isabella continues and Abalone swells a little. ”Have you kept your Head Wolf from prost.i.tuting her yet? I know that you personally don't streetwalk.”
Abalone seems at a loss before her bluntness. ”Head Wolf isn't any common pimp.”
”Certainly not.” Professor smiles wickedly.
Aware that the words have somehow offended Abalone, I interrupt.
”If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men,” I say in agitation.
”Blessed are the peace makers,” Professor Isabella replies, patting my hand. ”Abalone, Sarah seems to want us to be friends. Forgive me for my a.s.sumption, but Sarah's beauty is extraordinary. I could not help but believe that she would be encouraged to sell that beauty or at least trade on it to gain Head Wolf's protection by becoming his mistress.”
”Half-right,” Betwixt chortles.
Blus.h.i.+ng, I swat him.
Abalone keeps some poise. ”I'd be lying if I didn't agree that Head Wolf is hot for Sarah-but so are half the guys and girls in the Pack.”
Professor quirks an eyebrow at her and Abalone colors.
”Not me, I don't go for girls and, anyhow, Sarah is like my kid. I'm her Baloo. I don't have any place messing with her that way.”
”I do do like you, girl,” Professor Isabella says. ”You are almost as weird as Sarah. Can you tell me what you do have in mind for Sarah?” like you, girl,” Professor Isabella says. ”You are almost as weird as Sarah. Can you tell me what you do have in mind for Sarah?”
Abalone bites her lip. ”Better if I didn't, but I'm not going to pimp her unless she really wants to be a Tail Wolf. And the same goes for begging.”
”I'll rest with that for now.” Professor Isabella suddenly looks tiny, frail. ”But I hope you'll let me see her.”
”We are the Free People and she is a Wolf of our Pack. No one will stop her.” Abalone laughs at her tone. ”Sure she can see you-every night if she wants. I'll bring her to you even.”
”Blessed are you among women!” I glow, squeezing her hand.
Professor Isabella finishes her coffee and scoops all the sugar packets on the table into her pockets. Almost as an afterthought, she takes the remaining jelly packets and the crackers left from Abalone's soup.
She stands. ”And thank you both for the best meal I have had in a long while. I had best get some sleep if I'm to be up for the commuter rush in the morning.”
My earlier suspicions return and I struggle to find a way to ask. We are just outside the diner when I find something I hope will do.
”Oh woe is me, to have seen what I have seen, see what I see!”
Both she and Abalone stop and study me. Fearing I will fail, I pluck Professor Isabella's sleeve, tug at her layers of tattered and mismatched clothes, pat her pockets with their h.o.a.rded treats.
Professor Isabella presses her lips into a thin line. When she opens her mouth, the blood rises into them, making them seem painted.
”They threw me out, too, Sarah. Earlier than you, but just the same. Did they tell you that I had returned to Columbia?”
I nod, tears running down my face unchecked.
”No, dear, they lied. I have been living on the streets.”
”Oh, it was pitiful!” I manage between my sobs. ”Near a whole city and she had none.”
Abalone is clearly troubled. ”I would ask you into the Jungle, but...”
”I know, Abalone, 'Feet that make no noise; eyes that see in the dark; ears that can hear the winds in their lairs, and sharp white teeth, all these are the marks of our brothers, except Tabaqui and the Hyaena whom we hate.' I know the scorn Head Wolf has for beggars. He would rather see an eight-year-old boy reamed by perverse business executives than have the lad stay a beggar. I'll go my way, but please bring Sarah to me.”
Abalone grows solemn. ”By the opened Lock that freed me, Professor Isabella, I promise.”
I hug Professor Isabella once more and trot beside Abalone to the Jungle. Once I look over my shoulder and see my teacher trudging away, her shoulders bent against a wind that I don't feel.
Five.
I CONTINUE LEARNING TO DRIVE AND CONTINUE LEARNING TO DRIVE AND A ABALONE TAKES ME regularly to visit with Professor Isabella. In various diners and occasional by-the-hour hotels, once again the professor reads to me, her pa.s.sion for various lines and phrases branding them into my memory. regularly to visit with Professor Isabella. In various diners and occasional by-the-hour hotels, once again the professor reads to me, her pa.s.sion for various lines and phrases branding them into my memory.
Abalone often sits in a corner with her ”tappety-tap,” working out some complex forgery problem. When we grow weary, we rest and my two friends talk.
”You say that Head Wolf told the Pack to look for people from the Home?” Professor Isabella asks one near-dawn.
”Yeah, he did.”
Abalone tenses some. Head Wolf is still a sensitive topic between them, especially since Professor Isabella has somehow learned of my occasional visits to Head Wolf's lair. She blames Abalone, which is unfair. She may be immune to the hypnotic power in those dark eyes, but he draws me like a hummingbird to a new-blossomed hibiscus.
”I wonder why he wanted them?” Professor Isabella muses, ”Were any others found?”
”A couple, I think.” Abalone's restless fingers trace the outlines of her notebook computer. ”I think he spoke with them and sent them on. Did Head Wolf ask you anything, Sarah? What do you talk about when you've been alone?”