Simple Man

- TWENTYTWO -

"You have got to be shitting me." Iyana whispered to herself as she caught sight of Kyra and some boy limping down the road. She blew on her horn. Both children startled and looked behind them. Kyra grimaced in pain and that's when Iyana noticed the blood. She slammed on her brakes and threw the car in park. "What happened?" She yelled as she hastily undid her seat belt, opened the door and launched herself out of the driver seat. She didn't even bother slamming the door shut after her.

As Iyana jogged over to them, they both started talking try to explain at the same time. "Wait, wait, shut-up!" Iyana ordered. Both children zipped up quickly before Iyana turned to the boy, "You. What's your name?" She demanded.

"Gabriel Santos." He was balancing on one leg and Iyana could see that his leg was tore up pretty good.

"I expect you all to explain when we get in the car, come on," Iyana said as she ushered them towards the El Camino, "Let's go."

    Iyana was no doubt concerned for both children who seemed to be beaten up badly but she would be remiss if she didn't notice the stares of people walking the sidewalk, those eating ice cream outside Renault's Malts. Belinda Marcus got up from the concrete table and walked over to Iyana as she made her way to the car. "Oh Meghan darling, are the dears alright? Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No Belinda, thank you, I just need to take them to Dr. Franklin, I'm sure they will be fine. Thank you for your concern."

   Belinda was the church treasurer and a notorious gossip, Iyana wasn't in need of anyone's help; least of all Belinda's. Belinda gave Iyana that a polite closed-mouth smile and nodded her head, "Well, best get out of your way then. I'll pray for for them both." It took every bit of composure Iyana had not to roll her eyes as she replied before getting back in the driver's seat, "Thank you Belinda. God bless."

  Iyana shut the driver side door and looked at the children. Gabriel in the middle and Kyra was sitting passenger.

"What did Ms. Marcus want?" Kyra asked.

"What do you think? She wanted to put her nose in it." Iyana replied, annoyed as she put the car in first gear, "Oh and she's praying for the both of you."

   Iyana caught Kyra rolling her eyes as she stared out the window making Iyana smirk to herself, "Okay, Gabriel is it? What happened?"

"Wait—" Kyra blurred out, "Why'd you ask him?"

   "Because Gabriel is not going to give me the Spark Notes version of what went down, are you Gabriel?" Iyana said, keeping her eyes on the road.

"No ma'am." Gabriel said through a wince.

"Alright, shoot." Iyana said, for the briefest moment she looked over to see Kyra slump down in her seat, sulking.

"Well I got new Nike shoes and I was walking down to the comic book store when this boy named Danny and his goons started harassing me for them. I told them to beat it. These were a birthday present from my Abuela who lives in Arizona. I wasn't going to let them intimidate me to giving them up so I started running. Kyra said she saw those guys chasing me and she took off after all four of us. I didn't know she was behind us. All I knew was I wanted to get away from those jerks and I saw an opening in the fence. I didn't think. I should have but I just went in and that's when I realized I was in Bobby's junkyard." Gabriel said.

"He has two massive Rottweilers! What were you all thinking?" Iyana asked incredulously.

   Gabriel only nodded before continuing, "I know, it was stupid but I didn't know if Danny could fit through or not so I kept going further and further in. I had heard before that he had two dogs but I didn't see any until I was really far in. I accidentally kicked a broken coke bottle and that's all it took. The dogs got up and came after me. I'm the fastest boy in track but I knew I couldn't out run both of them the whole way back. I did the dumb thing and tried to get in a car. Most of them were locked or too dangerous to climb into. Luckily, I found one that was unlocked but I instantly regretted it. It was hot, like I couldn't stay there all day kind of hot."

"Okay but then why didn't you go get help?" Iyana asked, looking over at Kyra.

"'Meghan, I swear, I thought about it but I didn't know how much time Gabriel had. It was even a risk getting the Spam to distract them, we are going to owe Barney a dollar and change by the way for it." She said as she continued to nurse the bloody arm against her chest.

"Is that how you all made it out of there?" Iyana asked.

   She looked over once again and saw both children looked at each other with a grimace, "Not exactly."

"Explain."

"The Spam would have worked but I wasn't paying attention to the ground, only the dogs, that's when I sliced the side of my foot open. They heard me cry out." Kyra said softly as she threw her bloody bare foot on the dashboard for Iyana to see. Iyana quickly glanced over again and saw it really was gouged in. It was still bleeding, not fast but steadily. 'Tough kid' she thought. Most people her age would be crying their eyes out but not Kyra. Gabriel's cheeks we're definitely tear-stained but Iyana couldn't blame him.

"Shit Liv, how did you two make it out?" Iyana asked as Kyra put her foot back down.

"Well, Kyra threw a tire iron at one of the dogs and then threw dirt in the other's eyes. When one jumped her I choked it with its own collar until it let go of Kyra's arm." Gabriel said as Iyana saw him give Kyra an encouraging smile, even through the dirt on her face she could see her face flushed.

'Oh boy. Boys' Iyana thought.

"You all are just lucky, that's all. Damn lucky. If those dogs hadn't stopped you—I don't even want to think what would have happened." Iyana replied, her voice trailing off as she continued to drive toward the clinic.

Both children silently nodded, knowing exactly what would've happened—a tragedy.