Faye rode her bicycle through the quiet evening, breathing hard, she wasn't very fit. She should have caught up with Johnny by now, shouldn't she? She saw him run out of the yard like his tail was on fire (His tail? She hadn't even ever seen his tail yet! She had almost asked him to show it a couple of times, but it would mean him taking off his pants, and that had seemed a bit, you know, risqué. And here her parents were suspecting them of having sex, for Pete's sake!), but: he wasn't going to run all the way home, was he? If he was headed home, that was. Or did he have to work later this night? She didn't know, they hadn't spoken about his work for some time—there were nicer things to talk about than rat-catching. He would usually leave her around midnight, even if he had nowhere to go, because Faye needed her sleep. She had often fallen asleep before he left, lying in his arms, and she never would remember him leaving (even though he said she would half wake up, and mumble at him). (And he mother would complain next morning that Faye had again forgotten to brush her teeth before bed. This made Faye both smile and made her feel slightly devious. Sorry, mom, for not brushing my teeth, never you mind the lemurian boy I had in my room..!)
She had no idea where he might have run off to, mainly because she didn't know why he'd run off at all. Why had he acted as crazy as he had? What the heck had gotten into him? Why had he looked at her as if she was a poisonous snake he'd just stepped on?
Faye crossed the Interstate, which was practically considered the border of the Shantytown. She paused and looked around. In the distance she saw the light of some fires outside the wooden shacks. Some Spanish voices on the wind, laughter, a man and a woman arguing...
Well, she wasn't going in there, on her own, at night, no sirree. She turned back, pedaling towards town, not in a hurry, thinking what to do now.
She didn't dare go home yet, though she knew she'd have to soon enough. She didn't know what to do about that whole parent-situation. She had to talk to Johnny, find out what was going on, what had been wrong with him, then, after that, she'd think about what to do next. First things first, as they said.
So, where could he have gone, if he hadn't gone home? Work. But would he just go to work, like nothing had happened, when something (whatever) definitely had happened..? ...something besides him being discovered coming down the tree by her father? Again, to answer that question, she had to know what had happened. She couldn't know how he would be acting now, as long as she didn't know why he had acted weird before.
She arrived at 126 Whitaker Avenue, Old Man Williams home, where Johnny stored his ratcatcher's case. She put her bike against a streetlamp, and stealthily walked around the place, into the backyard, and tried the door of the shed. It was closed. Johnny would have the key, or Tuto would if Johnny wasn't working tonight.
The house itself seemed to be sleeping, its windows dark. Would it be proper to wake up an old man? She knew most old people went to bed early, and got up real early. What time was it anyway? About 11 PM, she figured.
She walked to the front of the house and rang the bell. Screw it. This was an emergency, wasn't it? It might well be. Maybe Johnny had, like, a psychic breakdown, or something. Johnny had told her Old Man Williams was a friendly geezer, who had always treated him fairly, which was unusual for a humans.
She rang the bell again. Was he deaf? Maybe he was a bit, being old... A window creaked open on the first floor.
"What time is this to start pestering people?" a croaking voice asked her. The man hadn't bothered to put on a light in his room, so Faye only saw a dark outline, a few stray hairs on the man's head were illuminated by the streetlamp.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Williams! You don't know me, but I'm a friend of Johnny's and I'm looking for him. Could you tell me if he's working tonight? And where?"
"If Johnny's working tonight? Well, I suppose—" the man suddenly fell quiet. "Oh, Johnny, you say... no, no, I'm afraid he hasn't been working for me for months. Left town, I believe, yes, so he did."
"What? No, hold on. I'm a friend! I'm not with the police! I know Johnny's been—" she stopped yelling then, and sort of shout-whispered, "I know he's back! I'm not the police!"
"I can see you're not the police, young lady. How old are you anyway? Shouldn't you be in bed?"
"It's an emergency, sir!" she still shout-whispered at the dark shape above, "I know Johnny works for you, and I know Tuto as well, you see?"
"Is that right? Say, those boys have been doing fine work, and I've been considering sending Tuto over to Midland for some jobs. I never could of course, with only Johnny working for me, but now with Tuto... and seeing it hasn't rained for weeks, which means the rats are laying low..."
Faye wasn't here to talk about rat-catching, for crying out loud. "Like I said, sir, sorry to interrupt you there, but it's an emergency? Can you tell me where I can find Johnny?"
"No, dear, I don't believe I can. Tuto handles most of the logistics now, hobnobbing with the customers, and so forth. Those boys won't be needing me, soon enough, e-hehehe..." the man chortled.
Damnation! "Okay, sorry to have bothered you, sir. I'll be on my way then."
"Get yourself to bed, missy."
