Geff and Jerald

A Meeting

I went to take a walk after school. It was a calm way, until I heard some noise behind me. It was Jane again. She was wearing some black overalls now. She likes those overalls with a skirt end. Turns out, someone came up with a name for them.

"Skirtalls," she had said that they were called. "That's weird. So now they make overalls for girls?" She nodded. Gabe dives between us. "Hurry UP! I need to get my homework done so I can have some fun!" He pushes us down the stairs. Then I asked, "Hey, you've been working hard on that project, right?"

She flushed a bright red. "I kinda didn't..."

I took a deep breath and sighed, trying to hold back all my anger bottled up inside me. I flashed a fake smile, showing the "happiness" in my teeth. "I need to go now. I'll remind you later about the project, after I finish the part I told you to make." She turned her face in shame.

I spent the whole afternoon typing on the library computers. It wasn't the same, since the mayor invested in schools more than the library. Two out of the three computers had a crack on the corner. I was on the non-cracked one. Some people left, and I looked out the window. It was getting dark, and the only people left inside was me and some guy reading. Oh, and the librarian, obviously. It was some dude named Sherman, and he was shoving the book cart around, beating on the handle in rhythms, while he whistled a little song, presumably country. I went outside to find a phone station. I didn't have any quarters in my pocket. Only a dime, two nickels, and a button. The fee was twenty five cents. I asked somebody for a nickel. The unknown figure I had asked was wearing a black hoodie with the strings tightened, so I couldn't see his face. The person reached into a small hole underneath a metal trash bin, and pulled out a shiny quarter. He put it in my hand. "I only needed a nickel! But thank you." I put the rest of my change in his hands. He or she nods in agreement and goes back to sitting down. I called her and told her I was okay. She was relieved about the news. She had a rule. We could go anywhere that was safe, except anywhere outside the city limits. The jungle was right outside, and only cars and residential vehicles were allowed in the area. There was a city, and the exit of the wall led to the city outskirts. The city outskirts were really quiet, but also dangerous. There's friendly people here in the Flats, but out there there's guys who smoke and drink loads of alcohol. Well, we do have a bar on the corner, but that's about it. I was chewing on my third pencil. I packed my books and took the finished trifold. Or at least the unfinished task. I hauled my books home. I was just about to go to sleep, when Max comes whimpering into my room. I wake up, him squirming around in our room. "What is it, buddy?" He waves his paw outside, where there's a short person with a lantern and a shotgun, heading into the forest. What is he doing? Max was telling me something. I put on my coat, and slide open the window. Jerald woke up just then. "What's wrong, Geff?"

"Some sketchy guy is out there. Wanna come with me, see what bro is up to?"

"I need some excitement, so, why not?" He puts on his jacket and we climb out the window. "Wait!" He looks around. "What?" I reach into the drawer, pull out some shades and a piece of grain, and put it in my mouth and the glasses on my eyes. "Now I'm ready." He sighs and we jump onto the nearest bush. The guy who was walking, he had a long trench coat and some rubber gloves on. He had some crusty rain boots too. The man or woman walks into the forest, the dirt crackling with each step. "Where could he be going?" Jerald asks, very quietly. I simply give him an expression that showed I was just as clueless as him. We crouch and walk. Something gleams and makes me squint. His shotgun...the barrel...it was made of gold??? I had never seen such one before. He trotted into the woods, slowly holding the lantern in one hand and the shotgun in the other. We couldn't get close, because if I would've noticed his gun a second later, I would've gone up to him, and I would have gotten my brains blasted out. Jerald is slim, so he moves around pretty fast. He's like some sort of energetic caterpillar. He was onto the other rock in no time. I wanted to call his name, but he was too quick. I followed him around, because he seemed to know his way. The hooded figure looked pretty similar to the other guy in the alley. But the other one was homeless. So how did he have a golden shotgun? It all made no sense. This couldn't be the same guy.

Mom always called me curious. She kept me inside the house all the time when she was pregnant with Jerald, because she feared I would get hurt. It wasn't better when he was born. He liked hanging off the couch, but she wouldn't allow that either. My first years were a load of safety guards and stuff like that. But as Jerald and I grew, we got more privilege. And that takes us here.

The boy (yes, it is a he. He took off his shirt, and he doesn't have, uh...well, he has the body of a boy. A young boy.) crept into a rock, where the cave was narrow. The cave got bigger, but we couldn't sneak in because he would notice the light behind him was gone, and he would catch us.

Once we got enough distance, we went inside. There was no light. This was a lucky break, because his lantern went out. But Jerald accidentally fell and knocked him on the shoulder. He lit the lantern and jerked around. The boy took Jerald by the straps. "HEY!" He carried him over his shoulders and slammed Jerald to the ground. He groaned in pain, and the boy threw a hard punch at my face. He turned and swiftly drove his leg into my rib, whereas he landed no a crushing haymaker on my cheek. I fell, and my muscles felt very weak. The world felt blurry. Not again, I think. Maybe my curiosity was too much...

I opened my eyes just a little. I saw the front of the person who had knocked me out. But that wasn't the weird thing. The most weirdest thing of all, is that he neared something that reminded me of a past figure. Something that reminded me about Kyle, the green overalls kid.

He had a mask. One with a smile on it.