The Streets

Chapter 11

All the lies,

That follow me like shadows.

All the whispers,

Lacing past me in the darkness.

My chains scrape the ground,

Leaving tracks of broken links.

Do they see it?

All the lies I've told?

All the chinks,

In the armour of my stories.

Chapter 11 (Dev)

The first week was hectic. I faced countless questions in school by teachers and and peers alike as to why Kat was gone. I explained as best I could, literally rehearsing my answer so that it would be the same for everybody. They seemed to believe me, at least for the time being, and I tried to act like it was no big deal.

After school on the Monday, I noticed a Bottle-depo on the way home, which gave me an idea. The idea with the things were that they would give you a dollar for every bottle you brought in so that they could recycle it. For the rest of the week, I spent my time after school with Casey, scrounging around in the garbage for bottles and cans that we could bring.

Kat managed to find a job pretty quick, while taking Leah on a walk after school hours on Tuesday. She was just looking around in a bakery when she noticed the old lady behind the counter was having some difficulty moving some things and she asked if she needed help. After spending the rest of the evening helping the lady out, Kat was offered a job there for after school on weekdays paying ten dollars an hour.

"So let's see," I muttered, pulling out the money we had made, "that's $100 from Kat's job, and Casey and I have made forty bucks on old bottles."

"You know," Kat commented, "that's not bad for four kids."

"I suppose not, but I still think we need to be getting more." I sighed and placed the money behind the pipe in the sink, taking to our old hiding spot. "Anyways, we'll need to save the money from Kat and use that on groceries. The forty dollars we can put in savings at the end of the week."

"Is $100 enough for groceries?" Kat asked, bustling around in our tiny kitchen, trying to heat up soup in the microwave.

"I guess we'll see. But even if it's only enough food for two meals a day, that's the way it's gonna work."

"We only need two meals a day," Casey said, pushing past both of us to get to the couch, "School gives us one."

"True, but not for Kat," I pointed out, "And weekends are definitely going to be two."

Kat nodded in agreement and put the soup in for yet another few minutes.

"I wonder if it would be worth it to buy a camping stove," I muttered, watching the cheap microwave stutter about as it spun our dinner in a slow circle.

"Hey guys," Casey yelled from across the room, "Look what I found?"

I headed over to where he sat on the couch, pulling something out from between the cushions.

"What is that?" I asks, kneeling down i front of him.

"Some sort of statue," Casey mumbled as he wiggled the wooden thing out from the crack between the cushions.

We sat staring at it for a moment. It seemed to be a sculpture of some sort of fairy.

"Is it a spright?" Casey asked, staring at the thing.