Solace

Bullied

"Why we gotta be out here so darn early, Ricky?" Jeanie says. The sun has just come out, the full circle of its shape is still partially behind the horizon.

"'cause." Her brother says. "You know how momma gets. Besides, it's better than being stuck inside."

"That's true." She says, thinking of having to share the TV with momma. She always watched the soaps. "What do you think the other kids are doing?"

"Sucking on their thumbs. Who cares? They're boring."

She doesn't respond because there's nothing to add. He's right. She looks back down to the concrete, nudging cigarette butts with the toe of her shoe. All these have been sucked dry, there's nothing left of the white part, which might as well be gold as far as she's concerned. Downtown is the worst place to go butt diving, almost as bad as back behind the Dogged Oxen—a steakhouse that specializes in pork and beef. Her brother calls those people brown burners, the kind of person that smoked all the way down to the filter. The trick is checking out stations: bus and train. People in a hurry always left part of their cigarette left. And sometimes the long stretch of Main, where people would hail one of the two taxi's in the town.

She peers into an ash tray next to a garbage bin. With her nose scrunched up, she pitches a few of the smashed cigarettes, checks for tobacco and places a couple of them in the plastic grocery bag hanging from her arm.

"Ricky, do your hands smell weird?" she asks, sniffing her fingertips.

"Of course they do, I tell you every time you ask." He says, adding a handful into his own bag. "It's what being grownup smells like. Big and strong."

"If this smells like being a grownup, I think I want to stay as a kid. Being big and strong is overrated."

"Think of us like treasure hunters." He says. "Sometimes you gotta get dirty and smell weird to find gold."

He picks up a few more cigarette butts and places them in his bag then weighs the contents with his hands. "This is a good start. Come on, let's go get Craig and grab a couple snacks at the store."

"Snacks?" she says. "Momma just told us to get her papers."

"Papers aint gonna cost all the money."

"She's gonna know..."

"She accidentally gave me an extra dollar."

"I don't know..."

"I'll buy you a Charleston Chew."

That had the effect on her he was hoping.

He grins, "I'll race you there."

* * * * *

Craig is where he always is, sitting on the cracked sidewalk near the playground. He's got Pokémon playing cards on the ground, facing one another as if he were dueling someone. But there's no one opposite of him; he wouldn't let something as small as not having an opponent stop him from playing. They can see him from a few blocks off, he ponders before every move, places a card then moves to the other side and does the same. He looks up and spots the two of them walking towards him, grocery bag swinging in their hands.

"Hey guys." He says.

"Hey, Craig." Jeanie says back. "We're gonna go to 7-11 to get some snacks, wanna join?"

He looks back down to his cards, still stilling on his knees. "I just started this game though. You two wanna play one?"

"No." Ricky says. "I'm hungry. And besides, you only just started."