Jack be Quick - 10. Chapter 10

There are men everywhere, voices on top of voices, I can barely hear my own thoughts. I put my arm around Tod’s shoulder pulling him closer, “why are you trembling?” I ask him, whispering in his ear.

“I’m not,” he claims with a small whine in his voice.

“You are too,” I tell him, “it’ll be ok,” I tell him, not sure if I believe that myself.

“We got to go now,” a tall and intimidating man says as he picks up a duffel bag.

“Why are they all dressed in black?” Tod asks.

“Jack and Tod,” Mary says all of a sudden, causing me to jump a little. “Come with me,” she demands as she gets up from the desk and putting the phone down in the cradle.

I just stare at her as she approaches us and squats down in front of us, “you poor dears,” she starts, “you must be so scared, but it’s going to all right,” she claims, “let’s get you two out of here,” she says as she takes my hand in hers.

Pulling back and holding Tod closer, I say in a timid voice, “I don’t want to go in there,” as I look at the closed door.

“It’s ok,” she says trying reassure me, “there is a nice lady on her way over here to take you some place safe,” she claims with a small fake smile.

“Why can’t you take me?” I ask, almost crying.

“I have to go and,,,,” she starts and then suddenly stops, “I ummm, have to arrest some bad guys,” she says, “it’s too dangerous for you to go,”she informs me.

“But I don’t want you to go,” I say as Tod starts to cry, “Shh,” I say to Tod, “be a big boy and don’t cry,” I say trying to control the situation.

“Jacks right,” Mary says, “big boys don’t cry,” she informs him, “just come to the back room with me until Mrs Snider gets here,” she tells as she pulls me to my feet.

Giving up I allow her to pull me to my feet , but I never let go of Tod’s hand. Slowly I follow behind her until I see the door to the back room and then plant my feet into the carpet and refuse to go any further.

“NOOOOOO!” I scream at the top of my lungs, not caring who is staring at me. I drop Tods hand and bolt towards the door.

“STOP HIM,” I hear Mary yell, but it doesn’t register with me, all I can think of is if I go into that room, I’ll surely die. Running as fast and hard as I can, I dart between all the men, who have a look of puzzlement on their faces, ignoring everything, I make a mad dash for the door and before anyone can stop me I’m opening the door and running down the street, looking for a place to hide. I hear a yell behind me as I see an alley way and disappear into the shadows. I don’t stop running until I see a space under a building and dive into it scraping my knees in the process.

Out of breath I scramble to the left of the hole I just jumped through and hold my breath the best I can and listen as I hear footsteps come running down the alley way. I close my eyes and stay as silent as I can as the footsteps get closer and I start to hear voices.

“I saw him come this way,” a man says.

“This is a dead end,” the other one says, “you must have been mistaken,” he informs the other man.

“That little brat is going to cost us the bust,” the first man claims.

“He’s only a kid,” the other man states, “let’s get back before we miss all the action.”

“What about the kid?” the first one asks.

“We looked for him, is it our fault he disappeared?” The second man asks, “he’s just some stupid run away anyway,” he claims, “he’ll come back when he gets hungers,” he says.

Petrified with fear I strain to hear anything else and soon I am rewarded by footsteps getting softer and softer as the men get farther and farther away.

Laying perfectly still, I listen as I’ve never listened before, after what seems like forever, I slowly open my eyes and see the under side of a building, I’m laying on dirt and it smells like mold and dirt. I take a chance a look around and my new surroundings moving my arms and legs a little because my legs have fallen asleep.

I can’t sit up completely but manage to shift on my side and start to crawl very slowly to the opening I jumped through. Looking out I see it is after dark and I don’t see anyone around.

After a few minutes, I carefully poke my head out and breathe fresh air, nothing has ever tasted so good., encouraged, I pull myself all the way out and attempt to sit up, leaning up against the wall I just sit there.

“Why did I run like that?” I say in a whisper to myself, “I’m in big trouble now, Mary is going to be really mad at me,” I say as an after thought.

Looking all around I see I’m in an alley and since there is only one way out, I start walking that way.

“Ouch!” I say under my breath, looking down I see my pants are torn and I am bleeding, sitting back down I peel away the edges of my pant leg and look a the wound.

“How did that happen?” I ask myself as I examine it more closely, “I guess I didn’t make a clean get away like I thought,” I say laughing to my self under my breath.

Hearing a sound I look up and see a woman staring at and I try to smile as i tense up.

“Are you alright young man?” She asks, concerned.

“I,, um,, just fell and skinned my knee,” I say in a timid voice.

“Well you better get along home and have your mom get that cleaned up before it gets infected,” she states plainly as she turns to leave.

“WAIT,” I say quite loudly, “ I mean,errr,,,can you,,, ummm,,, help me up?” I ask putting on my best smile for this lady.

Turning back to me she smiles and says, “yes of course dear, you are quite a sight, where do you live?” She asks as she takes my arm and helps me to my feet.

“Not far,” I say, grateful for the help.

“Well I’m going to take you right to your front door,” she states and I suddenly realize that the only home I know is back there, I freeze.

“Umm,,, that’s ok,” I say panicking now, “I feel better now, I’m sure I can make it on my own,” I claim trying to stand on my own.

“Nonsense,” she says, “it’s no trouble,” she says as she looks both ways down the street, “now which way is home dear!” She inquires as she looks me in the face.

“Umm,,, it’s just over there,” I tell her and pointing back to the red door, “why did I run away like that?” I say in a whisper, before I realize I said it out loud.

“What was that young man?” She asks me.

“What’s your name!” I ask as a way to change the subject.

“Oh, my word,” she says, “where are my manners?” She says blushing, “why I’m Mrs Snider, I would shake your hand,” she says, “but I’m afraid to let you go, you might fall again,” she says with a chuckle in her voice.

“I’ll be alright,” I claim as I almost fall, “it only hurts a little bit,” I claim, looking at her with a big smile. “Do I know you?” I ask.

“I don’t think so dear,” she says, “now where did you say you lived?”

“Ummm,, just over there,” I say pointing it the direction of the red door, the only place I really know.

“Well come on then,” she says and puts her arm around my waist.

“I can go from here,” I protest.

“It’s ok dearie,” she says, “my appointment can wait, I have to take care if you first,” she says as we slowly make our way down the street.

“I’m Jack,’ I tell her, “nice to meet you,” I say, trying to remember my manners.

“Jack?” She says with her eyebrows raised, “I was just going to meet a boy about your age named Jack and his brother,” she says, “do you have a brother named Tod by the way?” She asks in an excited voice.

“No, I don’t have any brothers,” I say sheepishly, “but I know Tod,” I say a bit more brightly, “he’s a really cool kid, but sometimes he can be a pain in the back side,” I admit.

“I see,,,” she says trailing off.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, starting to feel nervous.

“Well what I mean is,,,what happened? and is Tod ok, is he out here too?”she asks as she starts to look around.

“I don’t know,” I stammer, “I got scared and ran off because I thought,,, errr,,,” I stop in mid sentence, not sure why I got so scared.

“It’s ok dear,” she says in a soothing voice, “we will get to the bottom of this real soon,” she says with a serious look on her face, “image letting a mere boy run around the streets to get hurt like this, someone is going to answer to me by golly,” she says in a firm voice.

“Please don’t blame Mary,” I say apologetically.

“Nonsense,” she says, “it’s not your fault,,,” she starts to say, but I interrupt her.

“It is too my fault, really it is,” I insist, “I ran,,,” I start to explain, but I am cut off by her words.

“I’ll get to the bottom of this, just you wait and see,” she claims, “now let’s get you into the headquarters and see about that leg,” she says as we approach the red door.

“I didn’t mean to,,,” I start to say, but stop, not sure what I was going to say and just look up at her with tears starting to firm on my face.

“Shhhh,,,” she says in a gentle tone of voice, “no one is going to be in trouble,” she claims, as she opens the door to and empty office.

Looking around it looks much like it did before, but without all the people, “where did everybody go?” I ask in wonder.

“MARY?” Mrs Snider calls out.

“Back here,” comes a familiar voice from the other room.

“Well I found a friend on the way over here,” Mrs Snider says, “and I would like to have a word with you if you don’t mind,” she says as she helps into a chair.

Mary comes out of the back room with Tod in her arms, as soon as Tod sees me, he squirms out of Mary’s arms and comes running to me.

“Where did you go?” he asks, “I thought you left me forever,” he says, “why did you leave me,, you said you would never leave me, I don’t want you to go,,”” he is rambling and I have to put my hand over his mouth to get him to stop asking everything in his mind.

“It’s nothing,” I say, “I’m back now, so stop your blubbering,” I say in a playful tone of voice.

“I need a first aid kit,” Mrs Snider says as she comes over to me and squats down in front of me to examine my leg, “he gone and really scraped up his knee,” she says with a frown on her face.

“There’s one in the filling cabinet,” Mary says as she moves to retrieve it.

“Now, young man,” she says directly to me, “let’s have a look at that leg of yours.” Pulling the rip apart and looking inside, “let’s get these pants off,” she says as she helps me stand.

Tensing up I do as I’m told, thinking I knew it was just a matter of time, I go thru the motions of removing my pants and then start to remove my underwear, but I am stopped by Mrs Snider.

“You can keep your underwear on,” she says and I stop, not sure what is going on.

“Oh,,, OK,,” I stammer and just sit down feeling ridiculous, but not sure what is expected of me.

Taking the first aid kit from a Mary, Mrs Snider pulls out some gauze and a couple of tubes of something and proceeds to clean the wound.

“Owwww,” I complain , “that hurts.”

“Now just hold still,” Mrs Snider says as she does too good of a job of ripping my skin off, I see that Tod has taken my hand and is squeezing it very tightly or am I squeezing his tightly, I’m not sure, but it feels right in any case.

“What did you think you were doing Jack?” Mary asks, “why did you run off like that and where on earth did you go?”she asks, “we looked all over for you, you gave me quite a scare,” she says in a softer voice.

‘I don’t know, I just got scared,” is all I can think to say, looking down at my hands I say in a timid voice, “I promise not be be bad again, really I promise,” I say pleading to her with my voice.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be Mary?” Mrs Snider asks, looking up at her.

“Well yes,,,” she starts, but the stops and thinks a second, “they can get along without me I think,” she says, “I think I know two boys who need me more than some silly swat team,” she claims, “besides, all the fun is probably over by now anyway,” she admits.

“Well, make yourself useful,” Mrs Snider says, “call the paramedics, this boy need stitches,” she insists, as she continues to rip my knee apart.

“I need my knee,” I claim, “please stop, I can’t take it any more, I’ll do anything you say,” I claim thru tears and some crying.

“Shhh,,,” she says, “I’m almost done, you’ve been a very brave boy,” she claims.

“I don’t want to be a brave boy, I just want you to stop,” I say as I start to struggle to get away.

“Hold him Mary,” Mrs Snider says as I almost get away.

Arms are wrapped around my chest as Mrs Snider continues to tear my skin from my knee, I afraid to look at what is left of my knee.

“There all done,” Mrs Snider says, “now that wasn’t so bad?”she asks.

I dare to open my eyes and through tears I see a white bandage wrapped around my knee, “it was too, that bad,” I claim, my sobs subsiding.

“I’ll go make the call,” Mary says as she gets up with a grunt, “you are one strong boy Jack,” Mary proclaims as she heads over to the desk and picks up the phone.

“Now, will someone please tell me how this happened?” Mrs Snider asks with raised eyebrows.

“I,,,, um,,, guess I cut my knee under a house?” I ask more than state the fact.

“Ok, that’s a good start, but why were you under a house?” Mrs Snider asks me.

“It was the only place to hide.” I say as a matter of fact, I thought that was obvious.

“I see,” she says slowly, “and why did you have to hide?” she asks me, now looking intensely in my face.

Looking down at my hands I mumble, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” She says as more of a statement that a question.

I just shrug my shoulders.

“Well I can see you have real chatter box here,” she says to Mary, “maybe you can tell me what’s going on here?” she says now looking at Mary who is on the phone.

Holding up one finger I hear her saying her name and my name over the phone and wonder what she is doing, is she calling the cops?, no that’s silly she is the cops, maybe she’s calling,,, the paramedics, that’s right, that’s what she said, but who are the paramedics?, and what do they want?, this is all so confusing, I’ve never met people like this before. I wonder if I’m in trouble, it doesn’t seem like it, I didn’t even have to take everything off, so I guess I’m ok, I hope. I look around to see that Tod is still holding my hand just looking at me with sadness in his young eyes, it makes me feel good, but in a way I’ve never felt before, I squeeze his hand and try to smile, I don’t know why, but I want him to be ok.

Putting down the phone Mary says, “they will be here in a few minutes.”

“So spill the beans,” Mrs Snider says, “what happened here and how did Jack end up under a house of all places, I came over as soon as I could,” she says.

“I don’t know,” Mary admits, “it all happened so fast, I was just taking the boys into the back room, when all of a sudden Jack screams out NO!!, and ran out the door like the devil himself was after him,” she says blushing a little, “we ran after him, but he is fast and disappeared out of sight,” she says, “we had the operation so, I stayed back to take care of Tod, hating myself for allowing Jack to be out there by himself,” she claims, “I didn’t know what else to do so I just waited, figuring that I could go look for him after you got here, I couldn’t just leave Tod alone.”she admits.

“I’m old enough to stay by myself,” ‘Tod claims, “Henry leaves me alone all the time,” he admits.

“I see,” Mrs Snider says, ignoring Tod’s comment.

“The men should be back any minute,” Mary says, “I think it will be better if we take Jack and Tod to the back room,” she says pointing to the back.

My face flares with fear and I squeeze Tod’s hand so tight that he lets out a whimper, I hardly even notice, “I’m ok out here,” I say as my eyes go wide with fear, I knew I was in trouble and this proves it, I think to myself as I try to figure a way out of it.

“Jack are you ok?” Mrs Snider asks me with concern, “you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” she claims.

“Please don’t make me go in there, there aren’t any windows in there, I’ll be good I promise,” I says as tears and sobs escape me, “I wont ever run away again, I’ll be a good boy,” I claim, “I’ll even do that thing everyone likes, I promise,” I claim as I start to blubber, “I’ll,,,,,m do,,,,,please,,,l no,,,,” I say as the crying takes over,,,,

“Shhhhh,” Mrs Snider says as she hugs me in a different way than anyone has ever hugged me, “we don’t have to back there if you don’t want to, l promise,” she says. Looking at Mary, she says, ‘go outside and tell the men to wait out there until the paramedics get her and attend to Jack.”

Lifting my chin with her hand gently, she says, “it’s going to be ok, I don’t know what you’ve been through, but I won’t let any one hurt you ever again, can I ask you something Jack?” She says timidity.

I just nod my head, unable to say any words.

“What happened to you?” She asks slowly.

“Nothing,” I manage to say and not being able to look her in the face, but looking at Tod instead.

‘Tod,” she says looking at him, “why don’t you go in the back room, Mary can get you a snack,”

“NO,” I scream, “don’t go back there,” I say a little softener and start to cry again.

“Ok,, ok,” Mrs Snider says, “Mary please take Tod outside with you and wait for the men,” she says, looking at me, ‘is that alright Jack?”she asks and I just shrug.

“Come on Tod, we can watch for the swat team to come back, you can see all their gear and funny hats,” she says when Tod looks unsure, taking his hand she leads him outside and the room gets very quiet as they close the door behind them.

Turning to me Mars Snider looks at me with a strange but nice look in her face, “let’s start over,” she says, “I have been told that you have come to live with your uncle Henry, tell me about him,” she says.

“He’s not really my uncle,,,” I start to say as the front door opens, making me jump a little.

Men in white uniforms come in and carrying black bags rush over to me and start to look me over, “how are you feeling?” One of them asks, followed by lots of other silly questions. They remove the bandage and Mrs Snider is pushed aside as they poke and prod me in every way possible. I’m dazed and stunned and just sit there and I hear them say, “we need to take him in, he’s going to need stitches and that cut cleaned up properly,” the second one says, “where are his parents?” The first one asks, “we will need authorization to care for him.”

“I’m his guardian, until his parents can be located,” Mrs Snider states plainly.

“Good enough,” the first one says and heads back out the door, “I’ll be right back and disappears out the door.

“Now Jack,” the second one says, “we are going to transfer you to the hospital, nothing to worry about,” he claims and my face gets red and scared.

“The hospital?” I question, “I don’t want to go,” I claim, “I’ll be fine,” I say trying to avoid going there.

“It’s ok,” Mrs Snider says, “I’ll be with you the whole time,” she claims.

“Why does everyone keep saying it’s going to be ok?” I ask, “every time someone says it will be ok, it’s never ok,” I say softly.

“How did this happen?” the man asks.

“He was hiding under a house,”Mrs Snider informs him.

“He’ll need a tetanus shot,” the man says.

The other man comes back with a gurney and together they lift me onto the bed, Mrs Snider is right there by my side. The belt me down and start to wheel me outside and I see Tod with Mary and a lot of other men milling about as I come out the door, “Tod,” I say as he looks horrified at me, “can he come with us?” I ask.

“No, but he can come see you later at the hospital,” Mrs Snider tells me.

“Take care of Tod,” I say to a Mary as I’m put into the back of the ambulance and then the doors are closed and Mrs Snider and the man are back there with me, the man is busy taking my blood pressure and temperature and all sorts of things and Mrs Snider is just trying to stay out of the way, she has look in her eyes that hurts my heart, I’m not sure if I should say anything or just be quite while the man works, so I just lay there, wondering what exactly is going on. The next thing I hear is a siren and the ambulance takes off driving down the street, I feel safe and warm, but it’s a strange feeling, like this is the way it’s supposed to feel, but who’s to say? Everything is happening so fast, I can’t keep up, I take one final look at Mrs Snider, who I barely even know before everything goes black.

I’m floating in a fog on the edge of a vast ocean. There is no ship or land anywhere, but I’m not afraid. I hear a familiar voice in the vastness if the fog calling to me, but I can’t seem to find where it is coming from. I know that voice, but I can put a name or face to it, it’s a very sweet voice and seems to be saying, “I’ll never stop looking for you.” Strange, I think, it’s not the hateful voices from all my life, it’s a caring voice, almost like I’m wanted, but this is after a dream and anything can happen in a dream,,,,right?,,,