Cimarron, Denver Cereal Volume 4 (50 page)

“
Yeah, how’d you
know?”

“
You’re
sixteen.”

Seth ordered coffee and Charlie ordered an
iced mocha. They picked out a few snacks. After a few minutes, they
took their food and drinks to a quiet corner of the café. Charlie
had eaten a banana chocolate chip muffin and was almost through a
second when Seth cleared his throat.

“
Jeffy?” Seth
asked.

“
Yeah, okay,” Charlie said.
“So you know, it was like this. It wasn’t like ‘BAM’ and I was out
of the house. Mom would get mad at me and I’d be gone for a few
days here or there.”

“
So you could do
drugs?”

“
Drugs, sex,” Charlie said.
“Freedom. Whatever I wanted. I didn’t like the way Mom acted toward
me or Sissy. I’d get mad and… I don’t know… After everything that’s
happened, it seems pretty dumb.”

“
Until you see your mother
again,” Seth said.

“
Yeah, that’s probably
right,” Charlie said. “But I don’t have to. I have Aden’s word, we
shook hands and everything. If I follow the rules, I can live with
them even if Mom gets out. Sissy too. We want to live with
them.”

“
Jeffy?”

“
I didn’t forget,” Charlie
said. “Why are you so interested in the little guy?”

“
He died this morning,”
Seth said.

“
WHAT?” Charlie jumped to
his feet.

“
We’re going to the Coroner
so you can identify the body,” Seth said. “Has to be someone who’s
known him a while.”

“
Oh,” Charlie sat down.
“Okay. Well, I have to think…”

“
You mean cover yourself,”
Seth said.

“
That’s not fair,” Charlie
said. “I have to think because I was high a lot.”

Seth scowled at the boy.

“
I was high.” Charlie
shrugged. “A lot. My memory is a little… warped.”

Seth sat back and waited. Charlie ate his
second muffin and drank his iced mocha.

“
I can’t remember when I
met Jeffy first,” Charlie said. “I knew Razor from school. His real
name is Roger Hampden. His dad’s some kind of a big deal at Qwest.
He and I used to skateboard together.”

“
I talked to Roger,” Seth
said. “He’s in the Urban Peak shelter and working at Lipson for the
summer.”

“
That’s good,” Charlie
said. “Razor’s a great guy. He deserves a break.”

“
Roger said you and Jeffy
were close.”

“
We were,” Charlie
said.

“
How’d you
meet?”

“
Right, I met him when I
was out one night and saw this little boy. I mean little. I don’t
think Jeffy was eight when I met him. He was sleeping in a box by
the river. We kind of adopted him or maybe I adopted
him.

“
See, I get confused,”
Charlie said. “When I was around, Jeffy was around. I liked the
kid. But I don’t know if Jeffy hung out with Razor and the guys
when I wasn’t around. I always looked after him. I gave Jeffy my
old clothes, old skateboards, and even my books. He was smart, a
better reader than me. His safe sleeping spot was at the downtown
library.”

“
That’s not possible,” Seth
said.

“
You’d be surprised what’s
possible when you’re small,” Charlie said. “I think the librarians
knew. They’d leave their lunches for him, sometimes money, but… He
was good on the computer. Had an email account and… I used to get
email from him when I was at home. I’d let him know when and where
I could leave him food and stuff. He’d come and pick it up. He
slept on my floor a few times too.”

“
You’re Mom didn’t
know?”

“
Never,” Charlie said.
“You’re sure it was Jeffy?”

Seth nodded.

“
Wow,” Charlie
said.

“
No one has a record of
Jeffy,” Seth said. “His fingerprints don’t register. He’s had zero
Social Services contact, no Coalition for the Homeless contacts,
and none of the outreach people from the Goodwill or Urban Peak
have ever seen him. It’s like he doesn’t exist.”

“
He was a lot better than
me at not getting caught. He was a natural,” Charlie said. “That’s
Jeffy. How did he die?”

“
He was found hanging by
his shoulders with a noose around his neck,” Seth said.

“
I always thought it was a
story, you know like the boogeyman.”

“
What story?” Seth asked.
“Charlie, this is important. What do you mean?”

“
A guy would take you in,”
Charlie said. “You’d get a good dinner and then he’d like… hang you
up and watch. It wasn’t sexual. Well, maybe for him. He’d… you
know… jerk off while you’re there. Anyway, the guy would hang you
so you could barely breathe. You’d hang all night and then he’d let
you go. He’d give you like twenty bucks just to hang there. It
seemed like a good deal.”

“
Did you ever do
that?”

“
Too big,” Charlie shook
his head.

“
Jeffy told Aden he had to
be somewhere yesterday afternoon, some kind of appointment. Aden
had the impression it was a legal thing,” Seth said. “Do you have
any idea what that was?”

“
No,” Charlie said. “It’s
like I said. Jeffy had a whole life when he wasn’t with us. When he
was with us, he was one of us. When I wasn’t there or he wasn’t
there? Who knows?”

“
Who told you this
story?”

“
I guess Jeffy did,”
Charlie said. “Yeah, that’s right. He said the guy is like an uncle
or a brother or some kind of relative. But… that could be a lie or
some part truth or… Jeffy didn’t remember his parents. He said he’d
always been on the streets. His first memory was of being one or
two and living on the streets.”

Charlie stopped talking. He sucked on the
straw until his iced mocha made a loud noise.

“
Sorry,” Charlie said. “I
guess that’s rude. Sandy would be mad.”

“
Manners are important to
Sandy,” Seth said. “You were saying something about
Jeffy.”

“
The rest is just stuff I
think,” Charlie said.

“
Like what?”

“
I don’t think he was from
here,” Charlie said. “I think he got here around the time I met
him. And he’d disappear for months at a time, usually during the
winter. He’d just show up again.”

“
Grifter,” Seth
said.

“
I don’t know what that
is,” Charlie said. “The old lady across the street from Mom’s place
paid some people to do construction work for her one summer. But
they didn’t do it. I kinda thought that’s where Jeffy came from.
Some kind of Amish thing or whatever.”

“
Aden said he was no
stranger to work,” Seth said. “He was very cheerful about
working.”

“
Jeffy was cheerful about
everything,” Charlie said.

“
Drugs?
Alcohol?”

“
Sure,” Charlie said.
“Jeffy was a part of anything that went down. But he never seemed
to seek it out, you know? If it was there, he was game. And… I
can’t believe he’s dead.”

“
I have to take you to the
Coroner,” Seth said. “You’re the only one we’ve found who knew him.
There will be a lot of people there, reporters, and social
services. Just stay with me.”

Charlie nodded. Seth threw out their trash
and Charlie followed him to the door.

“
If you remember anything,
Charlie, you should call me right away. No matter what time of day
or night,” Seth said. “Any little detail can help.”

Seth opened the passenger door for Charlie
and then went around to the driver’s side.

“
Did he have his
necklace?”

“
What necklace?” Seth
asked.

“
Jeffy wore some Saint on a
chain around his neck,” Charlie said. “He said it was the reason he
survived so long on the streets.”

“
He was naked. We’ve just
started going through the crime scene,” Seth said. “So far we
haven’t found anything.”

“
If they do, I’d like to
have it,” Charlie said. “More than once, I protected Jeffy from
some pretty bad shit. He…”

The loss of his little friend caught up with
him and Charlie began to cry.

~~~~~~~~

Thursday afternoon — 4:35 P.M.

“
I think that’s the last
one,” the DNA collection woman said to Heather. “I’ve gone through
my samples. I think I have what I need.”

Heather smiled.

Blane needed a new liver. There was no way
around it. Even Jill couldn’t make his liver better. Because Blane
had a unique blood subtype and no known relatives, Heather had felt
really hopeless. Every day that passed, Blane’s liver fell apart a
little more. He was starting to show the signs. Of course, as soon
as Enrique had stopped drinking, the jerk started getting better.
And her Blane was getting sicker. She refused to focus on negative
unfairness. Instead, she poured her energy into finding a donor for
Blane.

Not sure what to do, she’d talked to Jacob.
He, in turn, insisted on paying for a woman to come to the Castle
to collect DNA from anyone willing to be a live donor. If someone
matched, they might be able to donate a small portion of their
liver.

Someone had to be a match.

Everyone wanted to help. Every adult who
lived at the Castle and all of MJ’s military team had volunteered
to be tested. Bambi, Honey’s boss, let it leak to the sites that
they were looking for a donor and a long line of men and women
showed up to be tested. The DNA lady had collected thousands of
samples.

“
I’m going to check to see
if there’s anyone else,” Heather said.

“
Would you mind if I used
the restroom before I go?” the DNA woman asked.

“
Oh sure,” Heather said.
“Do you know where it is?”

The woman nodded. Heather watched her walk
toward the kitchen and went out the side door to the Castle
driveway.

Katy ran through the living room and hid
behind an overstuffed chair. Paddie skipped into the room looking
for her.

“
Boo!” Katy
said.

Paddie squealed with joy. The two best
friends laughed.

“
What’s this?” Katy ran
over to the DNA samples.

“
I don’t know. My Daddy did
this and Auntie Alex too,” Paddie said. “They said it was
important.”

“
Did you do it?”

“
Nope,” Paddie
said.

“
How come?” Katy
asked.

Paddie gave an exaggerated shrug of his
shoulders.

“
How do you do it?” Katy
asked.

“
Like this.” Paddie picked
up sterile plastic DNA brush. Holding onto the plastic stick, he
brushed the bristles along the inside of his cheek. He pulled it
out. ”It kind of hurts.”

“
I want to do it!” Katy
said.

Katy clapped her hands together. Giggling,
he gave her his plastic DNA collector.

“
You have to scrub but not
too hard.” Paddie repeated what the DNA lady had said to his father
and his Aunt.

“
Do you think it matters if
we were barfy?” Katy asked.

“
Nope,” Paddie said. “Daddy
was barfy today too. The lady said it didn’t matter.”

Katy took the implement and scrubbed it
along the inside of her cheek.

“
Now what?” Katy
asked.

“
You put it in one of those
things and write your name on it,” Paddie said.

Katy took the Sharpie pen from him.

“
I’ll write, Paddie
Hargreaves,” Katy said. “Your handwriting isn’t so
good.”

“
It will be when I’m four!”
Paddie said.

“
But you’re not four yet,”
Katy giggled.

He nodded sincerely and gave her a tube. She
put his implement inside the tube. Using her best handwriting she
wrote his name on the tube. She wrote her name with her tube.

“
What do we do with them?”
Katy asked.

“
They go over here,” Paddie
said.

He pointed to the thousands of samples. Katy
stuck the samples in empty holes near the middle of the container.
Katy began spinning in circles and Paddie spun in circles with her.
They spun into the middle of the room.

“
What are you two up to?”
Valerie asked.

“
We were waiting for
brownie time!” Katy said. “Is it brownie time yet?”

“
Brownie time!” Paddie
jumped up and down.

The DNA collector smiled at Paddie and Katy
as she walked passed them. She picked up her samples and Heather
came in the side door. The two women spoke for a moment.

“
You’re absolutely right,”
Valerie said.

“
We’ll be in touch soon,”
the DNA lady called as she left the Castle.

“
It is brownie time!”
Valerie said.

“
Brownie time!” Heather
said. “May I join you?”

“
Yes,” Katy and Paddie said
at the same time. They almost fell over giggling.

Valerie held out her hands for the children.
They took her hands and went into the kitchen. Heather stood and
stared at the space where the DNA collector had been.

“
Auntie Heather!” Katy
called.