The Children and the Wolves (5 page)

*  *  *

The next day we were at the Mickey Dees on Bantum Boulevard, eating Extra Value Meals. I was supersizing like a fiend.

He’s got a dog, I reported. Big black dog.
Bounce was like, So we’ll poison it.
I went, Poison it how?
We’ll put the poison in some Alpo burgers. Throw them in his backyard.
Orange said, Bye-bye, Fido.

So then me and Orange had to go to this guy’s place on Locke Street. His name is Tab and his house was half-broken down like there were some walls missing and you could see the wires and the pipes in the ceiling and there was a mound of dirt in the kitchen. The whole place smelled like wet paint and cat piss.

Tab is old — like at least fifty-something — with a brown wig and a brown mustache and yellow stains under his eyes. His homo roommate Neal went to get the poison. Neal is only a couple of years older than Orange and me. He has long hippie hair and he wears bright red lipstick.

When Neal came back with the poison I said, Are you like sposed to be a clown?
He smiled and went, Do you like clowns?

He handed Orange a brown bag with the bottle of poison in it.

I pointed to the mound of dirt and said, What’s that for?
Flowers, Tab answered. Do you like flowers?
I was like, No.
Neal said, We’re starting a vegetable garden.
I said, In your kitchen?
Tab said, Is
that
what you think this room is? One man’s kitchen is another man’s vegetable garden.

Then Neal asked us if we wanted tea.

He said, Tea, boys?
Orange was like, We gotta go.

Tab was wearing a fuzzy blue bathrobe and slippers. His mustache had yellow in it, which matched the stains under his eyes.

I noticed that part of a ladder was laid over where some of the staircase was missing. Somewhere in the house a baby was crying. It might have been on a TV but I think it was real. It was either a baby or a cat getting heated.

Then Orange crumpled the bag of poison. He was scared, I could see it in his eyes. He nudged me and then I paid him for the poison and we backed out of the crazy house.

*  *  *

That night we soaked the Alpo burgers in a pan of the poison and put them in a big Ziploc bag and then Bounce drove me to the Poet’s red barn in the Lexus. I walked around to the back, near this little shed.

Through a window in the shed I could see the Poet writing at a desk. There was a spiral notebook in front of him and he was making a face like he was praying. His desk was made out of a door and there was stacks of books and jars of pens all over it. There was a coffee machine and a clock radio too. His big black dog was sleeping in a blanket on the floor.

I was starting to roll on some Oxycotton Bounce gave me when we soaked the Alpo burgers. She likes giving me Oxycotton. The other day she gave me some Speed Stick deodorant too.

The crickets sounded like Coke bottles sliding on a icy street. Even though it was hot as fuck I was thinking about ice and winter and a big snowman holding a Domino’s pizza. Like the delivery man got froze in a blizzard.

I think I got too close to the window cause I could see my breath steaming on the glass.

This man don’t got nothing, I thought. Just a dog and some books and a coffee machine.

For a second I felt myself passing through the glass, like I was a ghost or like I was the sound of those crickets. My one knee wobbled and I had to keep myself from falling. Sometimes my knee falls asleep and I have to punch it.

Instead of planting the Alpo burgers in the backyard I threw the Ziploc bag on the roof of the shed.

On the way home I said, That man don’t got nothing.
Bounce was like, Poets don’t
want
anything.
I said, How come?
Bounce went, Because they think they’re above it all. They look down on us consumers.
I was like, What’s a consumer?
And Bounce said, An American. A happy American.
Then I said, It was just him and his dog.
She said, Poets don’t know what real living is.
I said, You think he’s got a family?

Bounce turnt to me and said, You feel sorry for him.

I flipped on the air-conditioner and she flipped it off and went, Don’t feel sorry for that old chucklehead.
I don’t, I said. I don’t.
Then Bounce told me I was too sensitive.
I was like, No I ain’t.
Then we drove some more and she went, You planted the Alpo burgers, right?
Of course, I answered.

Lying to Bounce made me feel all loose inside. Like my stomach was a sponge full of sewer water.

Bounce said, It’s what he
represents
that matters, Wiggins.
What does he represent? I asked.
She said, He takes the fucking un out of fun. The sin out of Cinnabon. Life’s too short for that, right?

I nodded and then she turnt the headlights off and it was so dark it was like we were nowhere. I could feel a thrill in my nuts and stomach. You could almost hear all the houses whispering to each other.

Look at those freaks, they told each other. Look at those nobody kids.

The crickets and the houses and the clouds slipping around in the sky.

I said, What would your parents do if they found out you was driving their car?
She said, They wouldn’t do shit.
I was like, But you’re only fourteen.
She said, Wiggins, Dapper Dan and Kara have nine-volt batteries in their backs. All I have to do is change the batteries now and then. Besides, they’re always gone on business. Selling happy pills to all the sad people. They don’t know shit about me.
I said, But you don’t got no license. What if you got caught?
Bounce was like, They’re the ones who would get in trouble.
I went, Why?
She said, Because I’m their fucking daughter. Their legal ward.
I was like, But you would get busted, too, ain’t it?
Bounce went, You think I’m afraid of getting busted?

And then she turnt the headlights back on.

We drove past the mall. It was all lit up and perfect. We stopped at a traffic light. In the parking lot there was all these people getting in their cars. I saw this man and his wife with their little kid. They were all holding hands, walking to their big silver SUV. I wanted to go take the kid. He was pretty small and wearing a Cardinals baseball hat. I would put him in the basement with the Frog and call him Toad. They would wash each other and tell each other stories. Maybe they would fight each other too. And then fall in love. After a while, maybe I could find them a lizard or make them a ant farm.

Before Bounce dropped me off in front of my apartment building I said, So are we gonna feed those Alpo burgers to the Frog, too?
She said, You want to, huh?

I didn’t answer.

Part of me wanted to feed her the Alpo burgers and part of me didn’t. The Frog is really confusing like that.

Before I got out Bounce kissed me on the cheek.

She said, Hey, big eyes.
I said, Hey.
She went, You’re a good little monkey.
I went, Thanks.
Bounce put her forehead on mine and said, We love each other, right?

I nodded.

I pictured love as a big hairy giant with a dead fish in his mouth. Grizzly bear claws and his heart half out of his chest cause it’s too big and the lungs have to fit. He never stops walking. Over mountains. Through the desert. On top of icy lakes. Past huge cities. And he hunts and kills for you and always comes back with plenty to eat.

Her kiss was cold on my skin.

This is all going to be amazing, she said. You’ll see.

Then she put another Oxycotton in my mouth. The other one was still going strong, but two is better than one.

Orange always says, Twice as nice for a very low price.

I walked around the apartment complex. It was like I was a fugitive with bullets in my back. Or like I got Tasered by a security guard at the mall.

I wanted the new Oxycotton to kick in before I went home.

Hurry up, I told the Oxycotton. Hurry the fuck up.

Mosquitoes were infesting the light in front of my building. I looked up at our living room window. It’s on the third floor and faces the street. I could see how the screen was missing, just like the one in Dirty Diana’s room. I wondered why it couldn’t never get fixed right. Maybe Mr. Song or his mute wife come and ruin it no matter how many times it gets replaced. Like in the middle of the night when everyone’s asleep. Management will keep you down. They’re sneaky and they’re always adding late fees to your rent. Late fees and other fees for maintenance. Dirty Diana calls Mr. Song Charlie Chinco.

She says, Charlie Chinco and his snap-on haircut.

That shit does look snap-on, Orange said when Mr. Song was fixing our garbage disposal.

Let’s pull it off, he whispered.

In the parking lot someone had painted the tops of the dumpsters black and you could smell the paint cutting through the hot air. The stars were blasting so bright it was like they had emotions. Like they were rolling too.

I thought about space and how quiet it must be up there. So quiet and nothing stupid going on. No bugs or shitty smells. Just stars and planets and a floaty feeling. Sometimes I wish they would come and get me. They meaning them creatures from Mr. Merlo’s alien abduction books. I would let them have me naked. My nuts and everything. I would step right out of my clothes and board their ship and let them stick me with space pins and turn me into their earthling ho.

The Oxycotton was starting to kick in. My whole body felt like it was smiling.

Hello, Piano Road, I said, laughing. Hello.

*  *  *

At home Dirty Diana was on her cell phone. I think she was talking to this big Mexican called Cortina. Cortina’s a security guard at the casino boat over in Rockwood. The casino boat’s on the Wall River. They met cause his kid Paco died from a car crash. Dirty Diana was Paco’s nurse — when they had him hooked up to machines — and she saw Cortina crying at his son’s bedside and she felt sorry for his immigrant ass. Cortina was driving and his wife died from the crash too. They didn’t bother hooking her up to no machines cause her head got knocked off. Sometimes when he comes over him and Dirty Diana sit on the couch together but they don’t even hold hands.

Sometimes I just want to say, At least hug her. If you ain’t gonna fuck her at least hug her!

Once he let me hold his security guard badge.

You want it? he asked.

It felt fake in my hand so I gave it back.

How come you don’t got a gun? I asked.
He said, Cause I ain’t no cop. I got a billyclub.
I said, Where is it?
At the job, he answered. I leave it in my locker.

Part of me wanted to show Dirty Diana the space where my tooth was cause I’d been keeping my mouth closed around her. I thought maybe they could put it back on at the hospital. Like they would give her a employee discount. I heard about how you can sew a finger back on if you soak it in milk first. I was ready to show her but she was turnt away.

Mom, I said. Mom.

But she waved me off.

In my room I opened the window and stared up at the stars again.

Come on, I said to them. Just come already.

I waited for Dirty Diana to finish watching Craig Ferguson and then I snuck out.

When I went to go feed the Frog she was standing on the other side of the TV.

What’s wrong? I said.

The bike chain was pulled tight and her whole body was frozen.

There’s a woof down here, she said.
Where? I asked. Where?
She was like, In the fridgeranor.

I went over and opened the Merlos’ old fridge. There was this big hole torn in the back of it. Inside was a dead raccoon. It stunk like pure badness. When I lifted it up by the tail there were dead baby raccoons underneath it. They looked blind and slimy. I put the raccoon and her babies in a old pillowcase that was stuck behind the washer-dryer unit.

Dead coon, I said to the Frog.
She was like, Can I see?

I opened the pillowcase and showed her.

She said, Coombabies.

I nodded.

You gonna bury ’em? She asked.
Yeah, I lied.
When? she asked.
Right now, I said.
She said, Can I come?

She tugged on the bike chain and I shook my head.

She went, Okay, and then started the video game. She had gotten really far on it. The wolves were really skinny and tired. I watched her send a child down from the trees and bop one on the head with a rock. Then the child used the rock to saw the wolf’s head off and then she brought five other children down from the trees and they ate the wolf clean to its spine. Then they laughed and burped and helped each other climb back up the trees.

You’re getting good, I told her.

But I don’t think she could hear me. Her eyes were huge and she wasn’t blinking.

I brought the pillowcase up from the basement and threw it outside in the trash.

When I came back in, Mr. Merlo was in the hallway, sitting on the floor with his legs straight out, slumped against the wall. He wasn’t wearing no shirt. He’s got big hairy breasts and a obesity stomach.

Wiggins, he said.
I said, Hey, Mr. Merlo.
Wiggins, Wiggins, Wiggins.

It seemed like he was having trouble breathing.

I was like, Where’s your wheelchair?

In the living room, he said.
Why are you on the floor? I asked.
He said, Because I was seeing if I could walk.

He was making this weird growling noise and he was saying his words with a lot of carefulness. He was smiling too and his eyes were bugging.

He said, Some summer, eh?
I said, Should I call somebody?
No, he said. No need for that. I’m just resting.
I was like, Do you want me to go get your chair for you?
I’ll make my way back to it, he said. I can use the exercise. After all, it’s the summer. Time to go the beach.

His legs looked all skinny and white and dead. There wasn’t no hair on them. It was like they were made of candy.

He said, What’s going on down there in the basement?
I was like, There was a raccoon in the fridge.
He went, A coon. You don’t say?
It was dead, I said. Don’t worry, I cleaned everything up.
Animals, he said. Gotta love animals.

The he growled more and smiled and frowned at the same time. His chin was really buried in his chest. I couldn’t tell what was his beard and what was his chest hair.