Jack rolled his eyes but said, “All right. Give ’em here.” He put them on and looked where Kasey was pointing. “Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Kasey’s heart sank.
“Zilch. Zip. Nada,” Jack said. “The way I see it, there are two solutions to this problem. One is locking you up in a soft room, and other is … this.” He dropped the glasses in a nearby trash can. “There. Problem solved. Okay?”
Kasey felt a wave of relief wash over her. Jack was right. No glasses, no problem. “Okay.” She even felt herself smiling a little. “Thanks, Jack.”
“You’re welcome,” Jack said. “Now you need to pull it together. The Thieves’ Den needs your quick wits and nimble fingers. No more freaking out over weird stuff.”
Kasey nodded. She couldn’t believe she’d let herself fall apart because of a cheap toy. “Quick wits and nimble fingers. You’ve got ’em,” Kasey said, waggling her fingers. “Why don’t we take the bus to the All-Mart and see if we can get that lady’s credit card to work?”
“Excellent idea,” Jack said. “See? You’re better already.”
The guys headed on toward the bus stop, but Kasey hesitated. The glasses were what made her see Ballora. Being rid of them, she wouldn’t see Ballora. But that didn’t mean Ballora wouldn’t be there. She could still be following Kasey—getting closer to her every day—but Kasey would have no way of knowing where she was. The thought of an invisible Ballora was scarier than the thought of a visible one. Kasey reached into the trash can, retrieved the glasses, and put them back in her pocket before she ran to the bus stop.
At the big box store, Kasey picked out a new pair of boots—heavy, comfortable, and practical. They all grabbed packages of socks and underwear and T-shirts. Buying too much stuff would arouse suspicion, so they tried to limit themselves to the things they needed the most.
As always, Kasey was the one to make the purchase because of her honest face. Her face didn’t matter much, though, because the cashier rang up the items without looking at her, then asked robotically, “Debit, credit, or cash?”
“Credit,” Kasey said, holding out the stolen card.
The woman scanned the card in the machine, frowned, then tried it again. “I’m sorry, ma’am. This card has been declined. Do you have another card you’d like to use today?”
“No thank you.” Kasey grabbed the useless card, abandoned her attempted purchases, and walked quickly to the front door where Jack and AJ were waiting. “Declined,” she said.
“Well, that sucks,” Jack said as they walked out the door.
AJ shook his head. “The lady must’ve reported it stolen. Too bad. I was kind of looking forward to my new socks and undies.”
“Only one thing to do,” Kasey said. She took out her big scissors, cut the card into tiny pieces, and scattered the confetti into the nearest trash can.
On the way back to the warehouse, they passed the park. Kasey heard the rustling of leaves and glanced over to see them swirling, but that didn’t mean Ballora was there, she told herself. She clenched her hands into fists to stop herself from getting the glasses out of her pocket. The swirling leaves meant only that it was a windy fall day. That was all.
Tonight’s job had to make up for their run of bad luck. They sat huddled in the warehouse, eating canned ravioli with their hands and trying to figure out their next move.
“We could try the pizza place again,” Jack said. “People do take cash to those places.”
“No.” Kasey’s response was automatic and forceful.
“Why not?” Jack said. “Afraid you might end up with some scary possessed toy?”
“It’s not that,” Kasey said. She probably deserved the mockery. She had let the thing with the glasses get out of control. “I just don’t like to get kids involved, okay?”
“We’ve not done the train station in a while,” AJ said. “It’s real easy to mix in with the crowd there and pick some pockets. It might be a good way to get your confidence back, Kasey.”
“Yeah, let’s do that,” Kasey said. That was what she needed. An easy job.
They didn’t even have to go inside the station, just wait until rush hour when a bunch of people came spilling out of the station’s exit, then slip into the crowd unseen. Kasey eased her way into the mass of people, scoping for prosperous-looking businessmen with wallet-shaped bulges in their back pockets. She had just found one and was reaching for it when someone grabbed her arm. She startled, then saw it was Jack. He mouthed the words Let’s go.
When she saw the flashing blue lights, she understood.
A police car had pulled up to the curb. Kasey and AJ and Jack walked with the crowd, nice and casual, like they had just gotten off the train themselves. Kasey didn’t breathe easy until the blue light was way behind them.
“Could this day have been any worse?” Jack said once they were back in the warehouse.
“Bad luck always comes in threes,” AJ said, holding up three fingers. “So we’ve got two down and one to go.”
“I don’t believe in superstition,” Jack said. “Not black cats, not broken mirrors. None of it.”
It was chilly in the warehouse, warmer than outside, but still not warm. Kasey decided to keep her jacket on. It was getting nippier at night, and her hands were cold. Soon she’d have to buy or steal some gloves. She shoved her hands in her jacket pockets for warmth. There were the glasses. Where was Ballora? Was Ballora about to catch her? Was that the third piece of bad luck? Her heart pounded in panic, and she ran past Jack and AJ, out of the warehouse. Now the cold was the least of her worries.
Outside, she put her head in her hands and paced back and forth. Finally, with a shaking hand, she reached into her pocket and took out the glasses.
Because she couldn’t help herself, she put them on. There, under a beam from a streetlight only a few yards away, Ballora twirled. She was closer than she’d ever been before. Kasey could see every joint in her body, each detail of her face, torso, and tutu. She was beautiful and horrible at the same time, and she was definitely getting closer.
Kasey tore the glasses off and shoved them back into her pocket. She sat on the cold, damp curb and tried to think. Each time she had seen Ballora, she had been a little closer. What was going to happen when Ballora got close enough to touch her? Could Ballora catch her?
Kasey felt like she was waiting for a punishment. She didn’t know if it would be swift and sure or long and torturous. She didn’t want to know.
There had to be a way to escape, Kasey thought. Ballora had appeared the first time outside Circus Baby’s Pizza World, the scene where Kasey had stolen the glasses. Since then Ballora had stalked her throughout the city. Maybe, Kasey thought, Ballora could only follow her in the city where the crime had occurred. Maybe if Kasey could leave, go somewhere else, she could leave Ballora behind.
It was worth a shot.
Kasey waited until Jack and AJ were asleep, then sneaked into the warehouse and quietly rolled up her sleeping bag, grabbing her backpack of belongings. She took her portion of the money from the Thieves’ Den hiding place and left Jack and AJ the rest. She wouldn’t steal from them. They had been like brothers to her—annoying sometimes, but good to her in their own way.
It was a long walk to the bus station. She looked at the list of departures. The next bus leaving was headed for Memphis at 6 a.m. She guessed she was going to Memphis. She bought a ticket, which cost half of all her money, then settled on a bench to try to sleep a couple of hours. She woke at 4:30, aware of someone near her. She clutched her backpack to protect her belongings from people like herself.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.” The voice belonged to an elderly lady with gray hair and skin a couple of shades darker than Kasey’s. She had on a butter-yellow flowered dress and a matching hat. She looked like she was going to church.
“It’s okay,” Kasey said. “I needed to wake up anyway. My bus leaves in an hour and a half.”
“Where you heade
d?” The lady settled herself down next to Kasey.
For a second Kasey wondered if she should tell her, but the old woman’s tone was so kind she didn’t see the harm in it. “Memphis,” she said.
“Oh, that won’t be too long a trip,” the lady said. “I’m going to Chicago to see my son and daughter-in-law and my grandbabies. It’ll be a nice visit once I get there, but it’s going to be one long bus ride. You got family in Memphis?”
“No, ma’am,” Kasey said. “I’m just looking for a fresh start.” It wasn’t like she could tell the old lady she was running from a ballerina doll that possibly meant her harm. That would make the old lady move off the bench real fast.
“You got a job lined up?” the old lady asked.
“No, but I’ll find something,” Kasey said. “I always do.”
“Good for you,” the lady said, patting Kasey’s arm. “I like to see a young person with some gumption.” She picked up a big straw tote bag and started rummaging through it. “You hungry, baby? I packed enough breakfast, lunch, and dinner for an army. There’s no way I’m paying for bus station food. It’s expensive, it tastes bad, and it’s bad for you.”
Kasey was hungry. She hadn’t realized it until the lady mentioned food. “I am a little, yeah. But you don’t have to share if you don’t—”
“I’ve got plenty, baby.” From the bag she produced a small bottle of orange juice, cold and wet with condensation. Then she handed Kasey something wrapped in aluminum foil. “Ham biscuit,” she said. “You’re not one of those young people who won’t eat pork, are you?”
“No, ma’am,” Kasey said. “I’ll eat anything that’s put in front of me. Thank you.” The biscuit was homemade and fluffy, and the ham was just the right amount of sweet and savory. It was the best food Kasey had eaten in a long time. “Delicious,” she said.
“I’m glad you like it.” The old woman patted Kasey’s arm one more time, and then rose stiffly from the bench. “I’d better go to the ladies’ room before I get on the bus. Those bathrooms on the bus are no fun. I like a bathroom that stays put.”
Kasey laughed. “Yes, ma’am.” It was the nicest conversation she could remember having in a long time.
The old lady looked at Kasey for a long moment. “Listen, I know it’s not my place, but since I’m never going to see you again, I might as well say my piece. You seem like a young lady who’s running away from something. In my experience, sometimes if you try to run away from your problems, those problems just end up following you. Does that make sense?”
Kasey nodded. She couldn’t look into the lady’s eyes.
“It’s better to build bridges than to burn ’em, honey. You remember that.”
The old lady tottered away, and Kasey felt a chill at the prospect of her problems following her. Of Ballora following her. She hoped with all her heart that the old lady was wrong.
Kasey slept through most of the long bus ride, waking occasionally to look out the window at the passing landscape. This was the longest trip she had ever taken, so she might as well enjoy the scenery.
The farther she traveled, the more hopeful she felt. A fresh start. That’s what she told the old lady she was headed for, and maybe she really was. No more stealing, no more living in fear, no more being stalked by a creepy, twirling ballerina doll.
Kasey walked out of the bus station and into the Memphis sunshine. The sign at a run-down, aqua-colored motel called the Best Choice Inn advertised rooms for $29.99 per night. Kasey seriously doubted it was truly the best choice, but it was better than sleeping on the street, and she had forty bucks in her pocket.
She walked into the motel’s dark office and handed a ten and a twenty to a haggard woman in a housecoat and bedroom slippers.
The room had decades-old cheap paneling and once-tan carpet stained by many years’ worth of careless guests. But there was a double bed and cable TV and a bathroom that Kasey could have all to herself.
The first step in her fresh start was a shower.
Kasey let the hot water pound her neck and shoulders. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d washed her hair, and she used the whole little bottle of motel-issued shampoo to lather up her braids and scalp. She soaped herself from head to toe and let the jets of hot water rinse her clean. It was heaven. Kasey always tried to keep up her hygiene, living on the streets, but there was no way baby wipes and a fast-food restroom sink could compare to a real hot shower.
After she dried off, Kasey brushed her teeth and put on the cleanest clothes she had. It was time to find her fresh start.
Walking the streets of Memphis, she came across an old diner called the Royal Café which had a hand-lettered sign in the window reading HELP WANTED. The café wasn’t royal any more than the motel where she was staying was the best choice, but she had to be realistic.
How long had it been since she had worked a real job?
Not since her time at Famous Fried Chicken, where she’d stolen that twenty and started her life of crime.
Inside the Royal Café, a bleached-blonde waitress who could have been anywhere from thirty-five to sixty-five said, “Sit anywhere you want.”
“I’m here about the job,” Kasey said.
The waitress turned her head and yelled, “Jimmy!”
An olive-skinned man with tired eyes came out of the kitchen, drying his hands on a towel. His apron was stained with grease of various ages. “Yeah?” he said.
“She’s here about the job,” the waitress said. Her tone implied she didn’t think Kasey was a very good candidate.
“You ever bus tables and wash dishes before?” the man, presumably Jimmy, asked.
“Sure,” Kasey said. She hadn’t, but how hard could it be?
“Them bus pans and dish trays can be pretty heavy. You think you can handle ’em? You’re an itty-bitty thing.”
“I’m small, but I’m strong.”
He smiled a little. “You got a name?”
“Kasey.”
“When can you start, Kasey?”
It wasn’t a very demanding interview. She hadn’t even told him her last name. “When do you need me?”
“How about now?”
It wasn’t like she had anything else to do. She might as well start earning money right away. “Sure. But don’t I need training or something?”
Jimmy looked at her like she had just asked a stupid question. “You get a bus pan. You clear the dishes from the tables and you put them in the bus pan. You carry the dishes to the kitchen, rinse them in hot water in the sink, then load them in the dishwasher and turn it on. When the dishes are clean, you unload the dishwasher and stack the dishes on the shelves. You got that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. That was your training. It’s minimum wage, paid in cash at the end of the week. Seven till two Monday through Friday, with one free meal per shift. That okay with you?”
“Yes, sir.” The pay was low, but she’d be off work by two, and a free hot meal every day would help her out a lot.
“Good,” he said. “Get to work.”
The job wasn’t so bad. Jimmy yelled a lot, but it was never anything personal. Kasey was able to rent her room in the Best Choice Inn by the week. She got to take advantage of the laundry room, the shower, and the cable TV, and the one big meal a day at the diner went a long way toward keeping her fed. Plus, Jimmy was a good cook. He said she was too skinny, and his blue plate specials of meatloaf and turkey and dressing were starting to put a little meat on her bones. The work was physically hard but mindless enough that she could daydream about whatever she wanted.
Her only problem at work was that Brenda, the waitress she’d met the first time she walked into the place, seemed to have taken a dislike to her.
“Is that your real name—Kasey?” Brenda asked her one day while Kasey was bussing a table.
“Sure is.” She didn’t look up, just kept on loading dishes into the pan.
“I was just wondering because you didn’t even give
Jimmy your last name. He may not have good sense, but I do.”
“Is that a fact?” Kasey said, dumping silverware into the bus pan with a clatter.
“You seem shifty to me,” Brenda said, looking at her with narrowed eyes. “Like you’re hiding something.”
“Everybody’s hiding something,” Kasey said lightly, picking up the heavy tray. “Even if it’s just their holey old underwear under their clothes.”
She carried the full bus pan back to the kitchen. There was no way Brenda could find out about Kasey’s past as a thief. Fortunately, there were no arrest records since she had never been caught. Still, Brenda made Kasey feel like she was being watched, and it was a feeling Kasey didn’t like.
One afternoon, when Kasey was bussing tables, she spotted two five-dollar bills lying under the salt and pepper shakers.
The two fives reminded her of that twenty-dollar bill she lifted so easily at Famous Fried Chicken.
Her fingers felt itchy.
Brenda had gone out back for a five-minute break, and Kasey was sure she hadn’t seen the money.
In one swift motion, she palmed one five-dollar bill and left the other where it was.
It wasn’t really stealing, Kasey decided. It was just splitting the tip fifty-fifty between the person who served the customer and the person who cleaned up after the customer. Cleaning up was harder, too. Customers were messy. Splitting the tip was perfectly fair.
Kasey promised herself she wouldn’t make a habit of taking tip money. And she didn’t—not really. She only stole when Brenda was on break or looking away, and she never took the whole tip. If a customer left three dollars, Kasey took one. If a customer left seven, Kasey took two. It wasn’t much, but it helped with the little things—doing a load of laundry at the motel, buying snacks and soda to have when she watched TV.
And besides, Brenda was always mean to her. Taking a bit from her tip was like getting paid extra for hazardous duty.
Today Kasey felt unusually hungry when she walked to work. She ignored the fall leaves that swirled near her and left her glasses in her jacket pocket. She willed herself not to think about Ballora but to think about food instead. Usually she took her one free meal per shift at lunch, but today she thought she might order breakfast instead. The Royal Breakfast Special, she decided. Three buttermilk pancakes, two eggs to order, bacon, and home fries. She was running early this morning, so she would have time to eat before the first customers trickled in.
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