Travis: To accompany the Fallen Angel Series - A Mafia Romance

by Tracie Podger

  “Why are you staring at me?” he said as he kicked the newcomer’s foot.

  Big mistake. When my new friend stood, he towered over Slider and had that cold, hard look on his face.

  “If I want to look at you, I will,” he said.

  Slider visibly shrank away. I don’t think it was what was said that scared Slider; it was more the presence this guy seemed to have.

  “Wow, man, that’s cool. You scared him off and he’s a real fucker,” I said with a grin.

  As he sat back down and closed his eyes, he spoke.

  “I’m Robert,” was all he said.

  ****

  For some reason being around Robert made me feel better about my situation. There was something about him that I understood, yet I didn’t know his story and I had only just met him. The following morning we took off on our own. We were both hungry and I took a chance on asking a donut vendor if we could have anything he intended to throw away. To my surprise, he handed us one each. Of course I couldn’t leave it at that and maybe I was showing off a bit, but I stole a bag and we ran. I guessed I wanted to show Robert that I was a seasoned street kid, someone he could hang around with. I wanted to hang around with him; in one way he made me feel safer than Slider and Tom. I had always been an outsider where they were concerned and I thought maybe they just tolerated me.

  “So this is Washington, DC,” Robert said as we wandered the streets.

  “Let me show you the White House,” I replied.

  It was obvious he didn’t like authority when he spat on the lawn, he seemed like a very angry person. As we walked the streets, we talked.

  “It’s not so bad here, once you know where you can and can’t go,” I offered.

  “Can’t be any worse than where I came from,” Robert replied.

  He didn’t offer any more information and I wondered what his story was. I decided to tell him mine. I changed it a little bit, I told him I had persuaded Dan to bring me to DC instead of the truth. I wasn’t sure at first why I told him that. I guessed if I had said my big sister needed to get me away he might ask why and I wasn’t ready for that conversation.

  “My parents died when I was six, so I came here to live with an aunt. She thought she could beat the devil out of me and one day I’d had enough. I burnt down her house and here I am,” he said.

  I nodded. I wondered what had happened to the aunt, but I wouldn’t ask. It sounded like he’d had a tough life too. I guessed that was why we bonded so quickly, we both understood what it was like to have a less than perfect childhood.

  “So what do we do for food?” he asked as we passed a grocery store.

  “Steal it, beg sometimes, not that it always works for me,” I said with a chuckle.

  “How many times have you hit these stores?”

  “Too many, they can see me coming from a mile off now.”

  “And probably smell you too,” he replied, teasing.

  “Well, since you mention it, I guess I could do with a bath. Can’t remember the last time I had one.”

  He laughed, I laughed, and it felt good to finally find something funny about our situation. At that moment, I knew we would be great friends. Something clicked with me, some understanding. Even at my age I knew that our survival and future were linked.

  “Let me try to acquire us some lunch,” he said.

  “Acquire? How old are you?” I asked.

  “Eleven going on twenty,” he replied.

  I was a little shocked; I hadn’t imagined him to be the same age as me. He certainly spoke and looked like someone much older.

  I watched him walk as casually as you liked into the store, pick up a basket and head off down the aisles. A few minutes later he walked straight out of the door, basket and all. No one challenged him; I doubt anyone would. We must have looked like an odd couple walking down the busy street, with Robert carrying a basket over his arm. We certainly received some odd stares, but nobody messed with us. Finding a park, we sat and ate.

  “What the fuck is this?” I said, holding up an apple.

  “Healthy food, Trav. It’s bad enough that we look like tramps, we don’t have to eat like them too.”

  We sat in silence for a while eating what was probably the best meal I’d had in ages. I chuckled as I bit into the apple. He wrapped up what we didn’t finish and put the leftovers in our pockets.

  “Get some candy next time,” I said.

  With raised eyebrows and a shake of his head he made to stand.

  “Never eaten the stuff,” he replied.

  “You’ve never eaten candy?”

  “Nope, never drank soda either.”

  “Fuck me. What did you live in, a monastery?”

  I regretted the words as they left my mouth. A flash of pain crossed his face. Maybe he had. If his aunt tried to beat the devil out of him, maybe he had lived in some religious community… but to never have eaten candy? Boy, he had missed out. If I did the next dinner run, I vowed to get him some candy.

  “We need clean clothes,” he announced. We had stopped beside a hardware shop, a general store that sold everything.

  “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll go in and talk about splitters. I want you to sneak in behind me, go down the aisles and find T-shirts the same colour as you’ve got on, minus the dirt, of course. Put them on over the top. Remember to get me one much larger than yours. Grab some pants and stuff them around your waist, do up your jacket and head out,” Robert said.

  “Splitters?”

  “Yeah, log splitters. Machines that split logs.”

  “Well, aren’t you just a bag of knowledge,” I replied.

  “No, just someone who had to cut the fucking things every day of my life. You ready?”

  We smiled at each other. I could hear the chatter going on at the counter and did as Robert said. I thought my T-shirt was originally white but probably looked quite grey at that point. I picked out some brown ones, they were close enough. Hiding behind a shelf, I removed my jacket, put on a small one and then a larger one over the top. I grabbed two pairs of jeans, having no idea what size to get, and hid them under my jacket. While the storekeeper was busy looking at brochures with Robert, I walked out the door.

  It shouldn’t have been that easy, really. I’d never been able to just walk in and out without someone noticing, but it worked. A few minutes later Robert left the store, the brochures under his arm.

  “Next stop, swimming baths,” he said.

  “I can’t swim,” I replied.

  “And you don’t need to, although I’d rather you didn’t drown under the shower. I’ll show you how to hold your breath.”

  I followed Mr. Sarcastic to the corner of the block; there was an information stand with leaflets for tourists about the city. He scanned them until he found one with a map. I hoped he didn’t give it to me; reading wasn’t something I was great at back then. I mean, I could read, but some of the longer words confused me.

  He marched off and I followed. We stood outside a building for a few minutes; he was watching the entrance, waiting for our moment. When a large group of men entered, we followed behind. While they queued at reception waiting to pay, we kept walking. Following the signs we found ourselves in a changing room full of lockers.

  Having never changed out of my clothes in public, I was a little hesitant. I watched Robert pull his T-shirt over his head. My eyes widened when I saw the marks on his back, but I made no comment. He had slash marks all over his skin, some not completely healed. He turned to face me as he pulled off his pants.

  “Fucking hell, Rob, for eleven you’re big,” I said. He stared at me, eyebrows raised.

  “I mean your muscles, your shoulders.”

  “Trav?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Get in the shower and use the soap,” he said as he walked past and into a cubicle.

  Looking around to make sure no one was watching I stripped, wincing as my T-shirt passed my nose and I caught a whiff of it. Using the d
ispenser, I lathered my hands and washed, amazed at the colour of the water running away. I hadn’t realised I was that dirty. I started to whistle to myself.

  “Trav? Keep your mouth closed and breathe through your nose, that way you won’t drown,” I heard, followed by a chuckle.

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  When the water ran clean I switched it off. Still dripping, I made my way to the bench Robert was sitting on. He had his T-shirt draped over his thighs, and I did the same.

  “So how did you get big muscles?” I asked, genuinely interested.

  “My aunt had me cut logs every day. I guess I got fit.”

  “I wonder if we could open those lockers,” I said as I looked around.

  “Trav, in the corner of the room, see? There’s a camera. We won’t get out this door before getting caught.”

  “So someone is watching us right now? Perverts,” I said with a laugh. Although the laugh was partially forced as an old memory flashed through my mind.

  “I don’t suppose someone is looking at us,” he said shaking his head. “Get dressed, let’s get out of here.”

  We dressed in the new clothes, nothing fitted of course but we made do. I had to roll the legs on my jeans up a little, and although Robert’s fitted him in length, they were too big around the waist. He tutted as he walked and they snaked around his hips.

  “I’ll sort out the clothes next time,” he said.

  I was amazed at the difference clean hair and clothes made. As we walked people would smile, and some even spoke to us. Before then, people moved out of my way, tutted and cursed if I blocked their path.

  “Trouble is, we can’t beg now, not looking like this. No one would believe we were homeless,” I said.

  “We’re not begging, Trav. We get by any way we can - but we never beg.”

  The one thing I had learnt about Robert in the short time I had known him was that he needed respect. He needed for people not to look down on him, like he was nothing, like he was the dirt on their shoes. I didn’t really understand why that was so important. I didn’t care what people thought of me, but he did. He still had that scary look thing going on. If someone was rude to him he would stop in the street and just look back at them, sending them scuttling on with their heads bent low. I understood how those people felt. When I studied him and he thought I wasn’t looking, I would see this hard, cold look on his face. And I swear, sometimes his eyes got darker. I was half tempted to cross myself, not really knowing what that meant.

  “How did you get black eyes?” I asked him one day.

  He sighed. “The same way you got your blue ones.”

  I looked at him, waiting for an explanation. “I was born with them, Trav,” he said.

  “They are weird though.”

  “Yeah, well, thanks for that.”

  We had been on one of our usual walks. Robert insisted on walking every day, discovering the city and planning, so he’d said. He was yet to tell me what he was planning, but I followed along. We stopped outside a church and Robert bent to tie his shoelace. A couple of priests made their way out the door and one stopped in front of me. He smiled, until Robert looked up and slowly stood. I saw the priest take a step back, his face blanched. Nothing had been said. I wondered what had made the priest turn and walk quickly in the opposite direction. I mean, Robert looked scary sometimes, but I was surprised by the priest’s reaction. I just didn’t see Robert the same way others did at the time.

  We decided to visit a local store; we were hungry, and as we looked clean enough, we thought we might try something new. Robert had found a piece of paper on the sidewalk; he held it in his hand as if it were a shopping list. I held the basket. He checked the piece of paper before reaching for items from the shelf. We were half way around our shopping trip when he stopped. He looked at me and gave a slight sideways nod of his head. I stood still and looked back at him. He did it again. I shrugged my shoulders and frowned. He sighed; he always sighed when I didn’t get want he wanted. On the third time, he nodded and shifted his eyes to the left. He stood and continued to look at me.

  “What?” I said, getting fed up with the head nodding and the eye shifting.

  “There is a security guard just behind you, following us. I was trying to subtly alert you. I guess you don’t do subtle, do you?” he replied.

  It was a comical moment. We both stood until I dropped the basket and we ran for the door. We crashed through, pushing past mothers with strollers, and we laughed as we ran up the street. Ducking down an alley, I placed my hands on my knees and doubled over, trying to catch my breath.

  “Why didn’t you just fucking say?” I said between wheezes.

  “I was trying not to draw any more attention to us than necessary,” he replied.

  “Well, it didn’t fucking work, did it?”

  “Obviously not. Now, watch and learn,” he said.

  Okay, so now I got it. A slight nod to the left meant someone was behind. I had to clarify if that was behind on my left or his left. It was his left. If he straightened his hand it meant to stop, if he curled his fist, it meant turn around, and so on. We developed our own code so we didn’t need to speak, and as time went on, our signals got more and more subtle. I imagine that if someone was watching us, all they saw were two boys looking at each other, when in fact we were having a conversation.

  Chapter Four

  It was a hot day; I was tired from all our walking and sure that we had covered the city multiple times. I still didn’t know what our plan for the future was. I would ask and Robert would say that he’d tell me once he was sure. But I was more than tired; I was beginning to feel unwell. I had developed a cough and kept breaking out in a sweat. I needed to sit down and stop all the traipsing around.

  We had long since moved away from Slider and Tom. We would see them occasionally, but Robert had found a fairly decent alley for us to sleep in. And by sleep, I meant to close our eyes and rest. We never slept. One too many times we had been disturbed by cops or men looking to pick up young boys. I had watched wide-eyed as Robert punched one who came too close. He’d lashed out without a second thought.

  I settled down on the step and although it was a warm afternoon and despite the beads of sweat on my brow, I couldn’t stop shivering. Robert sat close by, he never left my side. As the night drew in I began to feel worse. I couldn’t stop the coughing and my sides and chest hurt from it.

  “This is because you eat shit, Trav. You don’t eat healthily,” Robert had said. I flipped him the finger.

  I knew Robert worried about me, I could tell from his face. He would stare at me and flinch every time I coughed and winced with the pain, but he wasn’t good at showing it. I was wrapped in a blanket he had stolen some time ago. When we went on our daily jaunt we would stash what little belongings we had behind a burnt out car, the only thing sharing the alleyway with us. We could only hope that our worldly goods would still be there when we returned.

  “I need to get you some water,” Robert said.

  Robert stood, and with one last look at me he headed off. I was completely alone for the first time in months. We hadn’t left each other’s side - other than to rob a shop - since we’d met. I don’t know how long he was gone, and I think I might have even dozed off before I heard him again. I felt a hand on my forehead, but my eyelids were too heavy to open.

  The next thing I heard was a woman’s voice saying, “He’s so hot, he must have a fever.”

  My eyes would only open half way, my vision was blurred, but I could make out Robert and a woman… a young, A brown-haired young woman was kneeling in front of me. She smiled as she smoothed the hair from my forehead.

  “You’re right, he needs medicine to reduce the fever and make him more comfortable. Just around the block is a pharmacy. Ask them for Tylenol, and get a bottle of water too,” she said.

  I heard the sound of running feet moving away but her hand stayed on my forehead, soothing me. I could hear her whispering but not really make ou
t what she was saying. I caught just the odd words, “Poor boy.”

  Robert returned a short time later, I could sense it. I also felt my head being lifted and a bottle placed against my lips. Cold water ran down my chin before I was able to sip from it.

  “You need to take these,” I heard the woman say.

  I managed to open my eyes a little more and saw her. She had kind brown eyes and she was smiling at me. In her open hand she held two small white tablets. I looked over at Robert, unsure at first. He nodded to me. She placed the pills in my mouth because my arms were too weak to raise them from under the blanket; I took another sip of the water and the pills she offered.

  “When did the two of you eat last?” she asked Robert.

  “Yesterday. I’ll get us something later, I didn’t want to leave him,” he replied.

  “Okay. Let me see what I can find,” she said.

  I watched as she walked away, her hands clutching the bag she was holding under her arm.

  “Who was that?” I asked, my voice hoarse.

  “I didn’t get her name, maybe she’ll come back, maybe not,” Robert said.

  “She wasn’t just walking this way, was she?”

  “No, I brought her. I tried to steal her purse and she cried, so I gave it back.”

  Robert sounded upset, and I knew it was a big thing for him to have done that. We had no problem with stealing food from a store; somehow that didn’t feel personal but neither of us had ever stolen from a person walking past before. I was surprised he had even considered it.

  “What happened when you gave it back?” I asked, as I rested my head back down and closed my eyes again.

  “I told her I needed money for a sick friend. I wanted to get medicine and she asked if she could help.”

  “You did that for me?”

  “You’re the only sick friend I have right now.”

  “Wow, thanks. That’s real good of you.”

  “Yeah, well, I won’t do it again.”

  Robert couldn’t take a compliment; it was already perfectly clear that he wanted to help me but was uncomfortable being thanked for it. I had thanked him in the past for being my friend and he’d brushed it off. We sat in silence for a while until we both heard footsteps echoing down the alley. I tried to raise my head to look, to see if I needed to get up and run, not that I thought I would get very far. It was the woman. In her hands she carried a paper bag and two takeout containers.