by H. L. Burke
“Not at all.” The floorboards squeaked under the wheels of his chair.
This time she raised her head slowly. The room around him was too blurry to focus on, but she could see his outline. “Did you identify the thief?”
“Yeah, about that ...” The floorboards creaked again, though Ellis didn’t move.
Nyssa pulled off her goggles and blinked several times. In the shadows by the door stood a small figure. He stepped closer, into the ring of light from the gas lamps, and Nyssa’s screwdriver hit the floor.
The boy from the boardwalk gave her a sheepish smile.
Chapter Four
“Ellis, what is he doing here?” Nyssa hissed.
“It kind of just happened. Theo, why don’t you head into the back and ask Mrs. Hampton for something to eat?”
The boy’s sheepish smile turned into a brilliant grin, and he dashed out of the room.
Nyssa exhaled and sat on the edge of the bench.
There’s a reasonable explanation for this. I’m sure there is. Ellis is going to explain, and then we’ll laugh, and the boy will go home.
Ellis pushed his dark hair back from his forehead. “Well, I got down to the police station, and they obviously had the right kid, but … all I could think of was what you said about the gin-drinking father, so I started talking to him while the officers were filling out the paperwork.”
Nyssa winced, suddenly feeling guilty about her desire to send the boy home. “He had a sad story, I bet.” She tried to keep a cynical edge to her voice.
“Not really. In fact, he couldn’t tell me much about his family at all. Apparently he’s been on his own for a while now.” His fingers stroked the arms of his chair. “By the time the officer was done, I couldn’t bring myself to press charges for the theft. I mean, he doesn’t even know how old he is, but you saw him? He’s just a kid.”
“Yeah, jail wouldn’t do him any good.” Nyssa softened her expression. “I understand that, and respect it, but that still doesn’t explain why he’s here.”
“Well … even without charges, the officer said they couldn’t just release him onto the streets. Apparently the orphanage is full to bursting, so he’d have to stay in holding with the adult prisoners for at least a day or two …”
Realization crept over Nyssa as Ellis rambled on.
“So I asked if I could take charge of him for the time being.”
“Ellis, what were you thinking?” Nyssa jumped up. “You can’t just collect children. They’re not spare socket wrenches, for goodness sakes!”
“No one else was using him.” He laughed, but then his smile faded. “What was I supposed to do, Nyss? I couldn’t let them put him with drunks and burglars and who knows what other criminals.”
“I’m aware of that, but do you know the first thing about taking care of a child? Because I certainly don’t.”
“How hard can it be?” Ellis shrugged.
Nyssa bit her bottom lip. “So … did you think this situation through at all or are we just going to play it by ear?”
“Give me some credit.” He frowned. “Mrs. H has mentioned grandchildren, so presumably, she’ll be able to help. Maybe we can find him some more experienced guardians after a bit. I didn’t give him any indication that this was permanent. I just told him he could stay here until I could make other arrangements.”
A thousand objections popped into Nyssa’s head. They didn’t have an extra bed or clothes the child’s size. She didn’t have the time or know-how to supervise the boy’s schooling, and he was bound to be too far behind to drop into a local school. He’d lived on the streets. Would he even know how to function in polite society? Nyssa knew how hard it could be to adjust from living by theft and trickery to “going straight.” It didn’t happen overnight.
Ellis gazed pleadingly up at her. “He’s so young, Nyss.”
She straightened his tools on the workbench. “He’s called Theo?”
“Yes. He didn’t know his last name.”
“Might not have one.” She stepped around the bench and put her hand on top of Ellis’s. “We can give him food and shelter at least, until we find someone qualified to give him more. If I’d had someone step in when I was his age, things might’ve been a lot easier for me. You were right to take him in.”
“You’ve had a rough day.” His fingers surrounded hers. “I won’t pretend to understand what you went through as a kid, what your uncle put you through. I think that might even be why I jumped at the idea of helping Theo. I know it was impulsive, but when I thought about how your uncle treated you … I saw you standing there in Theo’s place, and I couldn’t let it go.”
Her face warmed. Sparks and shocks, Ellis Dalhart, you’re too good for me.
Impulsively, she bent down and pressed her lips against his.
He kissed back then grinned when she withdrew. “Dang, I should bring home kids more often.”
“Don’t press your luck.” She scowled at him, but only to avoid laughing. “Come on. We better explain things to Mrs. H.”
“One thing first.” He gripped her wrist, his eyebrows melting together. “The police here have received anonymous tips about you.”
This time her scowl was real. “I heard.”
“It was your uncle, wasn’t it? What if he’s not going to give up? He’s already got the police watching you.”
“Are they going to arrest me?”
“No. You haven’t done anything illegal in San Azula, no matter what you’ve been accused of elsewhere, but it’s clear you’re under scrutiny.”
“Scrutiny I can handle. I’m not doing anything wrong. Uncle Al won’t intimidate me.” She kissed his forehead. “Come on. Theo and I haven’t been formally introduced.”
Entering the kitchen, they found Theo sitting at the table, his cheeks bulging and only crumbs left on his plate. Mrs. H stooped over him and ladled out a helping of green beans. The boy’s nose wrinkled.
“What’s those?”
“What are those,” she corrected. “They’re green beans, of course.”
“They don’t look much like beans.” He poked at them with a fork. “Beans come in cans, and they’re brown mostly. What sort of food is green?”
“Bless me, child. You mean to say you’ve never eaten fresh vegetables?” Mrs. H put a hand to her heart. “Just down those, and I’ll make up a quick batch of cookies.”
Theo grinned and shoveled the beans into his mouth.
Nyssa slid into the chair across from him.
He stopped eating for a moment to regard her. Dirt smudged his cheeks. “Ellis said I could stay,” he said defensively.
She nodded. “I say you can too. Until we come up with a better situation for you, anyway.”
Ellis wheeled to his side of the table as Mrs. H returned to the cupboards. Soon the room smelled of creamed butter and sugar.
“So how old are you?” Nyssa asked.
Theo shrugged. “Old enough, I guess. No one’s really counting. The food here’s really good. I want to stay.”
“And you can,” Nyssa assured him. She winked at Ellis. “My friend is very persuasive.”
Ellis smiled.
Theo swallowed the last bite of green beans and eyed Mrs. H. “You said something about cookies?”
Mrs. H chuckled. “It’ll be a bit longer. Miss Nyssa, why don’t you take the boy to clean up? By the time he’s scrubbed the grime off his cheeks, the cookies will be about done.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Ellis volunteered. “Nyss, could you set up a place for him to sleep? The sofa in the sitting room should do for now.”
“Of course,” Nyssa agreed. The sitting room was on the second story, and while they’d devised a track system that could get Ellis’s chair up the stairs if need be, it was slow and prone to jerks.
Nyssa watched Ellis lead Theo out of the room.
I don’t know the first thing about taking care of a kid, but Ellis is right. Any kid deserves better than a life on the stre
ets.
Chapter Five
Nyssa hurried downstairs the next morning to find Theo and Ellis chatting over breakfast. The boy still wore his shabby, over-sized coat, but his face was now scrubbed clean and rosy pink.
Mrs. H looked up from the stove. “Oh, Miss Nyssa, I’m glad you made it down before this young fellow ate all the pancakes. He’s devoured three platefuls and is eyeing the ones I set aside for you.”
Nyssa glanced at the child. He seemed to swim in his clothes.
Being hungry is the worst.
“He can have the pancakes,” she said. “I’d just like a strong cup of tea and a piece of toast.”
Mrs. H clicked her tongue. “No wonder you stay so thin. Don’t starve yourself, young lady. Ask Master Ellis. He’ll tell you, men like some weight on a woman.”
“Nyss has better things to worry about than my assessment of her figure … which is quite fine, by the way.” Ellis smiled.
Nyssa’s face warmed.
“What are we going to do today?” Theo asked between bites.
“Open shop and hopefully draw in some customers.” Nyssa shook off her discomfort at Ellis’s compliment. “Things have been slow lately, but the new sign should help.”
“We paid for a small advertisement in yesterday’s paper,” Ellis said. “Also, I researched this location. There are two other electrical repair shops on the island, both miles from here. It’s perfect.”
“Theo really should be in school. Can you read and write?” Nyssa asked.
“Some.” The boy shrugged.
Nyssa clicked her tongue. Yeah, I definitely need to get him some tutoring. When I was his age, I at least knew basic reading and math. Giving a kid food and board is good for the short term, but he’ll never be able to take care of himself without an education.
The hall clock chimed eight. Nyssa pushed back her chair. “I’m going to open up the shop. You two can join me when you’re done gorging yourselves.”
She trailed her hand across Ellis’s shoulder as she left the room. Today had to go better than yesterday.
There’s no conceivable way it could go worse, anyway.
Nyssa unlocked the door and flipped the sign to open. Pedestrians bustled up and down the sidewalks, heading to and from various shops. Hopefully some would be heading towards hers soon. Across the street, a policeman paced, nightstick swinging.
A pair of women approached the officer, perhaps asking for directions. They spoke for a moment, then the women turned and aimed a horrified glance straight at the shop.
Nyssa jolted. Were they talking about her? Why?
The women scurried away, still casting looks over their shoulders.
Nyssa melted back into the shop. “I’m paranoid, that’s all,” she whispered. “Not everyone is out to get me.”
Ellis and Theo entered, Ellis stationing himself at his workbench and Theo hopping onto the counter.
“Get off the counter.” Nyssa frowned.
Theo grimaced but slid down. “You two work? When I saw you at the boardwalk, I thought you were rich.”
“Rich is a relative term.” Ellis chuckled. “We do all right. Even if we were ‘idly rich,’ I think Nyssa would go batty if she didn’t have something to tinker with.”
“I don’t think it’s polite to talk about money like this,” Nyssa said. “Though I know more about circuits than etiquette.”
“At dinner parties, it’s probably taboo, but it’s just us here.” Ellis picked up his screwdriver. “I’m not hiding anything.”
Except the fact that you’re the heir to a massive unclaimed fortune. Just little details.
Nyssa glanced at the door. Shoppers seemed to be giving their shop a wide berth, and the policeman was still there.
“This crank generator you added to the fly zapper is brilliant,” Ellis said. “Mind if I take it apart and poke around?”
“Knock yourself out—not literally, please.”
He laughed.
Nyssa paced back and forth for a while, wiped down the glass, then paced some more.
Ellis looked up from his project. “You stalking about like a lion in a cage isn’t going to bring the customers in any quicker.”
“We should’ve had at least one customer by now, with the advertisement and this ‘perfect’ shop placement.” She huffed over to her cabinet of broken electronics and took out an old alarm clock. At least she could fix something.
Slipping her goggles over her head for a better view of the inner workings, she poked about inside the clock. It wasn’t quite electronics, but machinery was machinery. Yep, some of the gear teeth were broken. She took out her tweezers and removed the faulty piece.
“What’s that piece do?”
Nyssa started, and the clock skittered across the counter top. She pushed the goggles to her forehead, ready to snap at Theo. The boy flinched, covering his face with both arms. Nyssa’s stomach clenched. She used to cringe the exact same way when Uncle Al was in a rage.
She softened her voice and expression. “Sorry, you startled me. It’s okay. Could you hand me the clock?”
Eyes still downcast, Theo picked up the clock and handed it to her.
“See, it’s fine,” she assured him. “Pull up a stool, and I’ll show you how to fix it.”
Theo obeyed.
Nyssa pointed into the clock. “This is the mainspring. When you wind the clock, the tension keeps the other parts moving. The interlocking ‘teeth’ of the gears push on each other and move the hands around the face. Can you see why this one doesn’t work?”
He nodded. “These teeth are missing … and these ones too.” He pointed to a second gear Nyssa hadn’t even noticed yet.
“Sharp eyes. I didn’t buy clockworks, but there was another clock in there with a broken face … we’ll see if the pieces are interchangeable. Between the two, we may actually have one good clock.”
Theo dashed to the cabinet and came back holding the desired clock. The fear had left his eyes, replaced with a twitchy eagerness.
Nyssa smiled and held out her screwdriver. “Here, why don’t you open her up?”
He took the screwdriver but hesitated when he fitted it into the head.
“Lefty loosy, righty tighty,” Nyssa prompted.
A look of understanding passed across his face, and he turned the first screw. “Who taught you to fix clocks?”
“No one, really. I was always fascinated with taking things apart and putting them back together. Then when I learned to pick locks …” She stopped and flushed.
Theo tilted his head, his eyes opened slightly wider. “You learned to pick locks?”
She cleared her throat. Ellis paused in his work and raised his eyebrows.
Well, might as well be honest with the kid.
“Yes. When my parents died, I was left in the care of someone who only cared for himself. He started me out picking pockets, like you used to do, then trained me how to break into homes. He taught me lockpicking and safe-cracking and how to get around alarms. It wasn’t a business I wanted to be in, but it did help me learn the basics of machinery. Sometimes I’d get a hold of watches or wind-up toys and practice on them. When I eventually got away, though, I went to a trade school and learned electrical repair.” She took the now opened clock from Theo and poked about for the right sized gears. “I like making an honest living with my hands.”
Theo leaned closer to her. “Do you think I could learn things like that? Electrical repair and fixing clocks sounds more interesting than school.”
“I’m sure you can learn … after school. Once I’m done fixing this one we can take the other apart for parts.”
After a bit, one clock ticked on the counter beside the cash register while the parts of the other lay sorted into various trays. Nyssa beamed at Theo as he picked over the pieces. Then his stomach grumbled.
“Hungry?” she asked.
He nodded.
“You should check in the kitchen.” Ellis glanced up from his work. �
�I bet Mrs. H is prepping a plate of sandwiches for lunch. If you offer to help, you might get an extra cookie.”
Theo grinned and bolted out of the room.
Nyssa laughed, an odd warmth humming in her chest. She turned and found Ellis smirking at her.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing—it’s just for someone who doesn’t know the first thing about looking after a child, you’re amazing with Theo.”
She shrugged, unwilling to admit how much she enjoyed the boy’s company. “He’s a good kid. I still think he’d be better off with real parents, not a pair of teens playing house.”
“I’m only a teen for a few more months.”
“Physically. Maturity wise, not so much.” She chuckled. Her eyes roamed to the wall clock. “Almost noon and not a single customer. It’s odd. Between the advertisement and the sign, I expected at least one or two walk-ins.”
“I know.” Ellis’s smile faded. He wheeled over to the window. “Oh wait, someone’s coming towards us.”
The shop bell rang as a man with a bald head and a long duster pushed in. Sweat beaded on his broad, red face.
“Who’s in charge?” he grunted.
Ellis raised his eyebrows. “That depends on what you’re looking for. My colleague handles most electrical repairs. My own expertise is in machinery and engineering.”
The man’s brow furrowed, and he glanced from Nyssa to Ellis. “I … I heard this was a good place to unload merchandise.”
“We do trade in used electronics as well,” Nyssa said. Could the junk man have sent him? He certainly looks like he’d be at home in a junkyard … and smells it.
She managed to keep from wrinkling her nose, but the man smelled of grease and body odor. Black rimmed his fingernails.
“I got items of a more … valuable nature.” He reached into his coat and pulled out a paper bag. Opening it revealed a gleam of gold. Nyssa stiffened.
“There’s a jeweler down the street,” Ellis said. “I’m afraid we wouldn’t be able to give a fair price for items like that.”
“I ain’t interested in a fair price. I just need a buyer who don’t ask questions.”
