No Such Thing as a Free Ride (6 page)

The guard cut me a wary look and let go of Crystal’s arm. For a moment I thought she was going to run, but she just stood there unsure of what to do next.

“I want to see that girl,” she said, finally. “Only they won’t let me in.”

I realized she must be in a bad way if she was turning to me for help, so I resisted the urge to blurt out a smart-ass remark about her less than charming behavior. “Let me see what I can do,” I whispered.

I walked back the other way with Crystal following close behind, weighed down by her backpack and the enormous chip on her shoulder. The guard trailed after us in case his services should be needed again which, I assured him, would not be the case. I hoped I wasn’t being overly optimistic.

Linda Morrison had returned to the nurse’s station. She raised an eyebrow at the sight of us. “All better?” she asked.

I nodded. “Nurse Morrison, I’m really sorry for the uh-confusion before. This is my sister’s kid, Patty. Say hi, Patty.”

“Hi,” Crystal said, wondering where this was heading. That made two of us.

“So anyway, I told Patty to meet me here. Y’see, I’m doing a story on the girl in ICU—I was the one who brought her in, and uh, since it’s um—“Take Your Cousin to Work Day—”

“Don’t you mean
niece
?”

“
Oh
. Yeah. Anyway, I thought we could just take a peek in—y’know say hello, try and cheer her up a little,” I finished at record speed. I figure if I tell a lie fast enough folks won’t have time to dwell on it.

Linda suppressed a smile. “I see. Well, I think I can arrange a visit, if you only stay a few minutes. The patient hasn’t been very responsive. Maybe it will do her some good. They’re taking her vitals right now, but have a seat over there and I’ll come get you in a few minutes.”

We took a seat and waited.

Crystal turned to me. “What a load of bullshit. You’re a terrible liar.”

“It got us in, didn’t it?”

“Only because that nurse is so stupid.”

“FYI that nurse is your new best friend.
Of course
she didn’t believe a word I said, but she knew how important it was to you to see that girl, who, by the way, you said you didn’t know—so why
did
you come down here?”

“Why did
you
?” she replied, her face suddenly flushed with anger. “Hey! Don’t tell me you really
are
going to do a story on her,” she fumed.

“Well, why not? There are a lot of kids out there that need help. I wouldn’t dream of exploiting them, but maybe—”

“Fuck you, you fucking bitch! I never should have trusted you!”

Oh crap, here we go again.
“Listen, do you think you can muster up a few more adjective here, because you’re wearing out the ‘F’ Bomb.”

She leaped to her feet and for a scary minute I thought she was going to punch me. Note to self: When dealing with a young, explosive street kid, sarcasm is
not helpful
.

At least I was beginning to understand how Crystal operated. She had two modes, pissed off and seriously pissed off, and she was gearing up for apoplectic.

“Look,” I said, “believe it or not, I’m not the enemy. All I wanted to do was help this girl get back with her family.”

“Yeah? Well, what if her family doesn’t want to get back with her? Did you ever think of that?”

Before I could entertain the notion there was a sudden burst of activity down the opposite end of the corridor. Medical personnel converged from every direction as the hospital paging system blared, “Code Blue.”

Crystal stared wild eyed at me. “Code Blue. That’s—” she didn’t finish her thought. Ashen faced, she bolted down the hall as I limped along behind her on my one good leg.

By the time I caught up to her she was, once again, locked in the security guard’s arms. He cleared her out of the way as doctors and nurses crowded into the patient’s room, dragging a code cart filled with medical supplies and equipment.

“Let me see her,” Crystal screamed. Tears flowed down her swollen cheeks.

“Take her out of here,” barked a doctor, as he applied defibrillator paddles to the girl’s sunken chest.

The guard took a few cautious steps back with Crystal in tow.

She turned to him, desperation in her voice. “Please. I’ll be good. Let me stay.”

After what seemed like hours, but was in fact only minutes, the flurry of activity stopped.

“What’s happening?” Crystal sobbed, but I could see in her eyes she already knew the answer. “Why aren’t you doing something?”

“Honey, I’m so sorry.” Nurse Morrison’s somber look said it all.

“No!” Crystal tore herself from the guard’s grasp and ran straight into the room. She stared down at the bed, at the mass of wires and tubes that hung from the frail body.

“It’s—
not— her
,” she said and promptly passed out.

I had no time to mourn the loss of the tragic stranger lying in the bed. The one on the floor needed me more now. Crystal revived quickly, probably more out of her need to be in control than the smelling salts that were shoved under her nose. She sat up and swore at the nurse, slapping his hand out of her way. With a little orange juice and some admonitions to take it easy she was good to go. The question was “where?”

*****

“Listen, I think we should talk about what happened inside.” We were standing on the corner of 11th and Locust. It was late in the day and yet the temperature still hovered in the 90’s. It was going to be fun sleeping in my house tonight with no working air conditioner.

Crystal shot me a look that would have been menacing had she not appeared so completely wilted, and I was struck once again by just how young she was.

“I passed out. It’s no big deal. I’m fine.”

“That’s not what I mean.” There was a guy standing next to a kiosk selling water ice and soft pretzels. We walked over and I bought two pretzels and handed one to Crystal. “What kind of water ice do you want?”

“Cherry. Thanks,” she added as an afterthought.

We began walking to my car. “I know why you passed out. We witnessed someone die. That
is
a big deal, no matter how tough you are. She was a kid and she was all alone, and it’s…” my voice trailed off.

Crystal looked at me. “Are
you
okay?”

“Hunh,” I almost laughed. “Not really. But don’t tell anyone I said that. I’ve got a reputation to protect.”

I hesitated for a beat and then plunged right in. “Listen, you said something just before you took a header. You said, ‘It’s not her.’ Obviously you were worried that girl was someone you knew. Who were you talking about?”

She didn’t answer me right away. She just studied her soft pretzel like it was the most fascinating thing on Earth. When I’d just about given up on her ever answering me she slowed her pace and then stopped altogether. “I want to tell you,” she decided.

We sat on a stone bench in one of those little turn of the century parks that are dotted throughout the area. Some pigeons scoped us out to see if we had anything good to offer in the way of dinner. Since it was only 4:00 in the afternoon, I guessed that would qualify as an Early Bird Special. I tossed a couple of hunks of pretzel over in their direction and watched them devour them.

“Before I tell you anything, I’ve got to ask you something,” Crystal said.

“Okay, shoot.”

“Are you really a reporter? Like on tv and all? Because, no offense or anything, but you sure don’t look like any news reporter I’ve ever seen. I mean you look like a kid. You’ve got stains all over your tee shirt, your hair’s all messy—and—”

“Gee, Crystal, no offense taken.”

“I just thought you had to be more glamorous if they were gonna put your face on t.v.”

“I clean up nice. Listen, could you just forget about me being a reporter? I’m not interested in turning your story into some kind of career boost for me. I just think—for whatever reason—we fell into each other’s lives and you need some help. I’m asking you to take a risk with me. You can walk away at any time.”

Crystal sighed. “My best friend’s gone missing. When you told me about that girl in the hospital and the way you described her and all, I thought it might be Star. She’d never just take off without telling me. I think something really bad’s happened to her.”

“Could she maybe have gone home?”

“What the fuck’s with you and home? Some people don’t have a home to go to.
Get it?”

I got it. I just didn’t fully understand it.

“When was the last time you saw Star?”

“One night about two weeks ago. We were at our squat and she was heading out to work.”

“Star has a job? Where does she work?”

Crystal rolled her eyes at me. “Are you for real?”

“
Ohhh
. You mean—jeez, sorry. Go on.”

“Anyway, I told her I didn’t think she should go. Kids who hook are always getting the shit beat out of them. Some even get killed. Not that anyone on the outside would notice. Nobody gives a fuck about street kids.”

“Are you worried that that’s what happened to Star?”

“I don’t know,” Crystal told me. “Star’s smart. She knows how to take care of herself.” She stopped for a minute, thinking. “We really hit it off, y’know? Star’s a little older than me and she’s been out on the streets longer, so she kinda looked out for me.”

“In what way?”

“Well, sometimes the newbies get hassled by the old school kids, ‘cause they’ve been out there longer and know the ropes, so they kinda run the show. There’s this one girl-she just won’t leave me alone. I don’t know, she’s a real sick bitch and she thinks she owns me or something. Anyway, when Star was around, I didn’t have to worry.”

“Is that why you were hanging around the gym? So that you could learn to protect yourself?”

“Yeah,” Crystal admitted. “But it didn’t do me any fucking good. I wasn’t gonna join those lame-ass weirdos.”

“Um, Crystal, out of family loyalty, I need to point out that one of those lame-ass weirdos is my uncle.”

“Oh,” she blushed. “I didn’t mean—”

“That’s okay, don’t worry about it. Listen, who have you talked to about Star being gone? Maybe somebody saw something.”

“I talked to Little Red—her pimp—but he says he hasn’t seen her. He’s always trying to get me to be one of his girls but I wouldn’t work for that piece of shit. I’d rather starve. Star was talking about quitting him. Too bad she didn’t do it sooner. That guy you saw me with today,” she added, “was one of Star’s regulars… y’know, a john? He was pissed off that he couldn’t find her and he’d seen us together, so he thought he’d take the next best thing. I’m not into that scene but he didn’t believe me.”

I took in all this information, as if I were watching a movie. If I thought about it in any real sense, I would throw up.

“Okay, you said you last saw your friend about a week ago. What day was it?”

Crystal shrugged. “I dunno. Last week sometime.”

“Could you be a little more specific?”

“Wait, I’ll check my calendar.”

“Sarcasm, right?”

Crystal laughed, breaking some of the tension. “Look, I know you’re trying to be helpful and all, but things don’t work the same way out on the streets as they do in your world.”

“Okay, so educate me.”

“Why do you care so much?” she asked suddenly. “What’s in it for you?”

“Does everybody have to have an ulterior motive for helping someone else?”

“Lesson number one. In my world, yes.”

If something bad really did happen to Star, it made an already intolerable situation for this kid that much worse. I wanted to tell Bobby, but my hands were tied. According to Crystal anyone responsible for getting the cops involved in street business was an automatic target for retribution of the worst kind.

I needed someone who understood the code of the streets, someone who could offer real help, without jeopardizing Crystal’s street cred in the process. Someone who felt the need to flee the continent after I professed my undying love for him, but was still the only person in the world I’d trust with Crystal’s life as well as my own.

Swallowing a huge gulp of pride I took out my cell phone and punched in his number. “Nick, it’s Brandy. I need your help.”

Nick’s Mercedes truck has been parked directly outside my house since Alphonso brought it to me three months ago. I move it once a week for street cleaning and sit in it every night, because it smells like Nick and, yes, I’m
that
pathetic. I don’t drive it because I feel like he loaned it to me as a consolation prize for not loving me.

Crystal and I sat in it now, on our way to Nick’s studio. We’d made a pit stop at my house so I could feed the dog and grab the truck. Turns out, Adrian had already eaten. I found the chewed up remains of a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos strewn about the kitchen floor. Adrian sat nearby wagging his overgrown tail, his snout sprinkled with red dye number six.
Great. There goes my dinner
.

I left Crystal in the living room playing with the dog while I ran upstairs to change. Not that I was trying to impress Nick or anything. I just figured with my ankle still being swollen and all, I’d be more comfortable in sandals and,
technically
, strappy stiletto heels qualify as sandals.

I paused on my way back downstairs, peering over the railing at Crystal and Adrian. The dog was licking her face and she was laughing. It was pure and sweet and very childlike. I fake sneezed to let her know I was coming and the mask went up again.

She glanced over at me as I descended the stairs. “How come you’re wearing hooker shoes? You like this guy or something?”

I turned around, walked back upstairs and changed back into my All Stars.

*****

Nick’s martial arts studio is a two-story, red, brick building located in a section of the city the verbally indelicate would refer to as “the slums.” The accuracy of the label is inarguable, and yet there is a Zen-like quality to the little patch of land the studio sits on that can only be attributed to the man who owns it.

I’d been here on several occasions and had gotten to know some of the locals. I waved hello to Lonnie Juarez as he stepped out of the bail bonds place next door.