“Do you want me to help you find Mama C?” Kaylee asked as she put the car in park.
“No. I know where they’ll be.” He opened the door. “Thanks for everything. You have some great friends.”
She smiled. “I do.”
He hesitated. “Well, see you around.” He moved to get out of the car.
“Wait!” Kaylee grasped his arm. “How am I going to know where to find you?”
Blayne sat back in the seat and frowned. “I had hoped that the events of tonight had convinced you of the danger of hanging out around us. Are you seriously going to keep this up? Don’t you have enough information for your paper?”
A lump formed in Kaylee’s throat. She swallowed it down. Did she have enough information? Why did she so desperately want to continue this quest? Was it to learn more about Mama C? Or more about Blayne? She stared at his cool blue eyes. “I don’t have enough yet. I…I need to do some more observation.” And this is more than just a thesis paper now.
“Hmm.” He looked away from her gaze. “It might take us a day or so to find a new place. I’ll meet you back here day after tomorrow. Noonish.”
Kaylee smiled and squeezed his arm. “Thank you!”
“Mmff,” he grunted. Kaylee thought she saw just the hint of a smile hiding beneath his mustache. Just a hint. He didn’t look back at her as he shut the door and trudged off to find Mama and the others.
As she unlocked her door and stepped into her warm apartment, a wave of guilt washed over her. Mama C, Blayne, and the others didn’t know where they’d be sleeping tonight. Their sleeping bags were gone. It was below freezing out there.
She shut the door behind her, then slumped to the floor. The tears came hard and fast—and unexpected. She cried out of fear for her new friends. She cried for the chilling experience with the thieves that night. She cried for the unfairness of the world. And, mostly, she cried because she felt so helpless to do anything to change it.
Christmas had snuck up on Kaylee. As she wandered through the mall with Allie, Christmas music playing throughout the decorated stores, she realized it was December 22nd already. She stopped at a kiosk and looked at the portable media players. She picked one up and turned it over before quickly setting it back down. Way too much money for her meager budget.
Allie sidled up alongside her. “Don’t buy that. I have a brand new one that you can have.” She grabbed Kaylee’s hand and pulled her away. “Let’s go check out the big shoe sale.”
“Wait.” Kaylee pulled on Allie’s hand to stop her mad dash through the crowded mall. Allie turned to face her. “Why do you have a media player?”
Allie’s mouth twisted up into a grin. “I got it for free when I opened my bank account.”
Kaylee laughed and shook her head. “Are you sure you want to give it to me? Maybe someone in your family could use it.”
“Nope, I want you to have it. It’s still in the package. It comes with earbuds and everything.” The conversation ended when Allie turned away from Kaylee and dragged her forward into the crowd.
After visiting several second-hand stores to buy some sleeping bags, Kaylee spent the rest of the day holed up in her room, downloading music, thankful she’d saved the multiple gift cards she’d received for birthdays and Christmases.
The next day, she loaded up her car with the sleeping bags, grabbed some five-dollar pizzas, and headed to the shelter where Blayne said he’d meet her. The winter sun shone bright, beating away some of the chill, as she pulled up to the same section of sidewalk where she’d dropped him off two days ago. She checked to make sure her doors were locked, then sat in her warm car watching the people gathered on the sidewalks there. Two men and a woman fighting over a shopping cart; a man slumped over, back against the brick building, a shivering dog lying next to him; a woman half hidden under a threadbare blanket, injecting drugs into her scabbed and scarred arm; men and women drinking out of bottles hidden in paper bags. Mama C and her group seemed downright put-together compared to these people. They used to be these people, though—until Mama found them.
A sharp rap on her window startled her, and she whipped her head around to see a mischievous grin on Blayne’s face. She scowled at him and motioned for him to go around to the passenger seat as she unlocked the doors.
He slid in and shut the door. “Whew. It’s warm in here. It was a cold night without any sleeping bags.”
Kaylee’s gaze fell to her lap. “I bet it was. Did you guys find somewhere to…to stay?”
“We did. Head that way and I’ll show you.” He pointed straight ahead.
She pulled out into the street. “How is your shoulder doing?”
“It’s fine. The arm where he gave me the tetanus shot hurts worse.” He rolled his shoulder. “Do I smell pizza?” He looked in the back seat.
“Yes, you do. Do you want a piece now or do you want to wait until we get to the others?”
“I’ll wait.” His stomach disagreed loudly with a growl.
He directed her to a bridge a couple of miles away from the shelter. Weeds and scrub bushes lightly covered in snow dotted the area beneath the bridge. No barrel for a fire here. Kaylee frowned.
She popped the trunk and reached into the backseat to grab the pizza. “Can you help me grab some stuff from my trunk, please?”
“Umm, sure.” He raised an
