Just Gone by William Kowalski

Author:William Kowalski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC009060, FIC031000, FIC050000
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2013-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

This was all a long time ago. Squeaks is probably dead or in jail by now, a hardened criminal. Once, though, he was a sweet little boy. And that’s how I prefer to remember him.

Time passed. I never did find those kids. I got caught up in other people’s lives, and little by little I forgot about Jamal and Chantay.

The city is a machine that never stops grinding. It seems to make two different kinds of people. One kind lead charmed lives in safe neighborhoods. They have lots of expensive things. Maybe they think they’re happy. I don’t know. I don’t concern myself with them, because they don’t need me.

I care for the other kind of people, the ones who get chewed up by the machine and spit out. Their lives are broken from the very start. They come through the shelter in an endless parade. Victims, addicts, hookers, homeless people. Hungry, hurt children. These are the people I work with. These are the ones who share my world.

I was tired all the time now. It was getting harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning. I figured I was just weak in the spirit. So I prayed for strength. And I kept on doing the work I had been called to do.

One day a woman came in. I could tell right away she was an addict. She had that crazed look in her yellowed eyes. Her hair was tangled and snarled, a wig of snakes. She was missing a couple of teeth. She could hardly walk straight. She was wearing highcut shorts and a low-cut shirt. Big spiky heels. So she was a working girl. I got ready for whatever was about to happen.

She stood there in front of me, weaving and staring.

“Can I help you, sister?” I said. “You need a place to stay?”

“Don’t you know me, Mother?” she said.

“Have we met before?” I asked.

She cackled.

“I guess we have,” she said. “Long time ago now.”

I searched my memory.

“Chantay,” I said. “Is that you?”

“See, I knew you remembered.”

“Chantay, how long has it been?” I did some math in my head. I had last seen her three years ago. That would make her seventeen. The woman before me now looked at least twice that age. The machine was grinding on her hard.

“Can I get me a sandwich?”

I took her back to one of the tables and got her a meal. Then I sat down across from her. She had a hard time eating, like it was painful for her to chew.

“I looked all over for you, you know,” I said. “I looked high and low.”

“Yeah, I been livin’ the good life,” she said. “Got me a penthouse and a Ferrari. All kindsa boyfriends.”

“Chantay,” I said, “where is your baby?”

“My…baby?” Her expression changed, and she put down her sandwich. “Why you askin’ me that?”

“Last I saw you, you were pregnant.”

“That seems like a million years ago,” she said. “I dunno where that baby is. Maybe you best ask Jamal.

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