The Degenerates by J. Albert Mann
Author:J. Albert Mann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: 2020-03-17T00:00:00+00:00
London lay on her cot staring up at the peeling plaster ceiling, waiting for Bessie and Ellen to jump her. She was more than ready.
The thought had occurred to her to jump them first, and that thought had included a lot of pummeling and blood. Especially as she’d lain listening to Rose’s sobbing, which was just now finally beginning to subside. Bessie would be easy. London had known so many Bessies. But that ghost bitch was another matter. London had come across pure evil in her life only a few times. Working it over did nothing. You needed to stay the hell out of its way. And now London had put both Maxine and Rose directly in its path. She needed to leave. Tonight.
As the hours passed, London began to realize that those two soft potatoes weren’t coming. A move on her tonight was more Bessie’s style. Someone like Ellen would have bigger plans. So now London lay awake waiting for the right time to flee.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the cot next to her. It was empty. Rose had climbed in with Alice and was now wrapped around the girl, clutching her stick. Though London told herself she didn’t care that Rose had chosen to be comforted by Alice over her, she did. This is the reason why you don’t make any goddamn friends, she told herself.
The image of the old lady sitting at her window floated before London’s eyes. She was the only one who understood that the world was a place filled with two kinds of people, crappy people and crappier people. At the moment, London felt she fit more in the latter pile, which soothed her dark heart just fine.
She needed to move her mind to more pressing matters. Like the fact that she now had no money and no clothes. And that she’d have to jump the fifteen feet to the ground, since the steam was definitely coming through the pipe tonight. The thought of jumping pleased her. She’d never been afraid of heights and was actually in the mood to drop hard to the ground.
At least this time she knew which way to run. Thanks to Rose. Rose’s friend Miss Barrett had helped Rose find her way to the airport on the map. She had only been able to remember the first road. Trapelo. Rose said that to find Trapelo the lady had moved her finger past the gymnasium on the map, and then past the administration building. Once on Trapelo Road, Rose said, the lady had moved her finger down, which meant London needed to make a right. After this, Rose said, the lady’s finger had gotten lost in all the roads, and even the lady had had trouble, and they’d given up and just admired the airplanes.
It didn’t matter. All London needed was that first road. That first direction. This was the way out… the way home. The roads where the lady’s finger had gotten lost were obviously in Boston.
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