Part 11

The house was a refuge for the wayward. People were accepted with little to no questions. For example, Gus moved in one day, grabbed a spot on the floor next to the furnace and laid down his sleeping bag. He was a liar, we all knew it. But what we didn't know was who knew him, how he found his way here. He threw in money when he could for bills and rent. Nothing was ever set.

None of us cared that he worked in the meat department of the A&P, but he lied to us about it. He had elaborate stories about working at NBC. Which impressed exactly noone. The head of NBC was always giving him steaks.

One day, he vanished. The cops showed up not too soon afterwards. Apparently he had gone home with one of the 'rich debutantes' who came by every so often and made off with $10,000 worth of jewelry.

For another example: It had been years since I had heard her voice and at 7:00am I'm not at my best. I wouldn't call her voice melodic but it was soothing and when I heard it, years crawled back and slithered off into dark creases.

"Hi Shin, I locked my keys in my house and I need my school books, could you give me a lift to my parents shop."

"Sure," I replied without thinking. She was my best friend, there was never a question that I would help her. As I collected myself I let the tiny pieces fall in place. My mind began slowly wrapping itself around the inconsistencies of what just occurred and what my reality had been. But I pushed them back into the dark creases where time was hiding.

I saw her standing on the side of the road and clambered over myself to hold her. It had been years since I had seen her, heard her voice, felt her touch. The first thing she said to me was, "We have to get out of here! The cops are gonna be looking for me!"

The sudden shift in emotional gears probably took years off my life, but it was automatic. My mind sifted though every possibility to buy some time so I could find out what was going on.

The first thing anyone was going to do was to contact me. I knew this. The cops had been frisking me twice a day for the past 4 yrs. If they didn't know where to look for me in town they were idiots. So where could I go? Where could I go that would be safe? Where could I go at 7:00am? Several blinks later we were on our way to the house. Sam never knew about this house or what it meant. I didn't know that in the next 48 hours I would be in a car chase, have my house staked out and inevitably end in cuffs.