Two Heartbeats on One Page

Chapter 10

It was 10:00 p.m. and ninety-eight degrees outside, but Jordan was pulling on a thin black hoodie, anyway. He pulled the hood up and cinched the strings tight, testing to see how close around his face it went. The fabric just barely brushed his cheeks. It wasn't tight, but it was good enough. He pulled it away again, readjusting the black bandanna around his neck, and he stuffed a pair of gloves in his back pocket and pulled on a beanie, also all black. He checked his phone: 10:17 p.m. Iffy and Nate would be there any minute.

He pulled on his boots, non-skid and steel toed, on his way out the door, pulling the laces tight to minimize potential slipping. It had been a year since Jordan had gone dumpster diving and if he thought about it too much he started to dwell on how disgusting it was, but if his body was covered to minimize contact, it was easier to ignore. He used to go with Terrence, back when they went diving regularly, though more by necessity than by choice. Like clockwork, every Tuesday night they'd hit the Food City dumpsters one by one. Sometimes there wasn't much, but sometimes they brought home huge hauls of produce and sometimes even boxed things like macaroni and cheese still in the original shipping packaging. The garbage was disgusting but the thrill of the hunt was phenomenal. It was a small act of defiance and revolution, maybe on such a small scale that it didn't make a difference in the big picture of things. But it would make a huge difference to the hungry people they would serve it to at Iffy and Nate's Food Not Bombs meeting on Saturday.

Jordan took the stairs two at a time, a small backpack slung over one shoulder in case he found any treasures, and also with a basic first aid kit. Even though they were only hitting grocery store dumpsters, some weird things could end up in with the food and he wanted to be prepared. Terrence had almost taken a boxcutter blade in the foot once. If it had been only half a centimeter to the left, he could have ended up with a two inch cut right in the sole of his foot.

Although nobody was actually injured, Jordan brought a first aid kit with him every trip since.

He stuffed his hands in his hoodie pockets when he reached the sidewalk, glancing around the parking lot for Nate's car as he bounced a little on his feet. Iffy had said it was a "crappy old white Toyota," but when Jordan had said that at least it was a car that ran, she conceded and agreed that yeah, he was pretty lucky, especially in a city with such terrible public transportation.

A once over of the parking lot told Jordan that a lot of other people had "crappy old white Toyotas" too. Iffy didn't give him a license plate, not that he would have remembered it, and he couldn't go walking through the parking lot peering into windows. A brown Latino guy dressed all in black eyeing a bunch of cars? Jordan wasn't stupid. He knew people would take one look at his skin, think he was out on a crime spree, and call the police.

So he stayed on the sidewalk, pulling his phone out to dial Iffy's number. After a couple of rings, she answered.

"Hey!"

"Hey!" Jordan smiled. "Are you here yet? There are a bunch of cars in the parking lot exactly like the one you described."

"Yeah." She pulled the word out into three syllables. "I'm not the best at description. But we're here. We're pulling into the parking lot as we speak."

Then, the hum of an engine, the beginnings of the reflections of headlights, and a white Toyota pulled into the parking lot. Iffy rolled down the passenger's back window and waved Jordan over. "Other side," Iffy said. "We have a surprise in the front seat."

So Jordan stuffed his phone back in his pocket and jogged around, not looking into the seat behind Iffy until he plopped into the car and heard a warm, familiar voice say, "Hey, Jordan!"

Jordan's looked up. "Justin?"

Justin was sitting in the driver's seat, dressed much like he was, but without a bandanna. Every inch of his skin was covered in black cloth and his hair was tucked up underneath a beanie.