A Home For Timmy (boyxboy)

Chapter 26: Rookie Mistake

"Do you want to show him?" he asked as he pulled the said rabbit from Timmy's bag and handed it to him.

Timmy held it up and waved it around. "Timmy haf Bunny." he told the kid adamantly and when the kid held out a hand, to my surprise, Timmy gave it to him.

The boy took Bunny by one ear and held it up for inspection. Timmy watched him keenly as he did and I in turn watched with interest as the boy pulled the bear from under his arm and handed it to Timmy. The boy watched as Timmy carried out his own inspection and finally, Timmy gave his verdict.

"Bunny Bedder."

The boy nodded "Yeah." he said. "My bear no have..." he took a breath "no have dese earws." he gestured to Bunny's floppy ears and Timmy smiled; dimples and all.

A friendship had formed.

When Jason stood, Timmy glanced at him. "We're gonna go now okay? but we'll be back for you later today so just play with your friend, alright?"

To my surprise, Timmy simply nodded and turned his full attention back to his new friend. "I'm putting your bag over there alright?" Jason pointed to the bag shelf and with a quick glance at the shelf and back, Timmy nodded and that was that.

We spoke briefly with the teacher before we left and Jason exited the classroom with a big smile and a satisfied expression. When he glanced at me I could tell he was ready to gloat...and gloat he did. "That was easy."

I shook my head. "Only because you had the kid to help you out."

"No, I could have made him stay anyway."

"Yeah well you didn't see him yesterday. He thought I was abandoning him."

He merely shrugged. "Timmy knows how to take advantage of you and you let him. It's as simple as that."

He was grinning from ear to ear; such a far cry from the quiet, shy man who had tried to pick my pocket not too long ago. I slung an arm across his shoulder and though he glanced around inconspicuously, he didn't move away.

"Do you think she'll remember to send us pictures of him today?" he queried as got into the car and pulled on our seatbelts.

"Pretty sure she will."

He nodded slowly, then bit his lip. "How long do I have to stay at the meeting and what kinds of questions is he going to ask me?"

"It shouldn't be too long, but with the chief, you can never really tell. The questions will be mostly about what happened that night. Why you were there, what did you see; that sort of thing. It's nothing to worry about, really."

He nodded slowly, but he didn't look particularly convinced. "Your dad doesn't trust me you know."

There was really no point in lying to him. "He just doesn't know you very well yet."

"He doesn't want to know me." He said, then frowned. "I don't know if I even want to know him either."

"Timmy spends a lot of time with him. You'll both have to find a way to make this work for his sake."

Jason shrugged. "I bet he thinks I'm some kind a criminal." He shook his head. "I guess I kinda am in a way but it aint like I ever killed anybody."

I remained silent as I pulled out of the parking lot and listened to him rant.

"Maybe it's cause he's gotta judge people for a living. Maybe that's why he's..." he trailed off with a sigh.

I didn't know what to tell him; my dad could be a hard ass and we'd been having the same debate since the moment I'd scraped Jason and Timmy off the streets. I could only hope that in time he'd get over his prejudices.