Secret Sidewalk

LeMaster

Out in the garage, Levantin was just bringing down a Jeep Rollover after balancing the tires. He was down to his normal six foot six, decked out in his customary yellow and green, with dreadlocks flying as he carefully carried the car over his head and set it down in the parking lot. Roland was tagging along, sporting the blue and black of Inter Milan which greatly annoyed Levantin.

"Why do you like that salsa anyway," he demanded after ordering Roland to turn it off. Roland complied with a shrug.

"I love every music," he said.

"But you always listen to the same thing," Levantin replied. "Why is that?"

"Some kind of music is better," Roland said.

Junior Bus came running out and when he reached his colleagues he mentioned, in rapid succession, the names Sharad, Mister Pete and Sugar. Levantin pressed him for the full details and seemed angry when he heard that Junior had let Sugar go without a fight.

"I ain't messing with Mister Pete," said Junior Bus. "Maybe you can do that but not me. That man is dangerous."

"He's nothing," said Levantin, "just a shell. It's his boss you got to worry about, and now that he has Sugar, this is something to worry about."

Ben didn't know why this was so important.

"I thought you said that Sugar wasn't Sugar anymore," he told his brother, and Marcus agreed but said that Sugar had become something else and this was exactly what Levantin was talking about.

"Sharad is the kind of man that causes all the trouble in the world. He knows he wants to have power, but he doesn't know why. What is power good for? This man, he can rearrange families all he wants. He has the compound going on, just like he read about in that book he read, called "How to Be a Cult Leader." He's been following all the instructions and so far he's been building up. His problem is he doesn't have a purpose. Doesn't have a meaning. He's so jealous of the Sawdust People. That's why he did what he did to Johan."

Roland leaned over, and casually mentioned to Ben that there really are no Sawdust People. Ben was very confused by this and didn't hear the next things that Levantin said. He looked at Marcus and he looked at Roland, who was smiling, always smiling, and thinking about trumpets.

"He's got to have a gimmick, that's the thing," Levantin was saying. "He wanted to take the flying thing away from Johan, but Johan refused to teach him. Bill Cody refused to teach him. The Sawdust People all told him that even if they wanted to, they couldn't show him how. It's because of the Hybrid situation, you know"

"Pssst," Ben was tugging on Marcus' sleeve and trying to get him to listen.

"What's the Hybrid stitch nation?" but Marcus shrugged him off and whispered,

"Later."

"That was when he was just Sharad, only Sharad. Then he heard about Le Car and thought that was a cool idea so he became Le Master. People only laughed at him. Turns out there was a pretty bad shortstop by that name one time. Now you say LeMaster only if he's not around or if you're strong enough to face him down. I wouldn't try it, though. He's got too many guys like Mister Pete who'd love to take a swing at you and some of them have guns and shit."

"That's what I'm saying," agreed Junior Bus. "Listen to me, kids. You want to grow up, you stay away from guys like Mister Pete, and you stay away from Manny, too. He's no good. You keep away from him"