This chapter is dedicated to Bill, with thanks for your ongoing support on Patreon. Thank you!
Seven weeks ago...
I was jogging along the riverfront, watching the sun go down. The best place to look at the sunset from was somewhere along here, where the brilliant sparkle of colour would light up the estuary. If you got the angle just right, you could see a path of rainbows all the way out to the sea. That was one of the reasons I loved this place, and I'd come out here in the evenings once or twice a week. Always trying to get a better photo.
I might have said it was for fitness; jogging is good for you. But really I only jogged for a minute at a time, broken up with longer periods of walking. It might have protected my figure from the ravages of the dessert monster, or maybe I was just lucky that way, but I couldn't pretend to be any kind of athlete. Or I could have told myself that I was an artist, trying to capture the perfect sunset. But if I were taking photography seriously, I would probably have a decent camera rather than a phone that had been chosen simply because there was a deal that gave a year's free subscription to Enliven. No, I wasn't trying to better myself here, or to be a more interesting person. I just liked the view, and sometimes I would be lucky enough to get a really beautiful picture I could impress my friends with.
Today wasn't perfect. It was too early really, and the colours of the sky to the west were muted by clouds of dust from somewhere in the industrial park. I could have waited around to see if the wind changed, but I knew that I was already risking my parents' wrath. They didn't like me being out unless they knew exactly where I was; they didn't like me being out alone; and they didn't allow me to be out after dark. I tried to tell them that they were being overprotective, but they wouldn't listen. I tried telling them that I was an adult now, a few weeks past my eighteenth birthday, and they didn't want to listen. As long as I was living with them, as long as I hadn't graduated from school, they thought I was still a little kid.
Okay, if I had to admit it to myself, I'd known that I wouldn't get a good picture tonight. The dust cloud was always worst on dry, tepid days. I was just out here to push the limits, to prove to myself that I didn't have to do everything they said. And I knew how dumb that was, but it seemed important to me.
Mum's words came back to me now. The waterfront park was a dangerous place; even though it was supposed to be safe for teen recreation. A kid got beat up somewhere round here last week, and isn't it terrible? There are gangs round here, and they seem to be racist. Somebody should do something about it. But for now just stay away, don't show your face in places we're not appreciated, and wait for the mythical hero someone to make it all better.
I couldn't face that. I was a little nervous when the sun started going down, but I wouldn't show fear. Yeah, there were some kids at school who thought this was their territory, and they would threaten anyone who didn't look like them. I hated those people; and so I would never let myself act as if they had won. I wouldn't even think about it. This was a public path, and I had as much right to be here as anyone else. But I listened, just in case, to hear the faintest sounds that might suggest anyone was following. And I heard the gentle sound of sobbing; someone in pain. There was nothing in the world that would have stopped me walking towards it.
Maybe I was a little braver than my parents would have been, because I knew more than tenth-hand rumours of a kid getting beaten up because his skin was too dark. I knew the kid; and I knew who was responsible too. Nobody would touch him; he was both rich and popular. But I knew Todd, I knew some of his weaknesses, and I knew that he was unlikely to hurt me. Even he didn't dampen his friends' morals enough to be cheered on for beating someone like me. The only time he was known to have kicked a girl he'd been able to say it was because she was cheating on him; and I was the wrong colour for that to be believable.
Clint Walsh. I knew the kid, I'd seen him around at school. He'd moved to the area earlier in the year, and had spent much of his life moving around. He was exactly the kind of person Todd and his cronies liked to pick on: small, book-smart, and pretty nervous. He still had bandages from last time, so I was surprised to see him here now. He was crouching behind a hedge, where the guys in the skate park couldn't see him but they must know he was there. There was no way he could run without being caught, so they were letting him hide and laughing at him. He was crying, clearly hurt, and had a broken skateboard in his hands.
"Todd and his boys?" I asked quietly, and Clint just nodded. "Well, come on. Let's get you somewhere safe."
"Why?" He whimpered, as we started to walk away. I could feel that his hand was shaking. "I just want to make friends, why do they..." There was laughter from the other side of the hedge; the bullies were still watching, and they liked to see despair.
"I think he's jealous," I answered, staying as cheerful as I could. "You look kind of like that masked boarder guy that's going viral, and you're new in town, so Todd's scared you're going to show him up. He's strutting around thinking he's the best football player, the best skateboarder, whatever. But if you just watched him for five minutes, you know he couldn't even do the midair double spin flip thing." It wasn't true of course; I knew exactly why Todd was picking on the new kid, but I thought it might be better to pretend there was an actual reason.
"Don't you talk about me like that!" The outraged yell made me freeze in my tracks. Todd; the boy who could never back down from a challenge.