grabbed James' small hands in her large snarly ones. And, with that, she dragged him instead and slammed the door shut in my face with a loud bang.
"Take care, James!" I yelled to the door, though I was not sure if he heard me.
I didn't see James after that, for a long time, a month or so. I was busy with work and school. When I did come across him again, I saw him sitting beneath one of the trees near the front of the school, sobbing into his knees.
Frowning and concerned, I strode across the campus and went up to him. "James?" I said. "Are you alright?" James' head jerked up in my voice and he turned to face me quick and alarmed. His eyes were different now. It seemed alert and bright.
The moment he saw that it was me, he relaxed and a small smile of relief sprang to his lips. "Hi, Emily," he said in his small squeaky voice. He seemed really glad to see me. There was a certain glow to his features.
"Hi James," I greeted. "How's school so far?"
At the mention of 'school', James' face turned a shade of gray and he looked away, blocking out his eyes with his long bangs. "It's okay," he said, but his answer was far from the truth. It sounded like the opposite.
"Did something happen?" I asked. He shook his head. Another lie.
I came up with an idea and held out my hand.
"Come on. Do you want ice-cream? We can go get you some. Let's go ask your caretaker first, though."
James seemed reluctant at first, but the idea of licking ice cold ice-cream seemed to win over his will and he grabbed my hand and stood up. We walked to the door and I knocked on it again for the second time.
In a few seconds flat, Mrs. Mackle, a wild, disoriented bull, came bursting through and she yelled in her high shrilling voice, "Oh, there you are, you wrenched little boy! I've been looking through Africa and Australia for you. And here you are, outside without a care, like the little rat you are-" Her voice was cut off short when she noticed that I was standing next to James. Her beady eyes widened and she stepped back in shock. "Y-You!" she screeched and pointed a snarly finger at my chest, as if accusing me of something. "You're the one who brought the boy here!"
"Yes," I confirmed. I was beginning to like the
woman less and less. "I just wanted to know if I
could borrow James for a little while."
She was fuming, her bun beginning to fall out of place. "Borrow him?" she said angrily. "For what? What can a boy that you left here, out of the blue, suddenly do for you?"
"I just want to take him out for a walk," I said defensively. Mrs. Mackle wasn’t persuaded and her microscopic eyes pierced through mine, but I didn't cower under her laser stare. I stood my ground and, to emphasize how serious I was, I clenched James' hands tighter in mine and pulled him closer to me. James' pressed himself against my leg and I could physically feel him shook. He was as scared and frightened as I was, except I could hide it better. "Please," I added and forced myself to produce a convincing radiant smile. "We'll be gone no more than an hour. I promise to bring him back by then."
Mrs. Mackle's face hardened and, for a second, I was afraid that she would deny us. Then she sniffed and said, "Very well. But only an hour or else I'll send the police after the two of you."
I let out a sigh of relief and felt James' stiff figure relax against me. "Thank you," I said. "See you soon."
James and I hurried down the steps before Mrs. Mackle could change her mind. There was a new spring in every step James took. He stayed close to me as we crossed roads. We went to an ice cream shop called Moocho. It was my favorite
ice cream place since my best friend, Kattalee, worked there.
When we entered, Kattalee greeted us with a fake chirpy voice, "Welcome to Moocho! Moo, moo, moo! How may I help you today?"
I rolled my eyes. "It's me, Kattalee. You can act natural and be the mean girl you are."
Kattalee threw her head back and roared in laughter. "Be glad that no one else is here. If you said that out loud in front of everyone I would have lost my job."
She leaned over the counter and grinned when she saw James. "Hey, what do we have here? I see that you have brought a little friend. What's your name, little boy?"
James took a small step behind me. I patted his head in an assuring and encouraging way. "You can go ahead and tell her. She's a friend of mine."
James licked his lips as he eyed the ice cream posters that were put around the room and said in a soft voice, "James."
"Well, James, welcome to Moocho. My name is Kattalee," Kattalee said. I bent down beside him.
"What kind of ice cream do you want?" I asked. James thought for a moment before saying, "Chocolate."
Kattalee hopped over to the containers of ice cream and scooped out a spoonful of chocolate
ice cream. She put it into a pink cup, stabbed a spoon into the mush, and handed it to James, who
took it eagerly. "Enjoy!" Kattalee said and winked.
"Thank-you," James said with a mouth full of the icy treat. Kattalee and I watched him shovel the ice cream into his mouth without stopping to breathe between each scoop. He devoured it like he has never seen it before in his life.
"Is he yours by any chance and ou just never told me anything about him?" Kattalee suddenly asked without warning. I doubled back in shock and quickly composed myself. "What? Oh, no. He's a friend that I met while I was walking back from class. He lives in The School of Homeless Boys." I felt like I did a bad introduction of James, but Kattalee seemed to overlook it.
"You're from The School of Homeless Boys?" Kattalee asked James. He tried to speak, but his mouth was full of chocolate ice-cream, so he nodded instead. "I see," Kattalee said. "Do you like it there?"
James swallowed and looked down at the ground. "It's okay," he said, the same answer he gave me. There was a grave note in his voice, but I couldn't figure it out. I thought it sounded distantly like a remote sadness. I guessed it made sense because who wouldn't be upset with having to live with Mrs. Mackle, the most menacing human being on the planet?
James finished eating and we walked out the little shop and back to the school. I found James dragging his feet slowly behind him, his arms as long as the floor, his head held low. When we reached the school, Mrs. Mackle was waiting for
us, standing on the bottom of the steps. She looked impatient, tapping her foot angrily on the floor. The moment she saw us, she began to made long strides towards us.
"You two are finally back," she said sternly and stopped directly in front of me. She glared with threatening eyes. "Where have the two of you been for this little walk?"
"Mrs. Mackle, it has only been forty-five minutes," I told her and crossed my arms. "We came back fifteen minutes early."
Mrs. Mackle shook her head. "It matters not. The sun is beginning to set. James hadn't had his dinner yet. I think it's time you say good-bye to him." I felt a thrilling urge to argue with her, but little James, giving me a last small smile, walked away from my side and went to the wrenched woman's side. Mrs. Mackled grabbed his arm harshly and turned without another word, dragging his small, frail body away, back to the school.
I watched them go and, for reasons that I cannot explain, something flared up in my chest, something so red and so hot and so vivid. It burned in my heart, a longing feeling that almost stole away all my happiness. I shook my head and walked away, the image of James' smile forged into my mind.
The second time I came to visit James was a week later. Something in my mind nagged me to go see him. He was sitting below the tree again,
this time twirling two pieces of grass in his hands. I walked up to him and said, "Hey there, again. What's up?"
"Not much," he said. "What about you?"
I shrugged. "Not much, either. Do you want to do something fun?" It came out so randomly that I didn't have time to think. It just felt so normal to say
that.
He looked up into my face. "What is it? Won't Mrs. Mackle be mad at us again?"
I laughed. "Not if she doesn't know about it!" I joked. "Come on. I'll take you somewhere to see something you've probably never seen before."
He beamed and took my hand and we hurried away before Mrs. Mackle could catch us. There was a sense of adventure in out getaway, as if we were in a movie and was escaping an isolated island. There was freedom in our minds and hearts.
I took him to the college movie theater across from where I lived. I brought him a bag of popcorn and a medium sized coke. I brought two tickets for the movie Cars. I had watched the movie before and thought that it was a really good movie and decided to share my experiences with James.
James' eyes were glued to the scene the whole movie. He was so drawn in that he became as still as a statue. When it ended, we walked out of the theater and back towards the school.
"That was amazing!" he said with a grin. I
laughed.
"You think so?" I said. He nodded.
"My favorite character is the brown car," he said.
"You mean Mater?" I asked. Mater was the main character's best friend.
"Yes!" he said. "He was so funny."
"I like him, too," I admitted. "He reminds me a bit of Kattalee." The two of us laughed together.
"Are we going to do that again?" he asked and looked up at me.
"Definitely," I said and grasped his hand tighter in mine. Suddenly, an unexpected warmth filled