Read Salt and Pepper Short Stories and Poems Page 11
Joel’s mother came to the station. She looked sober and frightened. When Jason told her Joel had not been a bad boy, but rather a smart one, she visibly relaxed. She didn’t want to take any responsibility. They left together, as the law would have them do.
Jason would try not to let him down. Despite the present chaos of his occupation, he managed to feed JD as well as drop off some painting boards at Joel’s house. Joel stood them against his bedroom wall. He felt obliged to decorate them very well now that Jason Lander had become his only link to JD. At least he could occupy himself over this worrying time. Joel’s bedroom literally bulged with the strange perspective of graffiti. He could make the room seem bigger or smaller at whim. There were dark, virtual corridors leading off to all kinds of light filled snapshots, from battles to tranquil lakes and alien landscapes. The phenomena deserved public attention.
After a week of worry about JD, for he couldn’t hear him bark at the back of the junkyard anymore, his mother told him Jason Lander had come and taken away the painted boards while he was at school. He hoped she hadn’t sold them herself. To his relief, he found a hastily scrawled note on his bed. Had Jason seen his room or had his mother put it there? She wouldn’t have thought to show him the room. The note said
‘JD in pound. The police canine unit says you will have to prove you can control him and that you have a place to keep him. Check you later,