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Jojo starts to walk past the park, but when he gets to the stairs, Ardell catches him and shoves him. Jojo stumbles and disappears from sight. Ardell starts down the stairs. His friends follow him. By the time I get there, all of them are down near the bottom.
There aren't many lights down there. The city and the cops don't want people going down there at night. Who knows what they might do. And it's too hard for the cops to get down there. Because it's so dark, there aren't many people down there. The few I can see are little dark smudges. I can't make out their faces. I can't make out much about them. If I hadn't seen Jojo and Ardell and the rest of them go down there, I wouldn't know it was them. It's too hard to see.
I stand at the top of the stairs and watch them move across the park toward the trees and the bushes where no one will be able to see them. I can't be sure, but it looks like they are pushing Jojo over there. A couple
of times I see someone fall. I'm pretty sure it's Jojo. Then I see someone bend down and drag him up again. At least, that's the way I imagine it. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Jojo is being helped up, not dragged up. Maybe it isn't even Jojo who fell.
Then they all disappear behind the trees and bushes. I stand at the top of the stairs, waiting. I stand there for what seems like a long time. No one comes back. I tell myself that there are a lot of ways out of the park. They could all be home by now.
Finally I turn and make my way home too.
The next morning while I am at the hospital getting my cast looked at, the cops show up at Jojo's mother's house. They tell her that Jojo is dead. They say that he was hit on the head with a rock. I find this out from Megan Dalia's mother when I come back from the fracture clinic at the hospital. My mother is still at work.
“The police went up and down the street, asking people if they know who would have killed Jojo,” Megan's mother tells me.
When I ask her what people said, she says, “Near as I can tell, they all said the same thing. They said Jojo was no good. They said no one around here liked him and it's too bad they let him out so soon after what he did. But they said they don't know who killed him. They didn't see anything. No one saw anything.”
I want to ask her “What about you?” But something stops me.
That night, while I'm watering my mother's flowers for her while she does a double shift, Ardell's father walks across the street. He stands on the sidewalk watching me for a few minutes. Then he says, “Those are pretty flowers.”
“That's my mother's doing,” I say. “Not mine. I don't know the first thing about flowers.”
He smiles at me and nods. A few moments later, he says, “I saw you walk down the street last night after Jojo.”
I look at him.
“I'm glad Ardell was home all night last night with me and his mother,” he says. “I'm
glad all his friends were home safe too. So is everyone around here. Otherwise, the police might think that Ardell had something to do with what happened to Jojo, and that would be a shame, wouldn't it?
“Ardell's going to college this year. It's a miracle he got the grades he did, he was so broken up about what happened to Eden. It would be a shame if the police thought he had anything to do with Jojo. It would be a shame to see a good boy's life ruined over someone like that.”
He stands there a little longer, watching me. Then he goes back across the street.
I wait to see what happens.
Nothing does.
Ardell comes and goes at his mother's house, like usual. People nod at him and wave at himâthe same people who turned and went back onto their porches when Ardell and the rest of them followed Jojo down the street to the drugstore.
I think about that walk. I wonder if anyone up near the drugstore saw Ardell following Jojo. I wonder if any of them will
say anything to the police. Then I remember all those pictures of Jojo that Ardell showed around. I remember him talking to all those shopkeepers. If even one of them talks to the cops, maybe the cops will take another look at Ardell.
Still nothing happens.
One day a taxi arrives in front of Jojo's mother's house and Shana gets out. She is dressed in black. She goes up to the house and gets Jojo's mother. She's dressed in black too. They get into the taxi.
I think,
They're going to Jojo's funeral, and they're going alone
.
Later, Megan Dalia's mother tells me the police have been around again. She says they keep asking about Ardell, but everyone tells them the same thingâthey don't know anything. Besides, Megan's mother says, Ardell's parents say that Ardell was home all night that night.
I think about that. I think about what Ardell's father said to me. I think about all
the people on our street. I think about Eden Withrow and how he's dead because of Jojo. I think of Jojo and how he's dead now. I think about how everyone thinks that Ardell is a good person, even now. I think about the two years Jojo did for the life he ruined. Then I think about Ardell again, about what he did and what he knows and what he thinks he knows.
Two weeks after Jojo's funeral, Shana knocks on our door. My mother isn't home, so I answer.
Shana is standing on our porch with the baby in her arms. She tells me that she's going up and down the street talking to everyone. She says she lived on this street long enough to know that everyone sees everything and not the other way around. She tells me how sorry she is about Eden, but that Jojo had changed and that he even
drew comfort from his son. She tells me how heartbroken his mother is, as heartbroken as Eden's mother. She tells me taking a life for any reason is wrong. She says she is telling me what she has told everyone elseâif I know anything, I should tell. She says she hopes I will think about what she has said.
I think all night.
I think about this neighborhood and what it can do to people.
I think about
my
mother. I am all she has.
I think about her house. She has lived here since before I was born. This is
her
neighborhood. Everyone knows her. I think about what could happen, how people might treat her.
The next morning, I call the police and tell them what I know. And then I brace myself because I know that everything is about to change for me.
Norah McClintock is the author of a number of novels, including
Tell
,
Down, Bang
,
Snitch
,
Watch Me
and
Marked
. Norah lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Back
Norah McClintock
Bang
Norah McClintock
Battle of the Bands
K.L. Denman
Big Guy
Robin Stevenson
Blue Moon
Marilyn Halvorson
Breathless
Pam Withers
Bull Rider
Marilyn Halvorson
Bull's Eye
Sarah N. Harvey
Charmed
Carrie Mac
Chill
Colin Frizzell
Crush
Carrie Mac
The Darwin Expedition
Diane Tullson
Dead-End Job
Vicki Grant
Death Wind
William Bell
Down
Norah McClintock
Exit Point
Laura Langston
Exposure
Patricia Murdoch
Fastback Beach
Shirlee Smith Matheson
First Time
Meg Tilly
Grind
Eric Walters
The Hemingway Tradition
Kristin Butcher
Hit Squad
James Heneghan
Home Invasion
Monique Polak
House Party
Eric Walters
I.D.
Vicki Grant
Impact
James C. Dekker
Juice
Eric Walters
Kicked Out
Beth Goobie
Learning to Fly
Paul Yee
Lockdown
Diane Tullson
Middle Row
Sylvia Olsen
My Time as Caz Hazard
Tanya Lloyd Kyi
No More Pranks
Monique Polak
No Problem
Dayle Campbell Gaetz
One More Step
Sheree Fitch
Overdrive
Eric Walters
Pain & Wastings
Carrie Mac
Refuge Cove
Lesley Choyce
Responsible
Darlene Ryan
Riley Park
Diane Tullson
Running the Risk
Lesley Choyce
Saving Grace
Darlene Ryan
Scum
James C. Dekker
Snitch
Norah McClintock
Something Girl
Beth Goobie
Spiral
K.L. Denman
Sticks and Stones
Beth Goobie
Stuffed
Eric Walters
Tell
Norah McClintock
Thunderbowl
Lesley Choyce
Tough Trails
Irene Morck
The Trouble with Liberty
Kristin Butcher
Truth
Tanya Lloyd Kyi
Wave Warrior
Lesley Choyce
Who Owns Kelly Paddik?
Beth Goobie
Yellow Line
Sylvia Olsen
Zee's Way
Kristin Butcher
Bang
978-1-55143-654-8 ⢠$9.95 ⢠PB
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Down
978-1-55143-766-8 ⢠$9.95 ⢠PB
978-1-55143-768-2 ⢠$16.95 CDN ⢠$14.95 US ⢠LIB
Snitch
978-1-55143-484-1 ⢠$9.95 ⢠PB
