Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 (21 page)

“
Okay,” Heather said.
“That’s okay. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.
Tink and Pan are going to help the Logans. They could use your
help.”

“
No.” Ivy screamed so loud
that she woke Maggie. The baby gave a screeching howl. Ivy looked
horrified and ran off down a passageway into the Castle.

Tink started after her.

“
Stay here,” Heather said
to Tink.

Heather looked at Sandy who encouraged her
to go. Heather ran after Ivy. They ran down a long passageway and
into an area of the Castle that Heather had never been in before.
She turned the corner to find Ivy sobbing into her knees at the end
of the corridor.

Heather started toward her. Before Heather
got to her, Katy sat down next to Ivy. Katy looked up at Heather
and smiled.

Katy put her hand on Ivy’s knee and Ivy
looked up at the little girl. Almost six years old, Katy and Ivy
seemed about the same age. The two girls looked at each other for a
moment.

“
Are you okay?” Katy
asked.

“
No. Do I look
okay?”

“
Not really,” Katy said.
“Did something bad happen?”

Ivy nodded. Katy’s head moved up and down in
empathy.

“
Right now?” Katy looked
at Heather.

“
No, before.” Ivy’s voice
echoed with fear and sadness.

“
Hmmm,” Katy said.
“Moooooooommmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyy!”

Heather scowled at Katy. The child shrugged.
Jill came around the corner.

“
Anna-Marie has an owie,”
Katy said.

“
How did you know my
name?” Ivy whispered.

Katy shrugged. Jill leaned down to Ivy.
Heather followed Jill’s lead.

“
Where does it hurt, Ivy?”
Jill asked.

Ivy put a hand to her heart.

“
Heather knows just the
thing,” Jill said.

“
I do?” Heather gawked at
Jill.

Jill scowled at Heather.

“
Mommy means that
Delphie’s making brownies,” Katy said.

“
Oh!” Like a light going
on, Heather brightened. “Owies of the heart are best fixed with
brownies.”

Ivy looked from Heather to Jill.

“
I don’ wanna go,” Ivy
said.

“
You don’t have to,”
Heather said. “You can stay here with Katy and Jill.”

“
I’ll go with you.” Nash
came around the kneeling adults to stand by Ivy. “My friend Teddy’s
meeting us there. We’re training to be Ninjas. Our teacher’s going
to be there too. We’ll keep you safe.”

Ivy looked at Nash and then at the
women.

“
You aren’t mad?” Ivy
asked.

“
About what?” Heather
smiled.

“
I
just . . . and yelled . . .
and . . . unacceptable.” Ivy gave a sincere
nod.

“
We’re like that all the
time,” Katy said.

“
Katy!” Jill held her arms
out, and Katy let her pick her up.

“
We are.” Katy gave a
conspiratorial nod.

“
You’re not unacceptable,”
Heather said.

“
Not to me,” Jill
said.

“
Or me!” Katy
said.

The women looked at Nash. He flushed bright
red and nodded.

“
Let’s have some brownies
to gather our strength,” Heather said.

She held out a hand and helped Ivy to her
feet. Heather hugged Ivy and they started back down the hallway.
Jill and Katy walked next to Ivy and Heather.

“
Have we met before?” Ivy
asked Katy.

“
No,” Katy
said.

“
You’re so familiar to
me,” Ivy said.

“
That’s just because you
know Naomi,” Katy said.

Jill stopped walking to let Ivy and Heather
pass by. Nash followed them into the main Castle living room.

“
Does she know Naomi?”
Jill whispered to Katy.

“
How do you think Anne
Marie got here?” Katy smiled at her mother.

Jill kissed her forehead. Katy squirmed and
Jill let her go. She leaned against the door to watch Katy. Her
daughter ran to talk to Ivy and Noelle. Sissy came over and the
girls laughed. In her years of living at the Castle, Katy had gone
from being a small, lonely girl to a well-loved, vibrant child.
Someday in the not too distant future, Katy would be Charlie and
Sissy’s age.

Jill felt a breath of cold air on her back.
She shivered and Katy turned to look at her. Katy smiled and Jill
left her corner to join the preparations for the trip downtown. All
the while, Jill couldn’t shake the feeling that something was
coming that would change everything for Katy and the girls at the
Castle.

After all that had happened, Jill knew they
would get through it. She only hoped it wouldn’t scar them
forever.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday evening—8:42 p.m.

A police officer waved for Mike to stop his
Bronco on the Market Street bridge over Cherry Creek and the Cherry
Creek trail. Sandy pulled up behind them with Ivy, Tink, Sissy,
Noelle, Nash, and Teddy. The Denver police had blocked off Market
Street and Fourteenth Avenue all the way to Little Raven. Their
forensics team waited for Charlie to lead them to the scene. The
darkest corners of the creek and urban trail were lit up by halogen
lights and the hum of generators filled the air.

Charlie got out of the passenger seat of
Mike’s Bronco and looked over the railing. These few blocks had
been home to Charlie and his friends. They would work the parking
lots of the Pepsi Center for change. If they had to, they sold sex
for money to buy drugs and food. They’d sleep under the railway
bridge behind the cement pylon or in the culvert under Market
Street. As long as the urbanites in the condos up above didn’t spot
them on their morning jog, Charlie and his friends weren’t
hassled.

Charlie wrapped his arms around himself.

“
You cold?” Mike
asked.

Charlie shook his head.

“
Come on.” Mike pointed to
where Tim and his parents were getting out of their sedan. “They’re
waiting for you.”

Charlie turned toward Fourteenth Avenue and
saw the mustached cop with the great hair talking to Sandy on the
corner. Sandy waved to Charlie. When he got near, she tucked her
arm into his elbow and held on. He looked down at her.

“
We’ll do this together,”
Sandy said, in a low tone.

Charlie let out the breath he hadn’t
realized he’d been holding. Sandy always knew when he was freaked
out or afraid. He realized for the first time how terrified he’d
been the entire time he’d lived down here. When he talked about it,
living on the streets sounded like one big adventure. He glanced at
Sandy again. Sandy really understood how awful it had been.

“
We’re on the wrong side,”
Charlie said, to the mustached cop.

“
I’d like it if you walked
us through how it all unfolded for you,” the mustached cop
said.

His voice was so reasonable. He gave Charlie
a big smile like he was Charlie’s friend. Charlie scowled. He and
Sandy walked ahead.

“
You know he’s a dick,”
Charlie said, under his breath.

“
I know,” Sandy said. “But
he’s better than that twerp Aziz. Now, he’s a real asshole. I could
tell you stories . . . At least this one makes some
effort.”

Charlie chuckled and Sandy smiled. They
caught up with Tim and his parents at the down ramp to the Cherry
Creek Trail from Fourteenth Avenue.

“
We’d just finished
working the Pepsi Center,” Charlie said. “There was some game
there—Avalanche, Nuggets . . .”

“
It was a concert,” Tink
said.

Surprised, Charlie turned to see Tink and
Ivy walking with Nash, Teddy and Noelle just behind him.

“
One of those bands you
hear in the grocery store,” Tink said. “Springsteen or the Who
or . . .”

“
Rolling Stones?” Tim’s
dad asked.

“
Yeah, that’s it,” Charlie
said. “How’d you know?”

“
We went to the concert,”
Tim’s Dad said. “Barbara was supposed to meet us here afterwards.
She dropped us off and took the car. Are you’re sure it was that
night?”

“
No,” Charlie looked at
Tink. She shrugged. “We just worked the parking lot. The concerts
were good because people get real drunk and high. They give us more
money. Sometimes, the guys get belligerent with the girls, you
know . . .”

“
They had their music, now
they want to get off,” Tink said.

“
We just try to get what
we need and get out,” Charlie said.

“
Was the concert over?”
Tim’s Dad asked.

“
I think so,” Tink said.
“Remember, we had enough money for pizza?”

“
Someone gave us their
tickets and we got a discount at that place next door,” Charlie
said. “We had enough for two extra pizzas. That’s food for two
days. We were pretty happy about that.”

Charlie’s words were matter of fact. But the
adults were startled that so little food would feed so many kids
for two days. Sandy squeezed Charlie’s arm.

“
We were coming down
here,” Charlie said. “Ivy had her skateboard.”

Ivy ran ahead to show them where she was.
Nash ran after her.

“
So we had to go down the
ramp,” Charlie said. “We usually don’t use this side because it’s
the bike side and people are assholes. There’s always some chunky
guy on a fancy bike swearing at anyone who gets in his
way.”

“
I know what you mean,”
Tim said.

Charlie nodded.

“
I was about here when I
saw something on the other side,” Charlie said. “The drainpipe over
there is a great place to sleep. It’s quiet and pretty safe. I was
checking it out because I wanted some place to put the pizza while
we slept. Some frat boy might take it, you know?”

“
I was behind you with the
other girls,” Tink said. “Like now. But Ivy was way up ahead. Pan
said we should go check out what was there because maybe it was
something good.”

Charlie nodded. When Tim’s Mom let out a
little sob, Charlie looked over at them. Tim’s Dad put his arm
around her and she cried into his shoulder.

“
Um . . .”
Charlie couldn’t take his eyes off Tim’s parents. Sandy squeezed
his arm, and he looked at her.

“
We went back to the top,”
Tink said. “Ivy wanted to go down to the crossing but Pan wouldn’t
let her.”

“
It’s not a great time of
the night,” Charlie said. “When the concerts out, the bars
fill . . . It’s just not great . . .
for any of us, but especially girls.”

“
We were always careful.”
Tink nodded. “There’s enough trouble without asking for
it.”

“
I knew he was right,” Ivy
said. “But I was grumpy about it.”

“
What else is new?” Tink
laughed. Ivy smirked and pretended to be grumpy for the
reenactment.

When Charlie started up the bridge, he saw
Colin Hargreaves at the top. Charlie could see his handgun in a
side holster and Colin’s Homeland Security badge on his belt. He
wasn’t sure why, but having his martial arts teacher there made him
feel a little better. Colin was taping the whole thing on a video
camera. When Charlie got to the top, he saw his lawyer’s boyfriend,
Art Rasmussen. The tall, muscular man nodded to Charlie like he was
doing a good job. Charlie blushed.

“
So we got to the top and
realized we couldn’t go down on the other side here,” Charlie said.
“We weren’t really thinking straight. Then somebody
said . . .”

“
Jeffy,” Ivy said. “It was
Jeffy.”

“
That’s right,” Charlie
said. “Jeffy was little. He kneeled down over there and said we
should go back because it was a person. We all ran
back.”

Charlie ran across the bridge and down the
path. He forded the river before Tink even got to it. Tim and his
parents reached Tink by the time Charlie was near the storm
drain.

“
It was about like that,”
Charlie said. “I’m fast so I got over here before anyone else.
Jeffy stayed up on the bridge.”

Charlie pointed to where Ivy and Noelle were
standing.

“
I stayed with Jeffy,” Ivy
said.

“
Can you wait for us?”
Tim’s father asked.

“
Sure,” Charlie
said.

Tim and his father helped Tim’s mother
across the stream. The mustached police officer reached him about
the time Tim got there.

“
I found her right here.”
Charlie pointed to a three foot wide sandy triangle just below the
large drainage pipe. He stepped from one large boulder to the next
until he jumped down into the sand. “She was crumpled up right
here.”

“
Did she say anything?”
Tim’s mother asked.

“
I don’t think she could,”
Charlie said. “I knew there was a blanket there so I grabbed it and
put it over her. I don’t know anything about medicine or whatever,
but the girls caught up with me. We checked to see if she was
really hurt.”

“
I put pressure on the
cuts on her belly,” Tink said.

“
I know you guys say that
I saved her or whatever,” Charlie said. “But mostly we didn’t know
what to do. She was pretty hurt.
Um . . .”