and bile gurgled up my throat. Pressing a wrist to my lips, I backed away as the kids scrambled up the corner of the Dumpster. They exited on the other side and peered at me from behind the smelly metal box, like stray cats trapped in a corner, then bolted for the service alley, and disappeared. I walked back and forth, checking the alley and the parking lot, but wherever they’d gone, they weren’t coming back. Even so, I sat in my car watching for a few minutes longer.
The rows of apartments remained silent, providing no clues, but as I turned my car around, then sat waiting for a gap in traffic, I had a feeling someone was watching.
Chapter 4
Cass
The lady couldn’t see me, but I could see her. The Laundromat behind the convenience store had mirror tint on the windows, so if you didn’t know better, you’d think it was just an old closed-down store. I saw the lady chase those kids out of the Dumpster. She looked for them after they ran off, which was weird, I thought. Maybe she was from welfare, or Child Protective Services, or someplace. That Cadillac SUV didn’t look like social-worker wheels, but it could be. Maybe she was gonna pick up those kids and take them away. Their mama’d locked them out again, and they’d been banging on the door for, like, two hours, which was why I’d decided to go do the laundry, finally. Rusty’d stuck me sleeping on the sofa, so no matter how hard I tried to plug my ears, I could hear their noise the minute their mama shooed them out the door in the morning.
Before he left for work, Rusty didn’t even say he was sorry for giving my room to some girl and her kid. He just dropped a little change on the counter, which meant he forgot to cash his check last night, which also meant that sometime today the big sweaty guy from the office would come tell me we hadn’t paid the rent yet. He’d stand right in the doorway and give me a creepy look, like he thought I was gonna invite him in or something.
“Cass,” Rusty said after he put the change down, “go do some laundry today, okay? I’m outa work clothes. Here’s some money.” He kept his voice low, like we had the princess and the pea sleeping in the next room and we shouldn’t bother her.
“Did you cash your check?” I knew the answer. If he’d cashed the check, he wouldn’t be digging through his pockets for money.
“Nah, I’ll do it today.”
“Rus-teee. The rent was due yesterday.” A lump came up in my throat, and I told myself I wasn’t gonna cry, and I didn’t.
Rusty opened the lock and then let in the smell of morning air, and pavement, and the sound of cars passing by.
“Wait.” I sat up, and got tangled in something, and I knew that during the night Rusty’d come out and wrapped me in one of the sleeping bags we used when we were on the road. “Are you gonna get that girl out of my room?” Surely he wasn’t planning to, like, just go off to work and leave some girl and her kid in my room.
The hinges squealed, and the slice of light from outside got thinner. “Don’t worry about it, Sal. Just let her sleep.” His voice was soft, like he felt a little bad for leaving me with his mess in my bedroom. Whenever he called me Sal, I felt warm inside. When I was born, Rusty wanted my name to be Sally, after some girl he liked on a cartoon. My daddy wanted Cass, and he won out, but Mama gave me Sally for the middle name. Sometimes I liked Sally better. Sally sounded like someone sweet and perfect, who wore dresses with lace, and little white shoes, and lived in a house with a painted fence.
“I gotta go. I’m late.” Rusty was out the door before I could say anything else.
I tried to go back to sleep, but once the kids next door were outside, you might as well be trying to sleep next to the hyena cage in a zoo. I sat there wondering when that girl was gonna come out of my room. Finally I decided to just go do the darned laundry. I washed my face and put on makeup, gathered up my dirty
The rows of apartments remained silent, providing no clues, but as I turned my car around, then sat waiting for a gap in traffic, I had a feeling someone was watching.
Chapter 4
Cass
The lady couldn’t see me, but I could see her. The Laundromat behind the convenience store had mirror tint on the windows, so if you didn’t know better, you’d think it was just an old closed-down store. I saw the lady chase those kids out of the Dumpster. She looked for them after they ran off, which was weird, I thought. Maybe she was from welfare, or Child Protective Services, or someplace. That Cadillac SUV didn’t look like social-worker wheels, but it could be. Maybe she was gonna pick up those kids and take them away. Their mama’d locked them out again, and they’d been banging on the door for, like, two hours, which was why I’d decided to go do the laundry, finally. Rusty’d stuck me sleeping on the sofa, so no matter how hard I tried to plug my ears, I could hear their noise the minute their mama shooed them out the door in the morning.
Before he left for work, Rusty didn’t even say he was sorry for giving my room to some girl and her kid. He just dropped a little change on the counter, which meant he forgot to cash his check last night, which also meant that sometime today the big sweaty guy from the office would come tell me we hadn’t paid the rent yet. He’d stand right in the doorway and give me a creepy look, like he thought I was gonna invite him in or something.
“Cass,” Rusty said after he put the change down, “go do some laundry today, okay? I’m outa work clothes. Here’s some money.” He kept his voice low, like we had the princess and the pea sleeping in the next room and we shouldn’t bother her.
“Did you cash your check?” I knew the answer. If he’d cashed the check, he wouldn’t be digging through his pockets for money.
“Nah, I’ll do it today.”
“Rus-teee. The rent was due yesterday.” A lump came up in my throat, and I told myself I wasn’t gonna cry, and I didn’t.
Rusty opened the lock and then let in the smell of morning air, and pavement, and the sound of cars passing by.
“Wait.” I sat up, and got tangled in something, and I knew that during the night Rusty’d come out and wrapped me in one of the sleeping bags we used when we were on the road. “Are you gonna get that girl out of my room?” Surely he wasn’t planning to, like, just go off to work and leave some girl and her kid in my room.
The hinges squealed, and the slice of light from outside got thinner. “Don’t worry about it, Sal. Just let her sleep.” His voice was soft, like he felt a little bad for leaving me with his mess in my bedroom. Whenever he called me Sal, I felt warm inside. When I was born, Rusty wanted my name to be Sally, after some girl he liked on a cartoon. My daddy wanted Cass, and he won out, but Mama gave me Sally for the middle name. Sometimes I liked Sally better. Sally sounded like someone sweet and perfect, who wore dresses with lace, and little white shoes, and lived in a house with a painted fence.
“I gotta go. I’m late.” Rusty was out the door before I could say anything else.
I tried to go back to sleep, but once the kids next door were outside, you might as well be trying to sleep next to the hyena cage in a zoo. I sat there wondering when that girl was gonna come out of my room. Finally I decided to just go do the darned laundry. I washed my face and put on makeup, gathered up my dirty
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