chapter 7

elliot awoke with a jolt,, still in the clothes he had worn to school yesterday.. he had evidently fallen asleep propped up on the pillow of his, still made bed.. the house was silent..

“thank god” he whispered to himself as he brushed his too long,, dark hair from his eyes.. it was saturday.. mother would be at work.. john must still be asleep.. essentially,, he was alone in the house.. ah,, blessed saturday..

as he sat on the edge of the bed in blissful silence,, he gently stroked the inch long cut on his left forearm.. it was red, and slightly raised.. it felt warm to the touch.. it was beautiful.. he admired it,, as one might admire a painting they had struggled long to create..

elliot drew his finger ever so gently, over the newly formed scab..  as he stroked it lovingly,, he couldn’t help but notice,, that something seemed different.. this morning he didn't feel like a little seven year old boy.. he no longer felt like the boy who all the kids at school called names like, "faggot" and "eraser dick"...  nor did he feel like the little boy who's mother never let him get an word in edgewise,, or who always reminded him that he had been a mistake,, a huge mistake,, a mistake that had forever changed her life... and not for the better..

some how he felt older,, more mature,, and he liked that feeling...

elliot knew if he was going to make his escape before john got up and started trying to lecture him about something he absolutely had not done the day before at school,, he had to make it now.. he pulled off his school clothes,, and jumped into his favorite khaki board shorts and a beastie boys tee shirt.. he slipped his feet into his forever too big, white canvas vans,, scooped up some loose change off his dresser,, and silently opened the door from his room into the hall way..

as he had done so many times before,, he slipped unnoticed past the open door to mothers room.. john snored laboriously in the bed just behind him,, while elliot slid open the top left drawer of mothers dresser.. there, just under the gnarled mass of g-strings and panty hose, he found the paisley coin purse that mother thought no one knew about, but her.. without making a sound,, he clicked open the clasp,, slipped a five dollar bill out of the coin purse and into his pocket.. he then replaced the coin purse,, and disappeared back into the hall.. 

once out the front door he didn’t care if the screen door slammed.. in fact he hoped it did.. “yes!!” he proclaimed aloud as he pumped his fist in satisfaction toward the sky and hurried past the mailbox and onto the sidewalk.. elliot was half way to the bus stop before he realized he was smiling..

he pulled seventy five cents out of the pocket of his khaki shorts,, and plopped himself down on the cement bench at the bus stop.. today he would take the 7.. he had never taken the 7 before.. the 7 would take him all the way to the west side,, and he had always been afraid to go that far alone.. but today was different.. today he felt as if he was afraid of nothing.. today the west side sounded like a warm wonderful place,, full of adventure.. 

as he boarded the bus, elliot felt very much like the brave pioneers that they were reading about in school.. he pictured himself on horse back,, traveling a dusty unknown trail to places not yet discovered.. places far, far away from here..

in his minds eye,, he remained seated upon his trusted steed,, riding toward a vast ridge of mountains that had yet to be crossed.. but here,, the mountains took the shape of buildings.. they loomed inviting and unknown,, just outside the windows of the bus..

elliot had been downtown many times with his mother,, but he had never been able to take in the broad landscape of the city like he was able to do today.. he was usually too preoccupied with shutting out yet another of mothers piercing tirades,, to even notice the brick and mortar mountains as they scraped the sky just ahead of him..

today, however, he was free to explore the cityscape as it reached out endlessly just ahead.. instead of the toxic banter he had learned long ago to hide from behind the pause- back- jump ticking of the kitchen clock,, he took comfort in the low drone of the bus as it attempted to drown out any number of one sided cell phone conversations..

he leaned his head against the sweat stained window of the bus and rode his own imagination well past the city,, and deep into the west side of town..

if it hadn’t been for the sudden scream of the baby in the seat right behind him,, elliot may have drifted even farther into himself, and never seen the dairy queen fast approaching on the right hand side..

anxiously,, he reached up and tugged on the bell cord.. he was up and halfway out the door before the bus even came to a complete stop..

as he approached the dairy queen,, he noticed it wasn’t opened yet.. he had forgotten his watch in his flurry to get up and out of the house before john awakened,, so he didn’t even know what time it was.. the sign in the window said the dairy queen opened at ten.. he turned around in a circle,, looking to see if he could find a clock so he would know how long he would have to wait till ten o’clock got here..

it was then that he spied him.. sitting alone at a table just outside of the dairy queen.. it was that red haired boy from miss mitchell’s class at school.. adam.. adam miller.. the boy who’s father was some kind of a famous cop..

everyone at school knew who adam miller was,, because everyone at school knew who adam miller’s father was.. he was the cop, that arrested the man, that had killed the little lost boy.. the same little boy who’s face still peered smiling out into the street from many a telephone pole. the same little boy who mother said,, had been found in the creek that separated the east side neighborhood in which elliot lived,, from the heart of city.. the same little boy who everyone at school said,, more than likely had  “had a dick shoved up his ass” before he died..

elliot’s white vans were seemingly pulling him along.. before he knew it he was half way across the patio and headed straight for the table at which the lonely, little red haired boy sat..

as he moved closer,, he allowed his finger to graze gently along the newly formed red badge of courage he wore so proudly on his left arm..  he sat down across the table from adam..

as if on cue,, adam looked up.. their eyes met.. there was something kind of warm in adams eyes.. something that made elliot feel as if he was welcome here..

“hey, “ elliot said  without hesitation.. “i know you.. you go to my school..”

“I’m elliot.”