I watched the two younger kids, and a feeling settled over me as I did. The closest thing I can compare it to was how you feel when you see an animal that’s been injured. You feel a little sick, a little sad, and a lot like you want to help but realize there’s not anything you can do.
Chad had asked me if I still wanted to tell the mall cops about the kid stealing. He was looking at me, so I just shook my head.
I watched a little longer. Chad started squirming on the seat next to me. I looked at him, at the pain I could see in his eyes, and he said softly, “We have to do something.”
“What can we do?”
“I don’t know. But something. Come on.”
He stood up and walked to the table where the two kids were sitting. Reluctantly, a little squeamishly, I followed.
Chad stopped next to the older boy. “Hey. I’m Chad, and this is Marc. Can we sit down and talk to you guys?” Then he smiled. When Chad smiles at me, I always feel like I’m melting. I didn’t think anyone could resist that smile. It made him look so friendly and like with him smiling there could never be anything wrong any more, ever.
The kid looked a little worried, or maybe it was scared. We were both older and bigger than he was. The younger kid was just looking for anything in the boxes that he hadn’t eaten and other than glancing at us, paid us no attention at all.
“We’re not going to give you any trouble. We just want to talk,” Chad said, trying to be persuasive, or reassuring, or both.
“Okay.” The boy’s voice was light and high, and the word was spoken like he wasn’t sure he meant it. His eyes were shooting back and forth between us, and I smiled too, trying not to look threatening.
Chad sat down, so I did too. He said, “Can you tell me what your names are?”
Hesitating for a moment, the older boy said, “I’m Benjamin. This is my brother Todd.”
“Do people call you Ben?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Well, I don’t know how to say this, so I’ll just go ahead. But don’t worry, and listen till I’m done, all right?” He smiled again, trying to put Ben at ease, I guessed.
“All right.” He sounded very defensive to me.
Chad began. “Marc and I were in Mason’s. We saw you taking the CD’s. Then we saw you sell them to that guy outside Macy’s, and come here and buy food for you and your brother. He looked really hungry. I saw you give some of your food to him. We think you two are in trouble. We want to help, if we can. We’re just kids, too. But if we can help, we will.”
He stopped then. Ben had looked scared as soon as he heard we’d seen him in Mason’s. Now, he was looking at the table and I couldn’t see his eyes at all.
Todd saw this, saw his brother looking uncomfortable, and jumped out of his chair and ran to Ben and put his arms around him. “Don’t be sad, Ben,” he said.
Ben looked up at him. “I’m okay, Toddy.” Then his eyes found Chad. “I had to get food for Todd. I’m bigger than he is and I’m okay, but he needs to eat.”
“Can you tell us about yourselves?” Chad was being his most sympathetic and persuasive.
I saw Ben glance around. I thought he had haunted look, if that’s the right term. He looked like he’d like to have been anywhere but here, but knew he couldn’t run. He took a breath, then, and just started talking, like it wasn’t what he wanted to do but didn’t have any other choice.
“We live in that trailer park about a block from here. Just us and our mom. She got a new boyfriend about a month ago. He doesn’t like us very much. He’s been talking bad about us to her. We’ve tried doing everything he wants, but he still gets mad at us all the time, and she’s been starting to do the same thing.
“Well, yesterday I came home from school and found Todd sitting on the step outside the trailer. He said no one was there, and the place was locked. I knew where a key was hidden and got it and unlocked the door. No one was there, and all our stuff was gone, too. Everything, even Todd and my clothes. There was almost no food, just some spilled stuff.
“We stayed there last night. Anything that could be eaten, I gave to Todd. This morning we were very hungry. I didn’t know what to do. If we’d gone to the cops, I know what would happen. They call whoever it is that takes care of children, and they’d have got us, and they’d have put Todd somewhere where they take small children and put me somewhere else. So I couldn’t do that.”
He stopped then. Todd was looking at him, his eyes really large and worried. I think it was because of Ben’s tone of voice. Ben looked down again, then started talking again, looking at the table this time.
“I didn’t have any money. But Todd said his stomach hurt, and he was hungry, so we had to get something for him to eat. I knew there was food at the mall. I also knew that there’d be kids here, and that they had money. So, we came here. I told Todd to wait for me on a bench near the food court. I didn’t want him too close because I thought the smell of the food when he was so hungry might be too much for him. But I found a place for him, sat him there and told him to wait. Then I went to Mason’s.”
He seemed to be reluctant to continue, but Chad urged him to do so, and Chad has a way with people, not just me.
“I waited till I saw an older kid come in by himself. He looked through the CDs, then pulled out his wallet and looked in it, looked at the CDs, and put them back. I waited till he left, then went up to him and told him I’d get his CDs for him if he’d pay me $15 for them. He looked a little surprised, but agreed.
“I knew I could get the CDs. I’ve never shoplifted before, but I have some friends that have. Living in a trailer park, you meet kids who steal things. They’d told me how they did it, and I’d even watched them once. The problem was the things on the CD cases that makes an alarm ring when you leave the store.
“There’s a device at the counter they use to remove those things. I just went into the store, and when the clerk went to help someone else, I grabbed one of the devices they had at the cash register. Then I found the CDs the kid wanted. I guess you saw the rest.”
“Weren’t you scared?” I was curious. I’d never met someone who’d stolen something before.
Ben sort of smiled at me. “Some. I was more worried about getting Todd something to eat. He only had a few stale crackers and some water for dinner last night and nothing this morning.”
“So you don’t know where your mother went, or if she’s coming back?” Chad was good at getting to the point.
“I don’t know.” He looked up briefly, meeting Chad’s eyes, and I could see his emotions in them before he looked down again.
“So what are you going to do?”
He hesitated before answering. “I haven’t thought that far ahead. I don’t know. Get food here, however I can. Sleep in the trailer. Wait for her, I guess.”
Chad looked over at me. I couldn’t help him. I didn’t know what to do any more than Ben did.
Chad didn’t say anything for a moment, looking out over the food court. Then he turned back to Ben.
“Are you sure the welfare agency or whatever it is would split the two of you up?”
“No, but I’m not going to take that chance.” There was some defiance in Ben’s voice, and his eyes flashed at Chad. He’d seemed very small before this, sort of defenseless. Answering this question, his whole manner seemed more, what? Assertive, I guessed. Definite.
Chad wasn’t going to be distracted, however.
“Do you have any relatives you like?”
“I don’t know who my father was, so don’t have any grandparents on that side. She said Todd had a different father, but we don’t know him, either. Her parents, she’s always talking bad about them, about how they threw her out when she was 16. I don’t even know them, just that they’re supposed to be mean.
“She does have a sister, though. Our aunt. I met her once about a year ago. She seemed nice. She got in an argument with mom, though, something about us, and I haven’t seen her since. But the time I met her, she was okay. I liked her.”
“I did too.” I glanced up and found Todd looking at Ben and nodding. I hadn’t even realized he’d been listening to us.
“Does she live around here?” Chad was pressing forward.
“No, she lives in another town. I think it’s about an hour away.”
“Do you know her name?”
“Of course. Susan Chalmers.”
“Do you think you could stay with her? That she’d have room for you?”
For the first time, I saw some light in Ben’s eyes. He hadn’t thought ahead, and now was doing so. I think that light I saw was hope.
“I don’t know. I only met her once, when she came here. But we went to the park and she pushed Todd on the swings and bought us ice cream cones and she was fun and nice. She didn’t talk to me like I was a little kid, either. We spent a couple of hours, just the three of us. I liked her.”
Chad asked him what town she lived in, and he told him. Then he asked Todd if he’d like an ice cream cone.
“Yeah! Can we?” he asked Ben. I could see, right then, how he depended on his brother.
Ben looked at Chad. “I can’t afford it, and you don’t have to do that.”
“I’m not going to,” he replied. Then he pointed at me. “He is. Wait here. What flavor does Todd want, and what do you want?”
He got their orders, Todd looking hopeful, Ben looking confused. We started towards the Baskin-Robbins window, but stopped halfway there.
“You get the ice cream, I’m going to make a phone call. You got money, don’t you?”
“Enough for ice cream. You’re going to try to phone that aunt, aren’t you?” I was grinning.
“Hope she’s home,” was all he said, and headed out of the food court to where it would be quieter.
Todd was almost done with his cone and Ben and I were about half done with ours when Chad came back.
“Hey, where’s mine?”
“Todd ate it,” I said.
“Did not!” the boy said. Ben and I laughed.
I looked up at Chad, asking a question with my eyes. He sat down and turned to Ben.
“I just called your aunt. She’s driving here right now. She said it should take her about an hour. And, she says she has room for you, and will keep you until your mother comes, and even if she never does. She was crying. But when I asked her about that, she said it was a relief to know you guys were going to be okay now. She said for me to tell you that she loves you.”
I was watching Ben. When he heard all that, I could see his face changing emotions. When Chad had finished, his eyes were moist. He looked at Todd.
“We’re going to have someone to stay with, Toddy. Aunt Susan is coming.”
“Yeah, I just heard that. Good. Maybe she’ll buy us lunch.”
I couldn’t help it. I broke out laughing, and the rest of them did too, then.
We stayed with them, just talking, sometimes not even doing that. It was a little over an hour when a tall, thin woman wearing jeans and a sweater and looking worried came into the food court.
“That’s her,” said Ben. All of a sudden, he seemed a little shy, more like a younger boy.
“I’ll get her,” Chad said, standing up. He walked over to her, spoke to her for a minute or two, then led her to the table.
A few minutes later, Chad and I were back in the mall itself, walking away from the food court, not going anywhere in particular, just walking. I saw a bench with no one sitting on it, and grabbed his arm. I dragged him to it, and we sat.
“How’d you know?” I asked him.
“Know what?”
“Know not to call the cops, know to follow him, know that he wasn’t just a shoplifter.”
I studied his face. He was always so open, and almost always smiling and happy, but I couldn’t ever really tell what he was thinking. He was looking serious now.
“I didn’t really know, but just looking at him, he didn’t look like someone who stole stuff all the time. He wasn’t casual enough. When he looked around, to me it was obvious what he was doing, checking to see if anyone was watching him. I don’t think someone used to stealing stuff would do it like that. And just the way he looked. I didn’t know, but wondered about him.”
“And when he sold the CDs, you still didn’t just think he was just a thief?”
“No, he did that wrong, too. He handed over the CDs before he got his money. The kid he sold them to was much bigger than he was. He could have just walked away. I think someone who did that all the time, stole CDs for older kids, would get the money first. Also, if he did this all the time, he wouldn’t trade the CDs for money out in the open like that. He’d have found a place that was more private.”
How come he’d noticed all those things and I hadn’t? I began to wonder about something. Before I got close to Chad, I didn’t have a very high opinion of myself about anything, except maybe being good at school. Not really all of school, either; that’s wrong. I wasn’t at all good about the social part of it, the dealing with the other kids part; that was always difficult for me. But the schoolwork part, I was great at that, and I’d always thought that meant I was pretty smart.
Somehow, I hadn’t thought about that much since I’d been with Chad. And I realized right then that
I’d never thought about Chad that way, I mean, whether he was smart, how smart he was. That was odd,
because it was one of the first things I noticed when I met other kids. I guess I’d just thought about him as
a really attractive boy, and the intelligent part of him I hadn’t noticed at all.
Was he smart? I knew he did okay at school. We did homework together and he usually got done just about when I did. He asked me once if I got all A’s and when I told him I did, he just nodded. I hadn’t asked him that because I hadn’t wanted to embarrass him.
He’d sure seen things today that I hadn’t. He’d figured out how to help a couple of kids who really needed the help, too, and I hadn’t had a clue how to do that.
Maybe he was a lot smarter than I thought. I decided I’d have to find out, sometime.
“Hey, it’s getting late. We’d better start walking home.” Chad stood up and looked down at me.
“Okay. Let’s go.” I got up and we headed for the doors. I thought of something to ask him before we got there.
“You know, that woman seemed nice, but maybe she isn’t. Maybe she won’t take care of them, or will abuse them. How do you know?”
“I don’t, but I did the best I could. I think this is better than turning them over to the cops. And Ben seems pretty resourceful to me. If things aren’t good with her, I think he’ll find some way to get out of it. But I think she’s all right.”
“Yeah, I do too,” I agreed. “I watched them when they left. You told her about the CDs, and I was wondering. When they left, she took them to Mason’s. She was going to pay for the CDs, I’m sure of it. I don’t know if it was because it was the right thing to do, or if it was to show the boys an example of being honest. Maybe it was both. I hope so.”
He was quiet then, for a moment, before he said something else. I wasn’t even sure he was responding to what I’d said.
“You know, Marc, you just asked a good question before. You asked how did I know. And I didn’t. I just thought I was doing the right thing. But we don’t always know. I’ve learned that not everything is simple, and that things aren’t always what they seem to be.”
When he said it, I was pretty sure he was talking about Susan Chalmers. Later, I started to wonder if he had been talking about something else.
I wasn’t thinking about that at all as we were walking home, though. I was thinking that I’d just seen, well, not another side of Chad, but something that reinforced what I already knew about him. He was kind and caring, while most kids our age, myself included, were more concerned with themselves than other kids.
When we got to where we had to split up, we said goodbye, and then, as he started to walk away, I reached out and grabbed him and hugged him.
“Hey, what’s that for?” he asked, grinning his grin at me.
“Because of what you did today and because I wanted to,” I said, grinning back. Then I turned and started running toward home.