pablo did not know what to do.
suddenly he remembered the phone big chico had given him - given him for just such a situation! in his panic, he had forgotten all about it.
pablo reached into his pocket. his fingers found nothing.
he tried the other pocket. nothing there either. he started to panic.
the back pockets, even though he knew he never put anything in this back pockets.
no phone.
it must have fallen out of his pocket when he was sleeping in the back seat of the packard.
of course! much as he hated to do so, he turned around and headed back to the abandoned car.
somehow the sight of the car sitting in the dark road frightened him more than anything that had already happened.
he opened the back door of the packard. the overhead light went on, but it was not very strong.
the phone was not lying in plan sight on the back seat, or on the floor. he dug his hands behind the seat cushions.
nothing. he ran his hands behind the seat cushions again. still nothing.
could he drive the car, even with the front tires shot out? he had never actually driven a car before, although he felt he “knew how”.
the keys were not the ignition. pablo felt a brief sense of relief that they were not. chico could not blame him for not trying.
chico! what would chico think? he, pablo. had been given one simple task - to hold i to the phone, and he could not do it!
could he ever go back to the neighborhood? even if he somehow got back to the city?
and where was he anyway? and what if the three hundred pound quadruplets, or somebody like them, came back?
maybe he had dropped the phone when he got out of the car? he got out of the car again.
the phone was not right beside the car, in the dirt beside the door he had first gotten out of.
it was dark. trying to find the phone was hopeless.
should he keep looking for it, or give up and start walking?
while he was trying to make up his mind, wanting to run, but fearful of what big chico would think if he gave up looking for the phone, he saw a small light coming down the road toward him.
it was too small to be the light of a car or a truck.
it was a bicycle light.
the bicycle was ridden by a young girl, a girl just a few years older than pablo. she stopped, and asked pablo what he was doing.
pablo told his tale as best he could. the girl did not seem overly surprised at his story.
“those clowns,” she said, shaking her head. i don’t think they will really hurt your friend. probably just have a little of what they call fun with him. i doubt if they will actually hurt him.”
in his panic about the phone pablo had forgotten all about deano. he tried to explain about the phone again to the girl.
“you want to look for the phone?” the girl asked. “all right, i have a flashlight, we can take a quick look.” she produced a small flashlight, got off the bike and started looking around the ground, and under the car.
it had been snowing lightly the whole time, and now the snow started coming down a little harder.
“this is hopeless, “ the girl said. “even if it is around here, the snow will cover it. why don’t you come with me, you can try calling your friend from there.”
“but i don’t know his number, just the number three.”
“whatever, i think you better come with me.”
“you mean ride on the handlebars?”
“ha, ha. no, you are a little too big for that. i will just walk the bike, and you follow me. it is not that far.”
“all right.”
walking along beside the girl, pablo decided she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. she started talking about herself, though pablo did not understand half of what she said. her name was joanie, and she wanted to be a sociologist, whatever that was…
pablo never went back to the north side, or saw big chico or deano or any of the gang again. joanie gave him a few dollars and he caught a bus going east. and he never saw joanie again.
the young woman entering the coffee shop just as pablo got up to leave it looked familiar.
she looked like joanie! the girl who had saved him back in east st louis in the heartland on that snowy night...
older, of course. as she got closer to pablo, he saw she looked much older. still pretty, but like she had seen a few things.
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