The guy had an overbearing and innocent aura to him. He seemed like
a child who’d cause pain. Perhaps that was why Everett was uncomfortable.
He didn’t like being presented with a mirror. This weird and dangerous
innocence seemed like a facade. He shuffled on the patch of grass that led
up to the RV and blinked at him, offering a half-smile for appreciation of his
mop of red hair. “That’s my dad in there,” he said, a half-warning, as if his
father could actually do anything of malice or action.
He looked down at his knee. The flesh was open and reddened, and had just
begun to clot over. He’d fallen from the tall branch of an old scarred oak and
was staring up from the sidewalk at the branches swaying heavily with
Spanish moss. The evening was a dark blue, sinking into nighttime in the
late summer.
In the country shade his blood looked black. That was in Alabama. Here, in
Seattle, there were miles of building, uninterrupted by trees. He missed it.
“Oh, yeah,” he said, scratching at the skin there. “I skinned it when I fell out
of a tree. I was trying to follow this bird to a higher branch but I lost my… uh,
my footing?” He thought that was the right word.
The sky rumbled a belly-growl in warning of the oncoming storm. He could
smell it. It smelled like wet ash and flat stones thrown into a lake. He looked
up at the layers of smoggy grey clouds filtering over themselves and then
looked at the young doctor. Fuck it. What did he have to lose?
“Sure, you can clean it up. But we gotta go to your apartment first. It’s gonna
start raining, and my RV’s a mess.”
Robin grabbed his messenger bag that was full to the brim with books,
pens and his box of medical supplies. Mostly bandages, plasters, sterile
wipes, safety pins, latex gloves and various other dressings. It wasn’t
mandatory to carry a first aid kit around, in fact, Robin could be the only
student that does. He liked to be prepared. He liked to help. He felt as if
he needed to help.
With a slight nod of the nod, Robin glanced up at the grey, grumbling sky
that was slowly beginning to spit. His nose crunched up like a toddler who’s
just tired a lemon slice for the first time. With his sleeve, he wiped the fat
rain drop from his nose and smiled over at the boy.
“You want to tell father where you are going before we leave, no?” He didn’t
just want to whisk the boy away without his parent knowing nothing about it.
Isn’t that every parent’s worst nightmare? Looking away for two seconds and
when your attention finally returns to your kid after staring at the young girl
with the booty shorts on, he’s skipping into the sunset on the arm of some
stranger that claims to be a Doctor? Sounds pretty terrifying, right?
“I no live too far from here. My car is parked around corner.” Robin pointed
towards the car park across the soon-to-be wet, slippery grass.
Robin pulled the hood of his jacket of his head, and his sleeves over his hands.
The grey sky wasn’t just spitting, but starting to blow. The trees were slowly
beginning to shake in the distance. “Here,” Robin untangled his navy scarf from
around his neck and handed over to the boy, “Keep warm. You no want a cold
on top of infection, eh?”
Robin could be a little over baring at times, but it was all in good nature...
or was it something a little more sinister?
