Chapter 2

I stood over them, the coldness inside me a shield.

Junior looked up, his eyes dull, a smear of what looked like cheap chocolate on his lips.

Darlene turned, her face crinkling into that fake, sweet smile.

"Oh, hello there, dearie. Just watchin' your bag for ya."

Her voice was like honey mixed with dirt.

I didn't smile back.

"Get your hands off my bag."

Darlene's smile faltered.

"Now, now, no need to be rude. Junior here was just makin' sure it didn't fall."

Junior grunted, wiping his greasy hand on my bag again.

A flash of the other life, the helplessness, the pain, made my voice sharp.

"He's getting it dirty. And you're a thief."

I said it loud.

Several passengers turned their heads.

Darlene' s eyes narrowed. The sweetness vanished, replaced by something hard and mean.

"Why, you ungrateful little snippet! We was just bein' neighborly!"

I pulled out my phone, started recording.

"You're trying to steal from me. Just like you planned."

Her face twisted. "I ain't no thief! How dare you!" She played the victim, her voice rising in a whine.

"She's a liar! This young girl is confused!"

The bus driver, a heavy man with a tired face, lumbered down the aisle.

"What's the problem here?"

"This woman and her grandson were going through my bag," I said, my voice steady, phone still on Darlene. "She stole money from me."

A lie, not yet, but it would have been.

"I saw her take several hundred dollars."

Darlene gasped, clutching her chest. "Never! I got barely enough for our tickets!"

She fumbled in a worn purse and pulled out a few crumpled dollar bills, thrusting them at me. "See? This is all I got!"

A woman in the seat across, kind-faced, probably a mother, spoke up.

"Ma'am, maybe it's a misunderstanding. Young lady, here," she offered me a twenty dollar bill, "take this, just let it go. No need for all this upset."

Darlene' s eyes latched onto the twenty.

I looked at the kind woman, then at Darlene, fuming silently.

I took the twenty.

"Fine," I said. "I'm getting off at the next stop anyway."

I grabbed my backpack, pulling it away from Junior.

Darlene glared, hatred in her eyes.

I walked to the front of the bus, not looking back.

As the bus pulled into the next station, I heard a small yelp.

I glanced back.

Junior had "accidentally" spilled his bright red soda all over the kind woman's pants.

Darlene didn't even scold him. She just smirked.

I stepped off the bus into the grimy city air, heading straight for the train station.

One threat down, for now.