Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 (6 page)

“
Shouldn’t you get that?”
Teddy asked.

“
Nah, it’s just Charlie,”
Nash said. “He can’t remember anyone’s number but mine.”

“
Why does he remember
yours?” Teddy asked.

“
It’s the same number as
his drug dealer’s,” Nash shook his head at Charlie’s stupidity.
“Different area code.”

“
Charlie is never going to
be a ninja,” Teddy said.

“
You got that right,” Nash
said. “You done?”

Teddy nodded.

“
I have one more problem
set,” Nash said. The cell phone buzzed again. “Can you make it stop
buzzing?’

“
Sure.” Teddy picked up
the cell phone. Teddy pressed the button and a video started to
play. “What the hell?”

“
What is it?” Nash
asked.

“
It’s a video.” Teddy
leaned over to show Nash. “A nasty video.”

“
That’s Tink,” Nash
said.

“
Oh my God.” Teddy dropped
the phone on the table. “That’s horrible.”

“
We have to figure out
what to do.” Transfixed by the violence, Nash stared at the
phone.

“
Awful,” Teddy said. “Stop
watching.”

“
I have to figure out what
to do with it,” Nash said. “These guys don’t even care that their
faces are on camera.”

“
Awful.” Teddy put his
hands over his ears to block out the girl’s screams.

“
Why the hell aren’t you
doing your homework?” Teddy’s guardian Captain Andrew “Trece”
Rodriguez came into the room. A bodybuilder, the man took up all of
the empty space in the small room.

“
I finished, sir,” Teddy
said. He didn’t uncover his ears.

“
What is that?” Andy took
the phone out of Nash’s hand. Nash’s head dropped to the table.
“What are you watching?”

“
It’s not ours,” Teddy
said. “I swear. It’s not ours.”

“
Where did you get this?”
Andy asked. “Do you know what they’re doing to this poor
girl?”

Nash got up from his seat and ran to the
bathroom. He threw up. For good measure, he threw up again. He
stuck his entire head under sink’s cold-water tap to wash the
images from his brain.

“
Where the hell did you
get this?” Andy filled the door to the bathroom.

“
Someone sent it to me,”
Nash said.

“
Did you ask them to send
it to you?” Andy asked.

“
No,” Nash
said.

“
How did it get on your
phone?”

“
Someone sent it to me,”
Nash repeated.

Andy gave Nash a horrifying look. Nash’s
entire body shook. He turned around and threw up.

“
Why would someone
send
this
to
you
?”
Andy asked.

“
I don’t know,” Nash said.
“I don’t know. You have to believe me. I don’t have any idea. I
like Tink. I think she’s pretty, and she’s my brother Charlie’s
girlfriend, and Sissy’s best friend, and . . . I
would never . . . I have a sister!”

“
Oh my God! Noelle!” Teddy
pushed Andy aside to throw up in the sink.

“
What happened?” Colin
Hargreaves asked Andy.

While Teddy was throwing up, Colin and Andy
had a quiet grown-up talk. Colin came into the small bathroom. He
hugged Nash and Teddy. With his face mashed against Colin’s
stomach, Nash started to cry. Nash’s tears brought Teddy’s tears.
The boys cried for a while. When they stopped, Colin let them go.
Teddy hugged Nash.

“
You will never speak to
anyone about what you saw on that video,” Colin said.

“
Unless it’s the police,”
Andy said from the doorway. “I mean, you can talk to us about it,
of course, but . . . Ah shit, you know what I
mean.”

“
He’s trying to say that
we’re here for you,” Colin said. “For anything, any time. We’re
happy to talk to you about this.”

Nash and Teddy nodded.

“
What are we going to do?”
Nash asked.

“
It’s done,” Andy
said.

“
You two are going to
practice,” Colin said.

“
What about my phone?”
Nash asked.

“
We have to keep your
phone for a while,” Colin said. “You won’t need it in
class.”

“
But . . .”
Nash started.

“
I will personally replace
your phone if anything happens to it,” Colin said. “Do you get a
lot of calls?”

Nash shook his head.

“
Then you won’t miss it,”
Colin said.

“
But
Sandy . . .”

“
I’ll speak with your mom
while you train,” Andy said. “You’ll have a phone by the end of
practice. It probably won’t be as cool as this, but it will be a
ninja phone.”

“
A ninja phone!” Nash
stood up a little straighter.

“
Do I get one too?” Teddy
asked.

“
Of course.” Andy grinned.
“Go train.”

There was a noise upstairs.

“
The girls are here,”
Colin said. “You are not to say a word to them. Got it?”

Nash and Teddy nodded in unison.

“
Great!” Colin smiled.
“Let’s get to work. Jake’s coming to teach you some jujitsu
techniques. I think you’ll get a lot out of them.”

Teddy went down the hallway. Nash watched
Mr. Colin and Andy share information in a long look. Not wanting to
know, Nash jogged to catch up with Teddy.

“
Teddy!” Noelle said. “Are
you feeling all right? You look a little sick.”

Teddy hugged Noelle tight. Feeling a little
lost, Nash stood next to them.

“
Nash?” Jacob touched
Nash’s shoulder. Nash threw himself at the man. Jacob held him
tight.

“
You did exactly the right
thing, Nash,” Jacob said in a low tone. “You have to be strong now.
Charlie too. But real ninjas work to make everything
right.”

Nash had to bite his lip to keep from crying
again.

“
Let’s get started,” Colin
said. “Girls over here and . . .

Jacob patted Nash’s back and went to the
front of the room. Nash waited for Teddy and they went to the boys’
side of the room. He saw the adults talk in low voices. Mr. Jacob
took over the class and Colin left the room. When Colin came back,
he gave Nash a nod.

Mr. Colin had taken care of it.

Nash was terrified.

~~~~~~~~

Monday afternoon—4:52 p.m.

Charlie knew something was going on.

He just didn’t know what.

About an hour into practice, a uniformed
police officer came into the gym. He tried to look natural, but
Charlie could tell that he was the watching practice. The coach
went over to talk to the officer. When the Coach looked up, he
ordered the hardest set of workouts Charlie had ever done.

They ran suicides back and forth between the
lines, touching every line on the court. After that, they had to
bounce the ball against the walls for two full minutes and then run
the lines again. They kept at the brutal drills until Coach changed
it up and they were doing push-ups and burpees and all kinds of
other body weight exercises. The other boys groaned and moaned, but
Charlie focused on the workout and the growing number of police
officers. He pumped his urge to run from the cops into the drills
and churned out exercises twice as fast as the other boys on the
team.

Two more officers came in when the team had
finished running suicides. A couple more were standing in the
hallway talking to the principal. Charlie felt a tingle up the back
of his neck. Whatever was going down was not going to be nice.

He was halfway through his last set of
burpees when Aden came into the gym and did something weird. He
came over to where Charlie was working out. He didn’t say anything
to Charlie. He just leaned against the wall.

Coach blew his whistle to call practice.
Instead of getting everyone together, he walked out of the gym. The
other boys noticed the police officers for the first time. Charlie
walked to where Aden was standing.

“
What’s going on?” Charlie
asked under his breath.

“
They’re here for you,
son,” Aden said.

“
Me?” Charlie could not
have been more surprised. “What did I do?”

He looked up to see the uniformed police
officers coming toward him.

“
I don’t know,” Aden said.
“They’re being very quiet about what they want. They’re going to
take you downtown.”

Aden hugged Charlie.

“
I love you, Charlie,”
Aden said. “Go with them. Tell them everything you know. I’ll be
waiting for you in the waiting area.”

“
But . . .”
Charlie said.

A man put his hand on Charlie’s shoulder.
Charlie looked up into the face of one of Uncle Seth’s good
friends.

“
Can you put your hands
behind your back?” the man asked. He acted like he’d never seen
Charlie before. “I don’t want any trouble.”

Charlie looked at Aden.

“
Just go with it,” Aden
nodded.

Charlie saw something in Aden’s face. Aden
was angry, really angry.

“
What . . .?” Charlie started.

Uncle Seth’s friend jerked Charlie’s hands
back. While his basketball team gawked, the uniformed police
officers closed in. The officers made a big show of cuffing
Charlie.

His basketball team captain said something
snide under his breath and his buddies laughed. Aden shot the boy a
dark look.

Two officers grabbed Charlie’s upper arm,
which caused him to bend over. Someone threw a towel over his head.
He felt himself being marched out of the gym.

He felt more than knew that they were
outside. He heard the click and whir of cameras. Reporters were
shouting at the police. Charlie could only see the pavement. The
policemen put him in the back of a police cruiser. With the siren
blazing, the car sped off.

Charlie counted the streets. They turned
onto Colfax and raced toward downtown. The cruiser made a sharp
turn on Broadway and a quick right down Thirteenth. They were going
to the downtown station.

Charlie’s mind raced. He tried to figure out
what he had done.

He’d gotten up early, made breakfast for the
kids, and helped Sandy with Rachel. He was trying to be extra good
because Aden told him he could take Tink to the movies or dinner or
something fun next Friday. He was trying to repay Aden’s gesture,
and make sure the privilege wasn’t taken away, by doing what he was
supposed to do.

He really wanted to go out with Tink.

He’d done every school assignment. He’d made
sure everything was up to date before he went to school. He’d hoped
for more than a couple kisses from Tink, but the kisses were
nice.

The cruiser pulled into the parking lot and
Charlie remembered that Uncle Seth didn’t work for the Denver
Police anymore.

Charlie’s heart sank. A sense of doom came
over him.

The cruiser jerked to a stop. He felt the
door open.

“
Get out,” the driver
said.

Charlie felt the door open. He got out of
the back of the car. Two uniformed police officers appeared at his
side and escorted him into the station.

Chapter Two Hundred and
Twenty-Five
Get out of here

Monday night—6:52 p.m.

Charlie felt like he’d been alone in this
room forever. Every once in a while, he thought he could hear
whispers and felt like someone was watching him. But he couldn’t
figure out where they were. He wasn’t in one of those rooms with a
mirrored glass wall like they show on T.V. He was just in a small
room. By himself. All alone.

He’d just remembered that Yvonne and Rodney
were stuck in this station. He knew the whole thing was a set up to
catch some bad guys. He even knew that all the police involved were
just acting. Still, he couldn’t get over the feeling that he’d
never leave this room alive.

The hair stood up on his neck and he had the
same creepy feeling that someone was looking at him. He got up,
looked around the room again, and sat on the table. He put his feet
on a chair. He decided he could last another half hour before he
had to pee. He wondered if it was better to pee in the corner, or
bang on the door and beg for help.

He was trying not to think about peeing when
he heard a noise outside the door. The door moved and he jumped to
his feet. A small person ran into the room and threw her arms
around him. He looked down and saw filthy blonde hair. His nose
picked up the distinct odor of alcohol, cigarettes, grease, and
street filth.

“
Ivy?” Charlie
asked.

“
Pan.” The girl’s voice
came from his chest.

Charlie looked up to see a stocky
policewoman standing next to the door with her hand on her weapon.
With his eyes on the policewoman, Charlie pushed the girl off
him.

“
Ivy.” Charlie had to bend
over to see her face. Her eyes were squeezed closed.
“Ivy.”

He gave her a little shake and she opened
her eyes.

“
You have to get out of
here,” Charlie said. “I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s not
good. This lady will take you away from here
and . . .”

“
Oh Pan, I miss Jeffy so
much.” Ivy started to cry.