“Can I help you?” The school secretary didn’t even lift her head from the scraped knee she was tending to, but knew someone had entered the room. They had to be psychic or something.
“Uh, yeah. I’m here for Benjamin Casey.”
The boy on the chair with the banged up knee let out a howl and a snort. “Benjamin!? Benjamin!? Oh God…he’ll love that.”
“Sorry.” Names were obviously not Nick’s forte at the moment. “Ben Casey. I haven’t met him yet.”
“Rod, you’re being rude. I take it you’re…” standing and wiping her hands on her skirt, the secretary finally made eye contact with the visitor. Eye contact made and ended. She knew him. Damn. Busying herself with the band-aid wrapper and lotion, she quickly went around to her desk to call Ben’s teacher. “Mrs. Burns? Send Ben down now, please.” Gathering up her last ounce of nerves at the presence of a celebrity, she plastered on a smile and turned back to him. “You’ll excuse Rod’s manners. Ben would have probably corrected you anyway...”
Turning to the boy, she scowled. “And you have wasted enough time in here now, Mr. Corbett. Back to class. Almost time for school to be out anyway.”
Hopping down from his chair, Rod looked the tall blonde over, giving a definite show of disapproval. Nick just stared back at him wondering what could be up this kid’s ass so early in life. Snorting before disappearing into the hall, he left Nick with one final comment. “Ben’s gonna eat you alive, pretty boy. Eat you completely alive.”
Nick looked to the secretary for some indication as to what he exactly meant and was only greeted with a shrug and hands lifted in submission. “You’re on your own, Nick.”
“Great. Thanks. Who is this kid anyway?”
“So, where’s my mentor?” Said with similar venom Nick had used in saying Solana’s name only the day before, the young boy strode into the office like he owned it. He’d been in it often enough, he probably should have a desk there in his honor or something.
Turning to the voice, Nick’s breath caught in his throat, as did the voice’s owner’s, as did the secretary’s. Standing in the doorway was a short, young, and very dirty duplicate of Nick. His hair looked like it hadn’t been washed in weeks. Neither did his clothes, face or hands. His blue eyes were dull and his skin pallid. He was only twelve but looked like he’d had at least 50 years of life hardening the edges of his face.
Shaking out of the initial shock of their similarities and Ben’s uncleanliness, Nick finally stuck out his hand to the boy. “I guess that’s me. Nick. Nice to meet you, Ben.”
Looking at the older man’s hand as though it had a plague, he sneered, “Only my friends call me Ben. You ain’t my friend.”
Pulling back and looking to the secretary for some support he stammered, “Oh, okay. What do you want me to call you?”
“After today? Hopefully never again. Where we goin’ Mr. Mentor?”
Okay, so maybe this wasn’t going to be so easy. Making his way to the door and turning to make sure his charge was following, Nick took his first of many stands to the boy. “We’re goin’ wherever I take you. My truck’s out front.”
*****~~~~~~******~~~~~~“McDonald’s is the best you can do?”
“Yep. Get out.” Nick found his baseball cap, slid it backwards on his head, and got out of the car. Seeing a look of complete disgust on Ben’s face he returned a mirroring glare. “What!?”
“You look like an ass like that.”
“That’s what I was goin’ for.”
Despite himself, Ben had to smile. Almost. He never really allowed himself to do that too much. Nothing was worth it. “So, why McDonald’s?”
“I dunno. Everyone likes their food, I’m craving it and I thought we could talk…get to know each other.”
“You gonna push me into the ball pit, too Daddy?”
“Go wash your face before we order. You’re a mess.”
Oh, this was going to be a fuckin’ riot. A year with this slimy smart ass? Dear God, maybe he would stop drinking altogether if this was going to be the result of a night of excess.
Ben finally came out of the bathroom, having taken way too long for a clean up and frankly not looking like he’d washed a damned thing. And he now smelled of smoke. Deciding to ignore it this time, Nick shook his head at the impudence on Ben’s face and got in line. “You’re not gonna make this easy on either of us, are you?”
“Who said this was supposed to be easy? You’re the one who volunteered to be here, not me.”
“You have no idea…what do you want?”
“Two Big Macs, three fries, two chocolate shakes and uh…coupla boxes of cookies. I’ll get us a table.”
“Wha-!?” He was gone before Nick could breathe to make sure he wasn’t kidding. How could a kid that little eat that much? “Dammit.” Making sure he was within eye-shot, Nick placed their order and met Ben at the table.
“Wow, I’m impressed. You got it right.”
“You’re gonna eat all of this?”
“Yep. You’re a big boy…you must eat a lot.”
“Not that much. Damn.” Looking up and remembering he was supposed to be a positive role model for this urchin, he grimaced. “Sorry.”
Stuffing half of the first sandwich into his mouth, Ben mumbled around it. “For what?”
“Language…no biggie.”
“Oh please. Fuck it.”
Nick had nothing else. He wanted to ask this kid all sorts of questions, but suddenly he was rendered speechless. He knew he was going to be outsmarted at every turn. He already had his phone call to Solana planned out in his head. This was not going to work.
“So, pretty boy…you look familiar to me.” He was already done with one sandwich and one box of fries. Had this kid eaten in the last week?
“Oh yeah? I get that a lot.”
“I mean, you look like me, which is just damned scary. Mom’s such a whore you’re probably some long lost brother or something.”
“Jesus! That’s your mom, man! And no, I know my parents. We’re not related. Believe me.”
“Wouldn’t that just be the shit? Me and pretty boy are actually brothers.”
“Mmm…a riot.” Never had a Big Mac left such a foul taste in his mouth.
Tossing his second sandwich down on the table, Ben leaned in, finally remembering where he’d seen this man before. “Holy shit…”
“What? And could you tone down YOUR language? God, you’re only twelve!”
“So what!? And I know who you are now.”
Shit. “You think, huh?”
“You’re that loud mouth drunk they drug into the police station last month. ‘Do you know who I AM!?’ You were very entertaining.”
“What!? No, that…wouldn’t…you were…” He wasn’t covering well at all.
“Yeah, they just brought me and my buddies in for breakin’ into the school. Maybe you’re not so bad after all. You’re a shit just like me.”
“Nice. I feel redeemed.”
“Wait…is this why you’re doin’ this? Am I some kind of community service to buy off your damned jail time?”
Nick shoved a handful of fries into his mouth and never looked up. He wasn’t supposed to tell him. Now what was he going to do?
“Of course you are. Why am I not surprised?”
Still unable to look up or speak, Nick grabbed his pop and took a long slurp. Now that his intentions were clear, he felt a need to give this kid a chance. Didn’t seem like anyone else had.
Sitting back and finishing off his second sandwich, Ben let out a loud belch. “Take me home. This is stupid.”
“Why? Just because I’m here on court order doesn’t mean we can’t give this a try.”
Now that was new. Why did this guy even want to try? No one did. Not for him. Especially not after they’d spent more than 5 minutes in his presence. He made sure of it. Why wasn’t this rich kid running?
“Why do you want to bother? You can get someone else at the center.”
“Because they assigned me to you. Someone thinks we might learn something from each other. Maybe we oughta give it a chance and figure out what that is.”
“You can’t teach me anything.”
“Well, lookin’ at you, I could say the same thing.”
Ben’s tough exterior finally cracked. He looked down, and grabbed his pop off the table, taking a long swallow. “Look, I don’t know who the hell you are. I don’t really care. All I know is it seems no one wants to have anything to do with me unless they can get something from me. And I’m tired of it.”
Feeling used? Oh yeah, Nick knew that feeling all too well. They’d found their common ground. Ben just didn’t know it yet.
Gently sliding his foot under the table and knocking it into the young boy’s, the two sets of blue eyes finally met. Really met. “Then I think,” Nick took a deep breath hoping this would emphasize his point, “Ben…” Smiling when the boy didn’t correct him, “that we just found a good place to start.”
