Asylum

Chapter 4-3

As it turned out, Officer McBride wasn’t a total tool. He brought Gabriel back to his precinct station, removed the painful handcuffs, and told Gabriel to sit in the chair near his desk and not to move a muscle. A few minutes later, he returned with a Coke for Gabriel and a large brown paper bag. He sat down and pulled out a huge sub, bags of chips, and what looked like a Tupperware that contained a half dozen homemade chocolate chip cookies. McBride handed half of his sub and one of the bags of chips to Gabriel.

“Here, my wife always packs me too much. I think she’s trying to make me fat.”

“Uh…thanks,” Gabriel said, stunned at the sudden shift from “annoyed asshole” to “pretty cool guy.” He barely suppressed a moan as he bit into the savory turkey sandwich with stuffing and cranberry sauce. “Oh my God, this is the bomb.”

“Pro-tip, kid…never say ‘bomb’ in a police station,” Officer McBride chided him.

Gabriel could feel his cheeks heat up.

“Yeah, right, or an airport, or a train station. Sorry,” he mumbled, taking another big bite. He hadn’t had anything to eat since some cereal for breakfast, so he felt as if he were in heaven. He took a big swig of the ice-cold Coke, followed by a mouthful of chips. “Man, Justin is gonna be pissed he missed this.”

“That your twin brother?”

Gabriel nodded, taking another big bite of turkey goodness.

“Why were you guys out in the rain tonight?”

Gabriel just stared at the man, his chewing coming to a halt.

“I mean, it is Christmas Eve. Shouldn’t you be tucked in bed waiting for Santa or something?”

At Gabriel’s raised eyebrow, McBride laughed.

“Okay, I get it, you’re a little old for Santa. But still, you should be at home, not loitering around getting into trouble.”

At that, Gabriel felt a resurgence of his anger. Forgetting about the food, he leaned forward.

“First of all, we weren’t ‘getting into trouble.’ We were just trying to keep dry. Hypothermia is no joke. Water conducts heat away from the body twenty-five times faster than air. Conductive heat loss with wet clothes is five times greater than when dry. Secondly, not everyone has fairytale homes with pretty little Christmas trees all stocked with presents underneath. The Lifetime channel should be banned for all the bullshit it spreads. And maybe some of us aren’t even wanted at home.”

They sat in silence for a long awkward minute. Officer McBride looked like he was going to respond several times, but ultimately closed his mouth and handed Gabriel a couple of his cookies.

“Uh…thanks.”

McBride nodded and finished his half of the sub silently.

“Wait here, kid,” he said after his food was finished. He walked over to a woman sitting at a desk on the other side of the station. Gabriel knew they were talking about him, because McBride kept gesturing over to him. He obviously wasn’t happy about whatever the woman was saying. They continued their intense discussion for a few minutes, and McBride looked like he wanted to punch something as he eventually walked back to his desk. He pulled out a blank piece of paper and a pen and handed them to Gabriel.

“I need you to write down your full name and address, kid.”

At first Gabriel considered being stubborn and refusing, but McBride had been decent to him, and he really didn’t want to make the guy’s night any harder. It had to suck getting stuck with the Christmas Eve shift. Reluctantly, he jotted down his information and pushed it across the desk.

McBride read the information, and then held out his last cookie.

“One for the road, Gabriel?”

Gabriel accepted the cookie and took a bite.

“Where are we goin’?” he said with a mouthful.

“Home.” McBride stood and pulled on his jacket.

The cookie suddenly felt like sand in his mouth.

“Home? What the hell?” He swallowed what was in his mouth and dumped the rest of the cookie in the trash. “What part of ‘not welcome there’ don’t you get?”

“I’m sorry, Gabriel, but before I can do anything to help you, I’ve got to take you home and check out the situation.” McBride handed Gabriel his jacket. Then he handed him a business card with his contact information. “You can call me any time if you need to. Don’t worry, I won’t let you freeze on the streets.”

“Yeah, ‘cause that’s the worst thing that can happen,” he muttered, shrugging on his unpleasantly damp coat.

“Will you be in physical danger if I take you back there?” McBride almost looked hopeful for an affirmative answer. Gabriel sighed.

“No. Let’s just go,” he said resignedly.