And Ruin Followed Behind Her

Chapter 9-2

I COULDN’T TAKE THE front door without alerting Big Jim’s goons, so I fled through the back door, jumping over the wooden fence that separated it from the alley behind our house. I’d watched the back of our house from Mama’s window for half an hour before I left just to make sure there was nothing suspicious and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

Apparently, the people following me had plenty of time to wait for me to screw up, but not enough manpower to risk guarding the front and the back of my house. Perhaps they didn’t think I was smart enough to use the back door, or too poor to afford a back yard. Maybe they assumed they’d snatch me at school and devoted their energies to capturing me there.

Whatever the reason, I ran through the unguarded back alley and into the neighbor’s yard without being chased and used a circuitous route back to the center of town. It took longer than necessary for me to weave through the tight streets and make my way across the train tracks, but the advantage was I didn’t see one person on my way.

After an hour of carefully plodding along, I ended up in the alleyway behind the tea shop. It was still early in the day. In fact, I’d left the same time I left for school, forgetting that most of Chandler doesn’t open at seven in the morning. I doubted the old woman who ran it would be around yet, so I leaned against a big, green dumpster, determined to wait until she showed up.

“The hell are you doing?” I heard from behind me. I turned to see the old woman, holding open the back door to her shop, shaking her head at me.

“I was waiting for you. I thought you would be in later.”

“For what?” She looked me up and down. “To rob me?”

“No! What do you think, just cuz I’m black and dressed in a hoodie I’m gonna rob you?”

“Well, I don’t much care about that first thing, but as for the second thing, yeah. I think a creepy looking person lurking in my alley might be reason to worry.”

“I’m not trying to rob you,” I said, pulling Pixie Dust out of my backpack. “I’m trying to give you this.”

The old woman gestured toward the back door, rolling her eyes. “Why don’t you come inside and have some tea and get your burglar-looking self out of this alley?”

*