LITTLE BOY
BY HARRY NEAL
There are times when the animal in Mankind savagely asserts itself. Even children become snarling little beasts. Fortunately, however, in childhood laughter is not buried deep.
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HE DROPPED OVER THE stone wall and flattened to the ground. He looked warily about him like a young wolf, head down, eyes up. His name was Steven—but he’d forgotten that. His face was a sunburned, bitter, filthy eleven-year-old face—tight lips, lean cheeks, sharp blue eyes with startlingly clear whites. His clothes were rags—a pair of corduroy trousers without any knees; a man’s white shirt, far too big for him, full of holes, stained, reeking with sweat; a pair of dirty brown sneakers.
He lay, knife in hand, and waited to see if anyone had seen him coming over the wall o
