Dead and Gone - Andrew Vachss [97]
I knew the kids to watch out for. The ones with all the best clothes. The ones with the best bunks. Stuff like that. I knew how they got those things. And I knew I didn’t have anything worth taking. Except for …
So the first thing I did was find something to make myself a shank with. Soon as I did, I let one of the kids with all the good stuff see it. Just like the institution. And, just like the institution, I had to stick one of them just so they’d know I wasn’t bluffing. Nobody called the cops. What could you do to a crazy kid, anyway? That’s how I found out about the padded rooms.
When Lune came in, I knew he was going to do his time bad. He was the prettiest boy I’d ever seen in my life. He looked like a little doll. And one of the kids with all the stuff wanted to play with him. Eugene Hunsaker was his name. I guess Lune never forgot it, either.
It was none of my business when Hunsaker’s crew grabbed Lune over in a corner of the ward. But when Lune broke free and ran, he headed straight to my bunk. Hunsaker and one of his boys were right behind him. Taking their time. Laughing, knowing nobody was going to come in and stop them. A few extra screams in that place wouldn’t raise an eyebrow, much less a guard.
I don’t know what happened. Maybe Hunsaker’s rape-partner looked a little like the son in that foster home. My circuits just snapped.
All I had was the thick end of the antenna I’d snapped off a portable radio, with the open part ragged and sharp. I stabbed Hunsaker’s partner in the arm with it. He shrieked like it had been an icepick to the balls, and that was it for him.
I yelled “Fight!” to Lune. He turned around like a robot following orders. He did his best, but you could see he’d never fought before. Hunsaker was pounding his beautiful face into a pulpy mess, giggling.
I nailed the scumbag in the back of his neck with my antenna, driving hard. But Hunsaker was a lot tougher than his partner. He just dropped to one knee, grabbed my arm, and flipped me over his shoulder.
Hunsaker was on top of me, trying for my throat. Lune dove down on him, flailing away—all he did was add to the weight. I kept trying for Hunsaker’s eyes, but he’d been there before and blocked me easily. It was all going hazy when I heard the whistle, and I knew the guys with the hypos were on the way.
Hunsaker and his partner wouldn’t tell what happened. They knew I wouldn’t talk, either—we’d all come up in the same places.
But Lune told them that it was his antenna, and that he stuck both of them because they were all part of “it.” He kept demanding to see his parents. One of the orderlies laughed when he said that. If he could have seen what was in Lune’s eyes then, he never would have.
Lune told me that his real parents had been stolen, and he had to find them. There was some kind of plot—I couldn’t follow everything he said—and the people who said they were his parents were part of it. He was a very logical kid. Parents wouldn’t hurt their own children, right? So anyone who did that, they couldn’t be the kid’s real parents, understand?
I did understand. But I didn’t know how to tell him what I knew. Being crazy was his only treasure, his one protection. I was his friend, and I wouldn’t steal from him.
Instead, I schooled him. There were some groups they made us go to. Sometimes we had to make things out of clay and crap. And we always had to be taking those tests. But, most of the time, they left us alone. I told him he couldn’t be telling people about his real parents—they wouldn’t understand.
“And they’re probably in on it, too,” he said, nodding.
Lune was always seeing patterns in things. He figured out that the big-cheese doctor was getting it on with one of the women who worked there. Not that Lune actually saw them, or anything. He just put it together. He tried to explain to me how he did it; but, even when he broke it down, it still seemed like magic.
One time after Lune told me, I was alone with the big cheese. I asked him for another cigarette.