Trash - Andy Mulligan [10]
We all sat around.
Money got paid out at last, and everyone was one hundred pesos richer. It was getting dark, the sky red all over, and the police finally gave up and started leaving, me and Raphael smiling. Then all the belts started with a sound that splits your ears, and the trucks started crawling through again, and they brought out more lights and worked on and on, right through until the morning.
In our little neighbourhood there were more cooking fires than usual, and a few cases of beer. There was music and singing, and everyone was happy – most of all Raphael, who thinks the job is done and he’s been so smart.
But inside Raphael’s house, right by me – because I was staying close now – after the food, his auntie says to both of us: ‘Are we safe?’
I knew she wasn’t, and I also knew she’d brought it on herself. Opening her mouth had not been smart – in fact, I hate to say it, but we talked about it since: if she had kept her mouth shut, things would have been so much easier. ‘Are we safe?’ she said again.
I said, ‘We are completely safe. Don’t worry,’ which was a lie.
‘I was spoken to,’ she said to me. ‘They wanted to know why I said he found something. A policeman asked me about it again, and I shouldn’t have spoken, but I did. Now they’re wondering about both of you. They got both your names.’
‘Yes, but we told them,’ said Raphael, doing his smile and pushing back his hair, ‘it was just a shoe, and they know nothing.’
She was quiet, but only for a moment.
‘I saw you go out last night,’ she said, very soft like you could hardly hear, so we were huddling close. ‘I don’t want to know where, I don’t want to know why, but I just want to know we’re safe. There’s nothing in the house, is there?’
We both said: ‘No.’
‘You promise me that? Because they will take these houses apart—’
‘I promise,’ said Raphael, so light and bright. All I could think about was the lies, stacking up now, and how I hoped it was worth it. The bag was safe, down with Rat – I wanted to get away and check it.
Raphael’s auntie kept at him, though: ‘They’re talking about searching here,’ she said. ‘That’s what people say. Ours will be the first, you can bet on that. If they take it apart again—’
Raphael took her hand then: ‘There’s nothing in the house,’ he said.
‘Ten thousand is a lot of money!’ she said, and her voice rose up. ‘Have you thought what we could do with that?’
I interrupted then. ‘You think they’d give it?’ I said. ‘You really think they’d give it?’
‘I think they would!’ she said.
Raphael shook her hand gently. ‘Ma,’ he said. ‘Ma. If someone here – one of us – if one of us got all that money, you think we’d be allowed to keep it for long?’
She reached out to me then, and took hold of my arm, so we were all three linked together. ‘You’re smart,’ she said to me. ‘Gardo, you’re smarter than this boy, and I know you can run fast and get clear – and maybe I shouldn’t have spoken, and I’m sorry I did. But I’m too old to move again, and the two little ones …’
Her eyes were all full of tears, glittering wet – and I got scared because she was scared, and I know Raphael was most scared of all, though he won’t ever say so. ‘I don’t want us getting caught up with the police,’ she said, gripping us hard. ‘Everyone knows what things they do.’
I couldn’t meet her eye.
For one thing, I was mad she’d spoken up – it was still the dumbest thing she could have done. For another, I had a feeling things were going to get bad. Sure, I wanted to be smart, like she said I was, and I knew I had to lead this, because Raphael needs to be led. I needed to keep a hold