Page 16 of Locke 2

I nodded again as she disappeared into her home, but her older son looked at me, his eyes clinging to mine. I held his gaze the whole way.

“Dallis,” Aurora suddenly said. “His name’s Dallis.”

The second he was inside, she shut the door.

I eyed her door for a few moments, my instincts telling me to knock on it and demand why she lied. The story was Tammy had left in a moving van, but she said truck. The little mistakeseemed too small to make a fuss about, but the way she said it, fast and robotic, felt rehearsed.

My pulse climbed, the urge growing to demand more information, but I forced myself to stand still.

Within a few minutes, a man on a shitty bicycle rode by, his eyes clinging to me. The next minute, a guy across the street parked and stepped out, glancing briefly in my direction. I remembered this feeling. When you’re in a shitty place, you know when someone wasn’t from around there.

“Time to go,” Aurora whispered, her eyes skimming the row of townhomes. “I think these people are looking at you from their windows.”

She was right. Reluctantly, I left straight away, but I wasn’t satisfied.

Not when I had Serfing Pikachu in my pocket, anyway.

Nine

Kali

The emergency contact on Lenny’s forms was his Aunt Linda, the one that had frantically reported him missing. On Wednesday, the same day I’d spoken to the neighbour, I called Linda’s number, but she never picked up. In my temptation, I couldn’t help but leave a message: “Hello, my name is Kal—” I cleared my throat. “Kari. I was Lenny’s TA. I’m reaching out because I…have some of his artworks that I think you might want, or maybe want to hold onto for his mom…”

I had botched it.

In my nerves, I’d almost said my real name.

And in my haste, I gave her my number and hung up. It was the next day, and she hadn’t called. And Aurora stood next to me, shaking her head. “You screwed up, sis.”

“I know,” I said, frustrated. “I got stressed out.”

Thinking about Lenny made me think about Aurora, and I…I just couldn’t let this go. It just didn’t sit right.

“You could get help,” she said just then.

I closed my eyes tightly. “How many times have I said I won’t do that?”

“Then why do you keep thinking about it?”

Not cool, Aurora.

Now I was taking recess duty, but my eyes followed the boys Lenny played with. I could get some answers out of them. Like if Lenny was acting off the day he “moved.” I kept my sights on Dallis, the boy I saw when I spoke to the neighbour. He was a blond kid in grade 2 and, maybe it was in my head, but he appeared more subdued than usual. I got closer to him, watching as he dragged a stick along the fence of the playground, staring down at his boots. I didn’t want to just spring up on him and ask him a bunch of questions.

This had to look natural.

It started out with small talk. A “nice shoes” compliment one day that made him look down at his beaten-up runners with a confused look on his face. That day I also told him to high five me for getting into line when the bell rang. He gave me a lazy one, but it was one, nonetheless.

The next day, I offered him (and a bunch of other kids so it wouldn’t look suspicious) a bag of celery sticks. Free food, right? Lenny would have downed that shit in a heartbeat. These little shits, on the other hand, looked at me like I was offering them poison.

“That wasn’t cheap,” I growled at Aurora.

“Did I ever eat celery?” she returned, dubiously.

Well, Dallis took the bag and sat down. I was excited for a minute, until I crept closer and saw him using the celery sticks as dirt monuments. He had stuck three into the dirt when I forced a chuckle within earshot. “That’s one way to put celery to use.”

Dallis looked up at me and squinted his eyes, like he was trying to recognize me. Even though I’d just given him the bag. Even though I’d complimented his shoes just yesterday. Even though I spoke to his damn mom in front of him. He nodded slowly, like I was the dumb one and looked back at his celery sticks.

I crouched down at his level, taking a closer look at his work. “I got a good celery joke. You want to hear it?”

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