Page 16 of Goodbye Paradise
Beside me, Caleb’s jaw tightened. “No deal,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Wait,” I said. “What if…” But Caleb grabbed my arm and literally dragged me away, around the fuel pumps, and over to the side of the building.
It was getting dark already, but I didn’t need any light to see the fury on Caleb’s face. “Are youcrazy?Do you even know what a blow job is?”
“OfcourseI know what a blow job is! But he’s the only one who said he’d help us.”
“No he didnot!” Caleb hollered. We were toe to toe, and both of us angry, which never happened. “You can’ttrusta man who offers to drive you somewhere for blow jobs! And there arediseases, Josh. Bad ones.”
He had a point. And I did not want to have anything to do with that freaky guy’s body. But my whole life I’d been tortured by my craving for dicks. (Or at least one dick, anyway.) And it was almost as if God sent this other one into my path as some sort of cross to bear. If it solved our problem, I knew I could get through it. “I just thought…” I sighed. “You wouldn’t have to watch.”
Caleb’s face contorted with disgust. He put two hands on my shoulders. “No. You’re not goingnearthat fucker. Over my dead body.”
I did not point out that dead bodies were an increasing possibility if we did not find some kind of ride, job, or shelter soon.
“Boys.” We looked up to see an older black man standing a few yards further down the wall. He was smoking a cigar. Removing it from his mouth, he pointed the cigar at Caleb. “He’s right. There are guys who prey on young people out here. And you two look a little wet behind the ears.”
I had no idea whatthatmeant.
The man went back to smoking his cigar and looking the other direction, as if he was done with us.
“Caleb,” I said, “let’s not fight.”
He took a deep breath and let it out again. “Okay. It’s just that you keep scaring me to death.”
“Don’t mean to.”
“I know.”
“Hey. We’re in Cheyenne, right?”
“Yeah. Just outside of it.”
“The last thing Ezra said to me before he left me by the side of the road with my ankles taped together, was that there’s a homeless shelter in Cheyenne. Maybe we should find it.”
“He taped youranklestogether?”
Once again, Caleb was getting off topic. “And my wrists, big brother. But he gave me that little piece of advice, too. Did you hear me?”
“I’m going to strangle that fucker.”
I sighed. “No you’re not. You’re going to eat dinner with me, and then we’re going to find a homeless shelter, whatever that is. And in the morning, we’ll try some more hitchhiking.”
“Okay,” he said heavily. “At this rate, we’re never getting to Massachusetts.”
“That’s the spirit.”
Caleb starting smiling at me, which was always my downfall. So I didn’t notice that the black man had come closer. “Boys,” he said again. “I may be able to help you.”
“Really?” I asked, hopeful for the first time all day.
He stubbed out his cigar on the wall. “It’s against the rules. But you two sound like you need a break. Runaways, right?”
“No,” I said, at the same time Caleb said “Yes.”
The black man laughed. “I see.”
“We were both honest,” I explained. “He is a runaway, actually. But I got tossed.”
