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crushed body of a crow. It didn’t look real. Looked like a billowy black puppet that never could have been alive. Jared thought of Fatso and his father’s silence and started running. The next three streets were empty and he got across without any problem.
    Then came the major intersection at Grand Avenue. That’s when everything got tough. He saw the crossing sign was the green man—that meant “go.” Jared knew this. So he walked out into the crosswalk and hadn’t gotten even halfway when a blinking red hand lit up. Red meant stop. And the red hand meant you shouldn’t be in the street anymore and that a car would hit you. Didn’t it?
    Jared ran back to the curb, heart hammering in his throat. He thought about going back to Bella Boyd’s house. She was probably still chewing out Barbara Walters and had no clue he’d gone. But even thinking of going back there right now made him shake his head. He would still want to know about Fatso. The park wasn’t much farther. Just across this street and around the market, and he was there.
    A tall pick-up truck with giant tires screeched to halt, almost coming to a stop in the intersection. Cowboy music blared over its revving engine.
    The green man lit up again.
    Jared had to circle the truck. It was so tall he doubted the driver could even see him. He decided to sprint for the other side of the street. It was different without his father holding his hand, making him keep up with the grown-up pace.
    A horn blared and Jared yelled out in surprise, dropping his slice of bread in the street. The truck honked at someone making a right-hand turn. Jared turned back to pick up the bread—without it, there would be no point.
    A man from the pick-up shouted, “Yeah, kiss my ass!”
    Jared bent down and saw the red-hand light up again. The truck revved again, back tires kicking out white smoke. Another car’s horn blasted and someone punched their middle finger up into the sky. Jared had stopped cold in the street. He couldn’t go back the way he came. He’d have to run to the other side. This was dumb! He was going to get hit!
    Gripping hard onto the bread, he flew for the opposite side of the street. A dark sedan slammed on its brakes and a green jeep turning right broadsided it. Jared jumped up on the sidewalk and grabbed the street light.
    He cried for a long time in a daze. It wasn’t even clear what was happening when a stricken, red-eyed Bella Boyd jumped from her Corolla and swept him into her arms. She looked to have been crying just as long as he had.
    The accident, Jared later learned, had happened because the woman in the jeep freaked out and stomped the gas pedal rather than the brake. The black sedan probably wouldn’t have hit Jared, but it was too close to call. A lady busted her nose on the steering wheel and her boyfriend, an older man, was taken away by the paramedics for heart troubles. The young woman in the jeep was able to drive away.
    As much as he’d been missing his father, Jared hadn’t looked forward to seeing him that night. While his mother sobbed in her bedroom, he sat down Jared on the couch and lectured and shouted and lectured some more. “You can’t just make stupid choices like that. You have to think about everything you do! You have to be safe, Jared! You aren’t able to make choices like these. You’ll get hurt. This world will eat you up. Don’t you understand?”
    Jared only nodded and cried.
    “You did that for the bird? Is that why? What were you thinking?”
    He didn’t have words for his father. As an adult, Jared still couldn’t explain why he needed to be sure about Fatso. It made no sense then or now.
    The blame ultimately came to fall on Bella Boyd. After that, Jared wasn’t allowed to stay with her anymore, and shortly after she lost her rental and moved away. Jared always felt bad for her. She’d seemed so happy where she was and he’d wrecked it. He never felt safe or behaved well for any other daycare