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don’t get scared in there at night, that stationhouse?’
    â€˜Nah. Psh.’
    â€˜Isn’t it like illegal, not goin to school?’
    Ray looked away. ‘You like school?’
    â€˜I love school. Why they call this place Ten Mile River?’
    â€˜Because it’s ten miles up from the southern tip of the island.’
    â€˜Okay.’
    â€˜That’s what I read, anyway. I don’t mean to sound cocky or anythin, like I’m this reader or somethin. Like I don’t mean to sound like I know what I’m talkin about.’
    â€˜You don’t, don’t worry.’
    â€˜Thanks,’ he said. ‘Yeah.’
    â€˜You are a funny boy.’
    He had a whole list of cool questions to ask her but forgot them. Those buckteeth killed him. ‘So, can you bend spoons?’
    â€˜Huh?’
    â€˜Forget it. So, you like my homeboy?’
    Trini squinted, wrinkled her nose at Ray.
    â€˜He’s real handsome, right?’
    â€˜He’s okay.’
    â€˜You like him, right?’
    â€˜He’s okay.’
    â€˜Okay. I could, like, tell him you like him if you want me to.’
    â€˜Nah, nah, nah, that’s okay,’ she said.
    â€˜Only if you wanted me to, I’m sayin.’
    â€˜Nah.’
    â€˜It’s an open-ended offer.’
    â€˜Okay.’
    â€˜So, you want me to tell him then?’
    â€˜Nah.’
    â€˜Okay, you let me know.’
    â€˜Okay.’
    â€˜Does that mean—’
    â€˜I’ll let you know, Raymond, okay?’ She munched a fry. ‘I do think it’s nice that he looks out for you, though. He seems sweet. He’d have to be to be one of your boys.’ She looked at Ray, smirked. ‘He a ladies’ man though, right? Your boy a player?’
    Ray smiled.
    She studied Ray, his eyes. ‘Seriously, you’re mad smart, right? All those books. You’re different.’
    â€˜Nah, nah, I’m just your regular old fat giant type of ugly dope kid.’
    She slapped his leg. ‘I happen to think you’re very cute.’
    His heart hummed as it broke. She was into José, no doubt.
    Trini squinted, worked her lips into a corkscrew smile. ‘Raymond, you ever meet somebody, you feel like you know them a long time? You feel like you can say anything to that person?’
    â€˜Yeah?’
    â€˜You’re like the big kid brother I always wanted.’
    An asteroid the size of a cannonball dropped from high orbit and zipped through Ray’s chest at sixty thousand miles an hour. ‘Your big kid brother,’ he said. ‘Cool.’

7
    José kicked open the stationhouse door, collapsed onto the couch. ‘Water. I’m-a die. I ain’t run like that since juvie. Totally rehydrated.’
    â€˜Well, we can’t have y’all bein totally rehydrated. Lemme step-’n’-fetch you some water, Master.’
    â€˜Please, son. I’m like to the burnin bush. Can’t move. You don’t know the hell I been through last two hours.’
    â€˜Hell happened?’ Ray said.
    â€˜Gimme a bottle a Polish Spring, I tell you all about it.’
    Ray brought the water.
    José swigged, burped. ‘A hour and a half I’m huntin down that Richie kid. I got half our money back. Kid gonna bring me the other three dollars next week, he says, but I don’t know. He got them liar eyes, the kind that…You listenin to me?’
    â€˜Yeah, but I can’t believe what I’m hearin. You run him an hour and a half for three bucks?’
    â€˜It’s the principle of the thing.’
    â€˜And what’s that, that we can steal but he can’t?’
    â€˜Not from us.’ José winked. ‘So then I’m comin home, that punk we owe money to?’
    â€˜That Paulie cat?’ Ray said.
    â€˜Mean-ass wannabe sees me countin the dough I just got off Richie, Paulie starts to chasin me. I had to run into them piles of garbage bags