AN: Yes, readers, I am now continuing the Boho Kids Story Arc after a five month hiatus. Although, this will probably be my least favorite story in the arc, but I will do my best with it, like always. Read, enjoy, and please review.
The Kelly Koffeehouse was rather quiet that mild autumn morning, with only one small group of patrons sitting at a table. Taking advantage of the lull in activity, fifteen-year-old Kris was placing fresh scones and muffins into the display case. Meanwhile, her father, David, was busy cleaning the coffeepots while her brothers mopped the floor. In the back, she could hear her Uncle Justin washing the used coffee mugs.
As Kris placed the last cranberry almond muffin onto the serving tray, she heard the tinkle of the bell that had been placed over the door to announce the arrival of customers. Turning to the door, Kris was ready to welcome the newcomers to the Kelly Koffeehouse, but when she saw who was at the door, a wide smile appeared on her face instead. Standing there were the friends she'd made at summer camp two months ago, Zack Cohen, Rodolfo Davis and Alvin Coffin.
"Hey, Kris," Rodolfo waved in greeting. "How are you?"
"Oh, not bad," Kris replied, setting her tray down and stepping over to them. "It's good to see you guys." It was at that moment that Kris noticed Alvin was holding a miniature pinscher puppy in his arms. "Oh, you brought your dog, Alvin?"
"Yeah, we were taking him for a walk now," Alvin explained as Kris patted the dog's head. The puppy, whose name was Snip, had been a 'welcome back from camp' present from his parents, but he mainly stayed in Alvin's room, since his mother's elderly purebred spaniel, Gatsby, constantly bullied the new puppy.
"We were stopping by to ask you if you'd want to come along," Zack invited. "We're heading to the park, and Mom gave us some money to buy hot dogs from the vendor down there."
"Yeah, I'd like that!" Kris nodded before turning to her father. "Dad? May I go with my friends, please?"
David had been watching his daughter talking to the three boys with a pleased smile. He could never forget how happy he'd been when Kris had first told him about making friends with them during camp. His daughter had never been able to make friends with anyone before then, because so many of her peers were unable to see past her often unusual mannerisms and kept their distance. He could not deny that he was thankful to these boys for being different and offering their friendship to her.
"Well," David replied at Kris' question. "Seeing as we're not very busy today, I suppose it'll be all right if you head off early. You have fun with your friends."
"Thanks, Dad!" Kris laughed, pulling off her Kelly Koffeehouse apron and handing it over to her father. A second later, she was out the door with Zack, Rodolfo and Alvin.
Once the four friends were a few blocks away from the Kelly Koffeehouse, Rodolfo turned to Kris with a mischievous grin.
"So," he began, a devious gleam in his brown eyes. "Did you manage to get it?"
"Of course, I did," Kris replied, pulling out a can of refried beans. "But why did I need to bring it, anyway?"
"Oh, you'll see," Zack laughed, reaching into the backpack he was carrying and pulling out a woman's purse. "Auntie Maureen said we could have this. She was going to throw it out anyway, since the strap's broken."
"We thought it would be good day to play a little joke on someone," Alvin explained. "A joke with a lesson involved."
"How does that work?" Kris asked, looking between the boys.
"Oh, it's simple," Rodolfo laughed. "You see, the joke's only on you if you're not an honest person. Here, we'll show you. Consider it your official initiation into the group."
"First, you have to get Snip here to eat the stuff in the can you brought," Alvin went on. "After that, well, you'll probably catch on very quickly." Kris fixed her friends with a puzzled look, but she opened the can of beans without a word, using the pocketknife Rodolfo had gotten for Christmas the previous year, and held it out to Snip. The small dog sniffed at the contents of the can before he started eating hungrily. In almost no time at all, Snip had eaten half the can.
"Yeah, I think that'll do it," Alvin grinned, setting the dog on the sidewalk.
"Now what do I have to do?" Kris asked her friends, still holding the half-eaten can of beans.
"Don't worry about it, Kris," Zack chuckled. "Leave the rest to Snip." Rodolfo, noticing the skeptical expression on Kris' face, took pity on her and whispered their plan in her ear. The moment he finished explaining, her characteristic placid smile appeared on her face.
"Oh, so that's what we're up to," Kris nodded in understanding.
"Whoa, guys!" Alvin cried excitedly. "I think this is it!" Instantly, everyone turned to Snip, who was sniffing around the sidewalk, circling around a certain spot on the pavement.
"Yeah, I think you're right," Rodolfo grinned, watching eagerly with everyone else as Snip began squatting down.
Moments later, Zack was carrying the old purse at arms length, trying not to pay attention to the smell emitting from it, with his friends following at a close distance. Snip was now cuddled happily in Kris' arms, completely unaware of what his owner was up to with his friends.
"Man, Alvin," Rodolfo groaned, covering his nose with his hand. "Do us a favor and never feed Snip refried beans again after this.
"You don't have to tell me twice," Alvin replied, stepping over to the edge of the sidewalk and looking up and down the street. "Hey, Zack! This looks like a good place. There'll be nothing hiding it from view. Set it down here." Zack, all too eager to be rid of the odiferous item, quickly placed the loaded purse on the spot Alvin indicated. Reaching into his pocket, Alvin pulled out a single one dollar bill and slid it into the purse so it would be hanging out.
"All right, hurry up," Rodolfo urged, ducking into a nearby alleyway, where they could watch things unfold. Quickly, Zack, Kris and Alvin joined Rodolfo in his hiding place, where the four of them stood waiting, looking around for any sign of someone taking the bait. After about two minutes, Kris paused from repositioning her hold on Snip, spotting a car slowing down.
"I think this guy just saw the purse," she told her friends, pointing to the car in question. Sure enough, the car Kris pointed out pulled up to the curb and a man stepped out, looking down at the booby trapped purse.
From their hiding spot, the four friends watched with baited breath as the man covertly glanced around to see if anyone was looking before picking up the purse. After making sure no one was watching for a second time, he slowly started to return to his car.
"No way, he's taking off with it!" Rodolfo whispered in excitement.
"Oh, this guy deserves what he's gonna get!" Alvin agreed with a Cheshire cat grin.
Moments later, the dishonest man started to drive away from the curb, with the purse in tow. Laughing in excitement, the Boho Kids abandoned their hiding place and stepped out onto the sidewalk to get a better look at the departing car, waiting for the bomb to drop. To their delight, the car hadn't gone three feet before screeching to a halt and the man inside threw the loaded purse out of his car window with a loud cry of horrified disgust. Unable to contain themselves, the four friends instantly broke out laughing, utterly pleased with themselves, but the smiles suddenly vanished from their faces when they saw the man they'd played the joke had looked out his car window and was staring right at them.
"Aw, guys, I think he saw us," Alvin noted with a hint of panic in his voice. No sooner had he said this, the furious man disappeared inside his car, which immediately backed up to the curb again. In a heartbeat, Rodolfo, Kris, Alvin and Zack were racing away, with the man soon in pursuit.
"Over there!" Rodolfo shouted to his friends, pointing at a temporary fence that had been put up to block off some construction on a side street. The four friends immediately altered their course, scaling over the fence once they reached it, with Kris hesitating only to herd Snip through the gap beneath the fence. Once they were all in the construction site, which was thankfully vacant of workers to hinder them, the Boho Kids made full use of the construction pipes and other obstacles to shake their pursuer. However, their effort was unnecessary as the man from the car was unable to find a suitable foothold in the fence and could not follow them into the construction site. Even so, the Boho Kids didn't stop running until they made it out of the construction site and took refuge in an alleyway.
"That was fun," Alvin commented, rubbing at the stitch in his side while the others tried to catch their breath again.
"You're telling me," Zack chuckled.
"While we're all telling each other things," Kris began, her placid smile stretching across her face, "do you boys do things like that all the time?"
"Pretty much," Rodolfo replied, smiling back at her. "But we don't often get chased by random strangers. That one was new."
"Why? Too much for you?" Alvin challenged.
"Not at all," Kris stated, brushing her long black hair over her shoulder. "I find a good run very stimulating."
As the four friends laughed softly at their escape, Zack and Alvin started looking around, trying to see where they had ended up.
"That's a lot of graffiti, even for New York," Alvin noted, glancing at the wall of the alley they were in.
"Yeah," Zack nodded, glancing around for a street sign and soon seeing that they were somewhere on Avenue B. However, while he was somewhat familiar with the street in general, after numerous visits to Thomson Square Park, nothing around him looked familiar, and that was giving him an uneasy feeling. If he wasn't recognizing their surroundings, chances were they had ended up in a part of Manhattan that his parents had never taken him and Rodolfo, and that could only mean they were probably not in a place they were supposed to be. Even Auntie Maureen had told them since kindergarten that there were some areas of New York that weren't even safe for adults. If they really were in one of those places now, it was not a good idea to stick around. Perhaps if they started to head up the street….
"Hang on," Rodolfo frowned, suddenly staring at something. "I… I've heard that name before." Zack, Alvin and Kris followed his gaze to an establishment right across the street from him. The outer walls had been painted in various shades of blue, and a large neon sign hung over the entrance, which was framed with iron bars. Judging by the fact that the barred gate was currently padlocked shut, it was clear that the place was closed, but Rodolfo still stared darkly at the unlit neon sign, which also featured silhouettes of women in various poses.
"You okay, Brown Eyes?" Kris asked, glancing at the expression on her friend's face.
"Yeah," Rodolfo nodded stiffly. "Let's just…" Before he could continue, the sound of someone stepping on an empty beer can alerted the Boho Kids that someone was standing behind them. Spinning around, they all stared up into the face of a man whose long greasy-looking hair was pulled back into a ponytail. He was looking right back at them with an expression none of them liked.
"And what," the Man sneered in an oily voice, "are you four doing here? I don't recall ever seeing any of you lining up to buy. Oh, unless you're new clients. It just so happens I…" The Man suddenly stopped in mid-sentence, staring at Rodolfo as if he'd just noticed him there. Immediately, the Man's face shifted, taking up a mixture of shock, rage, and hatred.
"You," the Man hissed in fury, his eyes full of malice. Unsettled by the way the Man was glaring at him, Rodolfo started to back away, but before he could move very far, the Man suddenly reached out, grabbing onto Rodolfo's shirt collar in an extremely threatening manner. For a brief moment, Rodolfo felt himself tense up, expecting the man to pull out a knife or gun, but before he could regain control of his body to defend himself, something darted into his line of vision. Instantly, Rodolfo heard the Man shout out in pain as he released his grip on his shirt collar. Quickly stepping over to Zack and Alvin's side, Rodolfo turned back to see Kris was maintaining a firm grip on the Man's arm, biting down hard on his wrist.
"Little bi-ch!" the Man snarled, grabbing onto Kris' hair and yanking it back, effectively forcing her to stop her attack on his sore wrist
"Leave her alone!" Rodolfo lunged forward, pulling Kris away from the Man, out of concern of him retaliating on her. Sure enough, the moment his wrist was free of Kris' teeth, the Man rounded on the four teens, his hand reaching into the pocket of his jacket and withdrawing what was unmistakably a switchblade.
"That's far enough," a harsh voice suddenly rang out through the alleyway. The Boho Kids and the Man all looked around to see a middle-aged cop standing there, his gun drawn.
"Sergeant Kurtz!" Zack smiled, recognizing his parents' old cop friend. The Man, pausing only to glower at Rodolfo one last time, took advantage of the cop's momentary distraction caused by Zack's greeting to retreat further into the alleyway. For a brief moment, Sergeant Kurtz looked as if he wanted to give chase, but thought better of it.
"Zack, Rodolfo," Sergeant Kurtz spoke to the two boys, still frowning after the Man in dislike. "You and your friends get into the car. This area of town isn't a good place for you."
"No kidding," Alvin commented, leading the way to Sergeant Kurtz' squad car, which was parked along the curb.
"You're not going after him?" Kris asked, blinking up at the cop, undoubtedly noticing the desire to do so in his face.
"Not this time," Sergeant Kurtz answered. "Right now, my priority is to get all of you out of here."
Once the four of them were safely inside the squad car, Sergeant Kurtz returned to the driver's seat and drove off. After getting back on the road, he began speaking to the teens sternly.
"I don't suppose you'd like to tell me why the four of you were wandering around that particular corner of Alphabet City?" Sergeant Kurtz said. "I know for a fact, Zack, your parents try to steer clear of this block."
"It's a long story, but we didn't end up here because we wanted to," Zack explained. "We were just trying to figure out how to get back into a part of town we recognized when that guy came along."
"Well, I'm not going to pretend that you weren't lucky I happened to be patrolling this street today," Sergeant Kurtz sighed heavily, pulling up in front of the entrance to Thomson Square Park. "But I might not be there to step in next time. For that reason, I want the four of you to promise me not to go anywhere near that place again. Furthermore, if you ever see that man again, you're not to stick around. Instead, you need to get back home as soon as you can."
"Sergeant Kurtz?" Rodolfo paused before getting out with his friends to enter the park. "Could you tell me something? That man; who was he, anyway?"
"Why do you ask?" Sergeant Kurtz glanced at Rodolfo through the rearview mirror.
"Just…when he looked at me, he suddenly got angry. I couldn't help wondering why. I mean, I've never seen him before, so…"
"I should hope not," Sergeant Kurtz muttered to himself before turning in his seat, in order to look Rodolfo in the eyes directly. "Let's just say that man you and your friends ran into was an old enemy of your parents. Your father in particular. Chances are he was able to recognize you as Roger's son, which isn't very hard to do. The family resemblance has always been obvious. That would explain why he got angry when he got a good look at you. And that is also another reason why you have to get away quickly if you see him again. Do you understand?"
"Yeah," Rodolfo nodded, exiting the squad car and joining his friends, his face set. Sergeant Kurtz made sure the four teens were safely in the park before driving off to continue his patrol of the city. Even after Sergeant Kurtz had left, the Boho Kids didn't say a word to each other. For a good five minutes, the only sound among them was Snip's occasional whine from his spot in Alvin's arms, as he gazed sadly at the pigeons he wanted to chase. Finally, as they neared the hot dog vendor, Rodolfo broke the silence.
"Hey, Kris," he spoke, looking down at his shoes. "Thanks for, you know, getting that man to let go of me back there."
"Don't mention it," Kris smiled placidly. "And thank you for trying to protect me, too."
"Well, what do you expect?" Rodolfo grinned roguishly. "Friends stick together, don't they?"
"I suppose they do," Kris returned the grin for a long moment, only looking away again after the hot dog vendor started asking the four teens what they wanted on their hot dogs.