Chapter 32: Roaming Runaway

Kira pulled her old jacket around her as she walked down one more street that she remembered from when she was younger. In fact, it was this week when she was fifteen that she had spent her last night on the streets. As she slipped into once familiar surroundings among those who were living on the streets she kept an eye out for a young girl who looked as if she didn't belong there. Whenever others got a little too close for comfort she'd confidently eye them and when that didn't work she'd pull out her small revolver that she'd kept with her since she was in college just a little bit out of her pocket. Whenever others caught sight of the gun she was given a wide-birth.

Before heading out Kira did one thing besides changing out of her work clothes; she had checked to see which part of the city the judge's daughter's school was in. That gave her a starting off point. She knew that others were looking for the girl, many of them may even be looking in the same area as she was, but Kira knew that out here on the streets kids knew that the cops and other authority figures were on their way long before they got to their hideouts. Only those who belonged on the streets, or at least looked and acted the part, will have a chance at finding a needle in the haystack of the streets of Atlanta offered.

After Kira had been walking for about an hour she noticed a young girl who looked roughly the same age as the one that she'd come out to look for. The girl was sitting in an alley behind some cardboard that was leaned up against a dumpster with her knees drawn up to her chest looking not only scared but petrified. Kira casually glanced around before she walked over to the dumpster and rummaged around before she skillfully pulled out a sandwich that she had hidden in her shirt before she then stepped back to the brick wall of the alley and slid down and ended up sitting just a few feet away from the young blonde girl. Kira made a side-glance look toward her before she unwrapped the sandwich from its paper covering and tore it in half and started to nibble on it. In her peripheral vision Kira could tell that the child was hungry by the look in her eyes. After a few moments Kira took the other half of her sandwich and reached out her hand and held it out for the girl to take it from her.

"Here."

Sam eyed the stranger for just a moment before taking the proffered sandwich. "Thanks."

"This your first night?"

Hearing the question, Sam was surprised that the stranger could tell. "Maybe."

Kira chewed for a minute before she spoke again. "Hanging out here probably isn't the best place to stay. As the restaurants close there will be a lot of others from the streets heading this way toward the dumpsters. You'll want to find some place else to hide from the people looking for you, too."

"Why would you think that I'm hiding from anyone?" Kira gave Sam a look that made her look back down at her half of the sandwich before she asked, "So where should I go?"

"That depends. This your first time out here?" Kira saw Sam nod her head. "Alright. So is this permanent or just temporary? Never mind. Of course this is permanent. You ran away from home. That isn't something you do just to make your parents worried about you. There's better ways to do that than to put yourself in such a dangerous place as out here on the streets."

Kira took another bite from her sandwich as she watched the young girl think about her comments before she continued. "The first thing you'll need to do is find a safe place to stay at night. When I was your age I stayed with one of the street families made up of other kids on the other side of town."

"Families?"

"Other kids, like you. Some older, some younger. Many of them have never had a home other than the streets."

"And I could just go and stay with them?"

"Well, it won't be quite that easy. You bring any money with you?"

"Why?"

"Everyone has to prove that they can make the family stronger. If you didn't bring any money then you'll have to figure out a different way to prove your worth."

Kira knew that she was spreading it a bit thick but she wanted to know that if she walked away from the girl beside her that she could take care of herself. She may look scared and weak but Kira was sure that she'd looked that way herself at that age. And she didn't exactly know what had caused the young girl to take off from her family just yet. If the girl had good reasons for doing what she'd done then she wouldn't be deterred from making the streets her new home. If she was just trying to get attention then the harsh truth of what that would entail would send her packing very quickly.

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"Well, if you know how to swipe wallets or purses, then you could do that. Help with cons or rob houses or stores when they are empty. Sometimes you can get a little bit of money by panhandling but the the same people likely to help you out will also call Child Services to have you picked up. A lot of kids end up with various gangs who will put them to work carrying drugs from one place to another, keeping watch for the cops and such. But that over there-" Kira pointed toward the other side of the street where a teen could be seen loitering near the corner. After Sam turned her head to see where Kira was pointing she saw a car pulled up next to the teen and after a few moments the girl got into the car before it pulled away to disappear into the darkness of the night. "That's the easiest way for folks to make a little bit of cash. That is if the john actually pays up before you leave. Not all of them will, though. I mean, what are you going to do? Call the cops and report them for gypping you?"

Sam watched the car disappear while suppressing a shudder. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Come on. Like I told you earlier, it isn't a good idea for you to hang out here at the dumpster." Kira stood up and held her hand out to help Sam stand as well. After seeing the girl eye the street as if trying to see if anyone could see her Kira added, "Anyone looking for you is looking for a girl all on her own. If you walk with someone else you won't be as likely to catch the eye of the cops."

After a second of consideration Sam stood up and walked alongside the woman who had come out of nowhere to help her. "You said that you used to live with a street family. Do you still live with one?"

"Nope. I stopped living with other kids in that family when I was fifteen." Which was true. First, the family that she'd hung out with had broken up when most of them had gotten picked up by the cops after they'd broken into a house just as spring had begun the year she'd turn fifteen. Then that fall she'd ended up in the hospital where she'd then met Ben. From there, she'd never needed to live on the streets again. "I live on my own, now. But for you, I wouldn't suggest you try living on the streets by yourself. You'll need someone to show you the ropes, how to live, who to trust, stuff like that."

"Oh." Sam was quickly learning that running away to the streets was more complicated than she'd first thought. After a few blocks of walking in silence Sam realized that she still didn't know the name of the woman beside. "By the way, my name's Sam."

Kira paused mid-step since she was torn. She was still hoping that the girl beside her would end up going back home after realizing that running away had been a mistake but without knowing the actual reason for her leaving Kira didn't dare suggest it just yet. If the girl was going to survive on the streets there were a few rules that she'd need to know right from the very start.

"It isn't a good idea to give people your name. Not your real name, at least. Especially if you don't want folks to be able to find you out here. Always give out a false name until you can trust someone. And don't trust people too quickly. It can cause you a lot of trouble."

"Oh." Sam said once more. She hadn't thought about that. "What else should I know?"

"A lot. Things like never hang around the same place for too long. You don't want to be seen as a nuisance, or for people to wonder what you're doing. Remember, you want to be as invisible as possible. Don't draw attention. Try to look like a normal passerby. This means keeping up hygiene and having the right kind of clean clothes. You'll need to keep your hair looking nice too so that you don't look homeless.

Speaking of which, that long blonde hair of yours is kind of easy to spot. If you want to stay under the radar, you'll want to cut it and possibly even dye it. Maybe a nice boring color but one that definitely isn't blonde since anyone looking for you will be looking for a blonde. Never run from the police. If you do, it will only draw more attention to you. If you come across one the best thing to do would be to just act like you don't see them. Or you could walk over to a pay phone and act like you are talking to your parents and telling them that you're on you way home. You'll seem like a good kid to them rather than a runaway."

Kira guided Sam toward an area that she knew well. It was one of the areas that she and, when he was alive, Ben had left supplies and food for the homeless in the area from time to time.

As the pair ducked between two of the buildings Sam was surprised to see so many around her age there. She was even more shocked to see kids half her age there. There were a few older kids, some were probably just over eighteen, but each of them were hovering over younger kids that Sam assumed were their siblings. Sam followed Kira as she led her through a darkened alleyway where some other kids were starting to find places to sleep along the wall. Some of them were on pieces of cardboard that they'd scavenged from dumpsters while others had newspaper. Few of them had blankets or sleeping bags and most of the kids that she passed were shivering in the late November evening. With the sun down the temperature had already started to dip just above the freezing mark as a cold front made its way through.

"You sure you're ready for life like this?" Kira asked as she watched Sam take in the sight of all of the other kids, some of them huddled together to stay warm, settling down for the night. When Sam didn't reply she prodded with the question that she'd been waiting on since she first found her by the dumpster. "For the kids here who started off with homes, they left them because their parents were abusive. They ended up here because they had no place else to go. No one who would care about them. So what's your story? Is it your dad?"

Kira hoped that she hadn't misread the judge while observing him in court but it wouldn't have been unheard of for an abuser to have a prominent position in the community. If she learned that the judge had been abusing his daughter, whether it was right or wrong, Kira would help the girl disappear so that she wouldn't have to go home. But if the home was safe, she wanted Sam to realize that running away would alter her life in drastic ways.

"What? Is what my dad?"

"The reason that you left. Is he the reason?"

"Well, sort of. Not really. I don't know. What are you asking me?"

"Why did you feel like you had to leave home? What made things so bad that you'd risk coming here as being the best case scenario?"

"Oh. Well. Umm... I heard my parents talking last night."

That wasn't what Kira was expecting to hear. She was glad. "Talking about what?"

"My mom was saying that she wants a divorce."

Kira waited for Sam to continue while silently being glad that the girl hadn't been sent out into the cold streets for the reasons that she'd first suspected. "And?"

"I know that she will want me to live with her."

Kira knew that most of the time in divorce cases mothers are usually given custody of any children from the marriage. Even if the father was willing to take the children, many experts still felt that unless the mother was proven to be unfit that they should remain with her.

"You don't like your mother?"

"I don't really get along with my mom, but my dad is okay. We get along," Sam shrugged while she wrapped her arms around herself to fight off the chill of the night. "It isn't fair that just because my mother doesn't want to be married anymore that she can ruin my life just like that!"

"So you decided to ruin your life on your own instead." Kira raised a brow when Sam's head snapped back to look at her after the comment as if waiting for her to refute the accusation. "You could just tell your parents that you want to stay with your dad."

"Maybe." Sam quietly began to think about how walking out of her school earlier in the day probably hadn't been the smartest thing in the world. But it was too late to change her mind now. Wasn't it?

Kira led Sam down another road, one that took them toward where she'd left her truck parked in a parking deck nearby as she asked Sam to tell her more about her life at home. The more that she heard the more it was clear that the girl had just been upset and hadn't been thinking clearly when she'd decided that her life was in ruins. When the two reached the parking deck Sam clearly was confused as they made their way to a green pickup truck.

"Get in."

"Why? Where are we going?"

Kira didn't know if she'd convinced Sam to go home just yet so she answered, "My place."

"I thought that you said that you were homeless."

"I was. I'm not now. Now I live in an apartment near the courthouse."

At the mention of the courthouse Sam turned toward Kira. "You work for my dad, don't you?"

"Nope. I do work at the courthouse from time to time but I've never met your father. I did hear that you were out here but didn't hear why. I figured since I know just what kind of life awaits a girl your age out here I'd come find you and see if you had a good reason to stay on the streets."

"And if I did?"

Kira shrugged, "Then I'd do what I could to make sure that you were prepared for it before letting you fade into the streets."'

"So what are you going to do now, instead?"

"For right now, you're coming to my place. It's getting chilly and you aren't dressed very warmly. From there, we'll talk."

"And then?"

"Then," Kira opened her door to her truck and motioned for Sam to do the same, "We'll see."

Kira glanced around before she knocked on the door to the brick home in the moderate neighborhood that she'd come to. It was late but Kira knew that the people who lived there would be awake. Bright lights could be seen through the curtains to reveal a casual living room of the family who lived in the home. Through that window Kira watched as the judge whom she'd been observing earlier in the day approached the door. When he opened it Kira didn't wait to speak since it was clear that the man was too harried for a friendly greeting.

"Judge Barclay?"

"Yes? It's late and we're kind of-"

"I'm here about Sam."

The man who was about ten years or so older than Kira came up short when he heard his daughter's name. "Sam? How do you know her? Where is she? Who are you? Wh-"

"I heard about her running away earlier this evening. I used to live on the streets so I thought that I'd have a better chance of finding a kid out in the streets hiding from her parents. And I was right. She's safe but she wanted me to come talk to you before she came home."

The judge glanced around to see if the stranger at his door had a vehicle nearby. Unfortunately the woman must have parked down the street since he didn't see one that he didn't recognize. "About what?"

"Obviously, she's scared. She thinks that you're mad at her."

"I know I should be but to be honest, I've been too scared to be mad. Why did she run away?"

"I think that I'll let you ask her that. When you do, I think that you might want to do so without your wife at first. If it was just the two of you it might make it easier on Sam."

The judge eyed the woman in front of him as he said, "Okay... And why would you say that?"

"I just got the impression that Sam and her mother are a bit like oil and water. That's all."

"So when are you going to bring my daughter home? I'd like to see her."

"She already is. She planned to slip in from the the back. Do me a favor. Let her get some sleep. You both need it after the evening that you've had. You'll both be able to talk it out better once you've gotten some rest."

With that Kira turned to walk away from the house and began to walk down the street to where she'd left her truck just a few minutes prior. She felt that the girl would be alright and she had to admit, she liked the feeling of keeping one girl off of the cold, hard streets who didn't need to be there.