Chap 26

Yael looked down at the sleeping boy.

My sleeping boy, he thought as he gently brushed his fingertips against Jesse's forehead, wiping a few stray hairs back into place off his sweating brow. He bent over from his kneeling position and could feel that Jesse's skin was hot against his lips.

Water, he needs clean water when he wakes up. Ice if I can get it.

He didn't want to leave him to get the things he knew they would need, not just yet.

He needs to sleep more, and I have to watch over him so he'll be safe, he reckoned with himself. It was true, though that wasn't Yael's overriding motive.

He lay down in front of his boy, lying on his side, a bent arm pillowing his head, and stared into his boy's closed lids. He noted the way Jesse's lips were partly open, felt for his breath on his fingertips as he lifted a hand over them. He was breathing heavily, both a sign of deep sleep and an agitated body. He didn't like the idea that he had made Jesse worry, but he had to protect himself, and now he would protect both of them, so it was alright what he did.

He fussed over the filthy sheets and rags arranged around Jesse, patting here and tucking there as the stench wafted around them, the smell of rotting bums sleeping in train station urinals.

Well, isn't that what we both are? he thought to himself. He saw a fat, full tick crawl out onto one of Jesse's now very off-white casts, and squished it. He licked at the blood remnant left behind on the whitish material, somehow wanting to keep Jesse as clean as he could in that place.

He's My boy, he thought again.

"Yael?" Jesse called quietly as he opened his eyes wide.

"Oh, you remember my name already." Yael sat up in wonder and attention.

Jesse knew the importance of remembering and saying the right names. Todd and the compound had taught him that.

"Is there water?" Jesse's voice rasped in thirst.

"I was just going to find us some. I'm afraid to leave you alone, though." His lined face radiated his fear. Emotions were so stark in someone with no inhibitions. "Can you get up and come with me?"

"I… I don't know. I hurt bad."

Yael understood this, but he had to come with him.

He looked around the place. The abandoned house was filled with rubbish, broken chair backs, pieces of wire and shredded rubber, half a bathroom sink, empty spray cans, soiled rags galore, but anything with any value would have been taken ages ago. He went into the next room, what was once a small study that was piled with junk, and thought he spied something.

Yael called back out, "Do you think you can sit up?"

"I think so, if you help me."

Jesse heard crashing as things big and small were thrown around the other room. Yael came back, a little wild eyed and sweaty himself, as he dragged a broken, rusted out grocery cart that was lying on its side behind him. He righted it, rolling it back and forth a few feet. The body of the cart bulged out, some of the thick wires jutting in a hole that had been kicked through it on one side. They almost looked like spikes, and maybe that was the intent. The attached plastic seat and mini veggie compartment had been ripped out. No kiddies in this ride anymore. The heavier metal struts underneath were still intact. The rubber, though ragged, still turned. Someone had wanted it to move things around, and tried to preserve those parts.

Jesse stared at his new wheels.

"It's okay, you'll fit," Yael said. That was not Jesse's concern.

"It's good. It'll just look like we're play'n around." Yael stared off, lost in a more complicated mental scene. "Some bums would kill for this thing, though there's always another. Bag lady guys don't stay long in this house, either. They ain't that crazy."

Jesse was still staring. Yael missed the dreadful distain on his face.

"Ok, yeah, it's kinda tall. I'll help you in."

"~~~~~"

The New Mexico sun shone heavily on them as they rolled their way down Phoenix Ave toward one of Yael's shelters. There were several facilities in the area they could scrounge from, and he liked the idea of showing Jesse what he knew, and also showing him off. New Day Ministries had been good to him, tried to help him in the days he could be helped. That was a long, bright time ago. One of the long time ministers waved to him from quite a distance away as he coached a little basketball game from a court out back. He still held hope out for Yael, smiled broadly as they came closer, gave him a sincere bear hug through his stink when he met them at the chain link fence.

"I'm always glad to see you, Yael. Are you staying with us today?"

"I don't know, Dad (his way of saying Father), but I do need a few things for my boy."

"Of course." The pastor turned to Jesse half lying in the shopping cart. Despite his initial protests, the terrible, embarrassing thing was a godsend. Yael had lined it with cardboard bits, pulled up carpet remnants and the best rags he could find. There was even an old, stuffed, big horsey of some sort (unicorn, dragon, it was too tattered and filthy to tell or look closely at) to help cushion the harsh wires and Jesse's legs. Still, it was crawling with bugs and the pastor took a step back a moment until he realized Jesse's condition.

"My God. Yael?" He glanced back toward him as if to say where did he find Jesse, from inside a hospital?

"No, his name's Jesse. Do you think you can give us some food, Dad?"

"Yes, of course, but, he's going to need more than food, do you understand that, Yael?"

"No, I can't go back," Jesse rasped out quickly, his eye lids still half-closed, so heavy in his weariness. "They already kicked me out. Don't take me back there."

"We can find you a place, son. You can't be just left in your condition. This is inhuman." The pastor leaned over him, tried to grasp one of Jesse's casts as he pulled his arm back, not allowing him.

"Yael, get me out of here," Jesse said.

Yael immediately obeyed, he knew these situations and would do what Jesse said about it, and began pushing the cart away, fast.

"Wait! Yael, … Jesse. I'll just do whatever you ask for, just stay with us a little while, okay?"

Yael was still obeying Jesse's last request and was getting them both farther and farther away. The pastor ran after them.

"Okay, just some food if that's all you want, nothing else. I won't call anyone. I promise to God."

"Hold up," Jesse said quietly. Yael heard and obeyed that too. He loved his boy. The pastor walked the remainder of the way to them, slightly winded.

Jesse said to the minister as he bent again over him, trying to hear. "You… won't call anyone… even if you saw I was dying?"

"If you want to meet God sooner than you should, I promise not to interfere," the pastor sighed.

"I don't think it would be God," Jesse said, as Yael followed the Father and pushed them back toward the shelter.