Miya washed the dishes she and Lesedi and Tyler dirtied and left the rest of the food in the warmer of her cook stove. Lesedi had enticed Tyler into the living room to see if they could find anything interesting on her TV.
Drying her hands, Miya considered what to do next. She really wanted to go back to her work table and see if Lesedi followed, but common sense prevailed. Even if he came along she couldn't do that in a houseful of people liable to walk in at any moment. A walk then? No doubt Tyler could use some fresh air and exercise. And maybe Lesedi would walk with them.
In the living room, she paused to eavesdrop on Tyler speaking softly to Lesedi. "And then we moved again, but my Grams and Paps got killed that time before I started school. I didn't have any more relatives so they put me in the system."
Lesedi ran a hand over his close-cropped black hair, pausing briefly mid-way to signal Miya to silence. "What is that?"
"The system? It's what they do with kids nobody wants. You move from one house to another with other kids. Sometimes it's pretty good but mostly it's just not bad. And sometimes it's really bad." Tyler stopped a moment and studied Lesedi as if deciding how much to trust him. "My friend James was getting sent to one of the really, really bad houses, where the man uses boys like those men did Kassie. So we ran away. It was going good, too. Some kids that didn't have families were showing us what to do so we didn't get caught and put back in the system. But then James got sick. I didn't know what to do. You ever have a time when you didn't know what to do and every choice was a not-good one?"
Lesedi appeared to consider a moment, brow furrowed. "Yes, I have. I was scared." His hand on the back of the couch clenched into a fist. "What was wrong with James?"
"He stayed really hot but said he was cold, then he started throwing up and had the runs bad. When that stopped he couldn't walk by himself anymore. Tina, our friend, said for him to drink water and he'd get better, but when he did, he started throwing up blood. I got really scared that he might die. I called nine-one-one at a shop. I was going to leave when the ambulance guys took James to the hospital, but he was afraid and I couldn't leave him."
Lesedi nodded. "That was brave of you."
Tyler shook his head. "Maybe, but it was stupid too. At the hospital they were really nice, but they thought I might have the same germ James did so I let them test my blood. I didn't want to get sick like that. The next day they told me I wasn't sick and I couldn't stay there. They signed me over to a man who was supposed to take me back to the foster home. Only he took me to another place where they had a lot of kids, grown-ups too, that they'd kidnapped and were going to sell."
The first disapproving expression crossed Lesedi's face only to be quickly hidden. "What do you mean, sell? Exactly?" He glanced at Miya again and the horror and anger in his eyes froze her breath.
Tyler took a deep breath and gave Lesedi a look that said he could hardly believe anyone could be so ignorant. "They would bring us into a room for other people to look at. They took our clothes and those people would come and look and give them money for the ones they wanted." His cheeks flushed dark. "One of the older boys told me what they were selling us for, what the people would do to us. He said if you were sick they didn't want you, or if you were stupid. I threw up on a rich man."
"That was good thinking." Lesedi's brow was drawn to a tight line of fury but he kept his voice light and gentle.
The boy nodded. "The day they brought Kassie they took us to be looked at again but before anyone asked to look at me, these guys came in and messed it all up and took some stuff they were selling too." He grinned broadly, eyes flashing. "I don't know what those guys did, but it really scared the ones keeping us. Some of them grabbed a few of us and ran to the truck and got away while the others stayed to fight the ones who came. Those ones never came back."
"You know who they were? The ones who came?"
"No, I never saw them. But there was a lot of noise and light and the ones who ran with us kept talking about men flying and monsters and angels. I think they were smoking crack."
Lesedi choked back a laugh and Kassie came out of the guest room at the same time, looking flushed and disheveled.
She paused a moment then came on into the living room. "Sorry to interrupt. Lyght asked me to apologize for keeping you waiting but he had to take care of something. He'll be here soon and said he has to talk to us all about something important."
So that was how he was going to approach it, a huge emergency that had to be dealt with right away. And of course, he'd need money to take care of things and save someone. Despite herself, Miya glanced at Tyler. None of them knew the boy and he certainly wasn't too young to be involved in a scam. Was his whole story cooked up, a way to get money? There had to be a catch somewhere.