Dangerous Days of Daniel X

Chapter 68

BEM AND KULAY’S HOME was a cavelike structure about the size of a toolshed, with a rusty drainpipe in the corner for a toilet. And, I think, a sink.

Kulay turned out to be four and was doing about as well as her “big” brother. She was pretty, but thin and bony, and one of her feet looked like it had been crushed recently and had healed wrong.

“Take me,” Kulay said to her brother as he opened the corrugated sheet of metal they used as a door. “Take me. Take me. Take me.”

She didn’t seem to notice that I was there, and I was curious about where it was that she wanted to go.

“I’m busy, Kulay,” Bem said, exasperated. “Can’t you see that? Can’t you see him?”

I searched the pockets of my jumpsuit and came out with a crushed blueberry energy bar I’d managed to keep hidden from the horse-heads. I tore it open and gave them each half.

That seemed to win Bem over. I actually saw him drop his permanent scowl for a second as he chewed.

“Where does Kulay want to go?” I asked.

“It’s… the only good thing left in this crummy city, I guess. It’s… hard to describe. You have to see it. Do you want to? Anyway, she won’t stop bugging me until we go.”

“Take me, take me!” I said in response, and even Kulay grinned this time. Cute kid. I wondered if she was one of my cousins.