The Wall

66

“Come on,” Flower said, grabbing Moses’ hand. He didn’t elude her grasp, though he knew the security guys would take him out if they saw this. Luckily, the girl dragged him over to a wall that was so high, she needed both hands to climb over it. She dropped his hand and led the way.

“You’re still thinking that nobody should be able to see us, right?”

“Yeah.” Flower paused at the street and looked around. “I’ll cross first.”

She left him where he was standing and crossed the street. After she reached the other side, she looked around once more before motioning at him.

Moses ran to catch up with her. Ducked behind the next wall. “How do you know your way around here so well?”

“Because of Busi. And my cousin Nandi, too. When she’s here, they sometimes let us go outside on our own. My cousin’s already twelve. Come on.”

Flower studied the lay of the land like a burglar and crept through front yards, over terraces, and under hedges. Moses followed her until she came to a stop at a street. She raised a finger to her lips, then pointed back the way they had just come. Moses didn’t understand immediately what she was trying to say. She pointed once more in the same direction as he heard footsteps. He finally understood and hid. He flattened himself behind a tree and heard a voice he recognized.

“Flower, you’re being a naughty little girl again!” The referee. Flower giggled. “You know very well you aren’t allowed to play here.”

“I’m about to go.”

“I should tan your heinie.” Lecherous pig.

“I’m going, promise.” Flower’s voice was already fading.

“I’ll be watching you,” the referee called after her.

Silence. They had reached a part of The Pines that Moses didn’t recognize. Closer to the road from Abbotsford to Dorchester Heights. However, this did him no good if he couldn’t climb over the wall. Maybe it was at least good that they wouldn’t be looking for him here.

“Moses!” Flower was back.

“What do you actually play with Busi and Nandi?”

“We hide so they can’t see us.” When Moses didn’t say anything, she continued: “We aren’t allowed to play here. All this is private property, but we do it anyway. We just have to make sure nobody sees us.”

Cool girl. If she develops other interests later on, I could fall in love with her, Moses thought.

“Back there,” she pointed toward the river, “are two cars. The people in them are wearing uniforms. And over there,” she pointed in the opposite direction, “I saw a police car drive by. It didn’t head this way, though. And then I saw old Mrs. Peacock, but she doesn’t say anything.”

“Why doesn’t she say anything?”

“She can’t.”

“Did she have a stroke?”

“Tongue cancer.”

“How do you know that?”

“From Nandi. She heard it from her mother. And she heard it from Mommy.”

“She doesn’t have a tongue anymore?”

Flower shook her head. “Come on. We gotta go.”

“How far is it?”

“We still have to cross two more streets.”