Night Light Read Free Page B

want to hurt anybody. Put the gun down.”
    But the boy wouldn’t lower the gun.
    “Look,” Jeff said, “I don’t care what you do. You can steal from everybody in town. Just give me back my food and from now on leave our house alone.”
    “Give it to me, Joey.” The oldest took the gun, keeping it aimed at Jeff. “I ain’t afraid to use this,” he said through his teeth.
    Jeff’s breath caught in his chest. What would happen if they shot him? Would that detached, bitter neighbor next door leave him to bleed to death? Would they drag his body out and leave him in the garbage? Would someone go for the police?
    The two little ones at the table quieted, as though the gun brought them comfort. Sweat dripped into Jeff’s eyes.
    “Shoot him, Aaron,” Joey bit out.
    Jeff latched onto his name. “No, Aaron. You don’t want to shoot me. Then you would be in trouble.”
    If there was any doubt that the gun was loaded, Joey’s attitude almost banished it. Yet Jeff was standing in front of the little ones. If the gun was loaded, wouldn’t Aaron fear killing them?
    Ammo was hard to come by, since all the stores that had once carried it had been robbed and shut down by now. With no transportation to bring new merchandise in, few of the stores had reopened.
    Besides, what kind of parents would leave four children with a loaded gun?
    He decided to take a chance. Lowering his hands, he said, “Where are your parents? I want to talk to them.”
    “I’m in charge here,” Aaron said.
    “Right. Just tell me when your mother’ll be home. I want to talk to her.”
    “She’s not comin’ home,” the little girl cried in a distraught, lilting voice. “Is she, Aaron?”
    Aaron shook his head. “Our mother is none of your business.”
    Jeff frowned. “Then your dad. Where is he?”
    “We don’t got a dad,” the youngest boy said.
    “Shut up, Luke!” Aaron moved closer with the gun.
    “Well, you can’t be living here by yourselves.”
    Aaron grabbed one of the jars that hadn’t been opened, handed it to Jeff while keeping that gun on him. “Take this and go. I don’t want to shoot you.”
    Jeff took the jar. “I don’t want you to, either. So just put the stinkin’ gun down.”
    “No! Not until you leave!”
    The other boy, the one who had hung behind Aaron, thrust the bag of potatoes at him. “Here. Now go.”
    Jeff gladly took them. He saw an empty cardboard box on the floor and loaded them into it. When he rose up, he looked for the rest of it. Some of it was on the filthy kitchen counters. Roaches feasted openly on the counter crud. How did they live like this? The smell alone was killing him.
    And the kids were so skinny, as if a gust of wind might break them in two. The girl looked like that little good-ship lollipop kid in those black-and-white movies — only with brown hair and dirt everywhere. And she wasn’t much bigger than a toddler.
    Despite his anger, his heart softened. “Look, I can see that you guys are hungry. You probably only steal so you can eat. Am I right?”
    The little girl wiped her wet eyes, smearing dirt across her cheek, and deferred to her brothers. But none of them answered.
    “You can’t go breaking into people’s homes and stealing their food,” he said. “That could get you killed. Does your mother know that you do that?”
    The kids all just stared at him. Aaron kept clutching the gun.
    “Look, just let me talk to her. When will she be home? Is she at work?”
    “We don’t know where she is,” the boy who looked around five piped in. “She left and never came back.”
    Aaron shot him a dangerous look. “Luke, don’t tell him nothin’ else.”
    But Jeff tried anyway. “How long ago did your mother leave? Hours? Days?”
    Silence.
    “Weeks?”
    Joey, the second little thief, nodded.
    “Did you look for her?”
    “Yeah,” Aaron said. “But we didn’t find her. We don’t need her, anyway. We get by just fine by ourselves.”
    “By stealing?”
    “If we