Read Online Can't Get There from Here by Todd Strasser - Free Book Online Page A

shoulders. He could find some other hungry gutter punk who wanted to get out of the rain. But it wouldn’t be me.

TWELVE
    I spent most of the night searching the streets around the tunnel for Rainbow, then slept for a while in a twenty-four-hour banking room where people came in and got money from ATMs. Toward morning the rain turned to snow and a brown security truck stopped at the curb. A security guard came in and kicked me out of the ATM room. Outside, the dark, snow-covered streets were empty. Skinny white icicles hung from the streetlights.
    I walked downtown. The hood of my sweatshirt froze stiff and turned white with snow. I was cold, but I liked being outside. As morning came the darkness turned to a dull gray. For once the city was quiet and pretty. Hardly anyone was out. The streets were white, and all the storefronts were covered with metal gates and grates. The only footprints down the sidewalk were mine.
    Soon the cold seeped deep into me. My teeth chattered. My feet were numb and each step I took hurt. My fingers grew stiff and throbbed with pain. Up ahead was that brick building with the big windows. The library—a warm, dry place that was open to the public. But all I could think about was that mean creep Bobby. As Ipassed the building I looked in through the windows. It was dark inside. I could see the tables with all those computers that anyone could use. The chairs were empty and the computer screens were blank. No sign of Bobby, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t in there somewhere.
    “Hello.” Coming toward me was someone wearing a long brown coat and a fuzzy cap of blue, red, and yellow wool. He was tall and carried two big shopping bags. It was the man who had blotchy skin like mine. We stared at each other.
    “Vitiligo,” he said.
    “What?”
    He pressed a finger against a pale patch on his chin. “That’s what this is called. Have you always had it?”
    I nodded.
    “Me too,” he said. “Did you want to get into the library?”
    I didn’t answer. I was confused. I thought he’d say more about our skin. But he acted like it was no big deal. Like it was the same as two people who were both lefthanded or had green eyes. Then I looked in the shopping bags he was carrying. They were filled with paper plates and napkins and plastic cups. I thought I could smell doughnuts.
    “Well, I’m afraid it’s too early. We won’t be open for a few hours,” he said. Then he cocked his head and looked more closely at me. “You’re shivering.”
    “Maybe.”
    “What’s your name?”
    “Maybe.”
    He made a funny face. “We’re having a Martin Luther King celebration today. I came in early to set up. If you’d like to come in now you can get warm and I’ll give you something to eat.”
    “What about Bobby?”
    The man frowned. “How do you know Bobby?”
    “The other day he hurt me and my friend.”
    The man’s mouth fell partway open. “That was you? Tony told me what Bobby did.”
    “Who?”
    “Tony’s the security guard,” he explained. “I want you to know that you’re welcome to come in here any time you want and you will not be hurt. I’ll make sure Bobby leaves you alone. Of course, you’d be better off washing someplace else. If you need a place to do that, I can probably help you. Bobby won’t be here until later. You can come in now and get warm and have something to eat.”
    He sounded sincere, like one of the nice ones. But you never knew. He might still want something. Everyone wanted something. He went past me and up the snow-covered steps, then took out some keys and opened the door. He looked back. “Still not coming?”
    I wanted to so bad.
    “You can eat and get warm and go. I promise. No one will hurt you.”
    I followed him through the front doors, but stoppedinside where the air felt dry and warm. I stayed close to the doors. Just in case.
    “You can wait here if you want,” the man said, leaving the shopping bags by the computer tables and going toward