Read Online Crab Town by Iii Carlton Mellick - Free Book Online

many children had to get jobs by the time they turned ten years old. Children under the age of eighteen would work just as many hours as adults, but they would get only a third of the pay (or sometimes even less). And they would usually be assigned the most tedious jobs available. A lot of traffic cops were teenagers, as well as factory workers, janitors, dishwashers, even construction workers. Once child laborers turn eighteen they might be considered for fulltime positions, but more often than not their employers just fire them and hire a younger kid so that they don’t have to pay them adult wages.
    Little Sister was born and raised in Crab Town, so she has never had to work as a child laborer. But she can pull off posing as a child police officer well enough. As she directs cyclists away from the bank, nobody thinks twice about it. They see this kind of thing everyday. Even another police officer walking by her barricade didn’t suspect a thing.
    “Damn road work again?” the cop asked Little Sister.
    She just shrugged at him and waved him on.
    “Why do they even bother?”
    When the cop saw a blue dreadlock pop out of her police hat, the man gave her a disapproving glance but didn’t think anything of it.
    Little Sister has always been smooth and confident. She knows how to act natural in any circumstance. Her motto is: just act like you own the place and nobody will question you . Even as a punk kid with dreadlocks, none of the passersby ever questioned her legitimacy.
    The only time Little Sister lost her poise was when she heard the gun shots coming from inside the bank. It happened while an old woman was bugging her to let her through the barricade, unwilling to take the detour.
    “Just let me through,” said the lady, holding two brown grocery bags full of meats and cereals. “I just need to go two blocks down.”
    “There’s been a radiation spill in the area, ma’am,” said Little Sister. “It’s for your own safety.”
    “I’m old. Walking the long way around would be more damaging than a little radiation. I made it through two nuclear blasts, so I think I can make it through a little spill.”
    “I can’t make an exception, not for anyone,” said Little Sister. “If I let you through I could lose my job.”
    “You could lose your job if you don’t let me through,” said the old lady. “I’ll let the police department know that you mistreated an old lady. I have friends in high places around here. You’ll be out of the job.”
    “Make a complaint if you must, but you are not getting through. Please move along.”
    The old lady pulled out a pen and ripped off a piece of a grocery bag to write on. “What is your name?”
    “Junior Officer Samantha Kensington.”
    “What is your boss’s name?”
    “John…”
    Then the gun shots rang out in the bank. Little Sister was taken aback. She looked around, she didn’t know what to do.
    “What was that?” the old lady asked.
    “It… It was nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
    But the old lady wasn’t talking about the gun shots.
    “I asked you your boss’s name, missy!”
    “Oh… Captain John Dearmother.”
    She could hear the Tommy Gun roaring through the bank. It seemed the old lady was too hard of hearing to notice. Or perhaps she just didn’t care.
    “Dearmother?” asked the old lady.
    Little Sister realized the name was a little too fake, but she was caught off guard and that was what spilled out.
    “I’ll make sure you are fired by the end of the week,” said the old woman, finally moving on her way. “That will teach you for not helping an old woman in need.”
    Soon after that, people were running out of the bank, spilling into the street toward her. Even these people didn’t catch on she wasn’t a real cop.
    “They’re robbing the bank!” one of them said. “Call for backup. Two cops were already shot.”
    One man was even ready to give a full report to her. he said, “The robbers were two women, two men, and