Anyway, a burnt offering’s gotta be burnt.”
“What happened, Yak?” Roy asked.
He shrugged and spread his enormous hands outward. “I found
him run aground. Shoreside. Shipless.”
Roy bent down to speak to the pale, half-grown boy but he would
not return Roy’s gaze. “What happened to you, son?” he asked, but
there was no reply.
“We need to take him to a hospital,” Colin insisted. “Kid’s
shaking and shit.”
“No!” the thin young man suddenly yelled through a cloud of
smoke and his own stringy blond hair. His voice was ragged and raw,
older than it should have been. “Leave me alone! Sinners! Infidels!
Merchants!”
Leona spoke up, “Well then, mister salty, let’s at least get you
cleaned up. Here, come with me.” She took his hand. Bennie followed
them.
“How old do you think he is?” Colin wondered.
“He looks about fifteen,” Yak guessed.
“At the most. He’s pretty clean-shaven for a nutcase. Not to
mention the zodiacne on his face.”
“And what about his family?” Roy asked.
Yak replied, “I don’t know. He’s living over at World
O’Partments.”
Colin shook his head. “I thought you had to be eighteen to live
there. So is he addicted or crazy?”
“Maybe a little of both,” Yak shrugged, “He said he was floating
in the sea all night.”
Roy smirked and patted his friend on the shoulder. “You do this
one more time and you might as well go pro.”
“Lifeguard?” Yak asked.
“I don’t know. Professional Baptist?”
“Only if he was looking for God.”
“Maybe he got tired of walking all over the world,” ventured
Niles, still seated at the counter. “Decided to swim instead.”
“Is that some kind of a joke?” said Roy, uncomprehending.
“No joke, brother,” returned Niles, “Just that I seen that boy all
over town. I make a delivery in Torrance, he’s there. I make a delivery
in Pasadena, he’s there. I saw him walking on a freeway overpass one
time. I remember ‘cause he’s always wearing that ‘Don’t Tread on Me’
T-shirt. I offered him a lift once but he just shook his head and kept
ABYSSINIA
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