Questing for a Dream, page 17
There were cheers from the others and, in a few minutes, everyone seemed to have brought out one form of alcohol or another. After turning down drinks several times, Nadie finally accepted a can of beer. She obviously wasn’t going to get any peace until she accepted their hospitality.
Their meeting place was an apartment owned by one of them, but Nadie wasn’t sure which one. There was some broken-down furniture, but little else to indicate anyone actually lived there. Nadie sat on an uncomfortable couch sipping her beer and Best came over and perched on the arm of the couch beside her.
“So, what’s your story, Tonya?” he asked. “What brings you to our little piece of heaven?”
Nadie looked at him and didn’t answer.
“Spill,” he persisted. “What’s going to happen if you tell me something? You’re going to turn into a pumpkin?” He tipped up his bottle and chugged down a few swallows.
“I don’t know,” Nadie shrugged. “I just had to get out of there. Everything was…” She shook her head, trying to put the thought into words. “Everything was falling apart. I felt like… if I didn’t get out, I was gonna die.”
“So you thought you’d come to the murder capital.”
“Well… I didn’t plan it that way. I might not stay here. Maybe I’ll go west.”
He laughed. “Don’t bother. You don’t think we’ve got a pretty sweet deal here?”
Nadie looked around at the other teens around them. At first, she had thought it sounded too good to be true. Now she was more convinced than ever that it was. They might be smiling and laughing, but that didn’t mean they were happy. They were all there without families. Without tribes. They weren’t meant to live alone. No one was, but especially not kids.
Nadie looked out the window at the darkening city. “When do we have to be back for supper?”
“Who needs supper?” Holly demanded. “Have another drink.”
Nadie had already had enough to drink. She was getting queasy. Something solid would help to settle her stomach.
“Don’t we have a curfew?” she persisted.
“Not until nine. And ten is the real cutoff.”
Nadie shifted anxiously. “I’d like to go back for supper,” she reiterated. “What time is it?”
“You’re already too late for supper. Calm yourself.”
Nadie watched Holly surreptitiously until she was deep in a conversation with the acne-faced boy, and then headed for the door of the apartment. She didn’t have to stick around if she’d had enough. She was free to go wherever she liked. At least until curfew; if she was going to keep her bed with CFS.
“Hey!” Holly’s yell cut across the conversations in the room and everybody stopped talking and turned around to see what was going on. “Where the hell do you think you’re going, Tonya?”
“Back to my room,” Nadie said, with a calmness she didn’t feel. She took two more steps and was reaching for the door.
Holly was quick. Far quicker than anyone else in the room who was closer to Nadie. She had shoved her way through everyone that stood in her way and grabbed Nadie by the arm.
“You’re not going anywhere, noob! I didn’t give you permission to go.”
“I don’t need permission.”
“You think you can just waltz in here, take advantage of me and my hospitality, and then take off without a word? I spent all last night and today getting you set up. You don’t just walk away from me!”
It wasn’t the proper way to honor Holly’s hospitality, but Nadie was getting more and more uncomfortable with the situation.
“I’m sorry. I’m tired and I want to get back to my room. I appreciate everything—”
“You appreciate everything?” Holly’s voice was hard. Her nose was inches from Nadie’s. “You appreciate it? No, you don’t! You’re spitting in my face!”
“I just want to—”
Nadie didn’t even see Holly’s fist coming. It hit her square in the eye, driving her head back into the wall. There was a burst of light in Nadie’s brain and pain flared in her face and the wound on the back of her head. Nadie was unable to restrain a cry. She put her hand up to her face,
The crew started chanting for a fight. Holly stood back from Nadie, both fists clenched, her eyes furious. Nadie stood there in disbelief.
“You can’t fight?” Holly demanded. “Come on, noob, let’s see what you’ve got!”
Nadie shook her head. “I don’t want to fight you.” Her voice shook.
Holly advanced and shoved Nadie’s shoulder, goading her. “Put ’em up! It’s time you learned. Let’s see your mettle.”
Nadie knew if she fought back, she was going to be beaten that much worse. Her only hope was that by refusing to fight, she would be able to de-escalate Holly’s fury. Holly slapped her across the face, an open-handed crack that echoed through the watching room. She had hit the opposite side from the punch. Nadie’s head spun. She fell against the wall, leaning on it to hold herself up.
There were a few cheers. But the chant for a fight had fallen away and most of the crew were quiet now.
“She’s had enough, Holly,” Best said.
“Who are you to tell me how to run my girls?” Holly demanded, whirling around to face Best. “You think you got the right to tell me anything?”
He held up his hands. He was grinning, but his eyes were narrow, watching her warily. Holly left Nadie alone and flew at Best, landing several cracking blows before he managed to defend himself. Nadie watched with her mouth wide open, unable to move. The two of them exchanged a few more blows before the other teens pulled them apart. Then they went back to drinking and chatting as if nothing had happened, in spite of bleeding cuts and swelling bruises.
“Better watch your step,” one of the girls said to Nadie as she stood there, watching the room. “Holly doesn’t like any backtalk.”
“Yeah,” Nadie agreed faintly.
“There was a girl killed a few weeks ago, back behind the hotel. Beaten to death.”
“Holly killed her?” Nadie’s voice spiked up.
“Maybe Holly. Maybe she had someone else do it. But you don’t want to cross her.”
Nadie swallowed and nodded.
Chapter Nineteen
Nadie fell into bed, physically and mentally exhausted. Her head whirled with all that had happened, good and bad. Leaving the reservation had seemed like the only thing for her to do, but she was starting to wonder if she had really left any of the bad stuff behind.
She and Holly had gotten lectures from the supervisors when they showed up just before ten o’clock, both with black eyes. Nadie had not had much to drink, so she was pretty steady on her feet, but Holly had gotten an earful about coming back to the hotel drunk.
“If you can’t abide by the rules for this facility, we will have to consider alternatives,” the social worker had said sternly.
Holly laughed in her face. “You think I don’t know you don’t have anywhere else to put us? You’re lucky we come back here, instead of just running away.”
“Holly…”
“Say my name all you like. Nothing is gonna change. I’m ready for bed and it’s almost lights out; are you gonna let me go to bed or keep me up?”
So they’d been sent back to their rooms without any further discipline. Holly gave Nadie a cheery goodnight and went off to her room. Nadie went into her own, closed the inside lock, and crawled into bed.
Having missed supper because of the drinking party, she dug the emergency rations out of her backpack and ate a fruit bar before lying down and closing her eyes to sleep.
She had been sleeping for a few hours when she awoke to voices outside her door. Two men. She rolled over and watched the door, concerned.
The doorknob turned and the door cracked open just slightly. There were whispers. The door was pushed further open, and the security lock caught it and would allow it to open no further. One of the men swore. “It’s locked.”
“I thought they had to leave them unlocked.”
“The handle is unlocked. It’s the security latch.”
The door banged against the lock a couple more times, as if the man was checking to make sure it was really locked. Then he knocked on the door, softly.
“Tonya. It’s Todd Swan. Bed check.”
“I’m here.”
“Come open the door. They are not supposed to be locked.”
Nadie slid out of bed and approached the door. “I’m here,” she repeated, getting close enough to the gap in the door that he would be able to see her face.
“Unlock the door.”
“No.”
“We need to check on you.”
“I’m right here. You can see that. I’m fine.”
“Is there someone else in there with you? Is that why you won’t open it?”
“No. I’m by myself.”
“Unlock the door.”
“No.”
He said something quietly to the other man.
“Who’s with you?” Nadie asked.
“Nobody. It’s just me. We have to make sure everyone is safe.”
“I’m fine.”
With a sigh of exasperation, he pulled the door closed again. Nadie waited, listening. “Can’t do anything about it,” she heard Todd say. “Sorry.”
There was a grumble from the other man and they moved down the hall to the next room. Nadie swallowed and tried to return her breathing to normal. She eventually returned to her bed, though she was unable to relax to go back to sleep.
It was an hour or two later she heard voices again, and the door again opened to the limits of the lock. Nadie waited for Todd to again call out to her to confirm she was in bed where she was supposed to be. Holly had warned that locking the door would make bed checks more cumbersome.
“She’s got the lock on,” Todd’s voice pointed out. He was angry.
“Not my problem.” The other voice was not a man this time, but a young woman. Holly.
“She’s not supposed to lock the door.”
“I didn’t tell her to. She figured that out all by herself.”
“Get her to take it off.”
Holly’s voice was tough. “The deal is I bring them to you. What happens after that ain’t any of my business. I did my best to soften her up for you.”
“You know—”
“I know you still owe me my cut. And if you try to squirm out of that one, I’m gonna start talking.”
“You get a cut when it works out. This one hasn’t worked out.”
“You want to turn her out, that’s your responsibility, not mine. I get the finder fee as soon as you get someone in a room.”
“You watch yourself, Holly,” Todd’s voice was low and menacing. “I might just terminate our arrangement. I’ll get someone else to help out. Like Mitchell.”
“Mitchell?” Holly snorted. “She’ll scare girls away, not bring them to you. Or else start setting up her own stable. Look, if you don’t want my help, just say the word…”
There was silence while she waited for his answer.
“Okaaaay…” Holly sounded prepared to end their arrangement.
“Nothing has changed,” Todd said quickly. “You’ll get your money. I’m just not happy with the way this one is developing.”
“You’ll just have to keep working on her. She’ll come around. Some of them just take a little extra finessing.”
“At least talk to her tomorrow about not putting the lock on.”
“That’s gonna have to come from you. Why would I tell her not to protect herself?”
In the morning, Holly acted like nothing had happened. She didn’t mention the party the night before or apologize for punching Nadie. She didn’t mention the late night forays to Nadie’s room and didn’t suggest she should leave her door unlocked at night. She was bright-eyed for the morning head-count and grabbed herself a muffin from the assortment of breakfast foods provided. The muffins looked oily and sweet to Nadie, and she filled a bowl with cold cereal instead.
“Have a good sleep last night?” Holly asked.
Rather than confront her about her nocturnal activities, Nadie decided to lie. “Yeah. Really good. I don’t think I woke up once.”
“Good! You gotta get your sleep if you don’t want to get sick.” Holly took a big bite out of her muffin. “We’ll see if we can’t find you a way to make some money today.”
Nadie looked at her sideways and made no comment. She might be a naive, backwoods kid, but even with her isolation on the reserve, she still had a pretty good idea by now of what Holly had in mind.
“I can check around on my own,” she said. “I’ll call the number from the mission. They said they had jobs on their computers.”
“Ah, noob. So naive. Those jobs are for adults. Even the ones that don’t need a high school diploma, they still want grown-ups, not kids. When we want to earn a little cash, we gotta be more creative.”
“Like what?” Nadie asked. Holly could say straight out what it was she had in mind.
“Well, I don’t know where your skills are yet,” Holly said cagily. “We’ll take you out, see what you have an aptitude for.”
At Nadie’s stare, she expanded.
“I know some businesses that will hire kids under the table. You know, cash money, no taxes. Waitressing, sweeping floors, washing dishes, that kind of thing. Not easy to get into, though. Binning, panhandling, squeegeeing, anybody can do that. It’s just the competition is a killer. You got any other ideas?”
Nadie shrugged uncomfortably. “I just… want a normal job.”
“You’re a kid. No one is gonna give you a regular job. They’ll tell you to get a job, but they won’t give you one.”
“Nothing illegal,” Nadie said. “I don’t want to go to jail.”
“Ah, they won’t send you to jail your first time around. Look, you can do whatever you want. You can help little old ladies carry their groceries to their cars and hope they’ll tip you more than a piece of peppermint gum for it. But if you want to make real money—you know, enough that you can eat and buy the things you need—you’re going to have to be willing to stretch a little. Learn some new skills. Don’t be scared you’re gonna get busted.”
“I can weave,” Nadie offered.
Holly looked at her blankly.
“Textiles. Like a blanket,” Nadie explained. “I made a really nice blanket.”
“Well… good for you. But I don’t think you’re going to find much market for them in downtown Winnipeg. You can’t make real money hawking crafts.”
“Check over there for cans or bottles,” Holly instructed, pointing to a garbage can on the other side of the food court.
Nadie was pretty sure Holly training her on ‘binning’—turning in bottles for deposit refunds—was just another way to ‘soften her up’ for jobs that would bring in serious money. They’d only been at it for an hour, and Nadie’s hands were so sticky and smelly, she didn’t think any amount of soap was going to clean them up at the end of the day. Holly didn’t actually touch any of the bottles, leaving the dirty work for Nadie.
There was a newspaper lying on one of the tables next to the garbage can, and Nadie glanced at it while she checked for bottles or cans. The words ‘raft’ and ‘river’ caught her eye. She took a quick look to make sure Holly wasn’t watching her, and opened the paper up so she could see the picture and read the article. The picture was fuzzy, a couple of firemen in bright yellow uniforms were reaching over the side of a rescue boat to pick something up from out of the water.
The article indicated a young woman had drowned rafting down the river on a homemade raft. While the body was significantly battered, decomposed, and damaged by wildlife—Nadie supposed that meant eaten—she had been identified by the raft and her possessions as Nadie Laplante.
Nadie stared in stunned disbelief at the announcement of her own death. It had to be Annie. It served her right for stealing Nadie’s raft and supplies and leaving Nadie to die in the wilderness.
“Newbie!” Holly snapped, punching Nadie in the shoulder. “Pay attention! I’ve been calling you. What’s going on?”
Holly looked at the open newspaper, her eyes quickly scanning the headline and picture.
“Someone you know?”
“Knew.” Nadie was dead. All of her family and friends now thought she had died. They were mourning her. Maybe even burying Annie’s body now, thinking it was Nadie. They would not be looking for her or expecting her to come back. “I knew her a long time ago.”
“Nothin’ you can do for her now,” Holly said briskly. “Let’s pick up the pace. So far you’re making about three bucks an hour. That’s not going to support you even with CFS giving you a room.”
After turning in the cans and bottles for the meager refund, half of which Holly took for herself, Nadie bought them both coffee and a danish at a nearby coffee shop. That depleted her funds to almost nothing. Holly watched her pocketing the little bit of change remaining. She shook her head.
“I told you, you can’t make a living binning. Even once you manage to put on a little speed, you’re lucky if you make enough for a mouse to live on.”
“We could have gone back to the hotel for lunch. Then we wouldn’t have to spend anything.”
“You’re gonna get tired of the CFS meals pretty quick. And you don’t want to have to hang around there any more than necessary.”
That was a change of tune over everyone insisting the hotel was the best living situation Nadie could hope for. She sighed, tired and confused.
Holly offered her a couple more caffeine pills. “Take another hit. We still got another stop to make.” She led the way and Nadie followed, not really caring where they were going. The main streets surrounding the hotel were becoming more familiar now, but Holly led her beyond where she had been previously. She spoke to a lot of people on the street. It seemed like Holly knew everybody, and everybody knew her. They ended up in the alley behind a big brick building. Holly knocked sharply on the back door to one of the businesses.
