Thanks For The Sandwich

One of the street lights in the small alley hummed noisily. It flickered a few times and then went black. Serena all but ate the wax paper the sandwich was wrapped in. “Yeah huh.” She said, looking for the other bit of sandwich without realizing she’d already woofed it down. “On account of like you said, I kinda suck. An’ if I practice on anyone with a shop, they’ll chop my hands off. An’ if I get caught, what if someone calls a jackboot on me? How am I not supposed to suck?”

“Don't you have some Rin mates to teach you that kind of stuff? Why are you even out this late?” Mathias tried to continue to walk but the mouse of a street rat kept following him!

“I’m not sure what that is, but I am sure I don’t, on account of I don’t have anyone. An’ I’m out this late on account of where else am I supposed to be?” She asked. “Why are you out this late?”

“I work for a living.” Mathias said stiffly, loosening his tie. “How do you not know what Rin Gang is? And ideally you should sleeping. Somewhere not here.” He with a lackluster wave.

“I can go somewhere else an’ sleep.” She told him. “It’s okay, I get chased outta a lotta places. I didn’t know this one was yours.”

“No? What? No! I don't sleep here either. I have a place with … a couch.” Mathias said making vague nothing he thought implied a couch.

“So is that a yes?” She asked, hopping behind him.

“Are we still talking about pickpocketing or sleeping and what are you doing why are you hopping?” Mathias said, giving her a strange look. This kid was way too upbeat.

“My belly’s happy,” she told him, patting it. “And hopping is fun. Like a rabbit. We’re talking about practicing pickpocketing. You said I kinda suck. An’ I wanna get better at it on account of no one hires you when you’re ten, an’ when they do, they steal your tip money an’ don’t pay you an’ threaten to call the police if you don’t leave.”

“Question: do you have any sense of … survival or self preservation?” Mathias asked wondering what planet this kid fell from. “Okay shot in the dark are you even from around here?”

Serena looked crestfallen. “No. I’m not from around here, I don’t even know where here is, but there’s no vending machines an’ no one cares if it’s raining and you just wanna try an’ stay warm an’ dry in a doorway, and I don’t have anywhere to go back to. An’ all I know is a lotta times if you’re small and cute and you talk to someone long enough they give you credits to go away. ”

“Any idea where you are from?” Mathias' steps slowed a bit.

Serena looked like a cat caught with a canary in its teeth, and nodded, she didn’t have a lie chambered up in her arsenal. “But I’m not supposed to talk about it.” She added in almost a whisper “It’s not there anymore.”

“Arrite I mean … that fine. You don’t need to go into details. Was it like a Snakehead that got you here? From outside the city?” Mathias was mentally ticking off boxes in his head. She was not a city girl by any stretch, she had enough sense in her that she survived this long alone. She was definitely sheltered.

Serena jammed her fists into her pockets and nodded. “From outside the city.” She admitted nervously. “I dunno what a snakehead is. Is it a truck? If it’s a truck, then yeah huh, that.” She drew an imaginary line with her toe, the marker coloring on her sneaker already fading to an ugly gray.

Mathias stopped and scrunched his nose. “Where were you kidnapped?!”

“I’m not supposed to talk about it,” She reminded him in a whisper, looking around again.

“Why not?” Mathias said looking around casually as if waiting for something to jump out at them.

With her hands still in her pockets, Serena shrugged, giving him another pleading look. “He said not to,” she told him.

“Ain’t no one here out to get you kid. But it’s fine your story’s your own.” Mathias shrugged suddenly feeling invested in this. “So you weren't kidnapped, what about parents? Family?”

“Just me.” She said, digging her toe through a hole in her sneaker.

“Are you sick?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “Carbon sick?”

Serena shook her head no. “Healthy as a rabbit." She took her hands out of her pockets to wrap around her chest. “Thanks though, for the sandwich.”