She ran as fast as she could, to the corner, around it, down the alley, another alley, a cross over alley. Ducking into a backyard, she bent over, breathed hard, let her heart slow down. Casey peeped thru the climbing rose bush, didn’t see Jack, and started running again. The drug store was at the end of the cross over alley. It had a high wooden fence with a swinging door that had a loose lock.
She went in, pushed two large cartons together and climbed in. Her breathing was almost normal when a squeaky sound made her cover her mouth to stop from screaming. The sound was right outside of her box. There were short sniffing sounds. Small beady eyes looked into hers. It was a rat that was as afraid of her as she was of it. She leaned against the cardboard, bent her knees , put her head on them and her hands over her ears. Without realizing it, Casey fell asleep.
Sounds reached her, affected her dreams. There were sirens, whistles, ambulances. People were searching, searching, looking in car trunks, vestibules. When she woke there was silence—for a while.
Shuffling feet came closer and closer to the swing door with the loose lock. The rough edge creaked as it opened. Footsteps stopped near her. A carton bumped her carton. Someone was humming a song she didn’t know. It stopped. The carton beside her moved. A black hand reached into hers, grabbed her by the shoulders, shook her, pulled her out of her hiding place. ‘What the heck are you doing here?’ he asked twice. At last she was able to answer, ‘I’m hiding.’ ‘Any fool can see that. What from?’ She answered truthfully, ‘From Jack. He hates me because I told on him and he is going to beat me to a pulp, he said.’ The black man asked more questions. Her answers explained the sirens, the police in the area, the same people he didn’t want to see.
‘Call me Mason. You don’t even know that the police, your family, friends are out searching for you, do you? Come on with me.’ Casey was afraid to stay where she was and afraid to go with Mason.
She chose Mason. He took her up and down alleys, trying to find the ones she had used. At last she relaxed enough to tell him her house was around the next alley. There were two policemen talking to her parents who were sitting on the old green bench near the curb. The rest of the street was empty, house lights dim. Casey and her parents saw each other at the same time and ran to each other, bumped hard and laughed.
The officers handcuffed Mason, tried to get him into their car. He kept hollering, ‘ I didn’t do nothin’.’ Casey pulled out of her mother’s arms and rounded on the back of one officer, yelling, ‘Let him go. Let him go. He didn’t do ‘nothin’. ‘ Mr. Mason saved me from the rats and from Jack catching me and then beating me to a pulp. Please let him go.’
They did --but first got Jack’s full name and address.
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