"STOP RIGHT THERE!" One of the police warned as he fired his gun at the sky. The three were used to the sound of firing guns… this didn't deter them at all. The alley was long and narrow, filled with dark and dirt. Some dirty writings were on one wall, while some contained colorful graffiti. They heard the footsteps approaching them as much as they tried to increase their distance from the police. And then they came out to the streets. Stagnant traffic enabled them to squeeze their ways between cars and jump over to the other alleys on the other side of the street. They decided to divide into different alleys to confuse the angry police.
Karl crept into one, took some turns and corners, and got out to the streets before taking another alley and repeating the whole procedure again. On an alley between some buildings that he knew were motels, Karl decided to wait for the police to tire out and go away from there. He had his back rested on a green dumpster and he panted, trying to catch his breath.
"Hello?" A sweet voice shook him from his closed eyes. He gasped immediately and looked at the young girl who looked back at him strangely. And at that moment he remembered his once little sister Ingrid. She had grown now, and he could only imagine what she looked like.
"Hello?" The girl called out to him as she approached. She was a neatly dressed girl and seemed to be twelve or eleven, or maybe even thirteen. But not older. She was just as young as Kimberly from what he could see. Her hair was black, like that of midnight, and eyes as dark. She was dressed in a beautiful yellow dress and black dolly shoes.
"Hi?" He replied, still confused.
"What are you doing here?" The little girl asked as she looked at the dirty walls then back at him.
"I'm hiding," Karl told her. It sounded like a whisper. "And you're gonna make them find me."
"Who?" She asked as she looked around.
"The police! Go away you're gonna give me up!" Karl blurted at her, uneasiness in his worried face.
"Oh, them?" The girl asked as she approached him by the dumpster. "I've seen them going down the other way. They're not going to find you."
"Are you sure?" Karl asked.
"Yeah, yeah… they were chasing this other boy who looks like you."
"Shit…" Karl cursed. "They're going to catch Guarth!"
"I saw that boy run away… no one's catching him."
"What do you want?" Karl asked.
"Mind if I join you?" She replied intently.
"You're joking, right?"
"No…" she answered him. "I just want to talk with you."
"Why?"
"Because I feel like talking to a stranger."
"Fine." Karl sighed. He moved over and the girl sat next to him. Her yellow dress got dirty, and she didn't seem to mind at all.
"Where are your parents? Why aren't you with them?" She asked.
"Dead. Both of them."
"I'm sorry." The girl gulped. "I shouldn't have asked that."
"You think?" Karl responded.
"Hey, I'm sorry… I didn't know."
"I've been told that word too many times that now, it doesn't mean a thing. You rich city kids think that life is simple for everyone. That it's easy. You need to step in my shoes and walk in them for a while. Then you'll understand how life is harsh when you have no one to turn to in your darkest times and that you have only yourself."
"I don't know what to say…" the girl whispered.
"There's nothing to say, except being 'sorry' which continues to lose its context when people tell you over and over." He finished and yawned.
"Why are you hiding from the police?" The girl asked later on after skimming him worriedly.
"Why do you care?"
"You went to steal food but you couldn't eat it… so now I guess that you're hungry. You're hungry. Aren't you?" She asked. He looked at her with tired eyes and nodded. "Wait for me here." She said, stood up, and went away. Karl waited for a minute before the girl came back with a box of pizza and offered it to him. He took it with his dirty hands, opened it up, and started devouring slice after slice. The girl smiled as she watched him.
"You were really hungry, weren't you?" She commented.
"So much." He answered. "You want some?"
"No… I'm okay." She answered as she sat down once again.
"It's really sweet. I missed this." The boy told her wallowing.
"Is there anyone out there that's related to you that you can go to?"
"No." The boy shook his head sadly. "It's just me, Kimberly, and Guarth. And they're running away from the police."
"Hey… I have an idea." The girl muttered. "How about you come with me and my parents as we go back home?"
"Really? You want me to come along?" He gasped and took another bite.
"Yeah." The girl nodded. Her dark eyes scoured his dirty face. "You would be my brother and my parents would take care of you. I've never had a brother before. Only cousin Diego from Mexico."
"You're from Mexico?" He asked her.
"No. Okay… it's really complicated." She muttered again. "I was born in Washington, then went over to live with my aunt in Mexico and now I'm going back home."
"Oh… that's nice to hear. I've never traveled outside the country."
"It was really nice. I know Spanish by the way." The girl confessed happily.
"Really?" The dirty boy chuckled as he took another bite off a slice. "Tell me something in Spanish then…"
"Um, okay. Here we go. Cómo te llamas?"
Karl laughed out loud as he listened to her fluent Spanish. He brushed back his blonde hair. "Who taught you that?"
"People? Time? I've been there for six years and so I kinda understood it with time."
"Lucky you. Anyway, what does that mean?"
"What?"
"What you said in Spanish. What does it mean?"
"Oh… It means, what's your name?"
He smiled. "My name is—" The boy was cut short by an older woman with curly blonde hair standing by the entrance of the alley.
"Elena honey we need to go. Good Lord! What are you doing here? Look at what you have done to your dress!" The woman yelped as she looked at the two. The little girl got up on her feet immediately and walked towards the woman.
"Elena, what were you doing in there with that dirty boy?" Karl heard her ask.
"We were just talking mom." The girl replied. The woman took a keen look at the boy in the alley and started breathing heavily as if she had been shocked. The boy looked back at her, blue eyes filled with worry and deadness.
"Dean, honey, we need to go now…" The woman told a man who approached her from her left before she turned once again to look at Karl who was still seated by himself.
"FREEZE!" Another strong voice behind the dumpster sent the boy to his feet in a reaction of utter shock. "PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!" Another warning came through. The boy lifted his hands in submission and got on his knees as the police approached him from behind. Karl saw the girl he was talking to earlier and her parents watch him as he was being dragged away. It was too good to be true. He thought. The girl had probably drawled him long enough for the police to catch him. That, or her mother. Or her father.