Page 84 of Only the Small Bones
“M-Malcolm?” he stammered, like he didn’t trust his sight or hearing. He tried to run to me, but ended up tripping over his feet. I caught him, both of us sinking to the floor. “They said you were gone,” he cried hysterically, climbing onto my lap. “They said you were gone.”
“I’m here,” I hugged him back. “I’m here.”
He’d been small from the start, but he was nothing but bones now. Asher sobbed my name into my neck, bunching my shirt into his tiny fists as I rocked him. He was hot enough to melt my skin away, and something in his chest rattled when he coughed.
The man in the suit watched us from the door, a curious expression on his face.
“He’s sick,” I said to him, peeling Asher off me so I could see his face. He made it near impossible, gripping my shirt tighter. “He needs a doctor.”
The man said nothing, and I had to hold Asher’s head up to keep it from drooping.
“Why are you doing this?! What do you want from us?Please.Help him. I won’t try anything again. I promise. Justplease, do something.” I felt feral and scared and helpless.
The man snapped his fingers at someone in the hall, someone I couldn’t see from where we sat. A moment later Declan strolled in holding a second tray of food with a bottle of water and medicine on it. He’d been standing there waiting for the signal to come in, and suddenly I knew that the man in the suit was the more dangerous one. He’d wanted to see my reaction to Asher first.
The man crouched down in front of us, and I angled Asher away from him as best I could. That made him smile a little. Asher had gone silent, breathing heavily into my neck.
“You’ve got at least thirteen more days on this ship,” the man said, removing his sunglasses for the first time. His eyes were ice-blue, and he had a slash over his right eyelid. The scar tissue prevented him from opening it all the way. “I’ve warned my men not to harm you while I’m gone, but they aren’t as civilized as me.”
Somehow I didn’t believe he was civilized at all, he just seemed better at pretending.
“What happens to him depends on you,” he continued, gesturing to Asher. “No more bright ideas.” He slipped his glasses on and stood.
“I brought a doctor back to look at him and the others.” He jerked his chin toward the table. “Give him a dose of that after every meal, and make sure he stays hydrated.” Without anotherword he left, the door slamming behind him, sealing me and Asher inside.
The “nice lady’s” words in that basement made sense now, especially after hearing the suited man’s warning.
“Children are difficult,”one of the men looking Asher and I over had said.
“Not when they have an incentive to behave,”she’d said.
They’d kept us together hoping we’d start to care for each other. And now they would use our bond to keep us obedient in fear of what would happen to the other if we weren’t. It worked. From that day on, I never asked another question, never demanded we be let go again, and I made no more escape plans.
“Open up, Asher,” I begged, patting his cheek. “Just a little more so you can take some medicine.” I held the spoonful of broth near his mouth, tipping it into the small opening he’d made. “Okay, two more, then some water and medicine.”
“I’m tired,” he complained, his eyes fluttering open then closing again.
“I know, but the medicine’s going to fix that.” I looked at the bottle of pink liquid on the table. The man in the suit made it sound important that we stay alive, so I decided to trust it wasn’t poison. I had no other choice.
We were still on the floor. Asher wasn’t able to get up on his own, and the days I’d spent not eating made me too weak to carry him. Plus I had a bad headache, and my throat was starting to hurt when I swallowed.
I dropped the spoon into the bowl of soup to catch him when he slid sideways. “How about just one more spoonful then? Can you do one more?”
He licked his dry lips. “Water,” he rasped. I uncapped the bottle so fast some of it spilled over my hands. I held it to hismouth, tipping it up as he sipped more than I thought he would. I went to the table for the medicine next, filling the little cup to the line inside, then pouring it into his mouth. He coughed some of it up, but kept most of it down.
“Can you make it onto the bed?” I asked, but he just groaned. Sighing, I pulled the pillows and blanket to the floor, laying us on our sides, my front to his back. Asher had another coughing fit, and I slid my arm around him when it was over, holding him close. His hair was damp against my forehead, but he didn’t smell bad so I guessed it wasn’t sweat. They must have hosed him down too before bringing him here.
He reached back to grab a chunk of my short hair, something he did in his sleep, like I was his security blanket. If it wasn’t my hair it was my hand. Maybe he just needed to know I was still there while he slept. That I hadn’t been taken again, leaving him alone.
I didn’t mind. I liked knowing he was still there too. Having him snatched from our room and not knowing if he was dead or alive changed something in me, and my mind didn’t feel as strong as it did before.
I couldn’t sleep, not until I knew the medicine was working. I was scared I’d wake up and he’d be gone in a different way. Gone in a way he couldn’t come back from. So I talked to him while he snored, hoping my voice reached him, hoping it made him want to hang on.
“My mom doesn’t like me riding my bike in the neighborhood park,” I whispered into the back of his head. “The older kids sell drugs there, and last summer a stray bullet hit a little boy while he was coming down the slide. We used to live across the street from there, but my mom got a job paying more money than the diner she used to work at, so we moved into a bigger, tiny place. My grandpa moved in too. His veteran’s disability check helps pay some of the bills. Now we live a fewblocks from the park, right on the border of the neighborhood.” I scooted in closer to him when he shivered.
“My mom moved us a little further away from the violence, but we still live along the edges of it. She says we’re going to own a brownstone one day. One of the fancy ones in Carroll Gardens. That’s where she works now, and on her lunch breaks she likes to walk around the area imagining all the things we’ll do once we live there.”
Asher’s hand twitched in my hair, and he coughed a few times before his snores started up again.
