LUCKY

The train had taken them all the way to New York City. Dexter, Ray and Ban, the three newly named boys, walked around on Times Square and looked with big eyes at all the glowing signs, the screens, stores and restaurants. Dexter, the fourteen-years-old amnesiac and temporary homeless boy, felt like he really was on the wrong place between all the mighty buildings around him. A big, glowing clock on the outside of a building told him it was five in the morning, and the streets were pretty empty. Only a few 24/7 fast-food restaurants was open. Dexter, Ray and Ban tried to order from one of them, but they got thrown out. He understood them; he probably didn’t look that attractive with all the dirt in his face and his ripped clothes, and with Ray and Ban and their animal-legs at his side, it was probably too much for them.

”Why didn’t they want us there?” Ban asked and made a sour face

”Yeah, mean people!” Ray crossed his arms ”I’m hungry!”

”Naah, we’re too dirty and smelly” Dexter said and looked around ‘t hey can probably feel our stench all the way to the top of the Empire State building, no one wants someone like that in their restaurant”

The boys sniffed the air around Dexter. ”What are you doing?” he asked

”You smell good!” Ban protested and gave up a sigh, like he was in heaven and smelled all sorts of newly baked cupcakes.

”What, are you kidding me?” Dexter took one step away from Ban.

”No really, you smell…trustable” Ben tried to explain himself

”What?”

”You really are! It’s hard to explain, but you really smell special!” Ray said and nodded ”Not like Mormo, she stenched of evil, but you smell good!”

Dexter raised an eyebrow and looked at them with disbelief. Some things they said didn’t really make any sense. He sniffed under his armpits, but couldn’t feel any nice smell at all; he really needed a bath.

”Anyway” Dexter coughed ”Let’s find somewhere we can clean ourselves!”

”Alright!”

They walked for maybe half an hour until Ray spotted a pool on someone’s backyard. The house didn’t look like much, a little rookery that has seen better days. It was brown and junk was scattered over the lawn, with as tall that it reached up to Dexter’s knees. Instead of fixing the house, the owner had come by a really nice pool. It was a big, seven seated Jacuzzi with a built in fountain, LED-lamps with any color you wanted and foot massage. The house seemed empty and there was no car on the parking lot, so Dexter took the chance.

It was hard to turn it on, but after a while, Dexter found the right button and the pool light up in a blue-green dreamy light and started bubbling.
Dexter took of his clothes, except for his boxers, and sank down in the hot tube. He felt how the dirt on his body let go and gave the water a dim, brown color.

Dexter reached for his jacket, bringing a cigarette and his lighter out. He lit his cigarette and filled his lungs with smoke. Dexter sighed out of relief and closed his eyes. For a moment, Dexter felt completely free of problems. He was just sitting in a pool with his friends, having a great time.
Ray and Ban splashed and laughed. They”ve probably not had that fun in a long time either. They had also been really dirty, because their fuzzy legs turned white as milk after being in the water.

“Man, this is awesome!” Ray said and turned towards Dexter ”We can live like this the rest of our lives!”

Dexter laughed and smiled at him. ”Yeah, it’s great, isn’t it?”

”Greater than heaven!” Ban sighed and smiled as he leaned back and closed his eyes.

All three of them went silent and almost dozed off. The air smelled of cigarette, chlorine and wet animal, Dexter hadn’t yet melted the fact that Ray and Ban had animal-legs.

But their great time got interrupted by a furious scream. A man came running towards them from the front yard. He had a bushy brown beard and almost no hair, a big beer belly and dirty clothes.
”Hey, get out of my pool, you brats!” he yelled and shook his fist and threw a can of diet coke at them.

Dexter, Ray and Ban flew out of the pool. Dexter grabbed his clothes and together they started running. The man screamed after them, but he didn’t seem to follow them. The trio ran until they barely could stand on their feet and then they collapsed on the ground and laughed. They laughed for a long time before any of them managed to say anything.

“That was fun!” Ban said and wiped his eyes from tears.

”Yeah!” Ray agreed and started laughing again.

”And really nice, that pool was awesome!” Dexter said and smiled widely.

”Indeed!” the other two agreed.

Dexter got up on his feet and put on his clothes. It didn’t feel that comfortable to put on his old and dirty clothes again, but what choice did he have?

”Who about we get some new clothes?” he said and but his both hand together

”But we don’t need any clothes” Ray said

”Oh, yes, you do!” Dexter assured ”You guys may be less eye-catching if you’re wearing clothes”

”Hmm, maybe” Ban mumbled and made a thinking face

”But clothes are so uncomfortable!” Ray complained

”Come on, you have to wear something” Dexter sighed ”And I can’t tell the difference between you”

”Fine!” Ban said ”But no pants!”

”Yeah, no pants!” Ray agreed “Too hot and too itchy!”

Dexter sighed. Their animal-legs was what scared people the most, but if they wore at least a shirt, folks maybe would take them as fuzzy pants.

”Okay, sure!” Dexter said and nodded ”Let’s go!”

It didn’t go as Dexter had planned. After making wrong turns, getting lost a few times and walking in circles, the three friends finally got back to the city area. This time, there were people everywhere, going from store to store with big plastic bags and smiles on their faces. Dexter felt their superstitious glances on him and Ray and Ban. People walked around them in big circles, not wanting to get near them.

Never that anyone will let us in their store, Dexter though bitterly. He needed something that wasn’t as popular and with less folks working. They kept on walking, and after another few minutes, Dexter found what he was looking for. He saw a sign on a door saying: “Secondhand”. The door and the sign were so discreet that people just walked passed it, without noticing it. Dexter wondered if they’d ever had a customer as he opened the door. A stairwell led down to a basement full of clothes, porcelain and all kinds of stuff that someone else once owned. Dexter saw no people, not even someone behind the disk.

”Perfect!” he said and turned towards Ray and Ban

”Just clothes, no junk, be quick” he said. The boys nodded and trotted away inside the store.

After a few minutes, the boys came back, both wearing outfits so ridiculous that Dexter couldn’t decide which one was the worst. He burst out in laughter and it took several minutes before he could say anything.

”God, you two look ridiculous!” he said and took a deep and shaky breath, trying not to start laughing again.

The boys looked at each other and then gave him a slightly sad look.

”Why?” Ban said and looked at his clothes. He was wearing a way too big sweater with check-pattern of the worst color-combination: forest-green, really light blue and shocking pink. He also had a red handkerchief around his neck and a gray-orange belly warmer.
Ray had chosen a pink T-shirt with Hello Kitty-motive and a way too small jeans jacket with flowers embroidery on the back and a New York Yankees-cap.

Dexter wrinkled his nose when he saw the cap. ‘s crew the Yankees” he muttered.

He himself had changed almost everything but his leather jacket. He’d found a pair of normal blue jeans that was just a little too short for him and exposed a pair of bright red socks. His dirty T-shirt had been replaced with a new white one and for once he felt clean and comfortable. It was just a pair of new shoes that was missing, his old ones was all weary and the soles were about to let go from the rest of the shoes. The shoes he’d found in the store were either too small or just a big no-no, so he tried to fix the old ones with duct tape he’d found behind the disk.

“So, are we done here?” he asked his two friends, but before they could answer, a flushing sound from a toiled and someone humming on a cheerful melody got their attention. A woman with messy hair, knitted clothes and big round glasses came out from a room right behind the disk. She looked surprised at Dexter, Ray and Ban, maybe because of she actually had customers or the fact that they were wearing clothes from her store.

”Uum, hi…” she started

”Bye!” Dexter ended and flew up the stairs with Ray and Ban right behind him. They hit the street and ran as fast as they could. Dexter wanted to be out of there, before the woman called the police. They ran as far as they could before collapsing in the shades of some trees in a park. Dexter’s breathing whistled and it took a long time before it went back to normal.

“Stupid smoking” he muttered. He knew smoking was bad, it stood written on the cigarette-packages. Why had he started? Did he want to die? Dexter shook his head, no idea wasting energy on something he couldn’t remember. Dexter closed his eyes and sighed. No one said anything in a long while; they lay in the grass and listened to the bird’s song and the buzz from soaring and laughing people.

A cold wind rustled in the treetops and made Dexter shudder. He opened his eyes. The sun had disappeared behind big black clouds.

”Oh, bad weather is coming” Dexter said with worry in his voice. He didn’t want to get wet and cold now when he finally got new clothes. Ray and Ban sat up and looked at the cloudy sky.

”Yeah, that looks bad” Ray said

”Let’s hurry!” Ban said unhappily ”I don’t like rain!”

They all agreed on trying to find some sort of shelter and went off. They walked with high tempo without really knowing what sort of shelter they were looking for. They’d just left the skyscrapers behind and entered an industrial area when the sky opened up and the rain poured down on them. They started running and ran past factories and small houses that people lived in only because they weren’t able to afford a better one.

Down the street, Dexter saw a small warehouse that looked like it hadn’t been used for many years. The red brick walls were overgrown by climbing plants and Dexter couldn’t see any window that wasn’t broken. But it had a roof and that was enough for him.

“That looks okay!” he yelled to Ray and Ban, trying to shout down the splattering of the rain. ”Let’s rest there until it stops raining”

The heavy doors creaked when Dexter pushed them open. Ray and Ban froze and looked with terror at the warehouse.

”What’s the matter?” Dexter asked and looked around inside. There was a big mountain of junk in the middle of the floor, which surprised Dexter. He’d imagined it being more… empty. There was a big hole in the roof right above him, but above the big junk-mountain, it was whole and dry with no leakages.

”Come on, it’s dry in here!” he called to Ray and Ban, that still stood outside in the rain. He walked towards the mountain. It was made of bits of metal, wood, cartons, leaves and hay, an interesting combination. Dexter heard a low sound that he at first thought was thunder, but then he realized it came from inside the junk-mountain. He took a closer look at it, was it moving? He stood and watched for a long time. It really was moving! Synchronized with the sounds, the mountains expanded and shrunk together, like it was breathing. The hair on Dexter’s neck rose and a chill crawled down his ridge. He looked over his shoulder at Ray and Ban. That looked terrified and their eyes begged him to come back out from there. Dexter didn’t protest, he didn’t want to be there either. He turned around and sneaked towards the doors again, as quiet as he could. Why did every sound Dexter make feel like it was three times as loud all of a sudden? The ground seemed to shake like an earthquake every time he took a step, his breathing howled like a stormy wind and his heartbeats echoed like someone was striking a big gong cymbal.
Suddenly, the ground under one of his feet rolled away, making him fall headlong on the concrete floor. A metal can rolled away, making a scrambling and alarming high noise. The snoring stopped, so did the moving of the mountain of junk. Dexter sat on the ground, too afraid to move or even breathe. After something that felt like an eternity, the snoring continued and the scrap-mountain moved again, as if nothing had happened. Dexter took a breather out of relief and slowly and really carefully rose up on his feet again. With long and silent steps, he went out of the warehouse as fast as he could.

“Man, that’s whatI call luck!” Dexter said to Ray and Ban.

They that gave him a nervous smile, but it faded as they –terrified– looked at something above Dexter’s head.

Suddenly, something started glowing above him, was that flames? Dexter slowly turned around, praying that his superstitions were false. From the big hole in the roof of the warehouse, a black head with red glowing eyes was sticking up and staring at him.

”I’m so done!”

Notes

If you missed it, I'd just like to say that I moved account due to log in via google seems not to be available anymore.