Cause a Riot

Chapter 6

The sky was a patchy mix of grey and white clouds atop the pink-blue sky. Cuzo sat on a park bench as he stared absent-minded at the kids playing in the park's playground. It was evening. In a couple of hours, Cuzo would go after the gang. He had made a mental map of their hideout in his head and revised his plan. In the time he had before the attack, he had bought himself lunch and sat in the park to eat. Seeing the kids again reminded him of his own childhood. A smirk appeared on his face as he recalled his mother's angry face bursting into their tent. How naughty he had been. He sighed as he took the last bite of his burger and stood up to leave. Guess I didn't change much, he thought with a mental shake of his head.

"Hey, mister!"

Cuzo glanced at a little boy running toward him. Cuzo smiled. "Hello."

The boy stopped in front of him and squinted at him. "You are... do you remember me?"

Cuzo threw the burger wrapper in the garbage bin and turned to face the young boy. He kneeled in front of him. "Oh yes, I remember. I saved you from that man a couple of days ago, right?"

"Yeah! So it is you! I wasn't sure." The boy looked enthusiastic. "My parents wanted to thank you for helping me! My mom wants to pay you back. Come. I want you to meet her."

"Oh, no. That's not necessary," Cuzo smiled, waving his hand.

"Of course, it is!" the boy cried. "You're a real-life hero, mister! Please, my mom really wants to meet you and my dad too!"

"Um..." Cuzo didn't want to meet anyone but the look on the little boy's face was hard to refuse. "Okay."

The boy's face lit up and he grabbed Cuzo's hand, pulling him toward the playground. Cuzo looked up and saw a woman and man peering at them from the other side, from another bench. "Just, don't be too loud," Cuzo said to the boy. "I don't want the police to hear, you know?"

"Don't worry," the boy said in a low voice. "I told my parents about that."

"That I'm a criminal?"

"No," the boy laughed. They had reached the other bench. Cuzo felt his heart beat faster. He didn't remember how to talk normally with people. He wasn't a social person, after all. "Mama, papa, this is the man who saved me. Remember I told you about him?"

His parents' faces lit up and the boy's mother grabbed his hand. "Oh my. It's you?" The man walked forward too, and in a quieter voice – "Cuzo cunning?"

Cuzo nodded with a warm smile. "Yeah. Pleasure to meet you folk."

"Oh, we're so grateful!" the woman cried, squeezing his hand. "If you hadn't shown up, my poor boy would've been..."

"Sara!"

"He would've been killed!" the woman continued. Her husband bit his lip and looked down, clutching his son's hand. "We heard the police are after you," she continued. "But know that we support you and what you are doing with all our hearts. You saved my son – and I've heard rumours that you've saved many more. You're a hero and the police don't know it. Here, take this as a reward." She went into her purse and pulled out some cash. "It's not much but we want to show you our thanks."

Cuzo looked at the cash uneasily. He felt uncomfortable. "That's not necessary," he frowned. "I never wanted any reward."

"You don't have to want it," the father said. "Please take it. Or if there's anything else we could do to help."

Cuzo sighed and took the cash. "No, this is enough. Thank you both. I appreciate it." After all, Cuzo had been running low on money. This would keep him for a while.