Patterns of Blues

Chapter 24

Lucian was loud, rude, smelly, and had zero sense of direction. Dinner was like watching a walrus try to mold table manners. He looked big and menacing, though acted like he had the mental capacity of an underdeveloped cyclops. Obnoxious was the best word for him, and Harry reckoned Sully was Jesus' brother in comparison. Lucian sat in Nate's normal place, and Silvio glowered at him for a brief second, so quickly that Harry wondered if he had seen it right. It was gone just as fast, and he took a small bite of lasagna, dark eyes narrowed pensively like something was plaguing his thoughts. Harry didn't question it because that seemed to be the older boy's resting face, always a shadow of something grim stuck behind his gaze. He hadn't noticed it before, but now that he had, Harry decided to keep his distance from him. Silvio hadn't proven to be a threat, though Harry hadn't stood to give him much thought.

"New kid's coming tomorrow," Johnny said pleasantly, "Though, he won't start school until next week. Behavioral disabilities, just a precaution." Harry frowned at the words, unsure he could take another person. Lucian was more than enough 'new' in his life, and not to sound cynical, a kid with behavioral issues didn't seem like a blessing to his load.

"Just like that?" Silvio asked darkly, "One day and you've already found a replacement." At first, Harry didn't know what he was talking about, but Johnny did instantly and gave him a weird look,

"It's not a personal choice, Silvio. We don't pick and choose who comes and goes."

"Bogus."

"I don't understand why this has gotten you so worked up," Johnny spoke in exasperation, "You've seen many kids come and go from here. Nate's situation is no different." Everyone else at the table grew silent, gazes jumping from Johnny to Silvio. Even Lucian stopped belching and a somber look took over his face. No one had mentioned Nate that morning, the subject was too raw still.

"It is different!" Silvio exclaimed, "It's different because it's Nate. He's gone through worse stuff than half of us can even imagine. The foster system broke him. You all tossed him back to the wolves and said 'adios'! He would never do that to anyone. Ever."

"I've already told you," Johnny sighed loudly, "The home he's in is safe. His caseworker will be in communication with him regularly. If anything suspicious happens, he will be transferred elsewhere."

"That's not enough," Silvio snapped, a fire lighting his gaze, flashes of real anger replacing his irritation, "He needs to be here. With me."

"What's happened cannot be undone," Johnny stated plainly, standing up, "If you care for him, you'll trust that this is a good thing. He's not in danger." Silvio was unimpressed, and stood up from the table as well, leaving his lasagna behind him as he stalked out of the room. Footsteps sounded from the stairs across the house, and he caught Liam's gaze before shrugging.

The next afternoon they met Parker, a dopey-looking ten-year-old who had a permanently vacant expression on his face. If an alien abducted Harry and asked what an ordinary child looked like, he would show them a picture of Parker. He had short, unstyled brown hair, brown eyes, and a mouthful of crooked teeth, wore a plain white t-shirt, tan khaki shorts, and knee-high dad socks inside his yellow Crocs. He didn't say much, and he seemed to exclusively breathe from his mouth, wheezing like a dog in need of water. Harry wondered if he had rabies. Parker didn't get a cheerful welcome from any of the boys, especially not from Silvio, who looked at the new kid like he was the spawn of Satan. Asher had been the most decent, but Harry was aware that he didn't have the same crooked humor as Nate. He had never understood it, but at least the guy had always attempted to be funny. Liam wasn't unkind, but he too seemed put off by the boy's weird vibe and chose to stay away while Johnny helped him settle in. There was a discussion on where to put him because generally speaking, they'd split the older kids in one room and the younger kids in the other, but Liam had been adamant that he stayed with Harry. It was almost embarrassing to watch him make a little scene over it, but in some ways, he was grateful that his older brother still cared that much.

In the end, Parker got Nate's old bed and Silvio huffed in annoyance, like he was still expecting his friend to come back. Kinda sad, Harry reasoned, but he needed to get over it. Everyone else seemed to be fine, and he was only dragging it out.

"What do you do around here?" Parker asked suddenly, gaze widening like a perplexed owl. Owlish was a good term for him.

"Whatever, really," Sully said tossing a bouncy ball in the air before catching it again, "Just nothing illegal, so that takes out our fun options." Harry fought the need to roll his eyes,

"The telly's free to use unless Peter's around, then he'll get all snippy about screen time. You can read, I've seen a couple of books lying around, or play card games." Harry tried to think of more suggestions, but he felt weird being the one to answer the kid's question. He hadn't even been there for a week himself.

"Huh," Parker mumbled, blinking twice, "How long has everyone been here?" Harry shrugged, having no idea. Sully squinted, and seemed to be calculating something, flipping his fingers up and down like that would help solve a code,

"I've been here for six months. Chuck about two months. SIlvio's been here for what? Nearly two years?" He looked to Harry for confirmation, and still clueless, Harry shrugged again, "Something like that. I guess Lucian's been here for about the same amount of time as him. I don't know about Asher, he's a total jerk, so I don't talk to him, but he was already here when I came." Harry masked a laugh with a cough. As far as he'd seen, Sully was often the cause for Asher's 'jerkiness'. Sully looked over quizzically and gasped, "Oh yeah, and Harry and his weird brother have been here for a week. Just lil' newbies too."

"So, whatdya gotta do to get out of here?" Parker asked, nimble fingers twitching restlessly.

"Good kids usually get sent off to a real foster home after a while. Chuckie'll probably be gone soon, the wimp." Sully laughed at himself before continuing, "The real bad kids sometimes get shipped off to worser places. I guess Nate almost got chucked off to 'Brackston: Group Home for Troubled Boys' when he first came, I hear that's the worst spot around. Sometimes kids get adopted, but that just doesn't happen often for those who land here."

"Who's Nate?" Parker asked, looking at the corner of the ceiling instead of either of the boys he was speaking to. Harry smiled uncomfortably,

"He was moved to a different place yesterday."

"Okay." He continued looking anywhere but directly at them, like a magnetic force was pulling his eyes as far away from Harry's as they could get. Weird kid. Harry inched away and decided to look for his brother, the only person in this house he was certain wasn't crazy.

He found him in the living room, sitting with Asher and Silvio, while Lucian had fallen asleep on one of the couches, a throw pillow tucked up to his face, snoring disgustingly. Even when he was unconscious this guy knew how to be gross.

Johnny was sitting in a chair as well, rereading an old magazine, though the expression on his face told Harry that he was focused on the conversation that the boys were having, and the magazine was likely his diversion. They weren't talking about anything useful: Asher was going on about a girl in his and Liam's class. Silvio looked completely uninterested in that but nodded and said 'Yeah, of course' and 'Totally', occasionally a 'No way. What?' and a couple of 'That's crazy' 's in all the right places, clearly an expert in tuning things out. Bored of listening to people talk about girls, Harry decided to go to bed early, taking the uneventful day as a huge blessing.