The Street Rat 105

“Ba-dada-da,” Eddie hummed to himself, over the sound of sirens in the distance and the hum of A/C units in the windows of the alley.

It was the only part of his theme song he’d figured out yet.

He was sitting on the cold fire escape in the alley he called home across the street from the diner. It was late. Tomas and Alex were already curled up in their makeshift shelter below, tucked behind the dumpster. It wasn’t much; a couple of wooden pallets on the ground and another three on the sides with cardboard ‘insulation’, with a tarp and blankets providing a little cushion inside.

Not enough for the cold and snow of winter, but it kept them safe from rain and minor things like nosy dogs or the fall chill. The smell wasn’t pleasant, but the garbage wasn’t usually that much worse than Sanders’ acrid signature pollution odor.

He could see Maria through the window of the empty diner cleaning tables.

Sal would give them odd jobs whenever he needed help. He’d lost three staffers in the past week, so Maria had gotten to pick up a few overnight shifts when there were fewer customers and she was less likely to be reported for working as a minor.

She was just a few months shy of sixteen and could pass if necessary. They didn’t have IDs anyway, but it would lead to questions they didn’t want to answer. About her. About him. About the boys. They had heard stories about what happened when the cops in Sanders picked up minors with no place to go, and they weren’t about to make that trip.

Eddie had worked a few weeks for Sal last month. A gang had started harassing people outside his storefront. Really, it was just a few bored kids cutting class, but Sal knew Eddie had been patrolling the area to keep people safe in the community and figured he might as well pay him for the trouble as long as he made sure to keep those kids away.

But as the weather started getting cold, the kids stopped coming around as much, and Eddie was out of a job. Sal would still give him a bit whenever he stopped something outside the diner, but other than that, he was on his own.

Not that he could hold it against Sal; he got it. And he knew Sal was really just trying to help out anyway. He didn’t really need to hire Eddie; he was just trying to do what he could to help. Like when he would feed them late at night, free of charge, with the food he was going to have to get rid of the next day. Eddie was thankful for Sal.

Everything was quiet, and Eddie was getting restless, so he hopped to his feet. The diner and the boys were safe. Eddie was going to walk along the rooftops. The night sky in Sanders wasn’t much different from the day sky. The same clouds of pollution that kept the sun from reaching the town in the day collected all the city lights above them at night.

He was dreading the impending winter months. This would be the first on the streets for Maria and the boys, and Sanders’s winters were rough. Sal might let them come in on the coldest nights, but they couldn’t stay in there all day.

But as much as he hated the winter, those few weeks leading up to it where there was something different in the air were his favorite.

He would walk along the rooftops, imagining he was in one of those old stories he remembered from when he was a kid. Daring deeds and fantastic capers. Heroes stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. When the air was just the right amount of cold and the radio from a random window soundtracked his walk to something other than the ever-present sirens, he really believed it could happen. That he could be one of those heroes from the stories who could lift not just himself and his family but his whole community out of the slums and into the good life. Or at least a life where they didn’t have to constantly fear for their safety or wonder if they would have food and shelter that night.

“Please, it’s all I have.”

A voice from below shook him out of his fiction and back to his reality. Eddie sprinted to the nearest fire escape and descended on the outside railing, dropping down to the ground.

“Please,” the man begged again, “it’s the only coat I have, and it’s already getting cold out. I can’t get by without my coat.”

“No one cares, dude,” the other man responded.

He was taller than Eddie but just as lanky. Probably twenty or so, with shaggy, sandy-colored hair and scruff on his chin.

Must’ve lost his way after he lost his dog.

“That coat hardly looks your size,” Eddie said, on the ground now.

He had walked around to where he was to the side of the man.

Whipping his knife over to point it at Eddie, Shaggy said, “This has nothing to do with you, man. You’ll get lost if you know what’s good for you.”

“It’s Coolsville, pal. I’m just here checking on my friend. You know how it is. Nights get cold out here on the streets. Gotta make sure everyone has their warm clothes ready. Especially our older pals and the kids.”

“Well, you can find your pal here a new coat because this one’s mine now.” He yanked the coat out of the man’s hand, still pointing the knife at Eddie.

“You must be new around here. People don’t take things from my pals on these streets. I’m the Street Rat,” Eddie growled the last four words as he crept up toward Shaggy.

Shaggy lunged at him with the knife. Eddie sidestepped the attack and countered with an uppercut. Staggering backwards, Shaggy kept the knife up, fear blooming in his eyes.

“Maybe the real masked villain was the one inside us all along,” Eddie pontificated to Shaggy.

I’m pretty sure that’s how that word is used. It looks very regal spelled out. It’s going to look great in my biography. Pontificate.

“What are you going on about, man?” Shaggy asked.

Shaggy lowered his arms just a fraction as he asked his question, and Eddie took advantage. Kicking the knife out of his hand, Eddie moved in close and gave him two quick punches to the face, then retreated, jacket in hand.

Eddie positioned himself between Shaggy and the knife as Shaggy rubbed his jaw. He stepped towards the knife before thinking better of it and walking backwards out of the alley and out of sight.

Eddie tossed the cold knife into a dumpster with some colorful graffiti saying some colorful things and gave the man his jacket back.

“Sorry you had to deal with that. Figure he’s just trying to survive like the rest of us,” Eddie said as he handed the coat over. “Can’t do that by taking coats from people who need them too, though.”

“It was really kind of you to step in like that, put yourself in danger. I don’t get many kindnesses like that,” the man croaked, giving Eddie a smile and revealing more missing teeth than intact.

“We have to look out for each other. If we don’t, it’s not like anyone else is going to.” Eddie walked back to the fire escape and pulled himself up to the first landing. “Nights are getting cold. Stay safe out here. I’ll try and be around if you need anything.”

With that and a wave, Eddie hurried up the escape and back onto the rooftops.

Tomas and Alex were still sound asleep as he returned and ducked into the shelter. Maria sat alongside them as they slept, her back against a pallet leaning on the alley wall.

“Anything happen tonight?” she asked as he settled in next to her, taking his blanket she handed him to cover himself with.

“Just some guy with a knife trying to steal a coat from a man a few alleys over.”

“It disgusts me how people try to take advantage of people who already have nothing.” Maria shook her head and looked away from Eddie, staring at the shelter wall across from them.

“Everyone’s just trying to survive.” He closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall, too. “It doesn’t make it right, but we’re all just trying to make it to the next day.”

“How can you be so sympathetic to people trying to hurt others?”

“That’s the thing,” he said, opening his eyes and turning to her in the dim light from her reading flashlight . “None of us chose this life. It’s not like he grew up wanting to rob the homeless. It’s never about trying to hurt others. Not out here.

“I’ll protect the community from anyone trying to take advantage, but I’m not going to give up on people making bad choices when it’s the only choice they can see. Look at Frank. He was going around, trying to shake people down with his size. And now he’s helping us stop armed robberies because he figured it was the right thing to do. He’s got a good job at Jerry’s. He’s providing for his family and giving back to the community. They invited us over for Thanksgiving, by the way. Shaggy could make those same changes given the chance. It’s just about getting him that chance to look around him.”

“I don’t know how you always find a way to see the best in people and situations,” she said through a yawn as she turned off the flashlight and lay next to the boys to fall asleep. “That’s your real super power, Eddie: not becoming cynical. I hope you’re right.”

Eddie rolled over the opposite way and closed his eyes. I really hope I am, too.

The Street Rat continues with The Street Rat 106!

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