The Street Rat 203

“How do my two kings lose to your jack and seven?” Eddie asked as Tomas giggled. 

“Because mine are both red!”

“I think you’re making up the rules as we go to make sure you win.”

“No, I’m not!” Tomas continued giggling and shuffled the cards, which really just meant he spread them out and pushed them around before taking two random ones and giving them to Eddie. 

“You’re going to be a great conman someday,” Eddie laughed as he took his cards. 

A loud knock came at the door. 

Eddie and Tomas froze. Eddie motioned for Tomas to hide behind the bed, and he obeyed without question. Eddie stood and walked to the door. He looked through the peephole, but the man had his back turned to the door. Eddie latched the lock and cracked the door open. 

“When do we start?” Archer asked, turning. 

Eddie closed the door, letting out a sigh of relief as he unlatched the door and opened it fully to let Archer in. 

I wouldn’t have been relieved to see him this time yesterday. Eddie laughed to himself as he closed the door. 

“We need to wait a bit until Maria gets back from her shift at Sal’s so she can watch Tomas. Come on out, bud.”

“I’m big enough to watch myself,” Tomas said, his small head popping up from behind the bed.

“I know that. And you know that. But we both know Maria isn’t ready for that yet. You just have to keep humoring her.” Eddie ruffled the boy’s hair as Tomas slapped Eddie’s hands away. “Tomas, this is my friend, Archer. He’s trying to keep the neighborhood safe like we are.”

“Tomas Delgado.” Tomas stuck his right hand out toward Archer. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Archer gave Eddie a look but shook Tomas’s hand. “A pleasure.” 

“Where did you learn that word?” Eddie laughed. 

“I’ve been watching Sal!” Tomas smiled. 

“Proud of you, bud!”

The doorknob rattled as Maria unlocked it and walked in with Alex, but she stopped abruptly at the sight of Archer. 

“What is he doing here?” she asked, putting an arm across Alex to keep him back. 

“I was just leaving,” Archer answered. “Whenever you’re ready,” he said to Eddie and walked out the door. 

“I don’t want him around here, Eddie. I don’t want him in our room, and I definitely don’t want him around the boys.”

“Just give him a chance,” Eddie pleaded. 

“No. It’s bad enough you’re working with him. Meet him somewhere else next time.” 

“Okay, okay. I understand.” Eddie lifted his hands in resignation. “Take care of your brother and sister while I’m gone, okay?” 

Tomas smiled and nodded as Eddie ruffled his hair again. He gave a fist bump to Alex as he left, but Maria had already gone into the bathroom to change. 

“You’re probably wondering what that was all about,” Eddie said as he walked down the stairs to where Archer was standing. 

“Not really,” Archer answered as they began walking out of the parking lot. 

“You’re not?”

“What’s there to wonder about? She doesn’t like me, trust me, or respect the way I go about protecting the community. Of course she doesn’t want me around her brothers or where she lives. Makes sense.”

“Oh. Well. Okay. Tomas seemed to really like you.”

“That’s nice.”

“Yeah, he’s a great kid. Super smart, too,” Eddie gloated as they crossed the street. 

“I don’t like kids.”

“What do you mean you don’t like kids?”

“I don’t like them.”

“How old are you?” Eddie looked over and up at Archer, who kept walking without turning his head. “You can’t be too far removed from being a kid yourself.”

“I’m twenty.”

“You’re too young to not like kids.”

“I didn’t like kids when I was a kid.”

“That doesn’t even make sense.”

“New topic.”

“Okay, then. What’s your typical process for your vigilantism?” Eddie asked as they walked through an alleyway next to Sal’s. 

“I find a bad person. I research them. I track them down. I set up a meeting. I kill them. Then I do it again.”

“Okay, well, we’re not going to do that. I usually just go up onto the rooftops and hop from one building to the next—” Eddie exaggerated a hop off each leg as he talked “—and make a loop a few blocks wide in each direction, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Listening for anyone needing help. That sorta thing.”

“Sounds simple enough. Lead the way.”

Eddie climbed up the fire escape as Archer came up behind him. Eddie hopped up on the ledge while Archer walked along the rooftop next to him. With Eddie eight inches up on the ledge, he and Archer were finally about the same height. 

“So, what’s your deal with kids?” Eddie asked as they walked. 

“New topic.”

“What is behind your antagonism toward children?” 

“I said I wouldn’t kill anyone, but if you ask that question again in any form, I’m pushing you off that ledge.” 

“Fair enough.” Eddie leaped from the wall to the building next to them. Archer followed suit, taking longer than Eddie to make the jump but clearing it with ease. “So, what’s your deal in general, then? How did you get to this point in your life, where you’re walking around rooftops firing arrows at bad guys? Pretty messed up stuff, my guy. What leads a man to take on the role of judge, jury, and executioner?”

“You talk a lot.”

“It’s kinda my shtick.”

“It’s not mine. I don’t tell my life story to strangers.”

“What about friends?” Eddie asked as they jumped another gap.

“I don’t have friends,” Archer answered as he landed on the next roof.

“Well, I’m going to have to change that. We’re going to be besties.” 

Archer put a hand on Eddie. He didn’t use enough force to push him off, but just enough to let Eddie know he could if he wanted to. 

“So, we’re not to that point yet I see. I’ll stick with ‘pal’. Well, I love telling my life story, so here it goes. A baby was born to a husband and wife sixteen years ago. They were a happy family here in Sanders, at least that’s what he’s told. They died when he was three. Neither had siblings. The husband’s parents had already died, so the kid was sent to live with his maternal grandparents. 

“When he was four, that grandfather died. At five, the grandmother passed. He couldn’t remember any of them. He spent the next eleven years on the streets, just scraping by. But then, things started to turn around for that kid.” 

They leaped to another ledge. 

“He made some new friends, became a hero to all, and was able to scrounge up enough money to get off the streets. He worked security for high-profile clients who liked having a super hero as a security guard. Yes, the Street Rat made good. The autobiography was a best seller, and the movie won three Oscars. He died peacefully in his sleep at eighty-seven years old.”

“Seems an unlikely ending,” Archer commented as Eddie led them back down a fire escape when they reached a major intersection. 

“The fans love a happy ending, though, so I’m sure it’ll work out,” Eddie responded as they descended to the ground. 

“You’ll be lucky to see twenty.”

“Maybe so, but where’s the fun in telling that story?” Eddie hit the ground. 

“Help me!” 

A scream tore the Sanders’ night, cutting through the city’s score of sirens, horns, and other various city noises. 

Eddie sprinted toward the scream without another thought. He came out of the alley into the street lights to find a man and a woman yanking at a handbag. Eddie rushed into the fray right as the man shoved the woman to the ground. Eddie tried to grab at the bag, but the man pulled it and sprinted away from the scene.

“Archer, no!” Eddie yelled. 

It was too late. 

Archer had exited the alley and immediately loosed an arrow at the escaping mugger. Nothing Eddie could have done differently would have stopped him, so he was forced to watch as the arrow soared through the night toward its mark.

The point sliced through the leather strap of the handbag on each end. The arrow skidded away harmlessly as the bag fell, leaving the fleeing mugger with nothing but a cheap strip of leather. Archer retrieved the bag and returned it to the woman, who immediately opened it up. 

“Everything’s still here!” she exclaimed. “Thank you both so much. Here, please, take some money.”

“We can’t do that, ma’am,” Eddie answered, brushing at the air. “It’s all part of the hero gig. Just stay safe out here tonight.”

“Where did your friend go?” she asked, turning to where Archer had been standing. 

“That’s a great question. Well, I’m off to go find him. Have a splendid evening, madam!” Eddie raced back into the alley as the woman clutched at her bag and waved as he departed.

“Why’d you run off?” Eddie asked, finding Archer staring out over the ledge on top of the roof. 

“I don’t like attention. We did what we needed to do. It was time to go.”

“We’re going to have to work on your marketing skills. That’s half the job,” Eddie said, shaking his head. “Come on, let’s head this way.” 

The two leaped across the gap and continued their patrol. 

The Street Rat continues with episode 204.

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