The kids Jorge and Ben walked on passed a few buildings towards the soccer field. On their way, they walked by a black teenager with a red beanie and red overalls sitting on a stoop in front of a building. The feature that caught the children’s eye was the fact that he only had one leg. He noticed their gaze and began to wave. The kids quickly looked up and awkwardly returned the wave. As they were walking passed him Ben suddenly tripped over.
“Ow. What the heck was that”. Ben looked down and saw that his shoelaces were tied together.
“Hahahaha”. The two boys looked back at the one-legged teenager grabbing his stomach laughing. “You should watch your step kid. I don’t really have to worry about things like that. ” He lifted his leg up and began laughing again. Ben’s face turned to agitation.
“Hey shut up!” Ben said as his face turned red.
“I told you wearing those new shoes would be a bad idea,” Jorge said. Ben stuck his tongue out at Jorge in annoyance. The teenager waved his hand with a smile.
“Hey, I’m just joking with you,” he said. “Here, I’ll help you out.” He stood up with ease and hopped over to ben and quickly untied the knot that caused ben to mysteriously fall over.
“Be careful out there,” he said to the children. The two kids waved and they continued to walk towards the soccer field.
“Everyone in this city is weird,” Ben said while pouting.
“You’re just upset because you don’t know how to tie your shoes,” Jorge said with a smile. Ben turned red.
“That wasn’t my fault! I’m great at tying shoes! I do the bunny ears and everything.” Jorge laughed some more and they continued on.
They reached their destination and approached some kids that were already kicking around soccer balls and goofing around. Emilio noticed the boys and waved at them before rushing over to greet them.
“Hey Ben, hey Jorge. Check this out.” He pulled his lip up to reveal a missing canine and front tooth. “Pretty sweet huh”, Emilio said.
“Woh,” Ben said looking in awe.
“Yeah,” Emilio said with pride. “I got hit in the face with a soccer ball the other day and they came right out. Two more baby teeth gone.”
Jorge stood there and looked around to see who was there and noticed someone was missing.
“Hey, where’s Jess?” Jorge asked.
“Oh her?’’ Emilio asked. “I’m not sure. She should be here by now. I haven’t heard from her for a couple days tho.”
The sound of some crayons moving across a page was heard towards the edge of the field.
“She’s not coming.” Everyone turned towards who had spoken and saw a small Carlinhos coloring on a piece of paper. He was much younger than the other boys. The three boys approached him.
“Why is she sick or something?” Ben asked. Carlinhos didn’t react. He just kept coloring a picture that was obscured from the boys’ vision.
“Did you hear him?” Emilio asked. Carlinhos just kept coloring. After scribbling some more he paused what he was doing to speak. His words were hollow and monotone, lacking any childish spirit.
“She’s gone,” Carlinhos said plainly. “She’s with Cuca now.”
Ben and Emilio Began to laugh.
“Hahaha. Cuca? You gotta be kidding me.” Ben said.
“The alligator woman that takes away bad kids? That’s hilarious. She’s probably just sick or running late or something. ” Emilio said. Jorge clenched his fist and slowly began to approach Carlinhos with a worried expression on his face.
“Jess is always being good,” Jorge said. “Doesn’t Cuca only take bad kids. What could she have done.” Ben and Emilio looked at Jorge in disbelief.
“You don’t really believe this do you, Jorge?” Ben asked. Emilio paused for a second.
“I do remember her talking about some nightmares she had about alligators,” Emilio recalled. “I didn’t see her much since then.” Carlinhos began speaking again.
“She began to start worrying about doing something bad that would upset cuca. She wouldn’t leave her room and stopped eating. She would hide under her blankets and said she saw a shadow move across the rooftops. Her parents got worried.” He went on to tell them about how her parent’s encountered a mysterious woman that carried a sack on her back and when she saw how troubled Jess’s parents were she procured a puppy from her back and suggested it would be a good gift.
“Oh, she has a dog now?!” Ben said excitedly. Carlinhos just continued on.
“The dog wouldn’t stop barking. Then suddenly one night the dog stopped barking.” Everyone went silent. “Her parents went up to her room and saw her sitting in the corner with her window open. They yelled at her and she stayed still the whole time. The next morning she was gone. Nobody’s seen her since.” Carlinhos went back to coloring his drawing. All the boys were pale in the face now. Jorge looked especially shook, and a distant look in his eyes began to form.
A soccer ball hit Ben in the back of his head breaking the tension. Some kids called them over for Ben to kick the ball back and join in the game.
“C’mon guys,” Ben said to them. “Ghost stories are dumb. Let’s go play.”
Emilio started to move towards the field, but Jorge remained motionless, Ben’s words failing to reach him.
“Hey.” Ben tapped Jorge on the shoulder, managing to break his trance. “Let’s go play. I learned this crazy new move.” Jorge appeared to be normal and shook his head.
After playing for some time the kids heard the sound of a bird somewhere towards the edge of the field making high pitched chirps. The group of children made their way over to a bush to discover a baby bird lying helpless on the ground.
“That’s weird,” Emilio said while looking around. “There aren’t any trees nearby. How did this bird get all the way over here?”
Jorge’s eyes once again became clouded. He bent down to pick up a rock and slowly began to approach the bush. Emilio saw Jorge begin to walk over.
“Hey Jorge, did you see this bird yet?” Emilion asked. “I have no idea where it came from. Hey, are you ok?”
Jorge just walked right passed him and looked down at the bird before lifting the rock above his head.
“WAIT!” Ben and Emilio both shouted.
Carlinhos finished his coloring.
A crude picture of a rock coming down on a bird, it’s feathers going everywhere.
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