Andrea made sure to put out and discard her cigarette before taking a left turn and entering a small block with a couple of narrow and ghostly looking three storey houses. In the front yard of the middle house, three kids fiercely fought with decently large and thick sticks. Bang, a half meter long stick slammed against one of the windows on the first floor. The stick had flown out of the oldest looking kid’s hand as he wildly swung it towards his opponents. The shortest of them hastily looked in the direction of the window and put some distance between himself and the other two as he decided that it would be best to quit the game before it escalated even further. 

  “You sissy!” the third boy with the bright red hoodie called.

  Being completely captivated by playing, the kids hadn’t noticed the young woman with a gray hoodie and a messy bun approach. 

  “Yo, why so rude son? At least he’s using his head,” Andrea said with a serious tone, although unable to hide a slight smile.

  The boy with the red hoodie, or Victor by name, dropped his stick and ran at full speed towards Andrea to give her one big hug. Andrea embraced the boy with one arm and ruffled his short dark blonde hair with the other.

  “I missed you,” she said and gave him a kiss on the head.

  “I missed you too.”

  “Do you wanna sit?” Andrea gestured to the curb with a nod and took the lead in walking to the edge of the sidewalk and sitting down. Victor grabbed the nearest twig off the ground to play with and followed suit. 

  “I talked to Ms. Miller this morning and she said that you got into some trouble,” Andrea said.

  “It wasn’t my fault,” Victor lowered his gaze and started drawing on the gravel that filled out the irregularities and cracks of the asphalt.

  “What happened?” Andrea asked.  

  “I don’t know. I got angry… I guess,” the boy said without looking up. 

  “It’s okay to get angry. We all do. But it isn’t worth getting hurt over it, or hurting somebody else.” Andrea had grabbed a small stone and added marks to her son’s drawings by their feet.

  “You don’t know. You weren’t there,” Victor mumbled.

  “That’s true.” Andrea felt a stab to the heart. “But I know that you don’t wanna hurt anyone, and I don’t want you to get hurt.” Andrea moved her left arm over to Victor’s shoulder furthest away from her and squeezed him tight for a second.

  “I wanna go home,” Victor said.

  “I know.” Andrea said, sensing guilt slowly building up. 

  “I don’t care if we’re homeless. I hate it here.” Victor broke and threw the twig in his hand to the middle of the road. 

  Andrea looked at her boy with sadness in her eyes, still holding him tight.

  “I care, Ms. Miller cares, we don’t want you out on the streets. It’s no place for a kid.” Andrea paused, not really knowing what to say next. “Things changed once, for better or worse. And they’ll change again, they always do. But my love for you will always remain.”