Chapter Two

The Message

The first half of the new day was spent in class and doing chores. With Cap and Dorothy being older than most, the two helped out where they could. One’s age pretty much told your responsibilities and that was to help those younger than yourself. This wasn’t necessarily said to them by Sister Mary and the rest of the nuns. It was just something the two had naturally started doing. After the nuns noticed this, they coined the idea and began encouraging the behavior. When Dorothy was seen doing it, to be specific. Given how much trouble Cap got himself into, they suspected that he was just up to something.

The two made their way down the dirt road, while Dorothy counted the money in her tiny cloth handbag. After heading to the candy shop, the two left with not only a few pieces of sweets but also a few quarters more. The shop owner was distracted from the task of counting money, all thanks to Cap seeming as if he were only moments away from pocketing the candied cigarettes. They sat on a wire stand inside the candy shop along with many other eye-catching sweets. Enticing customers to buy an extra piece of something yummy before leaving. Now the candy shop owner began to wonder if he was a fool for making it so easy for kids to steal.

Dorothy on the other hand was having the man break one of the bills, explaining how her sweet grandmother gifted her a hundred dollars as an early birthday gift, even though her birthday wasn’t for a few more days. As if exchanging that much money wasn’t hard enough, to make things complicated for the man, she also asked for a mix of dollars, quarters, dimes, and nickels. Dorothy sweetly protested when he supposedly gave her the incorrect amount, falsely claiming that she needed a few more quarters before giving him back a nickel for the two boxes of sugar cigarettes. Now on the dirt road, Dorothy finished counting the money before slipping the cloth purse into her sundress and pulling out the note Cap found to study.

“Why is it burnt?” She asked, receiving a shrug.

“I got bored,” He said while placing a candy cigarette between his lips.

“So you risk arson because you were bored?”

“There’s a river! Plenty of water,” He mumbled defensively.

She rolled her eyes knowing he just liked to get under her skin. Coming to a stop in front of the bridge, Dorothy said;

“Keep them from crossing from five to seven,” She read over the note. “Who the hell is them, and,” She squinted at the bridge, as she pocketed the note. “Is that… birch?”

“Right?!”

“What happens if you cross between five and seven?” Dorothy mused. “Where did you find the note and money?”

“Right here,” Cap walked over and sat down on the rock. “Right at my feet. I didn’t even notice the damn bridge until I read the note. Anyway, I didn’t know what time it was so I just waited until it was dark. I stood up, and as if it came out of my ass, a thousand dollars, right there.”

“Perhaps you should get your head checked out,” She teased. “You think more will pop up?”

“If it does then we have a bigger problem,” He began. “A hundred dollars is questionable but thousands will have people asking what the fuck. If anyone finds out,”

“That’s a big if,” She stepped off the dirt road into the grass where a twig sat. Checking for any crawlers, she plucked it up and stabbed it into the soft soil. “It’s about five already.”

Cap’s face twisted up, both interested and confused.

“… Looks like you’re the one who needs her head checked.”

“It’s called a sundial. We just learned about it. Weren’t you listening?”

“Meh, I’m doing this new thing where I keep it in my head for a while, and then forget about it to make room for more important shit.”

“We learned about it this morning,” She said.

“Eh,” He shrugged.

She stared at her friend with a bit of disbelief before her attention snapped toward the dirt road. Following her gaze, Cap did the same.

“Is that them?” She asked.

“I sure hope so. There are two more this time,” He grinned.

The two teenagers from yesterday were back with two more boys who seemed a bit unsure of the possible fight. They had envisioned a teenager, not some kid with a fake cigarette in his mouth.

“You boys on a date?” Dorothy smirked, bursting with pride that she said it first. With how two of the teenagers looked, she couldn’t help but admire Cap for his handy work. Sure Cap didn’t look so good, even having the nuns, not including Sister Mary, strangely enough, wanting to know what happened to him. Still, the two teenagers looked worse, and Dorothy very much wanted to leave her mark on the other two.

“Shut it!” The boy with the most exposed bruises snapped, not even looking at the girl. “Fork it over Cap,” He demanded.

“Yeah, they belong to his dad,” Another boy blurted out in a slightly squeaky voice. He got a cold glare from giving out that bit of information.

“So your dad likes a good fag huh?” Cap teased, remembering that in another part of the world fag meant cigarette, then again implying that the teenager’s father was gay was all the reason he needed.

“I’ma beat your ass, Cap!”

The four of them moved closer but paused when they noticed the girl removing her dress. Now only dressed in short bloomers, thigh-high socks, and her boots, she gently placed her dress on the rock before making a mad dash for one of the boys. Slamming her shoulder into his chest, and knocking the breath from his lungs. That signaled the start of the fight, lasting for but a few moments. Once again the teenagers limped away, back down the dirt road. Cap sat in the grass watching them leave as Dorothy lay flat on the ground, enjoying the cool grass on her back. Panting she asked;

“How’s my face, Capo?”

Cap lost the candy cigarette in his mouth, sometime between headbutting one of the teenagers in the nose and kicking one in the ribs. Reaching into his pocket, he went to take out a real cigarette as he glanced in her direction.

“It’s fine, but you’re gonna have bruises on the rest of ya.”

“The money maker is the most important,” She said while waving a hand over her face. Cap knew why she even asked, after all, she was the perfect girl for adoption. The problem being, she didn’t seem like she wanted to be adopted. “The candy ones, Capo,” She reminded him. Reluctantly he put back the cigarette and replaced it with candy.

“May as well throw the real ones in the trash,” He groaned.

“Yeah… no, keep them… just in case.”

Dorothy was fast asleep, while Cap munched through his third candy cigarette. He glanced over at the sundial seeing that they had a bit more time left. His attention fell on Dorothy remembering the first time they fought together and got caught. He ended up taking the fall for the trouble. After all, Dorothy was the perfect girl in the eyes of Sister Mary, and the rest of the nuns. His gaze traveled south to her bare chest. They were much bigger than he remembered. Spacing out, his gaze snapped to her face, only to flinch slightly when he saw she was staring back.

“You can touch them if you want… I’d rather you do that than smoke. That stuff will kill you, Capo.”

“I told you to stop calling me that, and who the hell cares, we all die someday,” Cap said.

“You’ll die sooner putting smoke in your lungs. I can see you fighting some smart ass and losing because your lungs are messed up.”

“Alright, I get it, damn,”

“It’s getting late, let’s head back.”

Dorothy got up with a small whine. Sure fighting a couple of punks was a great stress reliever but being sore all over sucked. She stepped over to her sundress and slipped it back on.

“Capo?” Dorothy called softly as she turned around holding two stacks of hundred dollar bills.