“I don’t know for sure, but I never saw him again after that. That was probably two months ago.”
It sounded like easy money for a plague kid new to the city and confused by the many complexities of state-run capitalism, but at what cost?
“Anything you can offer as proof that it was really him?” I asked before we got too invested in his story.
Ansel stared at Kitten. “He said your favorite show growing up wasiCarly,and that he pretended to hate it, but secretly, he didn’t.”
Kitten gulped and nodded, blinking back tears.
“You got any questions for Ansel?” I asked Kitten.
“Did he ever say if he was coming home?” Kitten asked.
Ansel glanced at me briefly, his tell. “He might’ve said so. I… I don’t really remember.”
Kitten was silent at that so I nodded and said, “Thanks for the intel. I hope you and your mini-fridge are very happy together.” I handed over a few cigarettes as promised.
“Thanks, man, and I hope you find your brother, Josh.” He patted Kitten’s shoulder, and it was fine. It wasjust fine.
After Ansel left, I turned to Kitten. “I’ll figure out which lab it is and see if he’s there. We’ll find him.”
“Why would he do that? Why would he stay here when he was only supposed to get medicine and bring it back home?”
Why would he leave me?That was the real question he was asking.
“I don’t know, sweetness, but I hope you can ask him that yourself real soon.”
SIXTEEN
KITTEN
Two daysafter our meeting with Ansel, Cipher came back home with good news. He’d found Santiago at a research facility on the Emory campus, and signed us up for visiting hours the very next day.
Now, after so many months apart, I was finally sitting across from my brother, separated by only a thick, plexiglass window. He appeared to be healthy and well-fed, and other than a shaved head and hospital scrubs, he looked just as I remembered him. I wished that I could hug him, but it was against the rules. My germs might contaminate their study.
“Joshy,” he said with a big smile. “It’s so good to see you, little bro. How you been?”
I was about to launch into a long, rambling story about my adventures with the Assholes leading up to the point at which we arrived here in the city, when I realized he hadn’t asked about Mom.
“Mom is dead,” I said.
“The fever?” Santiago asked, his expression turning grim, but he didn’t seem surprised.
“Yeah.” The fever was the reason her life ended. I waited for him to apologize for not being there or ask me how it happened, but he didn’t.
“So, how did you get to Atlanta?” he said, and the immediate shift in conversation rubbed me wrong.
“A group of scavengers found me and invited me to come along with them. I’m staying with them here in the city. Cipher, the guy you saw, he’s the one who found you for me. He’s my boyfriend.” I glanced out the window to where Cipher was pacing the little courtyard between brick buildings. He said he didn’t like hospitals, probably worried they were going to try to poke him too.
“Boyfriend?” Santiago asked, spreading his legs wider and crossing his arms, making himself bigger. Cipher did the same thing too.
“Yes. Boyfriend,” I said, daring him to challenge me on it. “He’s one of the scavengers who found me.” Cipher could have kept on going and ignored me altogether, but he saw that I was in danger, and he stepped in to help because that’s just who he was.
“Is he nice to you?” Santiago asked.
“He’s very nice to me. How about you? How’d you get here so fast?”
“I hitched a ride with a military convoy that was headed to Fort Benning. They dropped me off here. Tried pretty hard to recruit me first.”
