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J. Joseph

The Runaway: Foreman Isaiah's Perspective


Okay, buddy. Slow down a bit. So, you want to talk about Mikey, do you? Don’t worry yourself too much, though I’m a tad surprised you didn’t come here first. After all, even though he stayed with Jim, slept with Linda, and worked with Pete from time to time, my crew was the one place he always was coming back to. My money is on he didn’t want to farm, and people don’t get hurt often enough to make a life out of doctoring, but we always need to keep up the renovations and repairs around town. At least, officially, that’s where my money is. But I’m guessing you aren’t looking for any ‘Official’ story, are you? Nah, you’re after the truth of the matter. Well, here’s what I know, from what I saw and what I heard.

According to Jim, that boy Mikey arrived in town a few days before I met him. Moved into Jim’s runaway-room, as we jokingly call it. See, usually, it’s reserved for the kids in town, in case they need a break from their home lives, for whatever reason. But there is the occasional out of towner that Jim looks at and says, “He’s good,” and then invites to use the room. Mikey was one of them out-of-towners. After getting settled, he started doing odd jobs around town, and that’s when we first met. He joined up to help with the repair of the Stevenses’ deck, which had been taken out by a big tree branch that fell on it hard.

He introduced himself, saying, “Hey there, Mister Olivier. Name’s Pergio, Mikey Pergio. Jim said you could probably use a hand.”

Now than, being a distrustful bastard, I’m always kind of suspicious of the strays Jim lets into town. Was even suspicious of Jim, back when I was a kid. But that wasn’t about to mean I wouldn’t let the man work. An able body is an able body, no matter what. “Nice to meet you, Mikey,” I replied, “Call me Isaiah.” And I put him to work on the saw.

Being a suspicious man, I immediately met up with my old grade school friend, Anton. He was sheriff now, much to his parents’ chagrin. Also, being one of the initial family descendants, he was real invested in the town. So, me and him had a bit of a chat about Mikey that afternoon at Alicia’s diner. “Hey, Anton,” I asked, “What’s up with this Mikey character?”

Anton, eating his piece of pie, shook his head. “He’s good people. He’s also definitely trying to find some deep dark secrets about the town, but he’s mostly a solid dude. Why?”

“He’s started doing some work for me, figured I should make sure he ain’t trying to do any shady stuff.”

Anton nodded. “Makes sense. You’re just working New Town, right?” he replied.

I nodded. “Of course. You old school types are real paranoid about people working on your mansions.”

“Then you should be solid,” he said. I thanked him by leaving him alone with the rest of his pie.

Weeks turned to months in no time. Pete showed back up in town, started his doctoring practice. My little girl started dating that horrible Paul kid. And Mikey was still a solid worker. You know, I could never get over that fact. We could put him on the saw, the crane, the digger, even the electrics and the pipes, he always knew what to do. Made me even more suspicious of him, don’t get me wrong, but when Anton tells me I got nothing to worry about, I don’t worry about it. Mostly because Anton knows more than he lets on, and he seemed pretty certain that Mikey was interested in stuff only the initial families could tell him about. Oh, and Mikey allegedly started sleeping with Linda, which is generally a good sign. I knew about seven people Linda’d ever theoretically dated before Mikey. Six of them were great people overall, no flaws between them. The seventh’s only flaw is that he became a lawman in a town that really doesn’t need one, for some ungodly reason. So, I went to the woman, to chat with her.

“Hey there, Linda,” I said, seating myself at the bar, “How’s business treating you?”

She looked at me, judgment in her eyes, and she simply said, “You’re not here to chat about the bar, we both know that. What do you want?”

“What’s your take on the kid, Lin?” I asked.

Linda feigned confusion and replied, “What kid? I have no idea whom you’re talking about.”

She was a liar, of course. That’s just because she was one of them classy ladies, that don’t kiss and tell. I smiled at her. “Lex may not be great at a lot of them social things, but she can read people like an open book. You know that, Lin.” My statement was an implication, because if I was outright about it, that’d be bad for Linda’s reputation, but hinting at it would make it clear that she ain’t got nothing to fear from me.

“Oh,” she said, “You must be referring to my neighbor, Michael.” Then, in hushed tones, she added, “Jo has been corrupting your little girl for too long.” She clearly wasn’t happy about Alex telling me about her and Mikey.

I smiled at her. “On that, you and I agree completely,” I replied. Not because she told me, but because I knew he was whispering in her ear stuff about leaving forever. He hated town, and she was ambivalent but thought she loved him. Bad juju, all around. I continued, “So, what’s your take on your neighbor?”

She nodded. “He’s a good person,” she said.

“If I wanted that response, I’d’ve talked to Anton again,” I scolded.

She looked nervous. “You talked to Anton about Mikey and me?”

“Of course not,” I said, “I don’t want to get myself shot. Nah, I talked to him about Mikey, back before you and him were particularly friendly.”

“Right,” she said, “In any case, he is a good person. He’s settling down, you know. Got a full aquarium of fish downstairs now.”

“Really?” That wasn’t a particularly surprising statement, people who stay in town long enough grow attached, but it did give me an excuse to check out his apartment. “You think he’d mind me checking them out? I always did appreciate my fishes.”

Linda smiled at me. “How is your aquarium going, now that Mikey has been scooping up so many of Ralph’s exotic fish?”

“Fishes make baby fishes, you know that. Just got to put your lady fish in the same tank as your gentleman fish of the same type, then look away so they don’t feel awkward ‘bout it,” I half joking replied, a smirk across my face. My fish tanks were pretty well known around this town, it took up half of my basement, after all.

Linda nodded, chuckling. “I don’t think he’d mind very much,” she said, “As long as you promise not to snoop or mess with any of his stuff.”

“I one hundred percent promise to snoop,” I shot back, “But I won’t mess with none of his stuff. That’s just rude.”

She laughed and led me downstairs to the room’s door. Unlocking it for me, I entered. I counted to seven, and sure enough, at six some guy upstairs started clamoring for some beer. Linda told me, “Don’t mess with anything, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said as she done walked back upstairs. Of course, the moment she was gone, I began to look around the rest of the room.

The kid was definitely not settling in, no matter what the fish seemed to indicate. Besides the aquarium, which was nice, there wasn’t a hint of this whole thing being long-term. His clothes were practically still in suitcases, he was sleeping on a mattress, no bed, not even a box spring. The only personalization besides the aquarium in the whole room was a baggie, pinned to the wall labeled ‘DO NOT OPEN’. Unfortunately, my suspicion got the best of me, and I needed to see inside that little baggie. I wasn’t about to let the kid know I was onto him, so I did the sensible thing, pulled out my snake-cam from my inside jacket pocket, and carefully removed the baggie, pins and all, from the wall. I’d gotten a snake-cam way back when I played those stealth games that had them as tools, and I figured it’d be good for when I heard strange noises in the nighttime. I poked a teensy little hole for the camera in the bag, right beside one of the pins so that nobody’d be the wiser, then I slipped it in. This was the weird thing, though. Inside, I was expecting something like a bomb, or straight cash, or a gun or something. I wasn’t expecting a wallet, passport, and a cellular telephone. Whatever this kid was, he was hiding from being himself. That, I figured, explained the whole bad feeling I’d gotten about him, and the reasons he wasn’t moved in. I used the camera to open the passport. It was a guy named Vladimir Alekseev. Hearing the stair door begin to open, I removed my camera, and carefully placed the pins of the baggie back into the little holes in the wall. The footsteps made their way to the apartment door. They were heavy, not Linda’s. It seemed Mikey had gotten back. I went over to the fish tank and began looking at them fish all curious-like.

The door opened, and Mikey stepped in. “Isaiah?” he said, “I’m surprised to see you here.”

I shook my head and smiled. “Ralph told me you were scooping up all the fancy fish, figured I’d check on your setup for myself,” I replied.

He chuckled, “And you must be the reason he had all those fancy fish in his store.”

I bowed my head. “I’m a bit of what you’d call a collector. My basement’s nearly the best aquarium in the state, you know.”

“Damn,” he said, “I almost feel bad about getting these fish. Almost.”

“Don’t,” I said right back, “If it makes you feel at home, do whatever you need to do.”

“Thanks, man,” Mikey said, giving me one of those handshake hug things.

“No problem,” I replied, “Though, to be clear, even though I like you, you better not hurt Linda.”

“I don’t know what you’re implying, sir.” Then, after a pause and a furrowed brow, he added, “Wait, you don’t have a thing for her, do you?”

I laughed. “I’m married with a kid, son,” I said, “Smart kid at that. Nah, she’s just the best damned bartender we’ve had in a long while. And, unlike Jim, she don’t give my little girl beer when her and her friends come around.”

“I see,” he said, only somewhat confused.

I nodded and left him be. We went about our every day lives, and I generally forgot about the whole thing. He was a good, hardworking kid, who was well worth any trouble. Honestly, his work ethic was second to none. IN any case, one day, when I was headed down to relax in my basement, I found an odd thing. See, I knew all my fish by name, which is why the new fish surprised me. I recognized it. It had been Mikey’s first fish. It was sitting in my aquarium now. That could only mean one thing. I headed out to the bus station minutes too late. The bus was already leaving, Mikey inside, I was sure. Jim and Anton were both standing around, looking mighty grumpy and a bit confused. I walked up to Anton. “He’s gone forever, ain’t he?” I asked.

Anton nodded. “I suspect so,” he said.

“You do it?” I asked. It was an honest inquiry, after all, Mikey had been allegedly seeing Linda.

Anton shook his head. “No, but he was looking into some stuff.”

I nodded. He’d probably found something he shouldn’t’ve found. That happens a lot around here, with people who don’t know when to stop looking. The next day, I got a call from my buddy Tiberius, who asked me about my suspicions about Mikey. I told him about the passport, that I thought Mikey was in deep and looking to find a way out through the town. I told him Mikey was good people, that I hoped nothing was going to happen to him. He told me not to worry, that whatever he found, Mikey’d be alright, they’d make sure of it. And that was the last I hear about him. After that, the call devolved because I may have slightly insulted the man’s son for being a no-good piece of pond scum who was a bad influence on all the other kids in school. That ain’t the sort of thing people get over easily, even if it is the truth.

Anyways, that’s Mikey’s story for you. A good kid caught in a spot. Came here to find a new lease on life, and by all accounts, seeing as he hasn’t returned here, he found that new lease. The Pauls’ connections probably helped him out some, but mostly, he was smart enough to get by no matter what life threw at him. This lovely little town just helped him find his mojo. We’re good at that, you know. Just curious, what’s this program supposed to be about, anyways? Is Mikey, like, someone super important now? Because I’d love to chat with him again if he is. Ask him to help out a bit, for old times’ sake.

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