National Novel Writing Month!

The following excerpt is from the backstory/flashback section of the novel:

LOST PUPPY

By the time he sensed the bright flickering lights behind him, the dopplered blare of the car horns and the splatter of dirty water had lost the power to startle or phase him.  Ben had been squinting through the driving rain at the headlights approaching on the other side of the four lane highway as he summoned the will to continue pedaling his bike southward on the berm of Interstate 71.

But the bright floodlight and flashers made his heart jump in fear as he whipped his head around to see the cruiser pulling over just a few yards behind him.  Were they going to take him back there?  He gritted his chattering teeth at the humiliation of it, for the thousandth time wiping away the water dripping into his eyes.  He watched as the Highway Patrolman deliberately stepped out of the car, his grey uniform and holster just visible under his black rain slicker.  Ben felt his arms stiffen and his grip tighten on the handlebars.

"Where you off to on a night like this?" The officer's voice was calm, kind, and Ben relaxed a little.

The 15-year-old had thought April would be good weather to make his escape, but the temperature had dropped into the high 40's at midnight.  He could see his breath and soaked with the rain, he felt colder than he'd ever been in his life.

"N-nowhere.  Just out for a r-ride."  He could see the man look him over, studying his old shirt and suspenders.  No surprise registered on his face.  Perhaps the man was so used to being lied to.

"How old are you son?"

"Eighteen."

"What's your name? Your parents know where you are?"  The officer's face was close now, registering concern.  His large form was backlit in the spring darkness.

"My name's Ben.  Ben Everhardt.  I don't have any parents."  It was the name he had made up and he thought he sounded convincing.  He wondered if he could pass for eighteen.

"Why don't you come out of the rain for a few minutes and we can get ahold of someone to come and pick you up?"  The patrolman ushered Ben to the back of the patrol car after they'd laid the bike down in the grass adjacent to the berm.  Ben went willingly.  Running didn't seem like a good idea.  He welcomed the warmth of the car as the officer tossed him a dry blanket.

Officer Turleson was the man's name.  Ben shook his hand when offered and tried to be polite as the man introduced his partner, a bearded, muscular man.  His mind was racing so fast he immediately forgot the officer's name and didn't hear more than half of what Turleson said.

"Can I go now?  I haven't broken any laws." Ben pulled the blanket tighter around his shivering body.

"You don't know you can't ride a bike on the freeway?" the burly partner asked with a condescending smirk.  "Big sign right there when you get on."  The radio squawked as Turleson murmured something into it.

"Tell me again where you're headed."  The serious look on Turleson's face told Elisha he'd better have an answer this time.

"Columbus." He replied. "I'm visiting my aunt.  Maybe go to Ohio State in the Fall."  With all of his lack of planning, Elisha was glad that he had at least made up a story, anticipating that he'd run into curious strangers.  But he probably wasn't going to fool the law.

"All right.  Go Buckeyes," Bearded guy was looking over some sheaf of papers and not really paying attention to his predicament it didn't seem to Elisha.  Turleson was listening to whoever was squawking like Charlie Brown's teacher over the radio. 

"Am I under arrest?" Elisha wondered aloud.  He could hear the rapping of rain on the roof for what seemed like an interminable moment of silence.

Turleson turned.  He saw Elisha's wet head and sunken eyes and sighed.  "No, but you're definitely getting out of this rain and into some dry clothes.  We'll discuss taking you to Columbus in the morning.  We'll be heading that way as part of our regular route."

"But we're not—"

Turleson cut his partner off with a look.  "Hope you don't mind sleeping on a cot.  'Cause a cot is all we got."  He smiled reassuringly.  "I'll go load your bike in the back."  He venture back out into the rain.  The beard was chewing on something half turned around in his seat, eyeing him intently.  He looked as if he was going to say something and then turned around just as he heard Turleson slam the back of the car closed.

The partner, whose name was Holm, climbed out of the cruiser.  "What the hell?" He looked at Turleson for an explanation.

"No missing persons that match.  He could be 18, but if he is, he doesn't have a driver's license or anything else to identify him.  Not even a wallet."  Turleson said.

"He's running away from something." Holm said. "See it in his eyes."

"Maybe." The two exchanged a look that was worth about three sentences about standard procedure.

He should never have left his bike.

Elisha had merely stepped into the gas station for some warmth and to use the restroom.  He hadn't been there five minutes.  He wouldn't have taken his eyes off the thing had he not been so frustrated with it.  The back tire was flat and pumping it up every few miles had worked at first.  But now he knew it'd need repair and there was no Alvin here to help him and no money for materials for him to fix it himself.

The rain had started again.  It was mid-afternoon and he was exhausted.  Worse he had a cold which was only worsening with the weather.  Elisha found an old newspaper laying on top of a trash can and stashed himself on the side of the building where it didn't seem anyone was looking and sat against the concrete wall of the station covered by an overhang.  He had intended to put the paper over his head as a shield, but now he cast it aside feeling silly and humiliated.

Stray drips of rain were blowing and snipping against places where his skin was exposed: his ankles, his cheeks, his hands.  Nothing was working out the way it was supposed to, the way he had imagined it.  Elisha sunk his head into his hands and began silently to weep.  Where was he supposed to go from here?  What would he do now?  Where would he stay tonight?  Moments turned into minutes as he let his mind go blank, feeling only the pain of loneliness and disappointment.  He thought of his mother's cooking, sitting by the warm hearth after a work day, sleeping in his bed.  Only two days previous these comforts had all been his in abundance.

At home everyone thought he was so smart, so resourceful.  He had been so sure of himself, but now, what would he do, a fifteen-year-old new to the real world of 1988? Who was going to hire a kid?
"Excuse me.  Are you OK?"

Elisha peered up at the girl.  Her eyes were full of concern. Her head was moving around with her eyes as she studied him.  Her brown curls were bouncing around as she hovered over him with some kind of pink umbrella.  The color was hurting his eyes.

"Yeah. Thanks. I'm fine."

"But you're crying!"  The girl looked ready to cry herself, now crouching to get an even closer examination.

"Don't be silly, I just got wet in the rain.  I got wet.  That's all."  This was all he needed, some little girl to reprimand him for being a big baby.  She couldn't be more than 12 or 13, short and skinny thing.

"But your eyes are all red...and you're shivering!  You must be freezing!" Her eyes were going wide now.  Ben just wanted to go one-dimensional and slide right into a crack in the pavement.  He assumed the girl wanted to make fun of him, like so many others before had.
So Ben just sat there, looking at her, not saying a word, waiting for what might come next.  Hopefully, very soon, the girl would lose interest and go away.  He blinked.  She was still there.

"Why don't you go home?" she asked.  "Do you live around here?"

The smart move was to tell her something that would make her go away.  He could say any number of things like that.  He could offer that he lived a block away and was about to go home right now, and why didn't she just mind her own business.

Instead, he heard himself saying, "I don't have a place to live."

Now the young girl's eyes got so wide her nose almost disappeared.  "Are you....a homeless person?"  She seemed sad and excited at the same time.

"I don't know what you mean," Elisha replied, just as uncomfortable with this new reason for attention.

"What I mean is who takes care of you? Can you call someone?" The girl asked.

"No.  It's just me. I do fine on my own."  He looked at the girl's eyes.  She looked like she was trying to figure something out.  He felt guilty for being mysterious, but he wasn't going to tell a complete stranger his life story.  This had gone far enough.  It was time for this girl to leave him alone.  Yet, she just stood back up, looking at him with those penetrating eyes, the rain bouncing off her hideous umbrella.  Not leaving.  She wasn't a beautiful girl, just a gawky adolescent, yet there was something about those eyes that drew Ben in, made him trust her.

"Well, if it's just you then you need some help.  And if you don't have a home that means you're a homeless person.  So you're coming with me and I'm going to help you find a home."  She drew up to her full height--well short of five feet--and in attempting to cross her arms she dropped her umbrella.

Ben might have smiled if he weren't so preoccupied with his own dour weariness.  She quickly picked up the umbrella and thrust it towards him, offering for him to walk under it with her.

"You're going to help me?" Elisha asked. "How?"

"My mother will fix you a nice dinner.  You can shower and rest and dry off.  You can sleep over in my brother's room and I can wash and dry your clothes.  My brother has some you can use while they're drying so you won't be naked, don't worry."

Now he did smile.  "I'm not worried.  I just can't go somewhere strange with someone I don't know." He looked at her.  "But thank you.  You're a nice person."  He figured she was the type of person who felt guilty about suffering people, and if he told her what she wanted to hear she'd leave him in peace.

"My name is Penny  That's short for Penelope." She extended her hand.

"Mine is Ben." He took it and gave the tiny fingers a gentle shake.

"Ben is a nice name.  Now we're not strangers.  Come on."  She started to walk toward the road.  She stopped to look back just once.  Elisha was still sitting there, not looking her way.