19320909 22:12:48

19320909 22:12:48

MT-N alleyway

Helen found it to be easier to slip out of her bedroom window and leave from the house this time. With tomorrow being Saturday, it would be easier for her to slip back inside in the morning before her parents were awake, or at least check in her room. A primary change in her mission was to find someplace which wasn't a home to sleep outside of for the night. In thinking of nearby businesses, she settled on going to Nooran's Grocery, down off of the corner of MP. As she walked there, she came across the stray black doberman dog which she had seen last time. The dog was laying on its legs but quickly stood up with its tail wagging as she approached. Helen smiled and scratched behind its ears, and the dog panted happily in response. As she walked away, the dog decided to follow.

Within minutes, she was near the rear of the grocery store, and she noticed that it seemed to have a flickering glow coming from there, as if the walls and nearby houses were illuminated by candle light. She soon found out why - once she turned the corner of the nearby building to look over to the loading area of the grocery store, she saw three persons huddled around a fire that was contained in a metal can. They were all standing between her and the fire and started at her intently as she came into view. She judged them to be young teenagers, no more than a few years older than her at most. They were all boys, and the one standing in the middle seemed to fidget with his pants pocket as she stood before them. She didn't notice that it was a switchblade that he was sliding back into his pants. The boy to his right spoke out first.
"Who the hell are you?"
"My name's Helen." She responded with a bit of hesitation about giving her real name, but didn't manage to think of a reason to use a fake one at the moment, nor had a fake name in mind.
"What're you doin here?" This was the boy furthest to the right from her view who spoke now. His body was taller and his voice was deeper than the other one on the left.
"I'm looking for a place to sleep. Somewhere like this. Is that what you're doing here?"
"Probly." The same boy who spoke before said this with a dismissive shrug of the shoulders, then added, "but we're eatin first, and we ain't sharin with you."
"That's fine. I'm uh... I'm not hungry."
"What about your dog?"
"Oh, he's not my dog, he's been following me. I don't know why."
"Awrite, fine." The boy standing in the middle responded after a few seconds of silence. He then pointed to the stairwell. "Lie over there or somethin, sis. And we'll leave you alone if you leave us alone. Got it?"
"Um, OK."
She walked over to the stairwell and sat down on one of the steps to lean her back against the wall. The dog remained seated where she was standing and looked over to her, then to the boys who resumed their positions around the fire in then can; he decided to walk over to Helen and lay near her on a step below. After sitting up for a few minutes and becoming comfortable in the surroundings, she placed her makeshift pillow on the stair and laid fully down. The conversation amongst the boys was a quiet mumble which didn't disturb her descent into sleep.