The rasping of the handsaw increased in frequency as Amos got closer to completing the big oval tin the desktop. He had been lucky to find such a large open desk on their floor that he had been able to move himself. It had taken a lot of effort to bring out the bookcases that concealed their corner hideout so that he had enough room to push the heavy desk into the space.

  He had chosen the desk because it had no storage inside, it was just a large flat top with a sturdy perimeter frame. The lack of internal bracing had required a thicker table top and this is why Amos was drenched in sweat. After over an hour of sawing he was almost finished and the tempo of his work and the amount of sawdust whirling in the air increased significantly as he got closer to the end.

  When the cut was complete he removed the temporary supports from under the desk and the oval shaped cut out fell freely to the floor. After a brief cleanup and prep for the floor under the desk with some rigid styrofoam he was ready to install his liner. He also had lots of flat pieces of wood that he used to hold the liner nice and snug under the desk top all around the bottom edge oval opening.

  Amos worked slowly, lost in the concentration it took to put something together with your hands and to have it finished nicely as well. The trickiest parts were yet to come. He had to run his drain line at the bottom of the line and then through the Styrofoam to the spot in the floor that he had found that could connect to the plumbing hidden in the ceiling.

  Twice now he had gone to Jim’s to borrow more tools, get advice and scrounge for materials. Because of all of the sailing and maritime surplus goods Jim had on hand Amos had a lot to choose from. The last connection was the hardest because it required a penetration through the membrane.

  If he got this wrong then the whole project was lost so he took his time and carefully applied sealant on both sides of the drain valve and made sure that it set properly. Or at least it looked like it set properly, he really had no way of knowing until he filled it.

  By the time Alanah would get back from her trip to the library he would be ready for the big test and the big reveal or least for most of the big reveal. His second project was a lot easier to set up but not to finish. For that he would need Alanah’s help and a pulley system but he felt that she would get the gist of what he had done and most likely. She would really appreciate it.

  Alanah only had a few more minutes at the computer lab in the library before the student hours expired and the great, unwashed masses were allowed to access the machines again. There had been several emails from her aunt so she just opened the most recent one and gave it a quick scan. After not finding any mention of the police or stolen plates she decided to ignore the rest of her aunt’s rantings.

  It was the emails from Will that had caught her eye immediately and she had read them all three times now, first in quick succession and then slowly, contemplating his words and the intentions behind them.

  The library did not have a working printer so she needed to try to commit as much as she could to memory, so she could reflect on these emails later. Alanah was glad that she had always been a private person, it pretty much eliminated the need for discussion and sharing.

  This was something she had always looked down on when she saw it amongst other girls. She didn’t need someone else to validate her feelings, she just needed to be sure that she understood what she was feeling.

  Alanah was not convinced that Will really felt as strongly about her as he claimed in his emails. He was definitely someone who needed validation and because of his good looks and easy charm he found it often amongst the girls around him. She feared that if Will felt that she was not as interested in him as she had been, would he just try harder to reassure himself? Were his new feelings just a manifestation from his own doubts and need for reassurance?

  What about her needs? Alanah did not know the answer to what she needed or what she deserved anymore. It just wasn’t fair she thought, almost on a daily basis since she had lost her mom. A fifteen year old should not be left on their own to figure everything out. Food, shelter, basic needs, personal safety, school, the list was endless but she was managing.

  Since leaving her aunt and that awful restaurant her situation and her sense of self worth and belonging had all increased significantly. Even if she was living illegally in a deserted office building, she still felt far more at home with Amos than she had ever did with her aunt.

  Her old home, as much as she missed it, had felt oppressive and unstable as her mother slipped away and the lurking, unspoken dread of the pending unknown seemed permeate every room of their house.

  A large man with a large belly straining his old, stained t-shirt came and stood by her console, positioning himself so that he was able to take her place as soon as she was finished. It was a intimidating stance, certainly one he had done many times before as Alanah was soon ready to move on.

  “Hold on, hold on already, I’m going….just wait. No, don’t sit down I haven’t even left yet”. She glared at the man and stood up with a sigh and checked once more to make sure she had signed out and then left the console as quickly as she could.

  It was just as well, re-reading these emails would get her no closer to making a decision about Will. Was it even about Will she wondered or was she deciding on what she was capable of on her own? Was she wrestling with a lack of self belief or was it actually her doubts about Amos and his ability to keep them safe?

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “One, two, three…..open your eyes”.

  “I can’t, you hands are over them dummy. You need to remove your hands after you turn someone around and say open your eyes or it doesn’t work”.

  “Sorry, sorry, I just thought you’d cheat.”

  “I tried but your hands were in the way…….so what am I looking at here, is this a giant toilet?”

  “No Alanah, it’s a bathtub, I found a nice hose so we can fill it from the sink and it has a drain for afterwards too. I took some of the curtains from another office down the hall so it is private too.”

  “Well, that makes this only slightly less creepy I guess….” Alanah saw the brief flicker of doubt appear on Amos’ face and she quickly changed her tone.

  “Hey look, I’m kidding, I mean this is really amazing and it actually looks cool too. It’s pretty huge actually, I could almost swim in it.” “It’s because of the desk” Amos began “I could only find this large one that would work for the design I had in mind so it ended up being pretty tall and wide”.

  “I just thought you would be getting tired or sponge baths and washing your hair in the sink. My first plan was actually to use a large recycling bin so at least the design has improved somewhat”.

  “If it holds water.” Alana said with a smile “draw me a bath and I will be the judge of that.” In his haste to get the project done Amos had forgotten all about the amenities he had wanted to provide. A bath mat, proper towels and the smelly soaps him mom had liked but in the end Alanah had assured him that as long as it held enough warm water for her to have a halfway decent soak then she would be thrilled.

  Amos wasn’t sure what was making him more nervous, a naked Alanah splashing in the tub just behind the curtains or gallons of soapy water bursting out of the makeshift tub all over the floor. He tried to catch up on his reading assignments with Jim but he couldn’t focus. He was acutely aware of the slightest sound Alanah was making just on the other side of the curtain and while he was trying his best to be a gentlemen he wasn’t sure his imagination was as well behaved.

  A sudden, steady persistent trickle signaled that the bath was done and that Alanah had found the drain. “Ok, that was great. Unusual but great. It was weird bathing in the middle of a desk. I kept imagine some office drone sitting on his task chair just a few feet away staring at me.”

  For a brief moment, Amos felt like she was speaking about him but then she went on “this was a super smart design. It’s sturdy and elegant in its own weird sort of way and best of all it works. Your turn, you truly stink too by the way so you have to have a bath for sure”.

  “I will but there is one more surprise. Come with me once you are ready”.

  “Where are we going now?” “Not far, you don’t even need shoes” was his reply.

  Ten minutes later they were on the third floor, almost directly beneath their makeshift hideaway. “I give up, what are we doing down here? Did you create office jobs for us, will I be coming here for my nine to five every day now?” “Hah, no…you are not the office type, that’s for sure”.

  Amos gestured towards the corner of the office. “You seem to love the farm so I wanted to create one closer to home for you”. Amos hoped that she would not react too much over the use of the word home but she didn’t even notice. Instead, Alanah gave him a curious look and said “go on then, what did you do”.

  Amos walked over to a set of bookshelves positioned almost like the ones they had maneuvered upstairs to create their hidden corner flat. This time he had created a false door with some long shelf material oriented vertical at the end of a set of shelves. It was mounted on hidden hinges and when he pushed it gently it opened up into the now hidden corner space.

  Alanah walked in before Amos and took a long look at what he had done. Several tables had been arranged in front of the west and south windows. On top of the tables were containers of all materials and sizes.

  There were traditional clay pots along with more contemporary plastic ones and then all manner of recycling and waste bins arranged in need rows. Plastic had been spread out underneath the pots on the table and the planters without drainage saucers were slightly elevated above the protective plastic.

  “I figured with the south and west windows this corner will get all the light we need to grow some really nice vegetables and maybe some fruits and herbs. There is water from the small kitchen sink and we can open the windows for some fresh air. At least in the summer we can grow all kinds of things in here”.

  “It’s amazing” said Alanah “but if we had soil in the planters it would be even better and way more functional”. “That’s the not done part, we have to haul it all up and at night so it’s gonna take a while but I figured this could be a great greenhouse eventually”.

  The young girl spun around with a slow pace taking it all in. She paused looking out the window with her back to Amos until she was sure that the urge to cry had passed. This was easily one of the most thoughtful things anyone had ever done for her and she was having a hard time holding back her emotions.

  Finally, in a slightly deeper voice than usual, Alanah started speaking while still staring out over the city “this is wonderful, I really, really appreciate it Amos. More than you know”.

  Had she been able to see just a few miles across the city into a narrow street lined with old brick building on both sides in Boston’s north end, she would have seen a young boy staring hard a poster on a pole. It was the young boy who had watched Amos for the better part of an hour the other week when they had set up in Charlestown.

  His name was Silvio and he had instinctively known that these two kids were different and that he should know why but he couldn’t remember where he had heard about them before.

  He wasn’t worried about remembering what it was right away, he knew in time, it would come back to him and when it did, he would know where to find these two kids.

  The pole he was staring at had a notice written in Italian on it.

  Attenzione

  Fai attenzione a due bambini piccoli. La ragazza ha quindici anni e ha i capelli scuri lunghi e si chiama Alanah. Il ragazzo è alto e magro, della stessa età con i capelli corti e scuri Entrambi sono ladri armati e pericolosi. Ricompensa per qualsiasi informazione alla Famiglia

  So that is why those two had caught his eye. The boy appeared to have been armed and they both matched the description. For the Family to go so far as to put up notices asking for information, well they must be both very angry and very desperate to show such weakness.

  How could this just be about a couple of young thieves who happened to be armed? How could this make the family so upset?

  This was an opportunity for Silvio. Forget about the reward. He would turn that down. This was an opportunity to impress the Family and to make his Nonna proud of him and to redeem his family name after all of the damage his father and brothers had done to it.

  He would be sure to make the most of this opportunity, as chances like this did not come along that often for someone like him.