46 FICTION “Hey, whatcha doing out so late?” I asked, sitting next to him real carefully. He blinked at me, and a couple tears slid down his face. “Daddy’s angry,” he whispered, tapping a purple bruise on his arm. Boy, this poor kid made me feel sad. He should’ve been laughing and playing; looking for stars. “You like it out here then?” He looked down. “Yeah.” “What’s your name?” “Robin.” “Robin. That’s a swell name, you know, like Robin Hood. You heard of him?” Poor kid looked so confused. “No,” he said, shaking his head. Guess he probably was too young to read much. “Well he’s this real brave guy who lives in the forest with all his friends and there’s this girl, Mary Ann or something but she don’t matter much, and he goes around stealing from the rich folks and giving it to the poor.” “What’s he do that for?” Boy, this little guy didn’t know much. “Well, you know, to help all the common folk starving to death cause they didn’t have any money.” He blinked again, big and innocent. “So like me?” “Yeah. Yeah, like you.” I just wanted to give him a big old hug, Jeffey, like you used to. But I didn’t wanna scare him, he seemed so skittish, you know? So I just kinda sidled closer to him and I think he didn’t mind that so much.
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