Ithaca

A very, very rough cut scene from my YA contemporary novella, ANGELES OF ITHACA, but I think it shows some of the mood and style of the work as a whole. 

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The wind whistled through the damp tunnels of the BART. Commuters and tourists wrapped their coats and scarves tighter around themselves, heads bent against the cold.

A train rushed by, screeching to a halt and disgorging its passengers onto the platform.

Angel huddled deeper into the tattered blanket shrouding his boney shoulders, a shadow of a human being buried beneath the city. With his hand outstretched, he gazed at the bodies rushing by, each as faceless as he was to them.

A girl passed, younger even than him. She laughed, turning to call something to the two girls trailing behind her. A pink, healthy glow colored her cheeks, cradled by the thick wine-colored scarf wound around her throat.

Angel’s hand shook as he reached for her, reaching toward a life he hadn’t quite forgotten more than for whatever spare change she might throw in his direction.

She met his eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said, pressing a folded bill into his hand. Her friends caught up and she laughed again, immediately forgetting the lost boy with sallow skin and matted hair beside the steps leading back to the surface.

The girls linked arms and clattered up the steps.

Uncurling his fingers, Angel looked at the single dollar bill. He ground his teeth together, anger clenching his throat like an iron fist.

Shuffling footsteps moved down the stairs.

Angel’s eyes darted around the empty platform and he reached for the glass bottle on the ground beside him. His fingers tightened around it and he poised himself, ready to jump.

The shattering glass startled him as much as the old woman standing before him. He launched himself, wild and inhumane, knocking her to the ground and slashing until she dropped the purse.

It was over so quickly. Gripping her purse in his fist, Angel bolted up the stairs, leaving the woman bleeding and moaning on the cold concrete platform.

The blood and her rheumy, panicked eyes burn in his mind and he fell to his knees, vomiting the meager contents of his stomach onto the sidewalk.