Of those currently mentioned, it was Casper who was the first one to be up and about the following day. Of course it wasn’t just Casper, all the orphans were up. Lolly-gagging in bed all day wasn’t permitted… unless you were sick enough not to be able to stand and do a little light dusting. Even if you weren’t they would get you a chair. But anyway, no orphan wanted to be last in the line for breakfast and left with nothing but bacon scraps, no milk and a sausage that looked like it had been stepped on. Today, it was also the girls turn for morning showers and use of the big sinks to wash their clothes; the boys would get their turn after the evening meal and then the whole thing would reverse for the following day. So, belly full, Casper was sitting in the sun on the pavement outside the big front door waiting for Onetooth and Lucas to join him. Casper still hadn’t made his mind up about Lucas; he wanted Worms back. But Onetooth seemed to like him and anyway, Lucas joining The Reading Group would be up to Finny in the end… and probably Joe, Casper added as a reluctant afterthought. As it happened, it was Lucas who next appeared out of the door. Lucas looked around for Onetooth but not finding him, he elected to sit on the bottom step of the orphanage steps, rather than join Casper on the kerb – already digging away at the warming tarmac with a stick. Lucas had already decided that the older boy didn’t like him but he was way too timid to make any first move to change that. If only he had known that Casper, at the same age, had probably held the market share in timidity and it was only because of The Reading Group that Casper was now beginning to recognise that he actually had power. In a line of thinking that was still strange to him, Casper was working out how they were going to find Finny. It had rankled with him that Joe had just dumped him back at the orphanage last night. Okay, Joe had hopefully smoothed things over with the staff about him missing curfew… but still. His annoyed stab at the tarmac broke the stick. Casper sighed, so that was that then; he tossed the pieces across the street just hard enough to not might make it over the fence and into the dump. When Onetooth finally appeared Casper broke the news about Finny’s disappearance. Lucas and Onetooth were suitably concerned, But Casper noticed that Onetooth seemed more interested in poor dead Booger and the hammer in his head than the fact their leader had vanished. And as for Lucas, he only had questions about the bookshop. Casper became annoyed. “I said Finny’s gone missing, prob’ly snatched by some gang Joe said. Stop going on about blood an’ hammers!” He ignored Lucas altogether. Onetooth looked affronted. “Finny’ll be alright.” Onetooth shrugged. “She’s Finny isn’t she.” Casper’s mouth opened to contradict Onetooth’s assertion, then dropped his shoulders. “Yeah, your prob’ly right. She’ll just do something all Finny-ish.” “See, told ‘ya. Can we see the body?!” Lucas put up a hand to ask a question. Neither of the other boys saw the silent gesture so he put his hand down again and just asked the question anyway. “What do you mean? What’s ‘Finny-ish’?” Two heads turned and Casper, and even Onetooth, looked at Lucas like he was stupid. Casper looked away again, shaking his head, so it was left to Onetooth to explain to his new potential friend. Onetooth’s nose and eyes screwed up while he thought, but then he found the words that he hoped would explain Finny to an unaware stranger. “Well, see… Finny is dead clever an’ all but Finny does stuff that seems dumb but just sorta works. Grown-ups call it being centric we just call it being Finny-ish.” Casper was now attacking the loosened tarmac with the heel of his shoe and trying not to think of the time Finny being ‘Finny-ish’ had almost ended up with them being captured by bandits. Onetooth nodded towards Casper. “Sometimes Casper is all Finny-ish as well… sometimes.” Casper stopped worrying the tar to thump Onetooth’s leg. Giggling, the younger boy skittered out of arms reach. Now Casper leaned back with the palms of his hands on the warming pavement in a very Finnyish move. He stared at a rat sitting washing its whiskers on the top of the dump fence. “I think we should go an’ look for her.” Not having any plans for the day, Lucas and Onetooth fell in with the idea immediately. Casper stood up and the three boys headed down Badger Court, past the entrance to the dump and towards the NFPD station house. Lucas walked one step behind, another thing about him that annoyed Casper, while Onetooth skipped along beside. “Where we going Casp?” “Trent’s bookshop.” “Where the dead body is?” “Yeah, but the police’ll prob’ly have taken it by now… or Joe has.” “Awwwwwww.” One step behind, Lucas smiled. The bookshop, cool. At the end of Badger Court they turned right onto Santa Fe Avenue, one of the two main roads that ran right through the town to then become highways. Mr Trent’s bookshop was about halfway along Santa Fe, on the block just before the turn off to the old Enforcer camp. When they got to the bookshop it was to find one of the policemen they recognised from their frequent NFPD visits to the orphanage talking to Mr Trent outside his shop. As kids, interrupting the grown-ups wasn’t a thing you generally did without good reason so, at the eager suggestion of Onetooth, the three made their way around the corner and into the backstreet where Booger’s body had been found. There were policemen here too. Two of them were doing sciency things with cake of dried blood where Booger’s head had lay. Another two were walking slowly up and down the backstreet with bowed heads, searching the ground anything that might have been dropped by whoever had done the deed. It didn’t take long for the orphans to get shooed away. “Let’s look for clues, like they’re doing. An’ we’re better at it ‘cos we’re closer to the ground.” Not able to deny eight-year-old logic, the boys formed a line across the pavement and began to slowly walk back up Santa Fe the way they had come. After they crossed the first road, the boys stopped to examine various bits of vegetable detritus in the gutter. Casper picked up a small strip of red cloth. “This looks like what Fin uses to do her hair.” He held it out. It could very easily have been one of Finny’s ties for her unruly tails of ginger mane. Just then a door opened and a woman appeared carrying some rough sacking neatly folded across her arm. “Are you looking for these, boys?” She held out two sacks. That van left them behind. The boys formed a half moon around her, looking at and fingering the two well-worn sacks. Casper held one up so that he could read the words stencilled on it. ‘Krook and Son, Rag & Bone Merchant’ What van? Suspicious, the woman snatched the sack out of Casper's hands. “So you’re not from Krook’s then?” “Um, no, but we could take them back for you?” The woman hugged the two sacks to her bosom. “Never mind, if you ain’t from Krook’s then I’ll just hang on to ‘em.” Onetooth decided to speak up at this point. “S’okay missus. We’re from Krooks, that’s right.” The woman sneered down at him. “’Course you are son, just like I’m the mayor of Flagg.” With that she disappeared back inside her house and the door slammed closed. Lucas almost put his hand up again. “What’s a rag and bone merchant?” Casper’s answer to Lucas’ question inserted itself into his train of thought. “It’s someone who collects old clothes and bones and stuff and sells it to people to make stuff with.” While Lucas was making sense of that, Casper was lining up the freight-cars of his train. Sack – Rag & bone merchant – Van – Finny. Which quickly became: Finny – Sack – Van – Rag & bone merchant. To which Casper added the caboose – The Borough. He turned to his two friends. “All the rag and bone men are in The Borough.” There was a moment or three while three juvenile brains working in unison came to the same conclusion… well almost. “Finny’s in the Borough!” Casper and Onetooth chorused. “Finny’s a rag and bone man!” They both looked at Lucas. Onetooth dead-armed him. Casper wasn’t paying attention, he was thinking. Then he was running along the pavement back towards the orphanage. The other two raced to catch up. Onetooth won. “Casp? Where are we going?” Casper slowed a little. “We need Micky.” The Finny Stories In chronological order: 000 Finny Intro 001 The Locket 002 Rats 003 A Christmas Finny 004 The Secret Adventurer’s Club 005 The Secret Adventurer’s Club: Second Adventure 006 Finny’s Birthday 007 Union Candy 008 Then There Were Three 009 Then There Were Four Again – Sort Of (WIP)