This afternoon Alex was on duty outside the Spiller’s apartment building. “Miranda” has already made three payments at regular intervals, which should have won her enough trust to no longer be watched, but Hill is suspicious by nature. Still, she and Evan are not watched full-time, and so it has been a while since Alex was given this particular duty.
As before, he stayed in the car, but one sharp-eyed young man was paying attention, and only half an hour after Alex had pulled in, there was a knock on his window. Alex looked up and frowned, and then he rolled the window down. Evan was standing there, his hands in his pockets, scowling at Alex.
“No snow today,” Alex said after a minute. “Gonna throw something else at me?”
Evan went red. “No,” he said. He hesitated, and then he said, “Miranda told me what you did.”
“Oh,” Alex said and glanced away. He understood, then, that Evan was here to thank him, or perhaps to apologize for how he yelled at Alex the last time they met. He also knew that it might be hard for Evan to say the words. So he pressed a button on the car door, unlocking the car.
Evan stood still for a moment, wary. Then he went around the car and opened the passenger door, leaving it wide as he sat down in the seat next to Alex. They were quiet for a few minutes.
“Is this your car?” Evan asked.
“Nope. Belongs to my boss.”
“No wonder it’s nice.” Evan seemed torn between admiration for the car and scorn for its owner.
“Yep.”
Another silence fell between them. Then Evan gathered his courage and turned to look at Alex. “What do you want for helping us?”
Alex smiled a little. “Nothing.”
“You’re full of shit,” Evan snapped, angered by the smile. “Nobody does anything without wanting something for it.”
Alex considered this and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. But what I want doesn’t have anything to do with you, so I don’t have to tell you.”
Evan’s scowl darkened. “So we’re just supposed to trust you, huh?”
“You got a choice?”
Not knowing how to answer that, Evan huffed and bounded out of the car. He started for the apartment, then paused and looked back. Alex, who had been watching him, only raised his brows.
Slowly, Evan came back to the car. He got in, and then with a sudden movement, he reached out and pulled the door closed with a slam. Alex waited.
“I’ll pay you back,” Evan said. “It might take me forever, but I’ll do it. I’ll sign something if you want me to.”
“How you gonna do that?” Alex asked.
“I don’t know, but I don’t want my mom to owe you any more than I want her to owe Hill. I’ll get a job as soon as I’m old enough and I’ll save up and I’ll pay you back.” He glared at Alex. “Deal?”
Alex considered Evan. He admired the boy’s courage and his determination. So did I.
“Reach in the glove compartment,” he said finally. “I think there’s some paper in there.” He pulled a pen from his pocket.
Bent over the armrest between them, Alex wrote for some time, while Evan watched. Finally Alex pushed the small document over to Evan. “There. This says that you’ll work for me from now on, until such time as we both decide that your debt is paid off. You just need to sign it, and you already have a job.”
Evan picked up the paper and read it through twice, with a caution that Alex approved. “Six dollars an hour is under minimum wage,” he said. “I want eight.”
Alex huffed. “You’re underage, so all this is illegal anyway. I don’t have to follow the law.”
“If it’s illegal, I could take this to the police and get you arrested,” Evan countered. “Price just went up to nine.” He put his hand on the door, ready to bolt if Alex refused.
Alex smirked. “Fine, nine bucks an hour. Extortionist. You gonna sign it or what?”
Evan looked back at the “contract” and finally signed his name at the bottom—though he carefully corrected the pay rate first. “Okay,” he said, handing it back to Alex. “I want a copy of that.”
“I’ll put it in your mailbox tomorrow. Don’t let your mom see it.”
Evan nodded. “So what do I do first?”
Alex tucked the paper and pen into his pocket. “You go inside and you do your homework.”
“What?” Evan asked, bewildered.
“Go do your homework,” Alex repeated. “Get it all done, every single question. And keep a timer so you know how many hours you can add to your total. Do it well, too—I’ll add a bonus for every A you get, but I’ll deduct for anything lower than a C.”
“Why would you pay me to do my homework?” Evan asked scornfully.
“Call it an investment,” Alex said, thinking quickly. “I don’t want a dumb employee. You have to get smart so I can use you.”
This made sense to Evan, although he still squinted at Alex, suspecting a lie. Alex only gazed coolly back—he has had many years more practice at lying.
“Fine,” Evan said. “All the time I spend doing homework can be counted as work hours? What about extra credit? Or summer reading?”
Alex kept from smiling and haggled with the boy for a while. In the end, he agreed to “pay” for anything Evan did that would advance his education. When Evan finally got out of the car, both of them felt triumphant over the agreement, which does not often happen with such a transaction.
Again Evan started off across the parking lot, and again he stopped. He turned around, came right back to Alex’s door, and waited with his head down until Alex ran down the window again.
“Thanks,” he said under his breath. Then he bolted, and this time he didn’t look back until he was safely inside.
Alex watched him go, and his thoughts looked much like mine then, proud and protective. He pulled out another sheet of paper and started to list all the details he and Evan had discussed. The document had to be official, after all.