Free Lost Boy by Tim Green

away with not paying the toll. He look like he a law-abiding citizen. That what you are, boy?”
    â€œI’m just lost.” Ryder felt stupid and weak. “I’m looking for where the visiting team buses go.”
    Orange laughed. “Lost boy.”
    Ryder wanted desperately to share his secret with them because he felt that if he did, they would let him go, a lost boy looking for the father he never met? These boys looked like they could be missing a father or two among them.
    Snick.
    The gleam of a switchblade startled him. Ryder’s knees started to tremble. “What do you want?”
    â€œWhat you got?” Orange asked.
    Attack Dog leered at him and parted open his coat with one hand. Jammed into the waist of his jeans was the handle of his own knife.
    Ryder felt tears start to stream down his cheeks as he dug into his pockets and turned them all inside out. The baseball plunked to the sidewalk, then the money and the note Mr. Starr had given him fluttered to the ground.

“Aww, don’t you go cryin’. What are you, a baby?” Orange looked truly disgusted as he snatched up the money, the baseball, and the note. “It’s just a toll. Your mommy’s gonna get you a pennant anyway. I see it every time.”
    â€œMy mom is in the hospital.” Ryder sniffed. Shame and terror burned his face.
    â€œYour dad, then.” Attack Dog let his coat fall back into place and he poked Ryder in the shoulder. “How old you?”
    â€œTwelve. I have no dad.”
    â€œWho you with, boy?” asked one of the kids behind him. It was Buddha.
    Ryder shrugged. “I’m not. I took the subway. I’m trying to get an autograph from some of the Braves.”
    â€œThe Braves. ” Behind him, Buddha snorted. “No wonder you’re lost. This is New York, boy. What do you want a Braves autograph for?”
    â€œI’m related to one of them.” Ryder spoke softly and decided not to say Thomas Trent was his dad. “He’s a relief pitcher.”
    â€œSure. Like a cousin?” Attack Dog brightened and put a thumb in his own chest. “My cousin is Rihanna.”
    â€œYour cousin’s not Rihanna, dip head.” Orange glared.
    â€œAnd his cousin isn’t a Brave, that’s what I’m sayin’.” Attack Dog scowled at Ryder. “Who told you that?”
    â€œA friend . . . of my family.”
    â€œWhat’s this?” Orange held up the note Mr. Starr had written and unfolded it.
    Ryder couldn’t speak. The note would tell these boys everything, and the shame made him sick to his stomach.
    â€œWhat’s this?” Orange growled at Ryder now.
    â€œIt’s a note to my cousin inviting him to stop by if he wants.”
    â€œWhat, you think you live someplace fancy? Please, boy, you’re just like us.” Orange threw the note at Ryder and pointed at his shoes. “Look at those kicks you got.”
    Ryder looked down at faded gray Starters.
    Attack Dog laughed. “What’d they cost? Five bucks at the Sav-Mart? You live in some hole an’ you’re inviting a major league player to your place? That’s crazy.”
    â€œLook at this ball.” Buddha tossed it up and snatched it in the air. “Thing is yellow as snot. Here. We don’t need this.”
    Ryder took the ball and jammed it back into his coat pocket. “Can you guys just let me go?”
    Orange shrugged. “We never stopped you in the first place.”
    The two who had been behind him parted now and stood on either side of him. Ryder picked up the note, turned slowly, and began to walk away. When he looked back he saw them staring, and he took off at a full sprint, running hard, awayfrom the cackle of laughter until he reached River Avenue and bumped square into a cop.
    â€œWhoa. Where you going?” The cop scowled at him harder than the thieves.
    â€œJust . . .” Ryder did a quick