Free Teeth by Michael Robertson Page B

one of the strongest people he knew, but could he take on all of them?
    “This ain’t your shop. You don’t own it.”
    The boy shook his head and laughed again. “First night out on the streets, is it? What happened? Your parents were taken away from you? Raped? Killed?”
    Looking up at his brother, Josh teared up. “What are they talking about, Archie?”
    Putting his hand on Josh’s shoulder, Archie looked back at the boy. “No. None of that happened.”
    “Then why are you out on the streets on your own? Where are your parents?”
    “They went out. For food…” Josh’s stomach lurched when he heard the resignation in his brother’s voice, “three days ago.”
    Grabbing a boy next to him, who was no older than seven, the gang leader shoved him forwards. “This is Reece. What happened to your parents, Reece?”
    Dropping his eyes to the floor, Reece replied, “They went out for food.”
    “Tell them how long you waited for them to come back.”
    “Ten days.”
    Sighing, the leader pointed at Reece. “We found this poor cunt starved half to death. He was picking through bins for food.” Turning to his gang, he added, “Raise your hands if your parents went out and didn’t come back.”
    The air left Josh’s lungs as half the group raised their hands. Sad and hollow stares levelled at him.
    “Keep your hands up if you think your parents are still alive.”
    All of the hands went down.
    Wearing a sneer, the leader laughed. “Your parents are dead, boy. Or worse! The sooner you face it, the sooner you can focus on learning how to survive in this new world. It’s shit out there, and you need to get streetwise pretty fucking quick. I don’t mind you staying here just for tonight—we have fuck all worth stealing—but I want you gone tomorrow. Understand?”
    Archie nodded.
    “Oh, and be careful of the Tooth Fairy.”
    “The Tooth Fairy?” The words had left Josh’s mouth before he’d thought about it, and Archie shot him a dark glare.
    The boy laughed and shook his head. Brushing his shaggy hair away from his eyes, he looked from one of the brothers to the other. “Oh dear, you have a lot to learn.” Twisting so he could address his gang, the moonlight lighting up just half of his face, the boy said, “The Tooth Fairy’s mental, ain’t he, boys?”
    A lot of the gang nodded and grunted noises of agreement.
    “He walks this street at night, and he gets you when you’re sleeping. He slips into your nightmares and makes sure you never wake up.” Lowering his voice, making Josh lean forwards to hear better, the boy continued, “If you listen hard enough, you can hear the jingle jangle of his pockets.” Pushing his finger to his lips, he added, “Shhh. Listen.”
    The faintest sound of jangling came from outside, and the grin on the leader’s face fell to the floor. “Oh fuck.” He turned to his gang and whispered, “He’s here.”
    The gang went into a near silent frenzy, all of them scattering across the shop floor with the light pattering of shoes against tiles. They all positioned themselves to watch from the windows. All of them hidden in the shadows.
    Shaking his head, Archie laughed. “They’re just trying to scare you, Josh.” Despite his confidence, he still walked quietly to the last available window.
    Josh followed, the grit on the floor crunching beneath his feet. If they were trying to scare him, they were doing a pretty good job.
    In the doorway of an abandoned shop was a tramp covered in rags and blankets. He was huddled in the corner for warmth, and he was surrounded by empty beer cans.
    Pulling his brother in tight, Archie leaned in so close that Josh could smell his stale breath as he whispered, “See? There’s only a tramp out there. It must have been his beer cans rattling in the wind.”
    The jangling continued, but everything surrounding the tramp was still. The sound wasn’t one of aluminium on concrete; it sounded more like broken crockery in a bag.
    When