Free Eden by Gregory Hoffman

bus stop, I barely noticed my surroundings as I headed for my house. Even if Eden was outside waiting, I wanted it to seem like I hadn’t seen her. It wouldn’t be like I was being rude because at the speed I was running, I could barely see anything around me. It was because of this, I almost plowed right into Sir Strolls-a-Lot.
    “Yo, boy, where’s the fire?” Sir Strolls roared, stopping me dead in my tracks.
    “Just heading home,” I told him.
    “Well, slow down, son,” he reprimanded me.
    I didn’t answer him. No one really liked the old man; most people just tried to ignore him. It usually wasn’t hard to ignore him because he didn’t often speak to people, but for some reason something seemed to be on his mind today.
    “Do you know who bought this place?” he asked me, nodding his head towards Eden’s house.
    “No, I don’t,” I lied, but I thought to myself, was I really lying? I really didn’t know anything about Eden.
    I didn’t like the fact that Sir Strolls seemed interested in who was living in this house now. He never seemed to have shown any interest in his neighbors before, other than the occasional scolding that he gave to us kids.
    “Ok,” he said, walking away, “Stay out of trouble, boy.”
    Again, I didn’t reply to him. The nerve of him, he wasn’t my father. Why did he think that he could tell me what to do, especially when I wasn’t even doing anything wrong? All of these thoughts running through my mind distracted me and I failed to notice Eden staring at me from her living room window.
                  After entering the house, I was immediately greeted by my mother.
    “Is that old man still out there?” she asked glancing past me and out the window.
    “You mean Strolls?” I answered, “How long has he been out there?”
    “Most of the afternoon,” she told me, “He’s been just walking up and down the street and stopping in front of Eden’s house. It was really creeping me out.”
    Why would Sir Strolls be so interested in who bought the old Logan place? It had me worried. Strolls couldn’t be a government spy sent here to bring Eden back to whatever laboratory she had escaped from. He had to be around sixty years old and he’s been living in the neighborhood for years. Maybe he noticed something strange about Eden, too? It could be dangerous if he told someone about her. I had to find out if he knew anything.
    “Where are you going?” my mom asked as I headed back for the front door.
    “I’m going to see what that old guy is looking for,” I told her.
    Before she could stop me, I quickly headed back outside and across the yard to confront Sir Strolls. He glanced over at me when he saw I was approaching.
    “What are you looking for?” I asked him.
    “I don’t know what you mean,” he replied distracted.
    “Why are you so interested in the new neighbors?” I tried again nodding my head in the direction of Eden’s house.
    “Who says I am interested in anything?” he said in a hostile tone. “Ain’t no law against going for a walk, is there?”
    “My mother says that you have been watching the neighbor’s house all afternoon,” I countered.
    “Your mother is exagerating,” he said in a flat voice, as if that would end the conversation.
    He looked as if he had no intention of moving. Obviously, Sir Stroll’s presence meant that Eden’s taxi had yet to arrive and I wanted to get rid of him before it did. I couldn’t say why, but for some reason I didn’t want him to see her.
    “Well if you aren’t watching the house, why don’t you keep walking?” I asked getting irritated.
    “Don’t sass me, young-un,” Strolls answered, “I’m going.”
    I stood at the foot of my lawn and watched as Strolls walked away. He didn’t glance back once to see if I was still there, as if he knew that I wouldn’t move until he disappeared from view. After he did, I quickly ran back into my house. I didn’t want to run into Eden.
    Slipping