Free My Name Is River Blue by Noah James Adams Page B

completing
my story for the detective, I thought I had given a good account and I looked
to him and Miss Martin for approval. Their faces told me that I must have left
out something or said something wrong, but as hard as I searched my memory, I
couldn't come up with anything else to tell them.
    "River, I
want to help you," said Detective Walls. "I can't do that unless you
are one hundred per cent honest with me. People make mistakes and eleven-year-old
boys make lots of mistakes. Don't be afraid to admit that you made a
mistake or else we can't help you fix it."
    I saw Miss
Martin stare at Detective Walls as if he had grown a horn in the center of his
forehead. The man kept saying that I had to tell him about a mistake I made,
and I couldn't think of a mistake.
    "I ain't sure
what you mean," I said. "What do you want me to say?"
    The detective
shook his head. "No, River. It's not about what I want you to say. I
want you to tell the truth. Tell us what you did wrong at the tree house. Something
you're sorry for doing. Then we can all get out of here and make everything
right."
    I suddenly
thought I had it. "Okay, when I got down from the tree house, I shoulda told
Mrs. Paulson that I was sorry?"
    The detective
showed his yellow smile and gave a smug nod to Miss Martin. "Okay, now
we're getting somewhere. What were you sorry for?"
    "I shoulda
said I was sorry that Trevor fell?"
    "Don't you
mean that you were sorry for making Trevor fall?" The man nodded
his head up and down as he spoke.
    "No. I
didn't make him fall. Mike did. I done told you that. Remember?"
    Detective Walls
dropped his smile. His face grew stern. "River, you know that's not true. Before
I can help you, you have to admit your mistake like a good boy who is sorry for
what he did. We know what really happened. You pushed Trevor Paulson out of
that tree house. We can't fix things and forgive you if you keep lying about it
and blaming it on Mike."
    I looked at Miss
Martin, who dropped her gaze to the tabletop. I realized why the police took me
away, and I certainly understood what "mistake" the detective
expected me to admit. Most normal kids would have been shocked and scared to
have a cop wrongly accuse them, but the only thing that surprised me was how
long it took me to catch on to what the cops were doing. I could hardly believe
that I was stupid enough to think Mike would tell the truth instead of blaming
Trevor's fall on me. I should have seen it coming.
    I had learned
early in life that I was an easy target for a regular kid to use as a fall guy.
Adults, including cops, usually took the word of a white kid with parents and a
home over the word of a kid like me. It didn't surprise me that Mike had lied
to his mother who then told the police that I was responsible for Trevor's
death. It was not the first time that someone had falsely accused me of
something, and it wasn't even the first time that Mike had done it. It had just
never been anything so serious.
    It took me only
seconds to assess my situation. In my mind, I could hear Sean as he taught me
one of many lessons on surviving in the system. I knew that my chances of
convincing anyone of the truth were slim, and that no one cared enough for me
to fight on my behalf. Still, no matter what the liars promised, I was not
going to make it easy for them. I was not going to volunteer to be their victim.
I didn't know what they planned to do to me, but I intended to make it as
difficult as possible for them, and I didn't mind pissing them off while I was
at it. I was not the same cooperative kid that I was when the detective and
Miss Martin first sat down with me. I was angry and barely controlling it.
    "Well,
River. What's it going to be?" Detective Walls asked.
    "Everything
I said is true. You say you want to help me, but you're only trying to trick me
into saying what you want. Miss Martin, you knew what he was doing. How come
you just believed what he said and didn't ask me? You're supposed to be here
for