Free Can't Get There from Here by Todd Strasser Page B

the detangler in the world ain’t gonna help. This is hopeless, girl. You got to cut it all off and start over.”
    “Maybe,” I said.
    2Moro moved over to Tears, whose hair was short and not so tangled.
    Looking at myself in the mirror, with my face washed and my hair brushed and those new clothes, I began to feel excited about going to the club. We left the bathroom and met Maggot and Jewel near the front door. A lot of people had left their coats in the hall. Maggot picked one out and handed it to me. “This looks like it’ll fit.”
    “But it’s not mine,” I said.
    “These are rich kids,” Maggot said. “They lose a jacket, their parents’ll buy them a new one.”
    With new clothes and warm jackets we left the apartment and went back down to the street. The cold stung my nose and ears, and I hugged my new coat tightly around me and wished I’d taken a hat and gloves, too.In the dark our breath came out in long white streams of mist.
    The Cradle wasn’t far away. A long line of people stood outside in the bitter cold. Everyone was made up. Wigs and feathers and fingernails in every possible color. Shoes and boots with heels that added six inches. I felt good being in a crowd like that. Hardly anyone stared at me. 2Moro led us toward the front of the line, but we couldn’t go more than a few feet without someone stopping Maggot.
    “Hey, Mag, you got any roofies?”
    “What you got, Mag?”
    “Hey, roofie boy, you got any?”
    “Inside,” Maggot answered every time. “Inside.”
    We got to the front of the line. A big guy wearing a huge brown fur coat and a fuzzy black hat was blocking the door. He raised a hand the size of a bear’s paw. “Far as you go.”
    2Moro reached into her little black handbag and pulled out some orange slips of paper. The furry bear studied them, then nodded. “Okay, the five of you, go in.”
    He pulled open the door and a gust of music, flashing lights, and hot smoky air blew into our faces. A moment later we were inside and the door banged closed behind us. At first the music was too loud, the flashing lights blinding, and the smoke even thicker than in the apartment. But we got used to it. Maggot was surrounded by people asking what he had and how much he wanted. Jewel and 2Moro disappeared into thedancing crowd. I felt a hand close around mine and squeeze tightly. It was Tears.
    “You ever been to a club before?”
    I asked. She shook her head.
    “You know how Jewel and 2Moro sometimes disappear for days?” I said. “This is where they go.”
    “How do they eat and sleep?” Tears asked.
    “Other people have money. Sometimes a lot of it. They pay eight dollars for a bottle of beer and twentyfive dollars for a little frozen pizza.”
    “What about sleep?” Tears asked.
    “Sometimes they don’t,” I said. “Sometimes they nap in a corner. Or people let them live in their apartments for a while.”
    “For free?”
    “Sometimes.”
    I wasn’t sure Tears heard my answer. She started bouncing to the music. “Want to dance?”
    “Okay.”
    We moved into the crowd and started to dance. Like a little kid at the zoo, Tears kept looking at all the exotic creatures around us, but she stayed close to me. A man started to dance with us. He was older, but not old, and wore a shiny black shirt and a gold chain. His shirt was open and we could see his curly black chest hair. On one wrist was a gold watch and on the other a gold bracelet, and he wore three gold rings.
    “Haven’t seen you two around here before,” he said over the music.
    Tears and I kept dancing.
    “Pretty hot in here,” he said. “Want something to drink?”
    He was right. I was thirsty, and my throat was dry from the smoke.
    “Come on, I’ll buy you both a drink,” he said.
    I figured as long as Tears and I stuck together we were safe. We followed him away from the dancing crowd to a long bar in the shadows. Except for the glow of cigarette embers and the ghostly outline of the bartender’s