Published at 21st of February 2024 11:03 pm

Chapter 15 Bread Boy

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Nothing about the Merchant’s District had changed—at least for good, but it was not like he had been expecting it to.

The clouds were still thick with smoke and the streets packed with a mess of overworked peasants. And now that he was not looking at them from the window of a steam car, they appeared even worse.

“Why are you stopping?” Patsy’s voice came suddenly to draw Elmer out of his daze, prompting him to turn away from the long line of workers he was looking at, and back to where she had stopped to wait for him in front of an alleyway. “Well?” she put in after he gave her no reply.

Elmer then lowered his gaze while adjusting the rim of his glasses, and cleared his throat. “Nothing.” He took his eyes back to her and glimpsed the dirty scenery of the alley she was about to guide him into. “Where exactly is this pawnbroker?”

Patsy waggled her head. “Questions again?” Her hands went to her waist as her lips curled theatrically to one side. “Must you do this every time?”

Elmer said nothing but instead raised an eyebrow in awaitance for her answer.

Patsy scrubbed a hand over her face then turned sideways while pointing into the alleyway. “The pawnbroker is on the other side. Can we go now?”

Elmer’s brows furrowed as he studied the depths of the path Patsy was still pointing to, his gaze perusing the sea of the old and young beggars that filled it. Then he gave a low sigh while tapping his waist bag.

But just as he was about to finally take a step forward, a boy suddenly ran past him, splashing the waters of a tiny pothole onto his precious pants.

“Blimey!” Elmer sucked in air through his teeth and turned quickly at the boy who had stopped his running.

The boy had dirty blonde hair and deep brown eyes, except his features were not what Elmer had most of his focus on. He was waiting for an apology, but when he noticed that the little boy had no expression of remorse, Elmer wrung up his nose in distaste.

“Watch where you’re going next time,” he muttered.

Elmer was about to wipe his pants clean when he noticed that the boy’s eyes were frantically moving between the ground before him and the far end of the walkway.

Curious, Elmer took his eyes first toward the end of the walkway and saw a policeman approaching hastily while waving his metal baton, then he looked down at the ground before him and saw a brown cap gently placed atop his boots. His brows knitted and unknitted in a flash.

He remembered now. It was the same boy from days before. What was his problem with his cap?

Elmer bent over quickly and picked up the cap, then flung it at the befuddled boy, gesturing indistinctly for him to run.

The boy took heed in silence and put to his heels, but the policeman was well near already.

“Stop that little rat! He’s a thief!” the policeman shouted as he arrived at where Elmer stood, but Elmer knew better than to let his good act go to waste. He jumped into the pothole and splashed its water all over the policeman, putting his chase to an abrupt halt.

“Oh my!” Elmer exclaimed as he stooped over and briskly patted the policeman’s pants. “Forgive me, good sir. I did not see the pothole. I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t—”

“Move,” the policeman cut him off with a strained voice.

“Move?” Elmer took his gaze up at the spindly policeman’s beard-filled face and sharp eyes. “But your pants, sir, they’re still messed up. It’s my fault, I’ll clean it for you. A policeman should not go about his duties with soiled pants.” Elmer took his eyes back down and resumed his patting.

“Bugger off! The thief is escaping!”

“Thief?” Elmer straightened himself, but still retained a slight bend to show his fake remorse for the policeman’s pants. “What thief?” he asked, his face filled with confusion.

The policeman looked about for a while, then clenched his chin as he turned his stare to Elmer, strongly. “You let him get away.”

Elmer squirmed as he took a step back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, good sir.” His face tightened as his his nose twitched twice and his acting faltered.

He was about to take another step back when the policeman quickly grabbed him by his wrist, clutching it hard. Elmer shook at that.

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“You let him escape, didn’t you?”

Elmer’s face squeezed. “I certainly do not know what you mean, good sir.”

The policeman’s nose wrung up. “Do you take me for a fool?! Are you a thief as well? You know what, don’t bother. I’ll have you take his place.”

Wait! What…?!

Elmer waved his free hand fervently. “You have to believe me, good sir, I did not see any thief. Truly.”

The policeman did not heed Elmer’s words though, instead he raised the baton in his hand. But just as he was about to swing down on Elmer, a ginger-haired lady suddenly stepped in between them and widened her arms, putting the spindly man’s hand to a stop and in place.

“Who are you?” The policeman’s face kneaded to one side in an ugly manner as he saw her, while Elmer relaxed somewhat and his agitated breathing softened. He had never been so glad to see Patsy before.

“I’m sorry, sir, but there was really no thief here,” she told the man, but Elmer had said the same, and what it had done was almost bring a baton down on his head.

“Move,” the man voiced, “or you join in with the lad.”

Patsy stood her ground without her outstretched arms faltering. Elmer now looked like a child being protected by his mother. Pathetic, but it was better than getting hit with a baton. Imagining the pain of that metal thing striking his head made him shudder slightly.

“Look around, sir.” Patsy gestured sideways with her head. “People are watching.”

The man looked around, and so did Elmer. People were watching, but there were only a few. Most did not care and just went on with their duties—still, eyes were on him.

But it seemed that was of little bother to the policeman.

“And?” The policeman scoffed. “Should I be scared? In fact, I’ve had enough. You’ll be joining in with him.”

Elmer’s lips twitched and he wondered if Patsy had some other plan, because this one had just been marked as a failed one.

“You,” Patsy muttered after a short while of silence, giving Elmer rejuvenated hope in his savior. “I’ll file a report against you. What is a policeman doing here in the first place? Don’t you have better things to do?”

What…? Why’s she provoking him…? Elmer’s hopes came crashing down. Andwe’re peasants, you blockhead. What will filing a report do when they won’t listen to us…?!

The policeman laughed for something over a second then stopped abruptly. “You?” He eyed her and even did the same for Elmer. “File a report against me? Go ahead then. I was stationed here to keep petty thieves like you miscreants from roaming about freely. And I’ll do just that.”

“Hmph…” Patsy scoffed. “You must have been so poor at your job that you were stationed here to catch pettythieves like we miscreants.”

Elmer’s eyes widened and his breath seized as he glimpsed the policeman tightening his grip about the hilt of his baton with bared teeth.

Why…? Why would she ever say that…?

But just as the enraged policeman was about to swing down on Patsy, she suddenly voiced, “Jack Hudson!” And his hand, once again, held in place.

“What?” The man brought his eyebrows down at her in the place of his baton. “How do you…”

“The Chief Constable. Jack Hudson,” she cut him off. “I’ll send the report directly to him, stating that you assaulted me, his acquaintance, on the streets of Merchant’s District after falsely accusing me of aiding a thief in escaping. Touch me and you'll lose your job.”

Elmer watched agape in amazement from behind. She really stopped his swing, and she was now babbling away a lot of things that seemed to make sense. The knowledge she had told him about was coming in handy.

The policeman scoffed and eyed her again, but this time a little bit feebly. “You? An acquaintance? This has to be a—”

“Then how come I know his name?” Patsy blew out the policeman’s words like a strong wind through a weak candle flame. “How come a peasant knows the name of the Chief Constable of Ur’s Police department?”

After a while of stares and silence, the policeman hesitantly let go of Elmer’s wrist, which in return allowed him to stand upright.

“Do not let me see either of your faces again.” The policeman pointed the baton at both of them, before striking his hand with it twice as he whirled around and took his leave.

Patsy stiffly turned to Elmer with a weak smile, then she grabbed his shoulders and exhaled heavily as though she had just let go of a huge load.

Had she been lying or something? Elmer wondered.

“Thank you,” Elmer said. “Do you really know the constable, or that was a lie?” he asked, his face painted with genuine curiosity.

“Heh.” She let go of his shoulders to fiddle with her nose. “It wasn’t. I do know him.”

“How? I’m sure those kind of people are not just the type we could meet anyhow.” That was rich coming from he who had ridden in the same car as the son of the city’s magistrate.

His question abruptly put a cease to Patsy’s fiddles, then she smacked her lips. “Don’t ask,” she said. “And don’t get us into any trouble again.” She pointed a finger of warning at him. “Let’s go, you’ve done enough.” Not giving Elmer an incentive to say any other thing, she quickly turned around and walked into the alleyway.

Her back really was broad, Elmer thought to himself as he followed behind her. And he now noticed that she was no doubt taller than him; although, that one made him tsk.

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