Warning Signs (From Tumblr)
Sep. 12th, 2015 02:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ciiriiananYou’ve learned to read the city by the way the Hardison kids get home from school. There are three of them, the oldest 16, the youngest 12. Cute biracial kids who know some rather worrying things. (Like the details of the Burmese Civil War. Or the name of the current President of San Lorenzo. Or how to properly clean a rifle. Or the classifications of computer viruses. Or …) Their parents work at the Bridgeport Brewpub, about five blocks away. They live in the facing building.
So when everything’s normal, they just walk home. All three together.
When an adult comes to walk with them you worry. (The Bridgeport Crew is somewhere between Batman and a Mafia, as far as you can tell. The kids come unarmed to school. But the adults who meet them at the edge of the property - probably don’t. They have the courtesy to keep the distribution out of sight. You only spotted it once, and only because you were leaving early.) The adult is usually a parent. Parker or Hardison. (He has a first name. Once, you heard his wife use it.) Almost as often, though, it’s Eliot or Amy. The kids will call Eliot an uncle, if pressed. Amy is always an aunt.
When Eliot picks them up in his flashy car, you tell your friends to be extra careful for the next few nights. (The Bridgeport Crew doesn’t use guns. Their enemies do.)
When the unmarked van makes an appearance, you call your friends and hide in the safest basement you can find. (The unmarked van’s name is Lucille. You almost wish you didn’t know that.)
So when everything’s normal, they just walk home. All three together.
When an adult comes to walk with them you worry. (The Bridgeport Crew is somewhere between Batman and a Mafia, as far as you can tell. The kids come unarmed to school. But the adults who meet them at the edge of the property - probably don’t. They have the courtesy to keep the distribution out of sight. You only spotted it once, and only because you were leaving early.) The adult is usually a parent. Parker or Hardison. (He has a first name. Once, you heard his wife use it.) Almost as often, though, it’s Eliot or Amy. The kids will call Eliot an uncle, if pressed. Amy is always an aunt.
When Eliot picks them up in his flashy car, you tell your friends to be extra careful for the next few nights. (The Bridgeport Crew doesn’t use guns. Their enemies do.)
When the unmarked van makes an appearance, you call your friends and hide in the safest basement you can find. (The unmarked van’s name is Lucille. You almost wish you didn’t know that.)
