Post reply

Reply to the message by Javier Escarra

Name:

Leave this field empty:

Subject:

Category:

Formatting help

skip to input

format text bold: [b]bold text[/b]
format text italic: [i]italic text[/i]
insert hyperlink: [link=http://example.com/]link text[/link] / [link]http://example.com/[/link]
set text color: [color=#rgb]colored text[/color]
font size: [size=small]small text[/size]; [size=large]large text[/size]
insert list: [list][*]list item[/list]
insert image: [img]http://example.com/image.jpg[/img]; left: [img=left]http://example.com/image.jpg[/img]; right: [img=right]http://example.com/image.jpg[/img]; thumbnail: [img=thumbnail]http://example.com/image.jpg[/img]; thumbnail left: [img=thumbnail-left]http://example.com/image.jpg[/img]; thumbnail right: [img=thumbnail-right]http://example.com/image.jpg[/img]

Message:

> As Javi leaned over the railing, a memory flashed through his mind. He was little – maybe five or six – and leaning over the rails on the bridge over the river. That water had been very different to this water – opaque brown and moving so lazily as to appear still, with debris and a few dead pigeons floating in its waters. A woman had shouted something – Javi couldn’t remember the exact words – but it was some message of concern about the child dangling over the metal bars. Javi’s uncle had shouted back, and [i]those[/i] words he remembered: [i]he’ll learn to swim pretty fast if he falls.[/i]
> 
> In the present day, the inky water looked far more menacing, and Javi was big enough now to hang a lot further over the edge. He briefly wondered – if he [i]had[/i] fallen into the river that day, [i]would[/i] he now know how to swim?
> 
> No uncles or concerned bystanders shouted this time, but a hand did press against his shoulder and shoved him back. Caught off guard, Javi went from tiptoes to the flat of his feet and had to take a step or two back to prevent himself from stumbling. The cop’s words were gruff but held a note of concern that had evaded Javi’s uncle a decade ago, along with most other adults since. Still, Javi had a mission, and this interaction had just given him something he could use.
> 
> [i]“Wow,”[/i] he said with emphasis, rubbing his shoulder as though hurt (it wasn’t). “So you’re just straight up gonna assault me? Like just some casual police brutality?”
> 
> Officer Summer had so far been resistant to Javi’s antagonistic probes. In the teen’s experience, accusations of criminal conduct – especially violent criminal conduct – were like waving a red flag in front of a bull. If Officer Springtime took the bait, they could be back-and-forthing on that all night. 
> 
> Mostly he was too busy checking the water and his phone. Man, Javi [i]wished[/i] he could check his phone, but this didn’t seem like the moment. Officer Winter had turned his attention back to him and was asking the kind of probing questions nosy adults tended to ask right before they got you in trouble. 
> 
> “I’m sixteen, man.” That was a lie, but a believable one. Javi was fifteen, so he could reasonably look like a young sixteen year-old. And sixteen year-olds could drive. “I see the interrogation is back on,” he added, mostly to poke the bear. “I was just cruisin’ with my boys and we stopped up here because Mac thought he could do handbreak turn but he blew a tyre, and while they was changing the tyre I saw someone in the water, and they all had like curfews so they had to get home and that, and I was like ‘it’s cool I’ll wait for the police’, and I called 911, and then I called my mom, and my friends all left and my mom is sending my uncle to pick me up.” He folded his arms. “If my friends knew you was gonna take like a million years to get here then they would’ve waited with me, they ain’t ditchers. And like I told you before, I’m out here being a good citizen.” He shrugged. “And all you’re doing is questioning me when I feel like you should be looking for this person who like, [i]actually[/i] needs your help, but whatever man, you cash that check.”