Of course I don't own these characters. I just borrowed them for a little while. I am making no money on any stories involving them and am returning them safely at the end of my visit with them. I am posting this to the Sentinel Angst list as my Dues but since it is my first ever Sentinel story I am not posting exclusively. I have an empty web page I need to start filling up. Hope you like it. send comments to Chopecdar@yahoo.com. thanx, dar.
Street Kid
By Dar Hutson Scally
(November 14,1999)
"What are these things supposed to be?" Henry Brown demanded, holding up a greenish tinted item resembling a potato chip.
"Good question." Jim Ellison said, smiling and looking toward the kitchen at his partner,
who was busy stirring something in a bowl. "You'll have to ask Sandburg."
At that moment, Blair Sandburg walked over to the table carrying a bowl with what appeared to be onion dip.
"Veggie chips." He said as he set the bowl down next to the chips.
Brown, Rafe, and Simon gathered around the table and stared down at the chips and dip.
Finally after a few minutes hesitation, Brown shrugged and muttered, Here goes.
He dipped the chip he was still holding into the dip and flipped the whole chip into his mouth chewing quickly. Within a moment his face contorted into a grimace and he quickly grabbed his beer bottle off the table and guzzled it down.
"All right, Hairboy." He said. "That was funny. Now where's the real food?"
Sandburg grimaced. "This is real food."
"Wait a minute Sandburg." Simon said. "You mean that's all the snacks you got?"
The others took a menacing step toward Blair, as Jim sat calmly at the table and grinned.
"Don't say I didn't warn you, Sandburg."
Sandburg backed away toward the coat rack, pulling his jacket off the rack and slipping it on. All right, guys. I get the message. I guess the tofu burgers I had planned are out too.
"I'll just run down to Jakes and grab some snacks."
"Sandburg."Jim called, as Blair opened the door. "Don't get the low fat chips!"
Blair looked back at the guys."For you guys, I'll pick out the brand with the highest fat content. Will that make you happy?"
"Yeah." They all said at once.
Blair smiled and turned to go.
"Hey, Sandburg." Rafe called after him. "Hurry back! We need your money!"
The door closed after him as Jim started the first deal and everyone took a seat, proving that poker night could commence even without the required junk food.
Blair walked the two blocks to Jake's mini-mart. As he walked he thought about the recent changes in his life. He still couldn't believe he was actually a cop now. A badge carrying, gun toting cop. He suddenly realized he had walked out again without his gun. Jim never went anywhere without his gun. Neither did any of the other cops in Major Crimes. It was like getting dressed to them. You put on your pants and your shirt and you strap on your holster and check your gun before you take one step out the door. And here he was again, walking around with a badge and no gun. And he didn't even feel naked. Jim would definitely feel naked without his gun. Blair smiled, wondering if it would ever feel natural for him to carry a gun.
He thought about the case they had just wrapped up. He had gone undercover for just an evening, pretending to be a street kid. With his new shorter haircut, he looked much younger and found he could easily pass for a kid again. All he had to do was hang around the streets for an evening and pick up whatever info he could about a new drug that had recently hit the streets. It had turned out to be something a local high school kid had designed and they were able to stop production and shut him down before it got too far.
The kid was genius material and had just done it for kicks cause he was bored. He had never been in any trouble before and seemed genuinely sorry. They figured he'd probably get community service hours.
Pretending to be a street kid had stirred up some old memories for Blair. He had done a lot of thinking back to when he was fourteen. He had spent a summer on the street then
when his mom had been overseas and had left him to stay with a friend. He hadn't been able to handle some of the stuff his moms friend had wanted him to do, so he had taken off. He had taken a couple hundred dollars from the guy and hitched rides to get as far away as possible, which happened to land him in Cascade two weeks later when his money had run out. So he had spent the rest of his summer doing whatever he had to do to survive while he waited for his mom to get back to the country. She was due back at the beginning of September just in time for him to go back to school. He could handle living on the streets for awhile during the summer but there was no way he was going to miss any school. Even at fourteen he had considered his education the most important thing in his life. He had always had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and by that age had already known for two years that he wanted to be an anthropologist. He had traveled extensively with his mom and had taken to observing the differences in the customs of the people they had met along the way.
Arrival at Jakes interrupted his thoughts. He went inside and started comparing fat and additive contents of several brands of potato chips. After carefully picking out several bags of extra greasy chips and two tubs of onion dip, he got in line to pay. Jake was working the cash register.
"Hey Blair. How ya doing tonight?" the elderly man asked, smiling heartily. Blair was one of his regular customers and was always friendly with him.
"Great, Jake." Blair answered, smiling. "Hows Julie doing?"
Julie was Jakes granddaughter. She was living with him while attending college at Rainier University. Her parents lived in Arizona. But when she checked out colleges she had found that Rainier offered her the best scholarship opportunities and the best program for her field of study. Also, since they offered post graduate coursework as well, she had figured that would save her having to move to a different school later. She was working toward a degree in Archaeology, one of Blairs interests, so they had become friends after having met in Jakes store a year ago. She was in her second year at Rainier now and Blair always checked to see how she was doing. He wanted to be available to help her out if she ever ran into any problems with her coursework.
"Shes doing fine. Shes at a seminar this evening, in fact. Thats why I'm running the register on a Friday evening." Jake answered.
Blair smiled. "Shes really lucky to have you, Jake. Letting her take off whenever she needs to."
"Hey, I wouldnt make her work at all if it was up to me. She insists on helping me whenever she can."
Blair paid for his purchases and Jake bagged it up for him, handing him the bag.
"You take care of yourself now." Jake said.
"You too, Jake." Blair said, taking the bag and heading toward the door." And say hi to Julie for me."
"I will." Jake answered.
