Farsight sat on the rooftop of a random building near the border of Queens. He was tired, and needed a cigarette to help stop his thoughts from racing. Pulling one out of his pocket and lighting up, Farsight inhaled deeply before blowing the smoke out his nose. Leaning his head back, he looked up at the stars and thought back to the day’s earlier events that had set him on edge.
****
“Derek, long time no see.” The tall boy turned at the sound of his name and saw the one person he’d never thought he would run into after he left the orphanage.
“Damon,” Farsight went over and embraced his old friend with a small quirk of the lips, “I always wondered what had happened to you after we got out, where’ve you been all this time?”
Damon, a short boy who was a few years younger than Farsight, had always had a knack for sticking his nose in business that wasn’t his, which always came back to bite him. Farsight remembered the times he’d had to fix whatever problem Damon had gotten himself into, or stop him from getting beaten to a pulp.
“I’ve been here and there,” Damon shrugged, “I wandered around a lot, doin the odd job to make what money I could..”
Sensing that Damon was going somewhere with this, Farsight narrowed his eyes and asked, “What kind of jobs?”
Watching his friend squirm slightly, Farsight got a bad feeling in his stomach.
“Y’know, shining shoes, sweeping shops, and ah..me most recent adventure: smugglin stuff outta the country for some big shot business guys.” Damon gave a little quirk of the lips in a attempt to smile, but it failed.
“What kind of..stuff are we talkin about here, Damon?”
“Um..things like,” there was a small pause before, “girls.”
Farsight furrowed his eyebrows. “Girls?”
Damon shifted, looking uncomfortable as he glanced around and nodded. “Yeah..like y’know, young girls that ain’t got no one to miss em. They get taken to places far away from here to work..like far away prostitutes.”
“Why are ya telling me this?” Farsight questioned, before seeing the look on Damon’s face, then he understand and immediately shook his head. “No, oh no. You can’t be serious. No. I can’t get ya outta trouble this time.”
“But Derek, why not? You always helped me out of messes before!”
“Yeah, when we were kids,” Farsight snapped, “but this is bigger than just you mouthin off to the wrong kid in an orphanage. This is you fuckin up with the big shots who ain’t afraid ta throw your body in the river.”
Damon looked at him pleadingly and asked, “Derek..please. These guys are a small branch of the mafia. If the police don’t arrest me at some point for gettin caught, they’ll find me and do me in themselves.”
It weighed heavily on his heart, but Farsight shook his head anyway. “I can’t. I ain’t gonna get involved with this. Spot will kill me if he was ta find out, or worse, he’d kick me outta Brooklyn. I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have ta get yerself out of this mess. This is the one mess I can’t clean up.”
Farsight watched with a frown as his friend, who was so young, had so many other choices, hung his head and walked away. Squaring his shoulders in resignation, Farsight turned around to try and continue selling, but found he couldn’t concentrate. He looked down at the papes he had left, but coudln’t focus enough to even read the headlines. With a sigh, he threw the last of his papers down and walked away.
****
Feeling the tension creep into his body again, Farsight let out a growl of frustration and stood up to find a way to relieve it. Climbing down from the building, Farsight stalked down alley after alley, looking for a fight.
