Cyberpunk

down,” he said. “There is coffee.” He signaled and one of the no-names, a short black man, grabbed us mugs, filled them full, and pushed them to us as we slid into chairs. I mingled mine with thin and brackish milk while Grizz sprinkled sweet into hers. The drink was bitter and hot, and chased the recycling yard’s lingering chill from my bones. I could still feel the new memory on my skin, cold coils against my T-shirt’s thin paper, so old its surface had fuzzed to velvet.
    Ajah worked at the poultry factory, so he always had eggs and chicken meat. Sometimes they were surplus, sometimes stuff the factory couldn’t sell. He’d worked out a deal with a guy in a fungi factory, so he always had mushrooms too. Brown rice and spices stretched it all out until Ajah could afford to feed a kitchen’s worth of people at every meal. They brought him what they could to swap, but usually long after the fact of their faces at his table.
    Lorelei being here meant she must be down on her luck. As were we—the shelter we’d been counting on for the past year had gone broke, shut down for lack of funds, despite countless neighborhood fundraisers. No one had the script to spare for charity.
    Two grocery sacks filled with greenery sat on one counter. Someone had been Dumpster diving, I figured, and brought their spoils to eke out the communal meal. A third sack was filled with apples and browned bananas, and I could feel my mouth watering at the thought.
    “I’m Jonny,” I offered, glancing around the table. “She’s Grizz.”
    “Ajax,” said the black man.
    “Mick,” muttered the other stranger, a scruffy brown-haired kid. He wore a ragged poncho and his hair fell in slow dreads.
    “You know me,” Lorelei said.
    Conversation faded and we listened to the oily sizzle of mushrooms frying on the stove-top and the refrigerator’s hum against the background of city noise and traffic clamor. The still in the corner, full of rotten fruit and potatoes, burped once in counterpoint.
    “What’s the news?” Ajah asked, ladling rice and mushrooms bound together with curry and egg onto plates and sliding them onto the table toward Lorelei and Grizz. Ajax, Mick, and I eyed them as they started eating, leaving the question to us.
    “Not much,” I said.
    “Found a place to live yet?”
    “Jesus, gossip travels fast. How did you hear about the shelter?”
    “Beccalu came by and said she was heading to her cousin in Scranton. You two have people to stay with?”
    I shook my head as Grizz kept eating. “No one I’ve thought of yet. We need to head to the library tonight, though, figured we’d doss in the subway station there for a few hours, keep moving along for naps till it’s morning. It’s Exams tomorrow.”
    “I know,” Ajah said. “Look, why don’t you stay here tonight? The couch folds out.”
    I was surprised; I’d never heard Ajah make anyone an offer like that.
    “The Exams are your big chance. Get a good night’s sleep and make the most of them. Face them fully charged.”
    I rolled my eyes. “For what? Like there’s a chance.” But he and Grizz ignored me.
    “We need to make a library run still,” she said.
    “Yeah, yeah, that’s fine. I’m up till midnight, maybe later,” Ajah told her.
    Despite my doubts, relief seeped into my bones. We’d been given a night’s respite, and who knew what would happen after the Exams? “Thanks, Ajah,” I said, and he grunted acknowledgement as he slid a plate before me.
    The portabella bits had been browned in curry powder and oil, and the eggs were fresh and good. Grizz ate methodically, scraping her plate free, but she looked up to catch my eye and gave me a heartfelt smile, rare on her square-set face.
    As her gaze swung back to her plate, my glance tangled with Lorelei’s. I could not read her expression.
    Lorelei and I used to pal around before Grizz and I met up. She and I grew up next to each other, and it’s hard not to know someone intimately when you’ve shared hour after hour channel surfing while one mother or the other went out on work or errands. We suffered through the same street bullies and uninterested teachers. She was the first girl I ever kissed. You don’t forget that.
    But I knew I wanted Grizz for keeps the first moment I saw her. She came swaggering into the shelter wearing a rabbit-fur jacket and pseudo-leather pants. She’d been tricking in a swank bar, but then someone snatched all her hard-earned cash. So there she