Ender's Shadow

there it was: A small apartment building with both an inside and an outside stairway.
      The janitor lived on the top floor. Ground floor, first floor, second floor, third. Bean went to the mailboxes and tried to read the names, but they were set too high on the wall and the names were all faded, and some of the tags were missing entirely.
      Not that he ever knew the janitor's name, truth to tell. There was no reason to think he would have recognized it even if he had been able to read it on the mailbox.
      The outside stairway did not go all the way up to the top floor. It must have been built for a doctor's office on the first floor. And because it was dark, the door at the top of the stairs was locked.
      There was nothing to do but wait. Either he would wait all night and get into the building through one entrance or another in the morning, or someone would come back in the night and Bean would slip through a door behind him.
      He fell asleep and woke up, slept and woke again. He worried that a policeman would see him and shove him away, so when he woke the second time he abandoned all pretense of being on watch and crept under the stairs and curled up there for the night.
      He was awakened by drunken laughter. It was still dark, and beginning to rain just a little -- not enough to start dripping off the stairs, though, so Bean was dry. He stuck his head out to see who was laughing. It was a man and a woman, both merry with alcohol, the man furtively pawing and poking and pinching, the woman fending him off with halfhearted slaps. "Can't you wait?" she said.
      "No," he said.
      "You're just going to fall asleep without doing anything," she said.
      "Not this time," he said. Then he threw up.
      She looked disgusted and walked on without him. He staggered after her. "I feel better now," he said. "It'll be better.”
      "The price just went up," she said coldly. "And you brush your teeth first. “
      "Course I brush my teeth.”
      They were right at the front of the building now. Bean was waiting to slip in after them.
      Then he realized that he didn't have to wait. The man was the janitor from all those years before.
      Bean stepped out of the shadows. "Thanks for bringing him home," he said to the woman.
      They both looked at him in surprise.
      "Who are you?" asked the janitor.
      Bean looked at the woman and rolled his eyes. "He's not that drunk, I hope," said Bean. To the janitor he said, "Mama will not be happy to see you come home like this again.”
      "Mama!" said the janitor. "Who the hell are you talking about?”
      The woman gave the janitor a shove. He was so off balance that he lurched against the wall, then slid down it to land on his buttocks on the sidewalk. "I should have known," she said. "You bring me home to your wife? ”
      "I'm not married," said the janitor. "This kid isn't mine.”
      "I'm sure you're telling the truth on both points," said the woman. "But you better let him help you up the stairs anyway. Mama's waiting." She started to walk away.
      "What about my forty gilders?" he asked plaintively, knowing the answer even as he asked.
      She made an obscene gesture and walked on into the night.
      "You little bastard," said the janitor.
      "I had to talk to you alone," said Bean.
      "Who the hell are you? Who's your mama?”
      "That's what I'm here to find out," said Bean. "I'm the baby you found and brought home. Three years ago.”
      The man looked at him in stupefaction.
      Suddenly a light went on, then another. Bean and the janitor were bathed in overlapping flashlight beams. Four policemen converged on them.
      "Don't bother running, kid," said a cop. "Nor you, Mr. Fun Time.”
      Bean recognized Sister Carlotta's voice. "They aren't criminals," she said. "I just need to talk to them. Up in his apartment.”
      "You followed me?" Bean asked her.
      "I knew you were searching for him," she said. "I didn't want to interfere until you found him. Just in case you think you were really smart, young man, we intercepted four street thugs and two known sex offenders who were after you.”
      Bean rolled his eyes. "You think I've forgotten how to deal with them?”
      Sister Carlotta shrugged. "I didn't want this to be the first time you ever made a mistake in your life." She did have a sarcastic streak.
     
     
     
      "So as I told you, there was nothing to learn from this Pablo de Noches. He's an immigrant who lives to pay for prostitutes.