Local Hero

to. His hair fell over his forehead, as careless as he was. There was a slight smile on his face that struck her as both pleased and reckless.
    She found herself watching him rather than the ball as she toyed with the little diamond heart she’d worn over a plain black turtleneck.
    This was the kind of man women dreamed about and made heroes of. This was the kind of man a woman could come to lean upon if she wasn’t careful. With a man like him, a woman could have years of laughter. The defenses around her heart weakened a bit with her sigh.
    The ball was lost in the dragon’s cave with a series of roars.
    “She got you by ten points,” someone in the crowd pointed out. “Ten points, buddy.”
    “Got yourself a free game,” someone else said, giving Hester a friendly slap on the back.
    Mitch shook his head as he wiped his hands on the thighs of his jeans. “About that handicap—” he began.
    “Too late.” Ridiculously pleased with herself, Hester hooked her thumbs in her belt loops and studied her score. “Superior reflexes. It’s all in the wrist.”
    “How about a rematch?”
    “I don’t want to humiliate you again.” She turned, intending to offer Radley the free game. “Rad, why don’t you . . . Rad?” She nudged her way through the few lingering onlookers. “Radley?” A little splinter of panic shot straight up her spine. “He’s not here.”
    “He was here a minute ago.” Mitch put a hand on her arm and scanned what he could see of the room.
    “I wasn’t paying any attention.” She brought a hand up to her throat, where the fear had already lodged, and began to walk quickly. “I know better than to take my eyes off him in a place like this.”
    “Stop.” He kept his voice calm, but her fear had already transferred itself to him. He knew how easy it was to whisk one small boy away in a crowd. You couldn’t pour your milk in the morning without being aware of it. “He’s just wandering around the machines. We’ll find him. I’ll go around this way; you go down here.”
    She nodded and spun away without a word. They were six or seven deep at some of the machines. Hester stopped at each one, searching for a small blond boy in a blue sweater. She called for him over the noise and clatter of machines.
    When she passed the big glass doors and looked outside to the lights and crowded sidewalks of Times Square, her heart turned over in her breast. He hadn’t gone outside, she told herself. Radley would never do something so expressly forbidden. Unless someone had taken him, or . . .
    Gripping her hands together tightly, she turned away. She wouldn’t think like that. But the room was so big, filled with so many people, all strangers. And the noise, the noise was more deafening than she’d remembered. How could she have heard him if he’d called out for her?
    She started down the next row, calling. Once she heard a young boy laugh and spun around. But it wasn’t Radley. She’d covered half the room, and ten minutes were gone, when she thought she would have to call the police. She quickened her pace and tried to look everywhere at once as she went from row to row.
    There was so much noise, and the lights were so bright. Maybe she should double back—she might have missed him. Maybe he was waiting for her now by that damn pinball machine, wondering where she’d gone. He might be afraid. He could be calling for her. He could be . . .
    Then she saw him, hoisted in Mitch’s arms. Hester shoved two people aside as she ran for them. “Radley!” She threw her arms around both of them and buried her face in his hair.
    “He’d gone over to watch someone play,” Mitch began as he stroked a hand up and down her back. “He ran into someone he knew from school.”
    “It was Ricky Nesbit, Mom. He was with his big brother, and they lent me a quarter. We went to play a game. I didn’t know it was so far away.”
    “Radley.” She struggled with the tears and kept her voice firm. “You know the rules about staying with me. This is a big place with a lot of people. I have to be able to trust you not to wander away.”
    “I didn’t mean to. It was just that Ricky said it would just take a minute. I was coming right back.”
    “Rules have reasons, Radley, and we’ve been through them.”
    “But, Mom—”
    “Rad.” Mitch shifted the boy in his arms. “You scared your mother and me.”
    “I’m sorry,” His eyes clouded up. “I didn’t mean to make you