The Lost Boy

sixth-grade teacher, Mr Smith, sprang up from his desk, grabbed my arm and led me into the principal’s office. “How could you have done it?” my teacher asked. “I would have never expected something like that from you.”
    Later I sat in front of the principal, who informed me he was going to call the police, the fire chief and my foster parents. I shuddered at the last part of his statement. All I could think of was Rudy’s face. “Before you say anything, ” the principal stated, “you’ve already been identified as starting the fire …”
    “No!” I blurted. “I didn’t do it! Honest, sir.”
    “Really?” the principal smiled. “Fine. I believe you. Show me your hands.”
    I stuck out my two arms, unsure of the principal’s intentions. He leaned over and grabbed my hands. Then he rubbed the stubbles from my burned hairs. “I think I’ve seen enough, ” he said as he flung my arms back at me.
    “But I didn’t do it!” I began to cry.
    “Look at yourself. I can still smell the smoke on you. I have statements from teachers claiming that you were the child who’s been bragging about this same thing. For goodness sake, your father’s a fireman. You don’t need to say another thing. The police will be here soon, and you can tell your story to them. You’re excused to wait in the other room.
I
have phone calls to make, ” the principal said, with a wave of his hand.
    I closed the door behind me and began to sit down. I could feel the resentment from the elderly secretary. I nodded at her as I took my seat. She gave me an evil glance before she huffed in my direction and turned away. “Foster child! We don’t need
your kind!
”
    I gripped the arms of the chair and leaped out of the seat. “I know what you think of me! All of you! But know this.
I
didn’t do it!” I yelled, as I slammed the door behind me. A moment later I could see the principal fly out of his office, waving his fist at me. Without thinking I ran from the school and didn’t stop until I reached the bottom of the hill by John’s house. I hopped the fence, hid in his play fort and waited for him.
    “Man, this is too cool! You escaped!” John panted, when he discovered me knocking on his back door hours later.
    “What?” I exclaimed.
    “Man, the kids in school think the police came to arrest you and you beat ‘em up and ran off. Man, this is just too much!” he said, unable to control himself. “Everyone thinks you’re so cool!”
    “Wait a minute, man! Stop it! Wait up!” I yelled, cutting him off. “The principal thinks I did it. He thinks I started the fire and that I’ve already been identified. You gotta help me, man. You gotta tell them the truth!”
    “Hey man, no way, ” John said, backing away from me with his hands in the air. “You’re on your own.”
    I shook my head from side to side. Tears were starting to swell in my eyes, but I held them back. “Man, this is serious. You gotta help me. What am I going to do?”
    “Yeah man, all right. You can’t go home … Tell you what. I’ll hide you here until we figure out what to do.”
    “Okay, ” I said, trying to relax my heaving chest. “But you gotta tell them what really happened at school.” John’s mouth quivered. He began to mutter something. In a flash I grabbed his shirt. “Shut up and listen!
You
did it! I didn’t! I saved your ass! I put out the fire! You tell ‘em the truth! I mean it!” I yelled.
    John’s tough-guy act melted away. “Yeah … all right. Tomorrow, man, okay? Just relax.”
    That night I shivered on a makeshift wooden bed in John’s clubhouse outside. Earlier I had picked up the phone to call Lilian, but I slammed it down when I heard Rudy’s stern voice on the other end. “David!” he had said after a long pause, “I know it’s you! If you know what’s good for you, you’ll …”
    The next day the hours seemed to drag on as I waited for John’s return. When he finally came home, he flung the sliding door open. I ran inside to warm myself. “Okay?” I asked, rubbing my hands. “Everything’s all right. You told ‘em, right? You told them the truth?” I asked, feeling relieved that the incident was over and I could go back to the Catanzes.
    John slumped his shoulders and stared at the floor. I knew even before he spoke that I was doomed. “Man, you promised!” I whimpered.
    “Well … the principal pulled me from class, ” he said in a soft voice, as he continued to stare at the