The next morning after my dad left for work, I began some work of my own.

Although I still had a challenging time trusting the boy, he'd officially piqued my curiosity beyond repair. And he'd said "see you tomorrow" like it was a set date, so I figured I'd oblige him. But I tucked my knife into the back of my pants for good measure.

I stole a pair of my dad's old sweatpants, which were about as close to the boy's size as I was going to get. And one of the few things he had not covered in motor oil.

One or two of my running shirts were a bit big for me so I tossed those in the bag as well.

When I dug through the pantry I made sure to only grab things that had meat in them, which was relatively slim pickings. So I grabbed a few cans of the little sausages that made me wretch and a few things that he could just mix in with them.

After I'd gathered a few more things that he might need, tiny mouthwashes and shampoos etc. I was out the door.

I couldn't help but feel excited, as well as nervous. He was a real person who could talk and smile, but I didn't know of that was a good thing or not.

As I was about to round the corner I car appeared, slowing down next to me. The neighbors I'd been avoiding peered out at me from rolled down windows.

"How are you Bowen?" Ms. Lotte asked, sipping some pop out of a large Styrofoam cup.

"I'm good," I tried to think of an excuse for the bag, "Just going for a little hike."

"Yeah, I don't blame you." She Smiled and then continued chewing the straw, "Well have fun. Tell Brendan we say hi."

"Alright." I said cheerily, hoping the interaction was almost over. But before I could pull away one of the Lotte's three screaming boys leaned forward.

"Is Mr. Tarpi going to let us pick his strawberries again?"

"Of course." I said, ignoring the fact that they were technically my strawberry bushes that they usually picked without asking. But they were kids, what could you do?

The little boys cheered as the car rumbled away, hands shooting out the windows to wave to me.

I waved back until they were around the corner. Continuing on, it wasn't long until I reached the shack.

This time I knocked, and only opened the door when I heard a soft, "Come in."

The boy was sitting in the recliner; the blanket I'd left wadded up at his feet.

He waved to me as I entered and shut the door behind me, and as he did I saw a number of new slices running up his arms.

"It's you!" He exclaimed, getting up and crossing the room to take the bag from my hand, "With new treats."

He began pawing through it eagerly, pulling things out to examine them. The look in his eye was dangerously close to childlike wonder.

"How are you doing?" I stayed near the door.

"Great," he pointed to the back door, which was propped open, "You must have done a lot of cleaning, I saw the bags."

"Yeah," I said, a bit embarrassed, so I changed the subject, "What happened to your arms?"

"Oh I sinned." He set the bag down and admired them, "this one was the beans, and this one is when I got hungry and ate the can of corn, this one was for waking up when it was daylight outside..." His voice trailed off.

"How often do you do that?" I asked approaching him delicately, reaching out for the injured arm. He jumped back like I was poisonous.

"What are you doing?"

"I was just going to check out your cuts."

"Touching a woman is a sin, silly, unless you're one of the elders. Wow, master sure did make a weird choice in making you my guardian."

"Master?"

He laughed, waving off such a ridiculous question, and continued pawing through the bag, "You don't even know, I've been so easy on myself."

I went to sit down on the grungy recliner, which squealed under my weight, "Really?"

"Yeah, if any of the elders could see me now I'd be covered in atonements," he chuckled, holding up the sweatpants, "I guess that happens when you're responsible for your own punishment."

As he milled around through the stuff I saw a particularly deep mark up near his elbow, "what was that top one for?"

He stopped, looking down at it, "I've been alone for a while," a twinge of sadness crossed his face, "it's a sin to be alone."