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They met last Halloween while doing the same routine of throwing papers on people's gardens and looking at the sky searching for new lights. It was biting cold and the smell of candy and cracked eggs was still heavy on the air. If you listened closely, you could hear teenagers laughing sweetly at the filled bags of candy and condoms. Teenagers, what a burden. Mac didn't want to turn into one of them. Maybe if she wished hard enough she would never age.
When Mac was about to turn the street and go into a new set of prefabricated houses she heard a scream and some laughs. They came from two streets up. As she was pedaling, skipping some doors, she could also hear thuds and more laughs, accompanied by a feminine voice swearing. What she said wasn't pretty at all.
Mac arrived, stopping on dry, to see how the girl hit one of the guys who had been laughing in the head with a hockey stick. Seconds after that, they all picked up their bags and ran up-street, screaming terrible things such as “dyke” or “fuck that bitch”, which weren't half as bad as the things that that brunette said. Mac was looking wide eyes at the scene, so grotesquely fantastic. The girl turned around, heavy breathing. Her hair was a little messed up and Mac saw her bike on the side, with all the papers splattered in the ground.
“Hey” said the girl with a sweet voice that had nothing to do with the growls she was yelling seconds before.
“H-hi” Mac answered, still distressed and amazed at what she just saw.
The girl smiled and started picking up all her papers. Some of them got a little wet because of the humidity that was still fresh in the concrete from the heavy rain that poured the night before that.
“Let me help you” said Mac, throwing her bike and rushing towards the girl, almost falling over her.
“I see you are a paper boy- girl” the girl said, after a few seconds of checking Mac up and down.
“Yeah, been for a while. I see you are, too”.
“Yup” she put a bunch of papers on the nest, smiling at how fast the operation was done “the name's KJ, by the way”.
“Mac” they handshaked and exchanged some more curious looks before going to their respective bikes.
“So where are you head up to, Mac?”
“Well, I was supposed to go through Poplar, couple of blocks down”.
“I have to finish this street and I'll be over. I can join you later if you want”.
“Or” Mac paused, looking at the length of the street. Just three more houses, and it was over, with a few trees by the end “we can finish this street and then you'll accompany me down”.
Mac smiled widely, trying to convince KJ. She just shrugged lightly, starting to pedal. “Whatever keeps you sane, redhead!” she yelled, throwing a paper on the next house.
Mac looked at how fast KJ advanced, and started pedalling too. She had been to that street once, some years before, but never as a paper girl, which seemed strange since this street was filled with subscribers to the paper.
“So” she started “since when’ve you been a paper bo- girl? Girl”
“About a couple months. Since school started, basically”.
“Ah”.
She didn't seem like the talkative kind. The situation was a little awkward, so Mac pedalled faster and picked a paper from KJ’s nest, throwing it at the last house. But it didn't go as expected, and it ended up breaking a window. KJ looked at Mac more amused than scared. And she should have been pretty scared. Usually if you broke a window, no matter if it was intentional or not, police would probably come, and that meant family trouble. Mac knew that from her own and others experience. You don't fuck with the police or they fuck with you.
“I think we should run” said Mac. She had broken many windows before, but by the time someone would notice she was already long gone. Now they just seemed to be waiting.
“What's the hurry?”.
“What's the hurry? I mean, I just broke a window! Shouldn't you be scared shitless?”
“Oh my God Mac” she laughed softly, and went up to the front porch of the house. Now that she looked closely, Mac realised the little garden was very mistreated, and the porch was about to fall down.
“What the hell…”
“Don't you know who lives here?” said KJ. She jumped in the porch a little, peaked through the window and came back next to Mac jumping and dancing “Mrs. Lidell”.
“I don't-”
“You don't know who she is?”
“I've never delivered in this street”.
KJ’s expression changed from a funny to a serious one. She grabbed Mac's hand. Now it was warmer than before, and Mac could feel how soft it was. KJ leaded to the porch and they stood in front of the door. The paint used to be blue, probably, but now it had faded into a greyish dirty color. Some parts had been scrapped, which gave it a kind of creepy aura. An abandoned house aura. Mac didn't like it a bit.
“Mrs. Lidell is the craziest bitch out there”
That word felt somehow normal and bizarre in KJ’s mouth. She seemed like such a good girl, your typical Jewish who smiles at her grandma. So those words, from before and now, were weird and natural. One could even say they were attractive coming from her sweet voice. Like a sour gum.
“If she's the craziest bitch” said Mac, looking at their hands intertwined, at the space between them and the bikes, at the porch, at the dusty windows “then we should better hurry” now her voice was barely a whisper.
KJ smiled at her and went up to the bike. Mac already missed the warmth of her hand. The air was too cold for her right now.
“Race you to Locust. On three”
“Alright newbie, I-” Mac was still getting on her bike when KJ screamed “three!” and ran down street. It took Mac a few seconds to realize it, and when she did, she smiled, almost laughing, and went down street screaming:
“You are crazy!”
“Don't scream so loud or you'll wake up all the neighborhood” responded KJ, also screaming and laughing.
That was probably the best night ever.
When they arrived -KJ first, but Mac close behind, there was a girl lying on the ground. A bike was parked next to her. She was facing the sky, looking at it, seemingly awake.
“Uh, hello?” said KJ, carefully approaching her. The girl raised her head after a couple of seconds of doubt. Mac went after KJ, trying to see what was going on. Thanks to a streetlight, she could see there was some glitter in her face and shirt, and what looked like rests from a crushed egg.
“Are you okay?” asked Mac, now in front of KJ, trying to get closer.
“They bombed me” said the girl in a quiet voice. Even tho the scene was quite awful, it didn't feel violent. The girl seemed to be just resting. She didn't even look mad. Mac looked around to see any rest of the battle. On top of the bike there was a bag with some newspapers, some of which were sprayed with eggs.
“Are you a paper girl?” she asked. The girl looked at her with big glittering eyes. She smiled a little.
“Yeah. And you are too”.
“How do you know?” asked KJ, sitting next to girl, who was still on the ground.
“No one is awake at this time unless it is for two reasons: either you are throwing eggs, which you aren't, or-”
“You are a paper girl” finished Mac, sitting next to them.
“Exactly” she said, finally getting up and sitting straight in between KJ and Mac.
“Well my name's KJ” she said, pointing at her chest “and that's Mac”.
“I’m Tiffany. Nice to meet you both. Is cool to see more people like… us”
“Yeah” Mac smiled and got up, stretching a little. If meeting KJ wasn't good enough, now she also met another paper girl. It was almost like Christmas.
KJ got up next to her and put her hands on her waist. She seemed happy. Tiffany went to her bike and picked up a newspaper. She read out loud:
“A fabulous time this week. Sun and more sun will accompany a moderate warm weather” she laughed and went next to KJ “that's all bullshit”.
“Yeah, it's gonna be raining at least until March” said Mac going to her bike.
“I don't know, maybe it's right this time” said KJ. The newspaper was rarely right, and when it was, it wasn't for a positive thing.
“Now that's a good joke, Kaje” said Tiffany.
“Kaje?”
“Uh, yeah. You don't like it?”
“Oh, yeah! Absolutely. It's just that no one has called me Kaje before”
“It's cool” said Mac smiling “sounds like some Mafia shit”
The three of them laughed a little at the lame joke and sighed at the same time.
“Anyway” Tiffany put the paper back in her bag and mounted the bike “I should better get going".
“I should too” Mac was ready to start pedaling “gotta finish like four streets".
“And I was supposed to accompany her. You know, things get pretty dangerous”.
“Yeah that's true” Tiffany looked at KJ and then at Mac. They were all thinking the same thing. It felt like if they missed a beat when they realised the same thought crossed their mind at the same time. Mac looked at KJ, who smiled in response. Tiffany looked at Mac, who nodded.
“Let's finish this hell of a night” said Mac “together”.
“Race to Acorn!” yelled KJ, already a couple of meters away from the other two.
“She's crazy” said Tiffany. Mac laughed and they started pedalling too.
The first rays of sun poured over Stony Stream while the sound of new friendship waved around the streets of that cold morning of November.