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Kenny was bored.
He’d been bored for hours. Ever since the elementary school burned down, his mom had been taking him to work with her, and he was bored. There was nothing to do. No other kids his age, no coloring books, nothing. And he’d basically been banned from exploring while his mom was busy with clients.
He had access to the staff kitchen (which was empty of people and food except for Ms. Sarah’s diabetic yogurt) and access to the break room where the women came after each client to gossip and complain. None of them usually stayed for longer than half an hour, either, so he was, in all probability, not going to have anything to do for another three hours until five-o-clock when Keiko, his big sister, showed up to take him home.
“This sucks,” he muttered. “Why do I have to stay here?”
No one responded, because Mrs. Hannah had left five minutes ago, and because the universe was predictable, he was willing to assume that no one would come by for almost an hour.
Well, actually… If he had an hour to kill…
Kenny poked his head into the hallway. Nothing.
Most of the doors on this floor were quiet, so he figured he could poke his head into one or two to see if there were any second grade books he could read.
First room: Nothing. Just filing cabinets and a baseball bat. Which one of the ladies here played baseball?
Second room: Nothing. Some computers, a couch, a shotgun for some reason, and a bunch of batteries.
Third room: More nothing. Another filing cabinet, some plastic chairs.
Fourth room: A couple of desks, three first aid kits that he could see, and a box full of chips.
Chips! Food! That wasn’t nothing.
He scrambled forward, but as he reached into the box, Kenny heard a scream. The voice sounded like it had three months ago and his mother had come home after picking him up to find his father hanging from the ceiling.
Mom.
He sprinted out of the room as fast as his little legs could carry him, straight into the lobby room, and stopped.
An enormous man had Kenny’s mother trapped in his arms. He was huge, in an even bigger dark brown hoodie with what looked like a red motorcycle helmet on… if motorcycles had glaring peepholes instead of the plastic slidy thing.
Why were none of mom’s friends doing anything?
Kenny knew it was stupid, but he shouted “Let her go!” and clenched his fists like he could hurt this man.
The man, surprisingly, did let go. Kenny’s mom turned around to see him and rushed towards him. “Kenny! What are you doing outside of the break room?”
He didn’t stop glaring at the stranger. He was huge, big enough to fill a doorway, and he was glaring back at Kenny like he hadn’t just trapped his mom.
“I heard yelling. Who’s he?”
His mom sighed. “Kenny-”
The man stepped forwards and placed a gentle(?) hand on her shoulder. “It’s alright, Mrs. Suzumiya. I can go.” His voice warbled weirdly, like it was coming through a spooky phone call.
She caught his arm. “Respectfully, I’d rather you meet my boy properly. Best do it now so he doesn’t get the wrong idea.”
“Alright,” the man sighed. He crouched down to meet Kenny face-to-face. “Hi.”
“Hi…?” Kenny ventured. Mom wasn’t scared of him. “Why was mom screaming?”
A bunch of the women in the room snickered.
“Because,” Mom said, “Hood-sama here came with good news. It was a happy scream.”
“What news?” Kenny blinked owlishly at his mother.
“We get to keep our apartment!”
“Really?!”
Kenny’s mom had been working late a lot these past few weeks because of their landlord threatening to evict them. With two kids and no husband, she’d been struggling to pay rent on time.
“Yes,” his mom told him. “He’s our new landlord.”
Okay, less cool. “Is he gonna kick us out?”
“No,” said the spooky robot voice. “Everybody is struggling these days, and I happen to have more money than is really reasonable. I own this building and I own your mom’s building and I own plenty more. I lowered the rent rate, because that last guy’s price was unforgivable, and your mom can have as much time as she needs to pay.”
Kenny’s mom nodded. “Hood-sama here is a very kind man."
Ms. Lacy leaned in to whisper, like she was telling a secret, “He’s very scary but he’s actually a big softie. He protects us."
The man flicked her in the side of the head. “Shut up, I need my street cred. And I told you,” he said as he turned to Kenny's mom, “to drop the honorific.”
Kenny’s mom laughed.
Kenny stared at the huge man in his mom’s lobby. “Y'swear?”
The man nodded and held out a gloved hand. “I do. Man-to-man promise.”
Kenny hesitantly reached forward to hold the huge hand. It was warm.
They shook.
“Good luck, ladies.” Helmet Man stood up and turned towards the door, but stopped. Almost as an afterthought, he dug into his belt and tossed something at Kenny, who flinched. It plinked onto the ground. “Just a lollipop, kiddo,” he said. Then, to one of the women behind the counter, “Tell Melissa I said hi.”
And then he left.
Kenny picked up the lollipop. It didn’t look like a gas pellet or a grenade. It smelled like fake sugar. He unwrapped it and poked it with his tongue. Watermelon flavor.
Bang!
He flinched again and hurled the candy away from himself, but it was just Keiko crashing through the door.
“Did I miss him?” she asked. Her hair was down in a black curtain instead of the usual ponytail.
Didn’t she have school? “Yes?”
“No,” his mother corrected, holding the lollipop. She must have caught it. “I haven’t heard his bike start up. If you run, you should be able to catch him. Why aren’t you in class?”
Keiko dropped her bag. “Bomb threat. Be right back!” She ran out the door, hair flying.
“Does Keiko know him?” Kenny asked. “Why does everybody but me know him?”
Sarah, one of his mom’s friends, handed him back the lollipop. “Because he’s scary when you first meet him. Your sister was here when he first visited us, and she’s been trying to befriend him ever since.”
“But she’s ten! He’s a grownup, that’s weird.”
“Yes,” his mom said. “Which is why he tries to avoid her.”
Keiko, as if on cue, came back in. “He gave me a lollipop,” she declared.
Kenny couldn’t help it. “He gave me one first.”
His sister glared at him as Sarah handed him back his candy. “So what?”
“So I’m cooler.”
Their mother cut them both off. “Keiko, take your brother home, please. He tried to fight Hood over a misunderstanding and he’s been bored all day.”
Keiko snorted. "You were gonna fight him?"
"I thought he was hurting mom!"
"Still," Keiko replied, picking up her bag.
"Hmph."