“A job,” Danny muttered.
“You can learn a lot from some honest work. And you’ll be helping to keep the Center looking neat. You might even get to like it.”
“Don’t bet on it.”
Joe made a sour face. “Okay, I’m not here to argue with you. You have a visitor. She’s in the next room.”
“She? Laurie?”
Nodding, Joe said, “You can spend the rest of the afternoon with her. But she’s got to leave at five.”
Without another word, Danny hurried from Dr. Jenny’s office and burst into the next room. Laurie was sitting on the edge of a big leather chair. She jumped up and ran into his arms.
After a few minutes, Danny pulled away from her and closed the door.
“How are you?” They both said it at the same time. They laughed.
Laurie was a little thinner than Danny remembered her. And sort of pale. She was a small girl, almost frail-looking, with hair and eyes as dark as Danny’s own. Danny knew prettier girls, but no one like Laurie. Of all the people in the world, she was the only one that needed Danny. And the only one that he needed.
“You look good,” she said.
“You look great.”
“Are they treating you okay?”
He nodded. “Sure. Fine. This is more like a school than a jail. How about you? Everything okay?”
“Uh-huh.”
They moved slowly to the couch, by the room’s only window.
“How’s Silvio and the other guys?” Danny asked as they sat down.
“They’re all right…. Danny, are you really okay?”
Laughing, he said, “Sure. I told you. This ain’t really a jail. I nearly broke out of here yesterday. Looks easy. Hardly any guards. I’ll probably be out in a couple weeks. Soon’s I figure out a couple things.”
Laurie’s eyes widened. She looked frightened. “Danny, don’t do anything they can catch you on. If you get into more trouble….”
“You feel like waitin’ around for five years?” he snapped. “Or ten? Twenty? If I can break out, I’m goin’ to do it. Reason the other guys don’t try it is ’cause they’re too soft. They got it too easy here, so they stay. Not me!”
“But they’ll just hunt you down again and bring you back. Or maybe put you in a worse place….”
“You want me to stay?”
“No. I mean….”
“Listen, I got it figured,” Danny said. “Soon’s I get out, we grab a car and get up to Canada. Then they can’t touch us.”
Laurie just looked scared. “All the way to Canada?”
“Just the two of us. We can start all over again. I’ll even get a job….”
“Me, too,” Laurie said. Then she started to say something else, stopped, and finally said, “Oh, Danny… I wanted to tell you. I got a job now. I’m helping my sister in the restaurant where she works….”
“Waiting on tables?” Danny felt his face twist into a frown.
Laurie nodded. Her voice was very low. “And… cleaning up, helping in the kitchen.”
“I don’t want my girl doin’ that kind of work!”
“Well, I need some money…” She looked away from him, out toward the window. “I want to be able to live on my own. And the bus to come here costs money.”
Danny’s frown melted. But he didn’t feel any better.
Laurie went on, “Dr. Tenny said I could come once a week, if I wanted to. And he said he thought you could do real good here. Maybe get out in two years.”
“I’ll be out in a couple weeks,” said Danny.
“Please… don’t do anything they’ll catch you on.”
“I’ll be out in a couple of weeks,” Danny repeated.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Laurie left at five. Danny went over to the cafeteria and picked at his dinner.
Ralph Malzone pulled up a chair and sat beside Danny. He looked much too big for the thin-legged plastic chair.
“Hey, I heard you was sick yesterday. Not going to back out of the fight with Lacey, are ya?”
Danny pushed his tray of food away. “No, I’ll fight him.”
“Good,” said Ralph. He leaned across, took a slice of bread from Danny’s tray, and started buttering it. “C’mon over to the gym tomorrow afternoon. I’ll show you some tricks. Help make you the new lightweight champ.”