The kid sat sullen, handcuffed hands between his thighs, hair hanging limply in front of his eyes, head pointed near-straight-down. He was wearing an entirely nondescript set of clothes. One of him ends up here damn near once a week, and always for something stupid. That night was one night in a long string of nights, all the same to the grey-eyed sexless people dredged in every night shift to interview the same 17-year-old every time he was slowly shuffled into booking with the expression of a kicked puppy.

What’d this one do? Who is he?

Well, Danny, this one’s a doozy, I gotta be honest.

Lay it on me, kid, I’m ready.

Well, we don’t know his real name, he just won’t tell us. Just kept telling us his name is Thumper and wouldn’t elaborate when we pressed him. Fingerprints weren’t in our system either.

Ok, well what’s eating Thumper? He looks like they’re sending him to the fucking chair, it’s gotta be bad.

Ohhhh yeah. You know Murph? Mr. Old Oil Money with the 90 acre lawn?

Yup, good man. We’re familiar. What about him?

Well, Thumper here got caught by Murph’s security guy trying to steal some kind of “ancient artifact,” they wouldn’t get into it further, just that it was a huge fuckin deal and basically like, priceless. Murph showed up with the security guy and gave poor Maggie some earful about how you need to make an example out of him because too many people keep getting caught on his property up there. Not implying anything about that but figured I’d be amiss not to relay it.

Thanks kid, I appreciate it. I’ll go see what he can give me, though I’d love to avoid making an example out of him if it’s possible. He doesn’t look familiar either, and given the lack of fingerprints in our books, my money’s on he got kicked out of his house and doesn’t know what to do with himself so he got out on a little joyride. But, just to make sure, I’ll go talk to him.

Sure thing, Dan, good luck boss.

Daniel sauntered over to the door and opened it slowly, trying to get it not to squeak to bad so he wouldn’t scare the little sullen child across the table. He walked over, pulled out the chair, and sat comfortably, looking over at him expectantly. The kid didn’t acknowledge his presence.

Hey kid, I hear you got into a little trouble earlier.

That’s one way to put it, officer.

Well, look. I don’t want to have to get you into any trouble, I don’t know everything but you sure look sorry over all this and I might be willing to let it slide if I like your side of the story.

That sounds good, I’d like that.

Ok, let me ask you a few questions first, just for my records. What exactly did you try to steal?

…

It can’t be as bad as I hear.

…

The kid swung his hair out of his face to reveal a soft face, no older than probably 15 or 16. He’d been pretty visibly roughed up, there was some blood caked around his nose and an ultraviolet black eye. He made eye contact with Daniel, taking him quite off guard.

It was a mask.

A mask? What kind?

It was some kind of tribal mask. I just really liked the way it looked, the woodworking was incredible. If you could see it you’d know what I mean.

Hell I believe it.

Daniel chuckles quietly, patting his stomach. Thumper smiles at him thinly, not betraying anything.

And are you from around here?

No, I was in town for the holidays and my parents kicked me out of the house.

Why, might I ask?

Well, I think they found the bong in my closet. Not mine, for the record. I was holding it for a friend.

Daniel chuckles shortly. Well, you always are. Did you not live with them?

No. They gave me up when I was six months old. This was my first time staying with them since.

Daniel set the small sheaf of paper he’d been handed down softly on the table and looked him up and down, trying to discern anything on him, and failing. Daniel determined he must be telling the truth, he has no real reason to lie about this stuff. Maybe if he were 23 or 24 he’d have some doubts about such a story, but not a high schooler.

Well shit, I’m sorry to hear that. But how did you end up at Murph’s?

Well, as I said, I’m not really from around here. I didn’t know where I could go. I’ve got no money, nothing to offer. I was just wandering around, not paying much attention, when I walked past that fence and did a doubletake. The hole in it caught me off-guard, like I could definitely get in there and maybe at least sleep somewhere kind of protected instead of on some city bench until I could grab a bus out. But when I got through the fence and started looking around, I realized the house was really nice. I don’t know what happened in my head when I thought that. I just figured I should look around. After a while of looking around I noticed some window around the back was cracked and I got all curious and had to know what was in there. I just stumbled in, seriously. I took a turn into some big room and there it was. The big mask. I won’t try to describe it, I couldn’t tell you. The way he had it posed in there, the lighting, I don’t know. It was beautiful, a beautiful thing, I didn’t understand how to take it all in then. I still don’t know how to go back and picture it now. Really. Then, all of a sudden, a feel a hand grip the back of my neck. And you know the rest.

Daniel looks at him knowingly, seeing something behind the kid’s eyes he can’t quite read. Something cold and calculating but not cruel. Just awkward and scared, numbers and figures. He hid inside of them, made a home of them.

If I can ask about this, I assume Thumper isn’t your real name?

He shook his hair out of his face and sighed, slowly, not looking up.

My name is Bresson. The kids I usually run with shouldn’t know that kind of thing. They all use weird fake names too. I’m sure none of them would want me to know their real names either, you know.

~

The kid sat still in the brick room then, hands still handcuffed. It definitely seemed to him at the time that he would go away for what he’d done, that this old guy who’s house he’d broken into very unceremoniously that night would shape his life like that. But he was wrong, as it turned out. The mask turned out to be almost nothing in the grand scheme of things, just one misstep that taught him a lot. He was learning already, sitting in the room and stewing. He was realizing a million things all at once, things that would not come to pass for a long time. More numbers and figures and dead space and the great arcs of things he did not yet understand.