It didn’t budge.
From inside came a cry and a loud crash.
Linus didn’t hesitate. He threw his weight against the door. He heard it crack in its frame. He stepped back and rushed forward, crashing into it with his shoulder.
The door burst off its hinges, falling onto the ground.
Linus almost stumbled but managed to catch himself at the last minute.
Inside, he found Marty slumped against the far wall. J-Bone stood above him, a disgusted look on his face.
Lucy was flipping through records stacked in a crate.
“What happened?” Linus demanded.
Lucy looked up at him and shrugged. “Oh, he started talking about Jesus and God and that I was an abomination or something.” He nodded toward the unconscious Marty. Around his neck hanging on a chain was an ornate silver cross. “He tried to shove that in my face.” Lucy laughed as he shook his head. “What does he think I am, a vampire? That’s silly. I like crosses. They’re just two sticks put together, but they mean so much to so many. I tried making a symbol out of Popsicle sticks that I could sell and get rich, but Arthur said it wasn’t right. Look, Linus! Chuck Berry! Righteous!” He crowed in excitement as he pulled a record up from the crate.
“So not cool, man,” J-Bone scolded the unconscious Marty. “Like, for real. Music is for everyone.” He nudged Marty’s leg. “Whoa. Total knockout. Little dude, you are hardcore.”
“So hardcore,” Lucy agreed.
Linus glanced down at Marty again. He was breathing. He’d probably wake up with a headache and nothing more. Linus thought about giving him another bump on the head with a well-placed kick, but his shoulder hurt, and he had exerted enough energy for the time being. “Did he hurt you?”
Lucy looked up from the Chuck Berry record. “Why do you sound like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re mad. Are you mad at me?” Lucy frowned. “I didn’t do anything, really.”
“He didn’t,” J-Bone said. “Marty is so fired, you don’t even know.”
Linus shook his head. “I could never be mad at you. Not for this. If I sound angry, it’s at this … this man, not you.”
“Oh. Because you like me, huh?”
Yes. God help him, yes. Very much so. All of them, really. “Something like that.”
Lucy nodded and went back to the crate. “I found six I wanted. Can I get six?”
“Six it is.”
He walked over to Lucy to help him carry the records he’d found before he dropped them. They left Marty on the floor and went back to the front of the shop—
Only to find Talia’s bag of tools on the floor. But no Talia.
Linus’s heart was in his throat. He had turned his back for just a second and—
He saw her standing at the front of the store, looking out the window. There was a little girl outside on the sidewalk, no more than five or six years old. She was smiling, her dark hair in twin braids on her shoulders. She put her hand against the window. Talia did the same. Their hands were the same size and matched perfectly. Talia laughed, and the girl smiled.
She smiled, that is, until a woman came running up the sidewalk, snatching her away, a horrified look on her face. She held the girl against her, turning the girl’s head against her shoulder. She glared at Talia through the glass. “How dare you?” she snapped. “You leave my daughter alone, you freak!”
Linus stepped forward angrily. “Now, see here—”
But the woman spat wetly at the window and then turned and hurried away, the little girl held tightly against her chest.
“That lady was mean,” Lucy whispered to Linus. “You want me to throw her against the wall like I did Marty? Would that be righteous?”
“No,” Linus said, pulling Lucy along. “That would not be righteous. The only time you should do that is if you need to defend yourself or others. She was vicious, but she only used words.”
“Words can hurt too,” Lucy told him.
“I know. But we must pick and choose our fights. Just because someone else acts a certain way, doesn’t mean we should respond in kind. It’s what makes us different. It’s what makes us good.”
“Big man is right,” J-Bone said, coming up behind them. “People suck, but sometimes, they should just drown in their own suckage without our help.”
Linus was positive that wasn’t what he meant at all. He wasn’t very happy with his new nickname either.
Talia was still standing at the window. The woman’s spittle dripped down the glass. Talia didn’t seem too upset, but he couldn’t be sure. She looked surprised when Lucy and Linus appeared beside her.
“That was weird, huh?” she said. She shook her head. “People are strange.”
“Are you all right?”
She shrugged. “The girl was nice. She said she liked my beard. It was just the old lady who was a jerk.”
“She—the woman wasn’t—”
“I know what she was or wasn’t,” Talia said lightly. “I’ve seen it before. It’s awful, but it’s not anything I’ve haven’t dealt with. But it’s funny, right?”
Linus didn’t find anything about this to be humorous. “What is?”
“That there’s so much hope even when it doesn’t seem like it.”
He was gobsmacked. “How do you mean?”
“The little girl. She wasn’t scared of me. She was nice. She didn’t care what I looked like. That means she can make up her own mind. Maybe that woman will tell her I’m bad. And maybe she’ll believe it. Or maybe she won’t believe it at all. Arthur told me that in order to change the minds of many, you have to first start with the minds of few. She’s just one person. But so is the lady.” Talia grinned. “Can we go to the graveyard now? I want to try out my spade. What did you get, Lucy?”
“Chuck Berry,” Lucy said proudly. “I also threw Marty against the wall!”
“Cracked the plaster and everything!” J-Bone said with a laugh. “It was gnarly.”
“Wow,” Talia said, suitably impressed. “Is he dead? Do we need to bury him? Let me go get my tools, and we can—”
“Nah, he’s not dead. I didn’t think that would make Mr. Baker too happy, so I let him keep his insides on his inside.”
Talia sighed. “Probably for the best. I really like Chuck Berry. I can’t wait to listen to that one.”
“Right? It’s so righteous!” He looked up at Linus. “Can we pay for these now? We can’t steal them because J-Bone isn’t a square. Right?” He sounded as if he would still be okay with stealing them regardless.
“That’s right, he’s not a square,” Linus said, vowing silently to never repeat those words again. “We can pay—”
“Nah,” J-Bone said. “Your money’s not good here. You get those for free, little dude. Sorry about the whole Marty-trying-to-exorcise-you thing. Give me some skin.”
Lucy did and gladly. “Linus! I get them for free! That’s even better than stealing!”
Linus sighed. “That’s not … I don’t know why I even bother.”