Page 13

Kinzie looks around the alleyway.  “I won't be able to see what you're saying when you're following me.  So stop your blabbing and keep your eyes open.”
She turns and walks.  Elle follows.  There are only a few people out at this time of night.  Some are digging through garbage.  Some are falling over drunk.
Elle pats Kinzie on the shoulder.  “How old are you?”
Kinzie cocks an eyebrow.  “How old do I look?”
“Seventeen or eighteen.”
She signs with a open hand flipping back and forth in the air.  “Seems right.”
Elle draws her head back sharply.  “You don't know how old you are?”
“Asks the woman who doesn't know where she’s from.”
Elle shrugs.  “Good point.”
They walk some more.  Elle sees a gargantuan building several blocks to the left.  She taps Kinzie on the back.
“Can't you go one minute without asking me a question?  We're almost there.”  She signs quicker than she speaks, the final spoken word arrives past the blur of motion.
“What's that building?”
Kinzie sighs.  “Bottom house.  You got nowhere to go, you can always go to bottom house.  But going nowhere is better than going there.”
Elle rubs her chin.  “Why?”
“Go there and you can find out. Get some free drugs, too.”
“Housing for drugs?”
/Yes./ “If you sleep there, you get shots everyday.  Birth control, calming stuff, whatever else they feel like injecting into you.”
Elle looks at the building again.