Indie stood at the door of his parent’s room, listening to them talk through the crack in the door. The night was dark and the silence in the house was only punctured by the footsteps of James, Dora’s husband, while he paced the room and undressed for bed. He grunted as he removed his jeans and tossed them in a pile on the floor. He sat down on the edge of the bed and rubbed at his wrist where he usually had his father’s watch on. The tan line on his wrist where he usually wore it was softened by his own natural darker skin tone.

“Did you know that the Nichols’ heard footsteps outside their window last week?” Dora asked him as she slipped into the bed between the crisp but faded sheets. He grunted again.

“How many of their children are gone, Dora?” he scoffed, needling his wife.

“And the Jacobs boy said he saw someone outside his window the other night. That is three doors down from us, Jim.”

“Yeah, Mark told me himself. He checked outside and the flowers under the window were crushed.” He yawned and swung his legs into the bed.

“It’s real, James. Kids are missin’.” She said quietly. He held out an arm for her to snuggle on.

“You’re just scarin’ yourself with this talk. Jay ain’t a kid. Hush and sleep, woman.” He reached over and clicked his alarm clock on. “I’m more worried about me hearin’ about Rat from a guy at the mill. Why does he have my son’s name in his mouth, Dora?” She tensed under his hand and drew in her breath.

“What was he sayin’ about Rat?” she asked.

“That he ain’t right in the head. He said last week Jay charged him a dollar to have Rat guess his birthday or some shit.” Dora bristled.

“How is that Rat’s fault? When his older brother, a man now by the way, tells him to do it, what should he do? Jay will smack him if he don’t listen. You’ll smack him if he does.”

“Shut up, Dora. If I hear about Rat from anyone else again, I’ll sure as hell smack him.” He extracted his arm and turned his back to her.

Three of the brothers were in their beds asleep, but Jay hadn’t come home. Ten o’clock came and went and then eleven. Finally, at midnight, Indie heard the latch click in the back door and Jay’s footsteps, heavy in work boots, clomped around the kitchen. Indie snuck out of the room and looked around the corner of the kitchen. Jay was making a sandwich out of some bread he had brought home. The butter knife in his hand winked in the moonlight coming in from the window above the sink and he buttered the slabs of dark bread.

Ever since his head injury, he had been trying to think of how to get Jay to help him with their youngest sibling. While he had had just over a month to become comfortable with the situation, he noticed that his younger brother was getting more and more reckless. His confidence was building, and he could tell he was discovering things about himself that he hadn’t known before. The youngest was always their most curious brother and it was just too much fun for him to try all the ideas he had. Jay was the only one who had been skirting the issue for longer than Indie and he needed help with him now.

“Jay.” Whispered Indie. His elder brother reeled, raising the dull knife in his hands.

“Jesus, Indie. You fuckin’ scared me.” He clutched his chest and dropped the silver utensil into the sink with a clatter. “What are you doin’ awake?” Jay piled his buttered bread with pieces of roasted chicken, left over for him from that night’s dinner.

“We gotta talk about Rat.” Indie didn’t hesitate. While he looked more like a man with his muscular arms and labor-carved legs, Jay was barely three years older than him. Indie decided to take the mature man-to-man conversation route.

“We ain’t gotta talk about nothin’.” Jay took a huge bite of his butter and left-over chicken sandwich.

“We do, Jay.” Indie felt his courage falter and his stomach felt cold. Jay’s fury was hard to tiptoe around, harder even than their father’s because Jay had no one that could buffer the rest of them from his anger. “Momma knows you have been sellin’ Rat’s tricks. Pops heard it from one of the mill guys.” Jay’s face slipped into an annoyed mask when Indie mentioned their mother.

“She baby’s him. He’s gotta grow up some time.” Skirted Jay.

“Jay.” Indie pleaded, but he wasn’t even sure what he was asking from his brother. “Please.”

“Yeah, ok. Stop beggin’ like a dog.” He tore another huge chunk off his meal. “I’m so fuckin’ tired from work. They put me in the bakery for ten hours and then asked me to fill in at the garage for another eight. Then I had to walk home from the garage. Twelve fuckin’ miles, Indie.” Jay’s mouth was full, and he stopped talking to swallow.

“Momma was so worried about you walking home. She asked Pops to get you, but he said you’re a man and ain’t gonna get hurt.” Indie confided in his brother. He took out one of the small plastic cups from the cupboard and poured his brother a cup of milk. He got him a plate and set it down in his usual place at the table. In the dim light Indie couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw a thankful but guilty look steal across Jay’s features.

“I ain’t goin’ to the agency tomorrow.” Jay belched and put his mostly eaten sandwich on the plate. “I got a guy that says he has a job for me that might pay enough for me to quit the agency for a little. I ain’t told Momma or Pops yet, though, so keep your fat mouth shut.”

“I’m not stupid.” Indie laughed quietly. “Tell me about this job.”

“I don’t really know. Just a guy came in the garage while I was workin’, just after dusk a few weeks back, I guess it was. Said I’d be a good candidate for a scholarship program. I mean, he ain’t said it was a scholarship but he said it was a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’. Of course, I was suspicious, but this man was rich, Indie. He was wearing one of them three-piece suits and a shiny grey tie. His hands were cleaner than I have ever seen a man’s hands be. Nothin’ about him said that he worked for anything in his life; everythin’ is just handed to him on a silver platter.” Jay looked into the darkness; his eyes glazed in longing. “He even smelled rich.” He shook his head and looked at Indie.

“He came back tonight and asked me to meet him tomorrow, that’s all.”

“He didn’t say what he wanted you to do? It seems kinda…squinky.” The teen’s eyes were sheltered by furrowed brows.

“I mean, he was polite to me. I ain’t got reason to think it’s nothin’…bad.” Indie knew Jay stopped just short of saying “illegal” though he most certainly had several reasons to think the man was interested in less than scrupulous dealings in Indie’s opinion. Jay picked at a piece of chicken stuck in his teeth.

“I gotta find a ride over to Timmins or I ain’t gonna make the meeting.” He stuffed the rest of his sandwich in his wide mouth and chewed loudly around his words. “Give me your bike for the day and I can make it, I bet.” It was as close as Jay got to a request. Indie nodded, but it was a perfunctory gesture; Jay would take the bike no matter what he said or did. The brothers sat in silence that grew steadily more uncomfortable.

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“Tell Rat I ain’t mad no more.” Jay finally said, regret and a hint of guilt in his voice. Indie knew that if it hadn’t been dark in the kitchen Jay would never have said it aloud to his brother, but he appreciated him making an effort, nonetheless.

“I won’t have to.” Indie said in a soft voice, still scared to breach the topic with Jay. “He’ll know. Ya know, in his way.” They had never spoken together about the littlest of their siblings in precise terms. They had never admitted openly his otherness, only exchanged concerned looks over the breakfast table or nervous glances across the room. “Jay, Rat is…” Indie’s voice trembled.

“Shut up, Indie. I don’t want to talk about this.” Jay stood suddenly and tossed back the milk in the cup. “Pops hates it and I do, too. What I did was wrong but I ain’t sellin’ Rat’s tricks no more. The boy is broken somehow and we gotta stop him from getting’ out of hand.” He washed his plate in the sink while he spoke.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about,” said Indie in relief. “He is gettin’ more and more confident. He can do things—"

“I said I didn’t want to talk about this, Indiana,” Jay said coldly. “Whatever is goin’ on with him ain’t my problem. I would help him but every time I try to be gentle with him, he does that shit. I get...” Jay stopped and pursed his lips in frustration.

“Do you get sick, Jay? Do you feel like faintin’?” Indie asked. Jay’s face in the darkness was hard to read but Indie knew by his perfect stillness that he was listening. “Because I fainted when he was doing it. I was in the bathroom and I just fell right over.” He strode across the kitchen to come face to face with his elder brother.

“Momma told me you fainted the other day, too. How do you know it’s Rat’s doin’?” Jay said defiantly.

“Because when I fainted, I hit my head, real bad. When I woke up, I felt my bone through the gash in my brow, Jay. I was bleedin’ all over.” Indie let his urgency out in a wash of anger.

Dark eyes flicked to Indie’s brow beneath a lock of dark curls. “What a liar. You ain’t got no stitches.” Jay scoffed.

“Yeah, you know why? Rat reached up and fixed my head. He zipped up my skin like the fly on his jeans.” Indie pulled his hair off his forehead and leaned toward the silver light in the window. “It doesn’t look like much, but you can see how shiny my skin is there. It’s tender, too, and I’m still a little tender.”

Jay looked at his brother’s face and finally let his eyes land on the supposed super-healed wound. Indie knew that he could see the faint bruises, but he shook his head and pushed past his brother.

“Now you’re tellin’ stories. Momma is right to worry about you spendin’ so much time with Rat. He’s rubbin’ off on you.” But Jay’s voice wasn’t as offhand as he had wanted. Nervous tension colored his words.

“No, Jay. Stop it. You know he does these things. You have seen him; you have heard him. He’s doin’ new things now, though, and I don’t know what to do. I can’t tell Momma or she will lose her mind. And Pops will—”

“I know exactly what Pops will do and I don’t think it would hurt the kid to have a good whoopin’ over this. Maybe it would make him stop and think twice before doin’ it.” Jay snapped. “Just tell him to stop doin’ it and let it go.” Jay’s hands were shaking as he dried them off, but it was anxiety, not rage that rattled him. Indie was perceptive even in the darkness and stopped him from leaving the kitchen.

“No. I’m going to help him. If he can…” he waved a hand vaguely to his forehead “Then I want to help learn how to do it. If we ignore it, he might do something stupid and hurt someone, or get caught by the wrong person and locked up forever.”

“You sound like Momma.” Jay accused him.

“But I actually believe in Rat. I believe what I see with the eyes in my head. Momma is just scared that he’s different. She doesn’t really see that it’s real,"insisted the teenager gravely. Indie saw Jay being pulled in two directions, torn between reality and his own desires.

Jay had wanted freedom from his family since Indiana was a young child. He wasn’t quiet about the unfairness he endured. As soon as Jay had seemed old enough to help take care of the younger siblings, they were dumped on him. Indie remembered Jay drunkenly shouting, recounting the summer he had to take the twins and Indie with him everywhere while their mother worked as a seamstress in a tailor’s shop twelve hours a day. He fed them a meal in the middle of the day and tried his best to be a good brother, but he wasn’t patient nor was he likely to be outwardly kind. Indie was eight, the twins were ten, and Jay was only eleven.

Indie also understood that as the eldest brother, the dependency they had was built into him. Just as Indie tried to take care of Rat, Jay had the twins and himself to help with. Indie knew Jay tried his hardest to live up to the expectations of what a good big brother was like. But Indie could not stop thinking about his biggest, strongest brother drunk and sobbing on his shoulder as he poured out his anger and helplessness. He looked at the silvery scars on this palm where he had dug out glass from the shattered whiskey bottle. He wondered silently if Jay remembered much of that night. Finally, Jay locked eyes with him and sighed.

“Indiana,” Jay’s voice was softer than Indie had heard him ever speak, his name a whispered plea in the darkness. “I ain’t staying here for much longer. As soon as the twins are settled in their jobs, I’m saving up and leaving. I’m a grown man, and I have my own life to lead.” His declaration didn’t surprise Indie, and it didn’t really hurt him. He loved Jay, but Jay was not meant to be kept cooped up like a caged tiger.

“You got every right to leave us, Jay, but while you’re stuck with us please help me take care of Rat. Not just watch him or put food in his mouth. Help me keep him safe.” Indie made his final appeal, the rest of his words implied but unspoken. From our father.

“Depending on what this job is tomorrow, I might be around for a bit yet. I will do what I can…to help the family until I leave.” Jay promised. It was as good as he could give Indie and he crossed his arms, daring his younger brother to argue.

“Thank you, Jay. That’s all I want.” He held his hand out to his brother, and they clasped hands. Jay surprised Indie by pulling him in and patting him once on the back.

As they drew apart, a scream came from their room, followed by a dizzy crushing in Indie’s head. He saw Jay stumble and grab his middle as nausea lurched into his own stomach.

“Rat!” Jay yelled and ran for the hallway.

Both brothers burst into the dark room to see the window wide open. Indie dove into the bunk he shared with his brother and felt around.

“He’s gone!” He cried to Jay.

“Fuck!” Jay shouted back and turned to wake their parents.

“I ain’t.” sobbed a voice from under the bed, and the littlest brother crawled out with tears trailing down his chubby cheeks. “But Toe and Two took off after him.”

“Who, Rat?” demanded Jay. “Who did you see?”

“The white face that I saw before. He was lookin’ at me but this time he was opening the window. I pushed him away from the window with my mind.” His tiny frame shook with adrenaline and his teeth began to chatter. Indie pulled the blanket off their bed and wrapped him up tightly.

“Where did they go?” Jay asked. The boy nodded to the window. The frame was white with frost in the middle of June.

“Out th-the w-w-window after him. They heard m-m-me scream and b-b-bolted out. I ain’t n-never seen them go so f-fast. And can you b-believe they f-fit in that w-w-window?” The boy still rattled and shaking could not help find the humor in his twin brothers’ bulks squeezing out of the window.

Twin heads popped up in the window frame, startling the three brothers in the room. Toe and Two climbed back in through the window and Two closed it carefully.

“He got away,” he said unnecessarily.

“He was too fast. I didn’t even see which way he went, we just had to guess.” Added Toe.

“We wakin’ up Pops and Momma?” Indie asked and all four younger brothers looked at Jay automatically.

Jay chewed on his lip, looking from the window to the small shaking boy on the floor. Indie knew he was weighing the choices. His face scrunched up in confused pain and he sighed, finally reaching a decision.

“Rat? What you wanna do?” Jay asked him.

“Me? I say no way. I only want Momma to know that we saw somethin’. And don’t tell Daddy nothin’ or he’s gonna be real mad about it.” The boy took the responsibility in stride, and surprise and relief chased across his face.

“Then you all get back into bed while I find a way to jam the window for the night. I know you ain’t gonna be sleepin’ much, though.” Whether he liked it or not, Indie thought, they needed Jay for a little while longer.