Poke had chosen right, after all. By dumb luck, or maybe she wasn't all that stupid. Because she had picked, not just the weakest bully, the easiest to beat, but also the smartest, the one who understood how to win and hold the loyalty of others. All Achilles had ever needed was the chance.
Except that Achilles still didn't share her bread, and now she was beginning to realize that this was a bad thing, not a good one. Bean could see it in her face when she watched the others do the ritual of sharing with Achilles. Because he got soup now -- Helga brought it to him at the door -- he took much smaller pieces, and instead of biting them off he tore them and ate them with a smile. Poke never got that smile from him. Achilles was never going to forgive her, and Bean could see that she was beginning to feel the pain of that. For she loved Achilles now, too, the way the other children did, and the way he kept her apart from the others was a kind of cruelty.
Maybe that's enough for him, thought Bean. Maybe that's his whole vengeance.
Bean happened to be curled up behind a newsstand when several bullies began a conversation near him. "He's full of brag about how Achilles is going to pay for what he did."
"Oh, right, Ulysses is going to punish him, right."
"Well, maybe not directly."
"Achilles and his stupid family will just take him apart. And this time they won't aim for his chest. He said so, didn't he? Break open his head and put his brains on the street, that's what Achilles'll do."
"He's still just a cripple."
"Achilles gets away with everything. Give it up."
"I'm hoping Ulysses does it. Kills him, flat out. And then none of us take in any of his bastards. You got that? Nobody takes them in. Let them all die. Put them all in the river."
The talk went on that way until the boys drifted away from the newsstand.
Then Bean got up and went in search of Achilles.
3
Payback
"I think I have someone for you."
"You've thought that before."
"He's a born leader. But he does not meet your physical specifications."
"Then you'll pardon me if I don't waste time on him."
"If he passes your exacting intellectual and personality requirements, it is quite possible that for a minuscule portion of the brass button or toilet paper budget of the I. F., his physical limitations might be repaired."
"I never knew nuns could be sarcastic."
"I can't reach you with a ruler. Sarcasm is my last resort."
"Let me see the tests."
"I'll let you see the boy. And while we're at it, I'll let you see another."
"Also physically limited?"
"Small. Young. But so was the Wiggin boy, I hear. And this one -- somehow on the streets he taught himself to read."
"Ah, Sister Carlotta, you help me fill the empty hours of my life."
"Keeping you out of mischief is how I serve God."
Bean went straight to Achilles with what he heard. It was too dangerous, to have Ulysses out of the hospital and word going around that he meant to get even for his humiliation.
"I thought that was all behind us," said Poke sadly. "The fighting I mean."
"Ulysses has been in bed for all this time," said Achilles. "Even if he knows about the changes, he hasn't had time to get how it works yet."
"So we stick together," said Sergeant. "Keep you safe."
"It might be safer for all," said Achilles, "if I disappear for a few days. To keep you safe."
"Then how will we get in to eat?" asked one of the younger ones. "They'll never let us in without you."
"Follow Poke," said Achilles. "Helga at the door will let you in just the same."
"What if Ulysses gets you?" asked one of the young ones. He rubbed the tears out of his eyes, lest he be shamed.
"Then I'll be dead," said Achilles. "I don't think he'll be content to put me in the hospital."
The child broke down crying, which set another to wailing, and soon it was a choir of boo-hoos, with Achilles shaking his head and laughing. "I'm not going to die. You'll be safe if I'm out of the way, and I'll come back after Ulysses has time to cool down and get used to the system."
Bean watched and listened in silence. He didn't think Achilles was handling it right, but he had given the warning and his responsibility was over. For Achilles to go into hiding was begging for trouble -- it would be taken as a sign of weakness.
Achilles slipped away that night to go somewhere that he couldn't tell them so that nobody could accidentally let it slip. Bean toyed with the idea of following him to see what he really did, but realized he would be more useful with the main group. After all, Poke would be their leader now, and Poke was only an ordinary leader. In other words, stupid. She needed Bean, even if she didn't know it.
That night Bean tried to keep watch, for what he did not know. At last he did sleep, and dreamed of school, only it wasn't the sidewalk or alley school with Sister Carlotta, it was a real school, with tables and chairs. But in the dream Bean couldn't sit at a desk. Instead he hovered in the air over it, and when he wanted to he flew anywhere in the room. Up to the ceiling. Into a crevice in the wall, into a secret dark place, flying upward and upward as it got warmer and warmer and ...
He woke in darkness. A cold breeze stirred. He needed to pee. He also wanted to fly. Having the dream end almost made him cry out with the pain of it. He couldn't remember ever dreaming of flying before. Why did he have to be little, with these stubby legs to carry him from place to place?
When he was flying he could look down at everyone and see the tops of their silly heads. He could pee or poop on them like a bird. He wouldn't have to be afraid of them because if they got mad he could fly away and they could never catch him.
Of course, if I could fly, everyone else could fly too and I'd still be the smallest and slowest and they'd poop and pee on me anyway.
There was no going back to sleep. Bean could feel that in himself. He was too frightened, and he didn't know why. He got up and went into the alley to pee.
Poke was already there. She looked up and saw him.
"Leave me alone for a minute," she said.
"No," he said.
"Don't give me any crap, little boy," she said.
"I know you squat to pee," he said, "and I'm not looking anyway." Glaring, she waited until he turned his back to urinate against the wall. "I guess if you were going to tell about me you already would have," she said.
"They all know you're a girl, Poke. When you're not there, Papa Achilles talks about you as 'she' and 'her.'"
"He's not my papa."
"So I figured," said Bean. He waited, facing the wall.
"You can turn around now." She was up and fastening her pants again.
"I'm scared of something, Poke," said Bean.
"What?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know what you're scared of?"
"That's why it's so scary."
She gave a soft, sharp laugh. "Bean, all that means is that you're four years old. Little kids see shapes in the night. Or they don't see shapes. Either way they're scared."
"Not me," said Bean. "When I'm scared, it's because something's wrong."
"Ulysses is looking to hurt Achilles, that's what."
"That wouldn't make you sad, would it?"
She glared at him. "We're eating better than ever. Everybody's happy. It was your plan. And I never cared about being the boss."
"But you hate him," said Bean.
She hesitated. "It feels like he's always laughing at me."
"How do you know what little kids are scared of?"
"Cause I used to be one," said Poke. "And I remember."
"Ulysses isn't going to hurt Achilles," said Bean.