Black Market Merchant

Hanna couldn't stand staying in the house for one more second. Sure, the Weathers couple were taking very good care of her, but she had yet to get over the feeling of anger and sadness of her parents’ death. The gaping hole in her soul seemed to be sinking endlessly and it was as if reaching the bottom would never happen.

She probably never would.

Her father and mother's killers were still out there. Alive, laughing, without a care in the world. Clutching her fist over this hole over her heart, Hanna grimaced.

"Why should they get away with it?!" Hanna seethed to herself. "It's just not fair!"

She had been washing some dishes, as a chore, while she was thinking about those men. Their faces, their voices, everything about them; had now been engraved into her memory. Aunt Lisa had told her that she was weak and too small to be a fighter. Hanna knew Lisa wasn't wrong, but it made her feel unsatisfied. There had to be something she could do!

"What good is gathering intelligence if I can't do anything with it?" She thought glumly.

"Hanna dear?" Mrs. Mary Weathers called from the next room. "Are you nearly done yet?"

"Almost!" Hanna called back.

She then grudgingly focused her attention back at the task before her. After a few minutes all the dishes were washed, dried and put away. Draping the drying towel over the door handle to the oven, she turned on her heels to leave the kitchen. Stepping absentmindedly into the hallway, she nearly bumped into Mr. John.

"Oops, sorry!" Hanna squeaked abruptly.

"Careful now." John chided patting her on the head. "Where are you rushing off too?" He asked sidestepping Hanna and continuing towards the living room.

"Nowhere. I just finished the dishes." Hanna said sounding slightly bored. She followed after John and her footsteps were silently muffled, by her purple shin high socks, on the wood floor. Entering the homely living room Hanna than asked, "What are you going to do? Are you already done with the garden work?"

"Richard and I did enough for the moment. I swear the weeds grow faster than we can pull them." John replied with a huff as he sat down on the couch and then gave an exhausted sigh. Hanna leaned against the lamp stand with one hand and the other on her hip, as she listened to John talk. "As for where I am going next. Well, that's a secret."

John leaned over to the small table and picked up the case that held his pistol. It had a number lock on it. He fiddled with it and got the right combination in seconds. Unbeknownst to him, Hanna was watching the whole time.

Though she didn't entirely understand what Aunt Lisa meant by gathering intelligence, but she knew well enough that it had to be about learning things she didn't know about before. This was one such thing. The combination that John used.

If she learned enough about the gangsters, like where they were, then she needed a weapon. They couldn't get away with what they had done! Though what she intended to do with a gun, she herself didn’t know either.

"Awe, can't you tell me?" Hanna said after seeing the combination. She needed to pretend she wasn't watching him.

"Sorry, I shouldn't. Mary wouldn't want you to worry about such things. Just go outside and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. I had seen a lot of the neighborhood kids playing by the stream. Why don't you go there? I bet they miss you." John said tucking the pistol away in the back of his pants. He adjusted the guns holster and naturally covered it with his shirt.

"Ok." Hanna replied giving a nod. "I have had been away for a while."

"That a girl." John said getting up from the couch.

John and Hanna then headed together for the front door and get on their shoes. John was the first to finish and opened the door. Only to find that Joan was just now coming back home with dinner supplies. Mary had already left the house to help her carry some of it not long ago. The two ladies were still on the road headed for Joan's kitchen garage when John called to them.

"Mary, Joan. I'm headed off to do some errands. I might be late for dinner, so save me some." He called out while walking outside and onto the sidewalk.

"Ok honey." Mary called back and she adjusted the bag she had in her arms. "Be safe out there!"

"I will." John said and he headed off down toward the main road.

Hanna, at that moment, closed the door behind her and headed over to join the two ladies. She then nicely asked, “Mrs. Mary, can I go play with the other kids by the stream? Mr. John said I could."

"Why sure. That's a great idea. Just make sure when the sun gets to the mountain top you come straight home." Mary said giving a cheery smile.

"I know. Thanks." Hanna said as she turned to leave going towards the direction of the stream, soon speeding up into a jog.

The two ladies watched her go. Mary the spoke while shaking her head in outward though, "I am so glad that she's finally getting more active. Ever since Lisa brought her back, all she has done is lay around all depressed. I hope she's coping properly from her parent’s death.”

"I hope so too." Joan replied. "God, how I miss them. I still cannot believe that they were killed by the gangsters like that!"

"The whole world has gone to ruins. Nothing ever is peaceful anymore." Mary said despairingly while giving a heavy sad sigh.

"Whelp, these veggies won't cook themselves. Let's get cooking." Joan said continuing towards her garage.

Mary nodded and followed after her. She gave one last concerned glance at Hanna, just before she disappeared around the back of Benny's house. Then murmuring to herself, Mary said, "I hope you keep staying innocent and grow up like your parents wished."

…

Hanna was now running along the back of the houses in the neighborhood. Behind her was her own street, on her left was a long wooden fence of the backs of all the other house and on her right was a deep ditch. The ditch was well overgrown with tall raggedy weeds and young budding saplings. There was a thin, muddy trail of water at its center poking out occasionally from the overbearing leaves. All the ditches in this neighborhood flowed into one large stream, that eventually dumped into the river. Part way down that large steam was where she was headed.

Hanna ran along a well walked gravely path, that had no grass growing on it. Mainly because many people used this route as a shortcut to the rest of the neighborhood. Once she got to the end of the ditch and fence, the path took a left towards the market area of the town. However, Hanna ran right towards the creek and the path thinned out considerably. On the far side of the creek was another neighborhood. If she had continued to follow this path left, Hanna would have come to a road that bridges over the creek, which connected to a neighboring neighborhood.

Hanna carefully walked down the sandy rock slope into the ditch and once reaching the bottom, she jumped across. Her left foot didn't quite make it across the dirty water of the ditch and splashed some muddled water on her pants leg. She didn't pay it any attention and continued on. It would soon dry off anyway. Ahead, after going across two more smaller ditches, was where the neighborhood kids congregated.

Over time the local children had built up a makeshift base on either side of this ditch. They used logs, flat rocks, mud and fence parts that had been washed up around this area as the materials to make this base. The boys were ultimately the ones who mainly played in these bases. Playing pretend battles and fighting hordes of aliens attacking the world or other such fantasies.

Whereas the girls mainly hung out under a large oak tree growing right next to the stream. There was also a massive poplar tree trunk that had washed ashore after a storm and they would relax there under the oaks shade as they watched the boys and others play. This wasn't all they did though, they had their own ways to have fun.

One of the older girls had discovered an old book explaining how to play the game, Marbles. As there wasn't much else to do, the games popularity rose very quickly among the girls. Instead of actual marbles the girls substituted rounded rocks and metal nuts to play. The boys thought it boring and usually left them alone whenever they played. However, that didn't bother the girls one bit.

Just as Hanna had expected, when she arrived a dozen boys were throwing sticks and things at each other. Howling with laughter. Three younger tomboyish girls were also mixed in with them and enjoying the banter. As for the rest of the girls, they were all gathered in one big circle around the area where the marble arena had been made. They were cheering and chattering lively. It seemed that the game was at a good point.

It was one of Hanna's close friends that spotted her arrival first.

"Hanna!" Clair yelled excitedly and jumped up from the big poplar log. Several of the other girls turned away from the game to see her. "You're finally back. Where have you been?"

Hanna slowed her run once she reached the oak trees shade and walked towards Clair. "It's a long story." Hanna answered breathing heavily from running. The two hugged and a few other girls excitedly came over.

"We have time. Tell us!" Another girl with bouncy brown curls said coming in close to give Hanna a hardy squeeze. Her name was Rachel.

Hanna sighed and started to tell her heartfelt story. There were several times she and some of the girls, started to cry hearing the horrid tail. By the end of Hanna's story not a single girl was playing marbles anymore. They were all shocked hearing what Hanna had gone through. News like this was very uncommon in this small town.

"Those horrible jerks!" Clair yelled as she wiped away some tears. "I hope they die in a ditch somewhere! Your mom was always so nice to me every time I came over."

"Me too." A bright blond girl named Jillian said pipping in.

Several other girls chimed in voicing their opinions and encouragements to Hanna. It wasn't long before the boys playing nearby noticed the commotion.

"What are y'all talking about? Bet it's something stupid." A chubby boy with freckles called out. His name was Chase. Everyone though he was annoying, but never told him outright.

"We are talking about how dumb and cruel the gangsters are." Rachel called back.

This caught some of the others attention. They stopped playing and came over to join the girls under the oak trees shade. Then one of the taller boys, Derrick, replied first. "Hey, my older brother did some work for them. He told me some stuff about them."

Hanna perked up hearing this. Suppressing her emotions, she asked, "What kind of stuff?"

Derrick sat down on the scraggly grass and started to talk. "My brother said that he helped carry supplies from the docks to a big metal walled of area in the north of town. They didn't let him in, but he saw through the gate. He said there was a bunch of nice stuff inside."

"Oh, what kind of stuff?" Chase butted in.

The conversation drifted on, but Hanna wasn't paying attention. She was only considering the news she just heard. The gang was living in the north, in a walled off area. Everything else Derrick was saying was just his brothers own speculation and wasn't all that helpful for her. Several other boys and girls gave their opinions and wild tails about the gang.

Then interrupting whoever was speaking, Hanna blurted out. "Hey, who wants to go see this wall? What if your brother was making it up?"

"My brother’s not lying!" Derrick retorted.

"Fine, prove it! Let all go together to take a look at the gangster’s hideout!" Hanna announced causing everyone to look at her in surprise.