Leo ran his fingers over the new fabric, checking for a catch he could not name. He had spent so long being told he owed people for every ordinary kindness that the idea of receiving something without repayment made him uneasy. Sully sat nearby and let that discomfort exist without trying to talk him out of it.
The child welfare worker explained that Leo would not be returned directly to Hank that night. There would be an emergency placement, an investigation, and a hearing in which Leo's account would be considered. She also explained that Sully, who was not a legal relative or licensed guardian, could not simply take a minor home because he had helped him. Sully listened and asked practical questions about visitation, legal representation, and whether Leo could keep speaking to him if he wished.
"I know people in Phoenix," Sully said, "and I know a garage where a kid like this could learn something useful. I also know none of that gives me the right to decide where he sleeps tonight." Nora nodded. "What we can do is get him a qualified advocate and explore vocational opportunities while the safety assessment proceeds."
Leo looked between them. It was strange hearing two adults discuss his future without treating him like furniture. Stranger still when Nora asked, "Leo, what do you want?"
The answer came slowly. "I want to work on engines," he said. "I want to finish school, or at least get the credits so I can finish. I don't want Hank to get another chance to hurt the kids." He hesitated, then added, "And I want people to stop deciding everything about me when I'm not in the room." Sully gave a low sound of agreement.
Nora wrote the last sentence down.
That night Leo slept in a temporary youth placement arranged through the county, a quiet residential house with two staff members on duty and a rule that bedroom doors could be closed from inside. The room contained a clean bed, a small dresser, and a lamp beside a window overlooking a courtyard. Nobody ordered him to sweep the hallway before dinner. Nobody told him that food was a reward for obedience. When a staff member asked whether he wanted seconds, he nearly said he had not earned them.
He woke twice, convinced he had heard Hank's truck. Both times the window showed only the courtyard and a motionless tree. He lay awake holding the lighter and tried to imagine the fifty different ways the new situation might still collapse. At dawn he stood beside the window and watched a sprinkler move slowly over the grass. He realized he had gone an entire night without calculating where he might hide if somebody became angry.
Sully visited the next afternoon with Nora's permission. He arrived in an ordinary pickup instead of on the Road King and carried a cardboard box containing a notebook, a mechanical pencil, and two old repair manuals from the shelf of his workshop. He handed the box to Leo with a look of almost comical seriousness. "I was told you're not supposed to keep a kid busy doing somebody else's work all day," he said. "Thought maybe you could keep that brain busy on your own terms."