Chapter 2

Max woke early the next morning, his thoughts bursting out of the starting gate at the first moment of consciousness. He sat up quickly and winced at the tightness in his back. The blinds in his mothers room were aglow as they tried to block out the early morning light. Max smiled at them, imagining the brilliant future ahead of his new friend in the fish tank. Next to him, Evangeline shifted in her sleep. Max knew what had to be done must be done before she awoke, and so he left the bed as quietly as he he could. 

Max stood in his pajamas on their driveway in front of the street. A toy robot in one gloved hand, a butane torch in the other, and a welding mask on his head. He set the robot and a patch of asphalt that was already scorched. He studied it for a moment and noticed the monster's toy shell was starting to sweat. The monsters didn't like direct sunlight. He found himself wondering if the perspiration was caused because it knew of it's impending doom and was therefore nervous or if this was simply that reaction its shell had to sunlight. Max sat himself cross-legged in front of the robot deciding that either way he was enjoying the process very much and wondered what would happen if he left the monster out in the sun all day. is attention was momentarily diverted as a man cam out of the house across the street and went to a large shipping container that had been unloaded in the street the previous day. Max knew that the house had recently been sold because he had heard his mother talking about it to one of the neighbors, Mr. Portage, who was very old and always wore a large yellow gardening hat and smelled like onions. Mr. and Mrs. Portage were "retired" which Max assumed meant that they were too old to work because they both just played in their garden and rode their scooters to the the grocery store or the hair salon. This new neighbor however was young. Well not young, Max thought, but youngerish.

The man came out of the container carrying a large box. He struggled with it's weight as he set it down to close and lock the container back up. He noticed Max wearing his pajama pants, heavy leather gloves, and a welding helmet sitting across the road in the driveway behind a large blue and red robot. He smiled and waved at Max wondering what kind of summer mischief this little boy was up to. Max neither smiled or waved back but focused his attention back on the robot hoping the man would go away and not interrupt his dealing out of retribution on this agent of evil. The man picked up his box and went inside. 

Max was back to enjoying his dominion over this creature until the man came out again to get another box from the container and than another and then another. The constant interruptions where beginning to annoy Max. He just wanted a little piece and quiet in which to torture an evil being from what he assumed was another dimension. The last straw was when a woman followed the man out and started calling to him to bring in the box with the pans, not the pots but the Teflon coated frying pans. She looked over to Max and with a smiling wave called across the street a neighborly greeting to him which he ignored and went back to keeping watch over his monster. Max began to feel that this was a torture for both he and the monster and so resolved to finish the deed when the man went back into the house with his box of Teflon coated pans. 

Max didn't relish the idea of acting quickly. He wanted this to be slow but didn't see any way around this. He had been caught doing this once before by a passing jogger who threatened to call the police and the fire department if Max set flame to the green dinosaur in the driveway. Then he got a long lecture about how burning plastics give off dangerous carcinogens into the atmosphere. The jogger never said anything about how playing with fire was dangerous. So Max waited patiently as the man across the street found his frying pans and took them into the house. 

From the back of the elastic waist band in his pajama pants, Max pulled out a flint striker. He set it to the butane torch clicking it until the burner whooshed to life with a pale blue flame. Max adjusted the flame's intensity until it became an incinerating spear head. Max flipped his head forward dropping the welding mask down over his face. His attention turned toward the robot, barely visible through the masks dark shield. The torched moved ever so slowly to the robot's head.

"What are you doing?"

Max looked up abruptly to see where the question had come from but all he could see through the darkened visor was vague shapes so he went back to the monster. 

"Um, I said, what are you doing?"

Max looked around again and replied to the shape that most looked like it could be a person,

"Nothing." And looked back to his torch.

The little girl clearly not intimidated by Max's brush off, came and sat down next to him.

"Yuh know if you don't want your toys. You could give them other little boys and girls who are less fortunate. Last Christmas my mom and I went through all my play things and we took them to the Salvation Army to give away to poor kids."

Max glared at her clearly not wanting her there. But she just kept on, not taking any notice. 

"I actually got to meet a poor kid. He was hispanic and his name was Miguel which mean Michael in Spanish."

Max scowled more angrily but failed to take into account that the welding mask which was obscuring his face's full fury. The little girl next to him babbled on about how Taco Bell was not real Mexican food because she knew what real Mexican food was because she went to Mexico.

She was obviously not getting a subtle hint so Max Tried a more direct approach.

"Go away! I'm busy."

The nattering voice stopped for a moment and Max thought that maybe she was getting up to go.

"Busy with what?" 

Max slumped his head in disappointment. He remembered that telling the truth about his monster hunting activities usually led to long conversations with his mother or therapist and he had grown tired of those so he lied.

"It's a science project about adding pollutants in the air. Now go away."

Again, a moment of silence during which the hope that she was leaving bloomed in him only to be plucked by her next question.

"Can I watch?"

Max wanted to relish this moment in private but didn't see any way that he could get her to leave without making a scene and his back was bothering him too much to throw a fit.

"Fine, but don't talk... or move... or look at me."

He focused back on the flame and the robot.

"I can't look at you."

"What?" Max turned back to scowl at her.

She pointed to the mask."I can't see you because you have a mask on."

Max thought about that for a moment."Well its just one less thing you have to do." 

The flame came into contact with the robot shell that immediately began to discolor, then bubble. A small opening began to fold back to reveal a charred pulsing mass underneath. With no warning at all, the toy burst into flame, disintegrating before their very eyes until it was little more than a pile of ash in the driveway.

"That was so cool!" The little girl exuberantly grabbed onto Max's shoulder who shrugged her off and extinguished the torch. He flipped the welding mask back up to make sure she understood the severity of her invasion into his personal space.

"Don't touch me."

"Sorry... Yuh know? Your kinda rude."

" I'm not rude. I just like to be alone."

She giggled and Max started to get angry. "What, you think it's funny that I like solitude?"

"No silly. Here I am telling you that you're rude and I'm being just as impolite."

Finally, Max thought, she was starting to get the hint that he wanted her to go. But instead of leaving she put out her hand.

"I'm Ginny. I just moved in across the street. Pleased to meet you."

It wouldn't be the last time he would be completely confused by a girl. She could see on his face that he wasn't quite sure what to do next. So before he knew what she was doing, Ginny grabbed his gloved hand, put it in hers and shook it.

" You're not good with manners are you."

She stepped back with hands on her hips and sized Max up.

"I think we can fix that."

Max was very uncomfortable with this. His frequent attempts at intimidation were clearly not working with this assertive person who was intent on inserting herself into and now taking over his life. He already had one mother telling him to bush his teeth and go to bed. He didn't need another telling him to say "please" and "thank you." Max was pretty sure that this girl could stand toe to toe with him in a shouting match so he opted for a silent retreat. Max stood up and started walking back to his house. Much to his chagrin she followed.

"Aren't you going to tell me your name?" She did not sound happy at being ignored and Max smiled a little at this minor victory as he went inside the house and closed the door in her face.

Ginny was angry. Who was this little boy who thought he was so above everybody else that he didn't have to be polite enough to share his name. Well she would show him. He might be able to ignore a kid but he had to respect his parents. That's how she would get to him. He obviously had no social skills and so she assumed that he also had no experience manipulating adults. So she would tenaciously use her charm, wit, preconscious nature, feminine guile, and vast experience from her travels around the world to capture this untamed boy and in the end she would break him like a mustang colt. Ginny walked past the mailbox at the end of the driveway and stopped to read the name spelled out with stick on letters. HUNTER.