Part 4

Three years ago a movie called Mean Street Taggers hit the big screens across the nation. The movie followed the exploits of so called "graffiti gangs" that roamed the back alleys and train yards of New York City. This movie idolized the street art movement and throughout the smaller cities and towns across the middle of America, young boys flocked to hardware stores or art supply shops to pick up their own cans of spray paint. The youth of these smaller towns never wanted to feel like the "country cousins" and worked hard to emulate the images Hollywood portrayed of teenagers living in the big cities.

The protagonists in Mean Street Taggers advised that the more difficult and the more public the area you choose to paint with graffiti the greater your success. The movie spawned a movement of graffiti gang wannabes that caused consternation throughout the small city of Splitbranch.

Risa's uncle Albert, a long standing member of the Splitbranch city council and President of the local chamber of commerce proposed the installation and use of closed circuit cameras in all public city spaces including on the city buses.

Ultimately, as most proposals made in city councils tend to do, budget concerns sliced the original plans and pared down the total amount and quality of the cameras. Albert has wanted camera's throughout the downtown business district and on all of the public transportation vehicles. Splitbranch boasted a large city public transport for a small city of its size. The city council looked at its public transport system with pride and didn't appreciate the recent rash of graffiti incidents.

However, with the budget concerns the city council decided to nix the plans to have cameras patrolling the streets. Some council members pointed to the lack of effectiveness large metropolitan areas, like London, who utilized the most robust use of city wide cameras but lead to very few arrests. Several council members didn't see the benefit of purchasing and maintaining the cameras when they figured this fad of graffiti usage would wane.

When the chief of police even conceded that the camera's would probably act more as deterrent rather than a crime fighting tool the city council began convince that a large invest wouldn't be in the city's best interest. Albert privately scorned this decision. However, his disappointment was probably more due to the fact that he owned a chain of grocery stores and several other local businesses that seemed to be prime targets of these graffiti vandals.

After much debate, little of which actually interested most of the citizens, the city council finally decided to mount cameras in cities metro buses. Again, budgetary concerned dropped the total number of cameras Albert had initially proposed. To save money, the city council decided to only purchase cameras to equip half of its busing fleet. They decided that the police department would rotate the cameras from bus to bus, route to route, so that it would still act as a deterrent while cutting the cost in half.

Albert scoffed at the idea, but the additional cost of the camera may have meant an increase to the business property tax, and this would have hit his wallet the hardest. He relented and the city council passed the resolution 8 to 1. The lone vote of descent came from Belina Tink, a staunch conservative who opposed any measure that she considered an affront to a person's rights and freedoms. She considered these camera's an infringement on a citizen's privacy.

The camera's were installed behind a black glassed dome above the driver. It provided a view running the length of bus. However, the views were relatively obstructed and did little to deter any vandalism. It wasn't until the city council passed a resolution banning the sale of graffiti to minors did the wave of vandalism all but dissipate.

Throughout the months of the metro cameras operation it seemed like a fiscal mistake. While the cameras did provide a sense of security for some of the bus riders, the benefits of the cameras didn't seem to outweigh the costs until that fateful day in January.

The grainy video played over and over in Risa's mind. The date and time stamp flickered foggy white across the bottom of the screen.

January 15th. 3:14 pm.

The weather that week had been unseasonably mild. The temperatures had risen to 52 degrees Fahrenheit, quite balmy for that time of year. The break from the typically nasty winter weather was represented by the lighter coats and jackets seen on the people riding the bus that day.

With the work day still in full swing, the Orange Line was relatively empty. An older woman sat upfront corralling her shopping bag in the next seat. She was engaged in conversation with the bus driver who couldn't be seen on camera. A college student was sitting midway towards the rear of the bus staring out of the window. He was bobbing his head slightly to the unheard beats emanating from his head phones. There was a woman fusing over her toddler seated across from the young man. The toddler was busy eating a sandwich and happily making a mess of it.

At the very rear of the bus, nearly beyond the sight of the camera sat a young boy, not a quite a teenager yet older than a child. He sat on the very last row. The row that was mounted against the back wall of the bus. He sat calmly in the middle seat, legs barely touching the floor. He looked relaxed but he clutched at his backpack as if he was ready to bolt off the seat and sprint down the aisle.

Risa could sense each turn of the bus and each stop it made by the gentle sway each passenger's body would make. During a particularly hard stop the toddler nearly surged forward before his mother grabbed him to hold him back. After securing her child the mother looked up to glare at the driver.

The first downtown stop, Tower Street, came and went without any change in the passengers.

The second downtown stop, 1st Avenue, saw the departure of the mother and child. She scooped him up off of the seat and ushered him down the aisle. The old lady looked back and smiled at the child as his mother held his hands as he eased down the stairs out of the rear exit doors. The pair exited and the rear doors slid shut.

The third downtown stop, Capital Street. Three blocks from where Risa now stood. The young boy stood up. He hesitated and looked around. Still clutching his back pack to his chest he took an uncertain step forward. The boy was wearing dark blue jeans and a light colored winter jacket. Though with the black and white video one couldn't discern the color, Risa's family later assured police that it was a light blue coat.

The boy, still looking uncertain used one hand to adjust his knit winter cap. The knit cap had two flaps that covered his ears. The color of the knit cap was determined to be gray with two thing blue stripes that circumnavigated it's center.

At this point, with the stop lasting longer than normal, the college aged boy turned from his languid viewing of the passing traffic to see what was causing the slight delay. Upon seeing the older boy notice him, the younger passenger seemed to be spurred forward. Quickly looking at his feet the boy moved towards the exit doors. The college aged boy shrugged and looked back out of the window.

The young boy made his way down the stairs, stopping only briefly at the bottom step. He seemed to take a deep breath, stepped forward then disappeared off of the bus. The bus doors unceremoniously slid shut again.

With that, the black and white image of Caleb was gone.