Bystander

13-year-old Eric Hayes has just moved to Bellport, Long Island from Ohio with his mother and brother. Eric plays basketball behind the middle school that he will soon attend when a boy runs past him. The boy appears to be fleeing from something or someone; his shirt is torn and has red splotches that resemble blood. Eric checks on the boy, and the boy stares back with the expression of a disciplined dog.

Eric asks about the red splotches, and the boy stutters that they are not blood. Eric then smells the familiar aroma of ketchup and recognizes the splotches as such. When Eric steps toward the boy, he panics and runs through a gap in the fence into a pet cemetery.

Soon after the ketchup boy leaves, three boys and a girl arrive on bicycles—obviously in pursuit. A boy with wavy hair, whom Eric describes as “pretty,” asks if he has seen anyone come by. A boy with buck teeth adds that the person they are looking for resembles a french fry. Eric doesn’t mention the ketchup boy.

The pretty boy, Griffin Connelly, asks Eric for his basketball. Eric passes the ball, despite feeling threatened.