“Useless, Useless, Useless,” said Mr. Grimes, wiping his sweaty forehead with an already damp handkerchief. “I can’t talk to you any more. There’s work for you in the kitchen. Go.”

Max turned to wave goodbye to Sarah and made his way to the kitchen. When he got there, he found loads of dirty pots and pans to wash.

Mr. Grimes always gave Max work to do. “You have to work for your privilege to live here,” he always said.

There was no arguing with him. Mr. Grimes had power over his whole life. He could send him back to one of the larger orphanages, which were even more horrible. Or make a false claim of assault and have him sent to a juvenile center, which was no worse than a jail for teenagers.

So Max had to do Mr. Grimes’ bidding, unless he wanted to trade his crappy life for an even crappier one.

Max sighed and got to work on the dishes.

Two hours later when he finished all the chores, he could hear stomping sounds in another part of the group home.

“Sarah...” slurred a voice.

Uh oh.

It was Mr. Grimes. He was drunk and stumbling around the group home.

All the residents knew to avoid Mr. Grimes when he got intoxicated like this, and Max probably would have done the same, if it weren’t for the fact that the man was slurring the name of his only friend.

Max made his way to the end of one hall to get a better idea of what Mr. Grimes was up to.

The older sweaty man was leaning against a door, knocking against it.

It was the door to Sarah’s room.

“Sarah...” slurred Mr. Grimes. “I need to speak with you...”

Max did not like what he was seeing.

He accepted the blackmail Mr. Grimes lorded over him and the horrible tasks he made him do. A pile of dirty dishes was not something worth fighting over, but what if the group home manager made a similar threat to Sarah? But instead of dishes, he forced her to do something far worse...

Max had to stop this before it went even further.

“Hey!” he said, rolling into the hallway. “Leave Sarah alone!”

Mr. Grimes’ tilted his head slowly towards Max. His eyes were bloodshot. His whole face was slimy with sweat.

“Are you speaking to me, Useless?” slurred Mr. Grimes.

This was it. Max was distracting him. He needed to lure him away from Sarah’s door.

“That’s right,” said Max.

Mr. Grimes snickered and then did something Max wasn’t expecting.

The man simply ignored him.

He returned to the door, knocking on it.

“Come out, Sarah...”

So the man was just going to ignore him. He’d have to distract him further.

Max made his way so that he was right beside the man. He lifted his arms and grabbed Mr. Grimes’ wrist.

“Leave her alone,” said Max.