They were in love and that was against the law.
Tami had been with Mrs Lesser nearly all her life. It was Mrs Lesser who got the County to fix the girl's hare lip. It was late when they did it, and the scar would always show, but still she looked pretty good. Curtis went to Mrs Lesser's foster care when he was three and he'd been there ever since. He showed up with a Match Box Mustang clutched tight in his hand and he wouldn't let go of it. Not ever. He ate with his right hand. Held the little car in his left. Slept with it clutched at his chest. Curtis didn't look anyone in the eye and he kept to himself. If a case worker came to the house he'd turn his back. Did not answer questions.
``He's fine,'' Mrs Lesser would say, ``he just don't like strangers.''
When Curtis and Tami were twelve they caught each other's eye one day and never looked away again. They were together day and night and they were lovers as the other children knew and Mrs Lesser suspected.
No one said anything.
Curtis and Tami held hands at dinner, in the school bus, everywhere.
Mrs Lesser did nothing. She envied them their happiness.
It could have gone on until they were old enough to emancipate themselves at sixteen, but a teacher at the middle school heard a rumor and followed up on it.
A deputation from Childrens' Services descended on the Lesser home far up the river in the trees. They met loud indignation and firm denials from all.
Tami and Curtis weren't there.
They had slipped away into the forest when they saw the cars approaching.