All anybody in the barrio talked about was The Boy. A kid who touched people and cured them of whatever ailed them. Even raised them from the dead, or so a little girl was claiming on the TV. Audie Cardozo ignored the news. He had a problem. He owed his boss, Tio Don, six grand, and he didn’t have it. Worse, the deadline was tomorrow morning.

Desperate, with no way out, he stood in the alley in back of Tio’s bar, trying to figure a way out, when he saw the kid standing there. Nine, ten years old, maybe, with hair like straw and a face so pale it looked like sunlight never touched it. He was a dead ringer for the boy they were talking about on the TV.

That’s when it hit him. Maybe he could sell the kid to Tio, get the six thousand forgiven. Tio’s gut was twisted with cancer, and he was going down without a miracle. He’d want to believe. The only problem was Tio would want proof; like the cure, here and now.

Audie had a plan, thought he could fake it with the help of his gang. The only problem was that when the boy touched Tio, he did cure him, and then Audie realized the kid was the real deal. He was The Boy, and he did have the life-saving touch.

That’s when Audie’s problems really began.