by Laura Dragon
Leta grabbed a light blue pillowcase and waved it as the prow drew parallel with the Josephs’ house. The cruiser slowed, and Hollis lifted his head.
“We’re only taking sick or injured,” the pilot called.
Hollis stood up. “My grandmother’s got diabetes. She’s really sick.”
The man spoke to the other deputy before giving a reply. “Okay. We’ll see what we can do.”
The three children watched hopefully as the boat angled toward them and stopped with a soft bump against the eaves of the house. An officer climbed out, handing a small bottle of water to each child. The bottles remained unopened as everyone watched the man lean down to awaken Gee. Gee didn’t move. Hollis heard Leta give a little moan.
The policeman sat down on the sloping roof and lifted Gee’s shoulders into his lap.
“We should try to get some water in her,” he said, holding the last bottle.
Leta squatted on one side of Gee, holding onto Algie, and Hollis stood on the other. Everyone nodded.
“How long she been like this?” the man asked.
Leta shook her head, her brow furrowed. “We were letting her sleep. We wanted her to rest.”
“We don’t know,” Hollis said.
The man opened the bottle. “Ordinarily, I wouldn’t do this, because it might choke her. But she’s in a bad way. We’d have a better chance of moving her for help if she’s less dehydrated, so I’m gonna take the risk.”
He dribbled water into Gee’s mouth, but it drained out again. Hollis bit his lip. Then Gee’s throat moved and she swallowed.
Hollis’s knees gave way, and he collapsed onto the shingles. Leta hugged Algie and told him Gee would be okay. Hollis saw the policeman glance at her, an uncertain look on his face. But he continued to feed Gee the rest of the water, one tiny dribble at a time.
“I think that’s all we should give her right now,” he said at last.
Hollis glanced at his hand, remembering he still had a bottle of his own. He opened it and chugged the contents down in several greedy swallows. Wiping his mouth, he noticed Algie wrestling with his bottle cap and motioned him over.
“Thanks,” Algie croaked as Hollis handed the bottle back to him.
The other policeman joined the first and helped him pick Gee up and carry her to the boat. The crowd made room, and they laid her on the boat’s floor. Beyond swallowing, Gee hadn’t moved or spoken.
Hollis’s eyes wandered over the small craft, which sat low in the water. So low that, if a wave came along, water would get into the boat. The people had their eyes closed or pained expressions on their faces. Hollis noticed a familiar face amongst the strangers.
“Miz Jackson!” Hollis yelled, waving at the woman who sat leaning against the side of the boat, her eyes closed and blood on her face.
Beside her, a man with blood on his shirt and arm lifted his hand.
“She can’t hear you, son,” he called, as Leta and Algie joined Hollis at the edge of the roof. “She got a bad bang on the head when our roof caved in, and these fellers gave her somethin’ that knocked her out. I’m her husband, Marvin. This your grandma?”
Hollis nodded. “Her name’s Gee.”
“Aw, yeah,” Marvin said. “I’ve heard Aletha talk about Gee.”
The first policeman made his way back to them. His expression was grim.
“I don’t like leaving you kids alone, so we’re going to go with this load, then get back here fast.”
“Thanks, mister,” Leta said. “We’ll be okay. We got neighbors.”
She turned and waved to the Josephs’ house. Everyone in the area had their eyes on the Williams’ house, wondering if the boat would take them away. Mr. Joseph waved back.
“Watch out for these kids, will you?” the policeman called.
“We’ll try,” Mr. Joseph yelled. “But it’s not like that’ll be easy.” He gestured at the neighborhood. “Y’all comin’ back?”
“We’ll try,” the policeman yelled.
Mr. Joseph threw his hands up in frustration.
The men prepared to leave.
“Don’t you worry, boy,” Marvin called out as the boat started. “I’ll take care of them both. Gonna go to Baton Rouge. Look for us at a hospital out there.”
Hollis nodded. First Dad, then Mom, then Jonas, now Gee. Everyone is disappearing.
Chapter 12
A Gift from Above
Late that afternoon, Hollis remembered that he wanted to see what was in the water by the house. Algie was sleeping, and he and Leta sat on the roof, counting birds.
“This is the first day since the storm that I’ve seen them,” Leta whispered.
“There were some yesterday.”
“Oh,” Leta said, pulling her legs up, bending her knees, and waggling them from side to side. “I kind of wish it would rain and cool us off.”
“We don’t need any more water.”
“I don’t think it’d make a difference.”
Hollis hesitated. “Leta?”
“Yeah?”
“What did you see in the water over there?”
Leta looked confused.
“You know, yesterday. You took Algie away from the water, and Gee wouldn’t let me go look.”
“Oh, yeah.” Leta frowned and glanced down. “I’m not telling you.”
“I’m gonna check it out then.”
“Gee said not to.”
“You got to see.”
“I didn’t want to.”
“Well, I do.” He stood up.
Leta put her hand on his leg. “Hollis, don’t. It—it’s a person.”
Hollis stared down at her, his breath stilled in his throat. “You mean a dead person?”
She nodded.
He glanced over to where the mystery lay. “Then I definitely wanna see.”
“No, you don’t.”
Hollis walked toward the edge, as though drawn.
“I’m telling Gee if you don’t stop,” Leta said, raising her voice.
“Shh! Don’t wake up Algie. Gee’s gone. We don’t know if we’ll ever see her again. We’re on our own, and I want to see.” He walked faster.
“Oh, Hollis,” Leta moaned, breaking into tears. “We will see Gee again! She’s gonna be fine. Jonas too!”
Shame covered Hollis. He turned and trudged back. Leta rocked on the shingles, her face in her hands.
“Sorry,” he said.
Leta sniffled. “No, you’re right. Everything’s different. Go see if you want—it doesn’t matter.”
Hollis stood still, watching her.
“Really,” Leta said.
“Okay.” Hollis hurried to the edge before she could change her mind.
All I see is trash: bottles, paper, branches, somebody’s shirt and pants . . .
His eyes slid over the litter before returning to the items of clothing. Hollis frowned. He stared for a long moment and saw something he would never forget.
A man’s bloated face, smudged and blurry, stared up at him, his body riding low in the water with debris surrounding him. He was hard to make out, but now that Hollis knew what he was looking at, he could see the man’s stiff, contorted form, the fingers curled and grasping at nothing, the head thrown back as if in pain.
It doesn’t seem like a person. Wrenching his eyes away, he plodded back to Leta. She watched him, still sniffling. He sat down next to her again.
“You saw it?”
Hollis nodded.
“It’s gross, huh?”
Hollis nodded.
“You okay?”
Hollis nodded.
“Well, what do you think?” she burst out.
Hollis shook his head. He didn’t want to tell her what he was thinking. Where could Dad be?
“I’ve never seen rigor mortis before,” Leta went on in a conversational tone. “It’s creepy. I can see why they call dead people ‘stiffs.’” She covered her eyes with her hands and shivered.
Hollis glanced at her.
“You feeling better, I guess.”
She nodded. “I’m glad you saw. Now I can talk about it with someone.”
“What’s to talk about?” His voice croaked, and he cleared his throat.
“It scared me, because, y’know, at first I thought it was Jonas.”
“Jonas didn’t have on a Saints jersey.”
Leta grimaced. “I didn’t notice what it—um, he—was wearing. I didn’t want to look that close.” She paused. “But after I thought about Jonas, I thought about Dad.”
Hollis started and gazed at her. “You didn’t!”
She put her head down, and Hollis heard a sniffle. After a moment, she lifted her head. “I did. I thought if I told you, then you’d call me stupid again.”
“No.”
“Good. I don’t like to be called stupid, even when I am. It’s stupid that I thought of Dad.”
“I thought the same thing.”
Her jaw dropped. “You’re lying!”
He shook his head. “It made me feel sick.”
“The man or thinking it was Dad?”
“Thinking it was Dad.”
They sat quietly for a moment. Then Hollis asked, “Ever wonder where he is?”
Leta shook her head.
“Why not?”
“Gee says he’s not nice. He’s never come to see us. We live in the same place we always did, so it’s not like he doesn’t know where we are.”
“You don’t want to see him? Get to know him? He’s part of us.”
“Gee says he’ll just make us feel bad.”
“So you talked to Gee about Dad.” It was not a question. He felt both impressed and annoyed. Until the incident at Darnell’s house, Hollis had always been afraid to bring it up. “Did you happen to ask where he is?”
“She said she didn’t know.”
“I’m gonna find him. I hope he’s not dead.”
“I hope he’s not dead too, but I don’t think Gee’s gonna let us find him.”
Hollis sighed. “I don’t either.”
Leta sniffed once more and leaned against Hollis. He put his arm around her, feeling closer to her than he ever had before.
Dusk found the three awake but lethargic. Two more news helicopters had passed overhead. When they heard a third, they didn’t even glance up. It slowed, as some of the others had, and hovered over the house across the street. A big light shone on the roof, and a man on a cable, followed by a big wire basket, slid down.
Hollis and Leta bolted up in excitement. Two of the people on the roof got into the basket and were raised into the helicopter. The basket came down again, and a third person went up. After the man on the cable got pulled up, the machine proceeded to the Josephs’ house and repeated the show.
Hollis watched as Mr. Joseph pointed at the three of them. The man on the cable shook his head. Mr. Joseph talked some more while Mrs. Joseph and James were raised up.
When the basket came down again, Mr. Joseph called out, “They full up, but they comin’ back. I told them you was kids. I told them you was alone.”
Hollis waved.
Mr. Joseph climbed into the basket, and both he and the man on the cable rose into the night.
“Everybody says they’re coming back,” Hollis grumbled.
Leta nodded.
The helicopter glided past them and three more houses before it hovered again. A large box came down on a cable. The people on the roof grabbed the box, and the cable slithered up again.
“What’s that?” Algie breathed.
Hollis shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’ll bet it’s good.”
“I hope we get one,” Leta said. “Think Mr. Joseph told them to give us one?”
“Heyyy!” Algie yelled and waved at the chopper. Hollis smiled. Algie appeared to be waving at a float in a Mardi Gras parade.
“Throw me something, mister,” Hollis yelled.
Algie and Leta stared at him and then laughed. They put up their arms, invoking the age-old spirit of a New Orleans Mardi Gras. “Hey, mister, throw us something!”
A few other houses received a box until, at last, the helicopter hovered over them and dangled one of the mysterious containers above their heads.
“It feels like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one,” Hollis told Leta.
She cocked her head. “Y’know, Hollis? It is your birthday. It’s the thirty-first, isn’t it?”
Hollis nodded. “I guess it is. I like my present, Leta. Thanks.”
Leta giggled, and she and Algie sang “Happy Birthday.”
Hollis grinned and watched his birthday present descend, inch by inch, until with a thump, it sat on the roof. His sister released the cable.
“Open it!” she said.
Hollis pounced on the box. “Help me,” he huffed, tugging at one of the flaps.
Leta joined him, and they each pulled. Bit by bit, the glue gave way, peeling back to reveal light-brown packages. Hollis pulled them out and dumped them onto the roof. Four six-packs of water lay underneath. Hollis and Leta each grabbed a bottle and handed an open one to Algie. Within minutes, the bottles were emptied. Once Hollis had handed out seconds, everyone’s attention turned to the packages.
“What’ve we got?” Leta crowed. “Food: Meal, Ready-to-Eat! Ooh, jambalaya. Yum!”
“Chili and macaroni,” Hollis read. “Algie! This is what soldiers eat.”
Hollis tore open his MRE and dug his fingers into the cold macaroni. Meaty tomato sauce and chewy macaroni made him forget how long they’d been on the roof.
“There’s a fork,” Leta said. “Hey, this silver thing in here heats them up. Anyone want theirs heated?”
No one answered. Leta helped Algie get his spaghetti and meat sauce open, and then she stuffed the rice and fat pieces of sausage into her mouth.
Hollis picked up another brown package. “Beef stew. Gee’s favorite. Wish she was here. We got tons of food now. You think they really mean to come back?”
“Doesn’t look like it.” Leta paused mid-bite. “They’d better.” She picked through the items left in her bag. “There’s lots of other things. No birthday cake, but there’s candy, cheese and crackers, and cookies!”
“Tastes almost as good as the food at Dooky Chase,” Hollis said, referring to the family’s favorite restaurant. “I might just have another.”
“Maybe we can split one. These are awful big.”
Hollis got through a second and picked up some packets that had fallen out of one of his dinner bags. “Drink mixes!” he said, laughing. “Cocoa beverage and dairy shake. Anyone want to try one? Algie?”
Algie shook his head. “I like this soldier water.”
Dinner finished, each of them lay back, reveling in the luxury of being full.
“I’m so stuffed I could roll off the roof,” Hollis said and belched.
Leta didn’t answer. She stared out into the night. “I wonder if Jonas and Gee got anything to eat.”
Chapter 13
Basket Case
Leta looked up at the sunless sky. “It’s too dark for that helicopter to come back tonight.”
“I won’t have any trouble sleeping,” Hollis said, rubbing his belly.
“We should thank God for the food and the help that came for Gee,” Leta said.
Hollis scowled. “Don’t see why we should thank God while we’re still stuck on the roof.” He hesitated and glanced upward. No offense, God, but seems to me that You’re taking Your time getting us outta here.
Leta insisted. “Gee would.”
Algie grabbed Leta’s hand and held his other out to Hollis. Hollis shrugged and bowed his head while Leta did her thanking.
“What about J-Jonas?” Algie asked. “Maybe we could ask God to bring him back?”
“Can’t hurt,” Hollis said.
After Leta added a prayer for Jonas, they all settled back to go to sleep.
Hollis laid his cheek on the back of his hand, closed his eyes, and relaxed, but sleep was far awa
y. Darn Leta. Jonas drifted into his thoughts, and Hollis couldn’t help but wonder what might have happened to him. What if he were dead? What if Gee were dead? Jonas had said that he could take care of them when he was eighteen if something happened to Gee. Now Jonas might be dead, too. Hollis felt even more determined to find their father.
A faint noise broke into his thoughts. It sounded like the whup, whup, whup of another helicopter. Hollis dismissed that possibility. The choppers usually stopped after dark.
The sound did not go away. In fact, it grew until it sounded like it was right above Hollis’s head. Looking up, the kids saw an orange chopper hovering above them, and they scrambled to their feet and jumped and waved. A blinding spotlight shot down, and a cable lowered a man in a Coast Guard helmet and gray jumpsuit onto their roof. He strode up the slant just as two more loud snaps sounded through the night. A powerful shudder ran through the house.
“That noise coming from this house?” the man barked at Hollis.
Hollis jumped. “We’ve been hearin’ it a few days now. The house never shook like that though.”
“Those g-guys came back for us, Leta!” Algie crowed.
Leta hugged him. “I know, Algie.”
“Is it fun ridin’ on that rope like you do?” Algie asked. “I wanna do that.”
“Hang on a minute, Algie,” Hollis said.
Hollis turned back to the man, who had a frown on his face.
“Name’s Gus,” the man said. A basket started on its way down to them. “We’re gonna do this fast. All three of you in the basket ASAP. Is this house raised?”
Hollis was confused. “We floated some when the water hit us. Is that what you mean?”
“No,” Gus began, but Leta broke in.
“You mean, does our house sit on pillars?”
Gus nodded.
“Yep, it does.”
The basket was halfway down when the man touched his throat and yelled, “Faster, Dave, this house is about to go.”
Hollis’s eyes grew wide. “Go? W-what do you mean?”
Gus put his arm up, although the basket still swung far above them. “The water level is dropping. Houses knocked crooked on their pilings are breaking up.” His fingers touched the basket, and he grabbed it.
