Hurricane Boy

by Laura Dragon

  “But you don’t know where he is?”

  Hollis’s eyes grew sad. “He might be dead, for all I know.”

  Scanning the room, Eden laughed. “He might be here, for all you know! Would you recognize him if you saw him?”

  Hollis’s eyes widened. “I-I don’t know.” He rubbed his chin. “Gee got rid of his pictures after Mama died. Didn’t want reminders of a ‘no-good man who deserted us.’”

  “I don’t blame her.”

  Hollis glared at her, but his face grew thoughtful again. “He was tall and thin, with black eyes and a big smile underneath a bushy mustache.”

  “What if the mustache was gone? Would you know him then?”

  Hollis thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I was six.”

  As he watched her tuck her new things into a suitcase, he remembered something else he wanted to ask. “Eden, have you met Mr. Red Beans?”

  Eden snorted. “That name! He came up to me when I first got here. He said if I needed anything to tell him.”

  “He told us that, too. Do you think he’s . . . um . . . trustable?”

  Eden laughed. “Trustworthy? I don’t know. He never said anything to us again. I stay away from all them people. You never know.”

  Hollis left her to her work, but her suggestion that his father could be at the shelter had captured his imagination. He spent some time wandering around the room, peering at each of the men he passed. After receiving a suspicious look from one man who caught him staring, Hollis gave up and sought out Leta. When he found her, she was having her hair braided by Calaya.

  “Do you remember Dad?” he asked her.

  She wrinkled her forehead. “A little,” she said at last.

  Hollis’s face brightened. “Do you think you’d know him if you saw him again?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe, but I’m not sure. It’s been a long time. I was only four. Why?”

  Hollis waved at the room. “Dad could be here, and we wouldn’t know it.”

  Leta tried to look around the room, but Calaya pulled her head back.

  “Ow!” Leta turned and glared at her.

  “Sit still!” Calaya told her. “You’re gonna make me mess up.”

  Facing forward again, Leta said, “I don’t think he’s here, Hollis. Gee says Dad looks just like Jonas, and no one here looks like him.” She bit her lip and shook her head, earning an exasperated grunt from Calaya. “It’d be too weird if he was.”

  Calaya glanced at Hollis and twisted a lock of Leta’s hair into a tight roll against her scalp. “I know how y’all feel. I don’t remember either of my parents. I’ve lived with my grandmama all my life.”

  “Where did your parents go?” Leta asked.

  “Got me. My grandmama just says they’re dead. She won’t tell me what happened. She says that it was a long time ago and that I should let the dead sleep, but my cousin told me that they died doing drugs.”

  Hollis asked, “Do you miss them?”

  “I never knew them,” Calaya snapped. “My grandmama says, ‘How can you miss someone you never met?’”

  “But do you?” Hollis persisted.

  Tears welled in Calaya’s eyes and overflowed onto her cheeks. She kept working on Leta’s hair.

  “Yeah,” she said at last. “I don’t say anythin’, because it makes my grandmama upset. I guess it isn’t so much that I miss them as it is I wanna know what they like.”

  “Even if they’re bad people, right?” Hollis tilted his head.

  Calaya puffed up and glared at Hollis, ready to defend her family, but nodded all the same.

  “Yeah,” Hollis said. “Our dad is s’posed to be a bad guy, but I still want to know him. It would make Gee mad if I said that, so I don’t talk about it. She doesn’t understand.”

  “Maybe she understands more than you think,” Leta said. “If Gee says we don’t need to know Dad, that’s good enough for me.” Lowering her voice, she asked, “But Hollis? What if Gee is dead?”

  Calaya met Hollis’s eyes over Leta’s head and raised her brows.

  Hollis stared at Calaya and then at Leta. What if? I can’t even think about that.

  Leta went on. “What if Jonas and Gee are dead and we’re all alone? What’s gonna happen to us?”

  Calaya snorted. “I can tell you that. Foster care. They was gonna put me in that stupid, loser system if my grandmama hadn’t said she’d take me. You don’t wanna be in that.”

  Leta frowned. “Maybe you’re right, Hollis. Maybe we need to find Dad in case that’s true. I don’t see Grammy Williams taking us. And Algie? He’s not doing so good.”

  Before Hollis could ask Leta what she meant about Algie, Dray and Kiki wandered over and joined them.

  “What y’all talkin’ about?” Dray asked, gazing at Calaya’s tears with concern. He reached out and patted her arm.

  “Families,” Leta said.

  “Oh.” Dray let his hand drop. “No wonder everyone’s cryin’. I sure miss my grandma.”

  Calaya sniffled and smiled. “You live with your grandmama, too?”

  He nodded.

  “Where are your parents?”

  “They around,” he said. “I see them when I want.”

  “Why don’t you live with them?” Hollis asked.

  “They got divorced and married new people. I didn’t like that. I wanted them to stay with each other. First I lived with Mama and Harold. He tried to be my dad, always orderin’ me around. He and I argued a bunch, and he told Mama it was him or me. She picked him. So I went with Dad and Phoenicia.” Dray said the name in a high, whiny voice, placing a hand on his waist and swinging his hips. Kiki covered her mouth to keep from laughing.

  “All Phoenicia cared about were her kids. She had three. Her oldest boy was three years older than me. I used to beat him stupid.”

  “Why?” Hollis asked. “Was he mean?”

  “No,” Dray said. “He was straight. I don’t know why I hit him all the time. Maybe ’cause I couldn’t hit her. Anyway, the third time I beat him up, Dad sent me to live with Grandma. Everythin’ got better. My grandma is gangsta!”

  “How did you get here without her?” Leta asked.

  Dray’s face fell. “I lost her in the crowd at Lakeside Mall. Saw someone from the back that looked like her. It was that lady over there.”

  He pointed and the children saw an elderly black woman tottering toward the shelter bathrooms.

  “That lady got on the bus, and I ran over and told the driver my grandma was on his bus, and he let me on. By the time I realized it wasn’t her, the bus was leaving and the driver told me to sit down and be quiet. He wouldn’t let me off.”

  Calaya nodded. “I was on that bus, Dray. I saw you get upset. My grandmama went to the hospital the week before the storm, so I was stayin’ with my auntie. I lost her in the crowd too, and I was so scared to be alone that I got on the first bus I saw.”

  “Kiki, Lolo, and Maleeki were there,” said Dray. “A National Guard guy put their parents on one bus and put them on the bus to come here. He said the busses were goin’ to the same place. They weren’t.”

  “That’s so stupid. Why would he do that?” Leta asked.

  “’Cause he didn’t give a care,” Maleeki said, sauntering up. “None of them did.”

  “There was a lot of stuff goin’ on,” Dray said. “He mighta got confused. He was mean, though. Yellin’ and wavin’ at everyone, like he was all mad at us.”

  “He scared Lolo,” Kiki said. “He grabbed her and set her on the stairs to the bus and yelled at her to get on and sit down. That’s why she won’t talk to anyone now.”

  “Hollis,” Leta said, “That reminds me—Algie’s having nightmares about Oscar. That was what I was going to tell you earlier.”

  Hollis frowned. “He told me his nightmares were about the water.”

  “He has nightmares about getting grabbed, too. He told me so. And . . . ” She stopped.

  Hollis frowned. “What?”

 
“Last night, he wet the bed.”

  Hollis stared. “You’re kidding.”

  Leta shook her head. “I had to help him clean it up. We tried to be quiet.”

  Dray snorted. “Not that quiet. You woke me up. I felt bad for the little guy. He and Lolo seem to be stressin’ the hardest.”

  Hollis glanced at Algie, who sat, as always, watching TV with his gnome.

  “I don’t know what to do with him,” Leta said. “I hope we find Gee soon. I mean,” she continued, “I have nightmares, too. About those explosions on the levee. And then the water hitting the house. I want them to go away. They’re awful.” With a shiver, she turned back to Kiki. “Does Maleeki live with y’all?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “He got taken away from his mother, because she didn’t have any food in the house and was never home.”

  “You ever live with your dad?” Hollis asked Maleeki.

  Maleeki stared at him in astonished rage and clenched his fists. “Get lost.” He spun around and stalked off to his cot.

  “His parents were never really together,” Kiki said. “I don’t think he’s met his dad, and now his mom is in jail for I-don’t-even-know-what. We don’t talk to Maleeki about his parents, ’cause it makes him mad.”

  Hollis gazed across the room at Maleeki, feeling more sympathetic toward him now that he knew what he’d been through. Up until then, Hollis had thought of Maleeki as being a big waste of everybody’s time. When Maleeki turned his head and stared back at him, Hollis tried a grin. Maleeki’s eyes narrowed, and his lip curled. As his expression sharpened into a glare, the dislike he felt for Hollis flew across the room and took away Hollis’s grin. Hollis turned around, wondering what he’d done to make Maleeki so angry.

  He’s up to something. And I bet that something includes me.

  Chapter 19

  Rebound

  Hollis tried to put Maleeki out of his mind. He decided to avoid the other boy for as long as possible. No point in looking for trouble. Since a new set of donations had arrived, he went to find Eden some dusting powder to replace the one she’d given him. On his way to the donation tables, however, he ran right into Maleeki.

  “Hey,” Maleeki said.

  Hollis’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

  Maleeki showed his teeth in a semi-smile and waved his hand. “Lotsa people here, huh?”

  Hollis nodded. “I guess.”

  “Know any of ’em before you got here?”

  At first, Hollis thought about his conversation with Eden about his dad. He was about to answer when something in Maleeki’s expression stopped him. Oh no—he’s onto me about Oscar. “No.”

  “Me either. Kind of weird, don’t cha think? So many people from the same town, and none of us know each other.”

  “A lot of people live in New Orleans.”

  “Heh, yeah, you right about that. Well, later.” Maleeki strolled away.

  Hollis watched him go. Better warn Leta—Eden too. He found Eden quickly and then looked for Leta.

  “Hey, Leta, if anyone asks if we know Oscar, don’t tell them, okay? I told Eden, and she says she won’t say anything either.”

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “Just do it,” Hollis pleaded.

  “Not until you say why.”

  With an exasperated sigh, Hollis quietly told her all about hiding Maleeki’s loot on Oscar’s cot. Since Hollis had always considered Leta a goody-two-shoes, her reaction surprised him.

  “That was you?” she asked, admiration in her voice. “Too cool! I’m proud of you, Hollis. So Kiki was right about Maleeki stealing. It’s stupid that he takes things from people—we’ve all lost so much. Don’t worry. I’ll tell him we don’t know a soul.”

  Hollis nodded. Good! He can’t find out anything now.

  An hour later, he saw Maleeki watching Cartoon Network with Algie and Gnomie. He bit his lip. Never thought of warning Algie. Gonna have to watch myself. Maleeki’s gonna be out for blood now. He sighed and left to wash up for the night.

  Saturday opened to a beautiful day. After breakfast, the children’s group played outside while Miss Violet watched them. Lolo ran to the large sandbox on one side of the play area. Algie followed her, dragging his feet and his gnome. Leta and the other girls took over the patio with their jump rope and soon were locked in a hot contest of Double Dutch.

  Hollis turned his face toward the sun, reveling in the warmth after so much time indoors. Drayden and Maleeki walked past him, Dray bouncing a basketball.

  “Hollis?” Dray held up the ball. “You play?”

  Hollis nodded and followed them to the half-court.

  “Y’all wanna play one on one?” Maleeki asked. “Or do we gotta use rules?”

  “You mean ‘one on one on one,’” Dray said, laughing.

  Hollis grinned, but his attention left the court. Oscar had sauntered out of the shelter, peeped around, and scuttled into the street.

  “Hang on, guys,” Hollis told the other two. “I wanna get some water.”

  Since the fountain was near the gate, Hollis could see down the street as he bent over and slurped the water. He watched as Oscar met two other men. Their actions—the way they stood, the way their hands moved, and the way they glanced around to see if anyone was watching—said plenty. He’d seen drug deals go down in his neighborhood.

  “Come on, Hollis,” Dray hollered. “Let’s go!”

  Hollis ran back and the game was on.

  Much to Hollis’s annoyance, Maleeki turned out to be the best basketball player in the group. He was fast and tall, and he ran rings around Dray and Hollis.

  “I win again!” Maleeki said at last. “Y’all slow. That was the easiest win yet.”

  “How ’bout you play me?” Eden asked, laying down her end of the jump-rope.

  “I ain’t playin’ no girl,” Maleeki scoffed.

  “Scared?” Eden asked.

  “No. Don’t wanna embarrass you.”

  “I can take it if I lose,” she said. “Can you?”

  “I won’t. All right, who’s first?”

  “You.” She smiled. “I’ll finish.”

  Maleeki rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

  “C’mon, everybody,” Calaya called to the other children. “Eden’s gonna whup Maleeki at basketball.”

  The rest of the children stopped what they were doing and ran over to watch. Several of the adults who had come outside to smoke joined the crowd of onlookers.

  “Wow,” Leta said to Hollis as Eden dodged past Maleeki and tossed the ball into the basket. “Eden’s good.”

  “She could beat me,” he said, twisting his lips. “She got another one. That ties it up again, five to five. It’s gonna be tight. Hope Eden wins.”

  “Me too.” Leta hugged herself. “There sure are a lot of people out here now. Seems like half the shelter is in the yard.”

  “I bet they want Eden to win too,” Hollis said with a grin.

  “They would if they knew all the things Maleeki’s been doing. Aw, Maleeki’s ahead again!”

  “Not for long,” Hollis said, watching Eden slap the ball away.

  Dribbling out of the back court, she took a step in one direction and Maleeki leaped to block her. In a flash, she changed direction, shifting the ball to her other hand and tossing it through the net.

  An “ahhh” rippled through the growing crowd.

  “Both hands!” crowed Hollis. “Eden’s a—a—”

  “Ambidextrous,” Leta said.

  “Uh oh,” Hollis said, covering his eyes with his hand.

  Outcries and grumbles came from the watchers.

  Kiki jumped forward and grabbed the ball away from Maleeki, who scowled at her.

  “What happened?” Leta asked.

  A man behind her said, “Boy threw an elbow. Hope the girl’s all right.”

  “You okay, Eden?” Kiki asked.

  Eden grinned and nodded.

  “Do that again,” Kiki snarled in her cousin’s face, “and it
’ll be game over, Eden on top.”

  Maleeki shrugged and, taking the ball, walked to the back court.

  Leta hunched her shoulders as a nearby adult jostled her. “It’s getting too crowded. I hope they finish soon.”

  “They play to ten, and it’s eight to eight now. He missed! Eden’s ball.”

  “Oh man, Maleeki stole it. Figures, right Hollis?”

  Hollis smiled at Leta’s joke. “She’s got it back. Needs two to win. Come on, Eden!”

  Eden floated toward the net, her feet moving like a dancer’s. Maleeki, with eyes darting and teeth clenched, shifted and bounced in front of her. Changing directions twice, Eden twisted past him and leaped into the air. The ball swished into the net for Eden’s ninth point. As it fell through the net, Eden landed, caught the ball, and pitched it to Maleeki. Immediately stealing it away from him again, she shot from the far edge of the half-court. The ball bounced once, twice on the rim and toppled in.

  The crowd roared.

  “Oh, man!” Hollis screamed to Leta, who had her hands over her ears. “She got him!”

  Leta rolled her eyes and nodded.

  Hollis continued, “Maleeki’ll never get over gettin’ beat by a girl. In front of everyone in the shelter, too!”

  As if to prove Hollis’s point, Maleeki glared at everyone and stomped away.

  As the crowd disbanded, Kiki appeared at Leta’s shoulder with a frightened expression on her face. “I can’t find Lolo. Anywhere.”

  Chapter 20

  Red Beans

  Leta frowned at Kiki and looked toward the sandbox. “But she and Algie were right over there.”

  “Where’s Algie?” Hollis asked.

  Leta shook her head. “They probably went to the bathroom. Let’s go find Miss Violet.”

  Miss Violet was congratulating Eden. When she was told about the missing children, she called the rest of their group, and they clustered around her while she checked the yard. None of the others had seen the children either.

  “Let’s split up,” Miss Violet said. “Kiki, Hollis, Leta, you come with me. Everyone else, keep searching the playground. If we can’t find them, we’ll have to get more people to help.”