Heart of Gold (14 page)

They all laughed, even Brain.

Brain looked Wyatt in the eye and held out his hand for a shake. “Good job.”

Wyatt gave Brain a ritual handshake that caught everyone by surprise.

Eli asked, “You learn that on YouTube?”

Wyatt shook his head. “Grew up on the South Side.”

Amari blurted out, “Of Chicago?”

“Yeah. Only White kid in my class.”

That dropped jaws.

“Well, you're not the only White kid here,” an amused Eli pointed out.

“Doesn't matter. I'm good either way.”

Zoey saw wonder pass between Amari and Preston before Amari asked, “Got a little street in you, do you?”

“I'm just me,” Wyatt replied.

Brain said, “And we like that. You wouldn't happen to be hooked on physics, would you?”

Wyatt grinned. “No. I want to be a cartographer.”

“You want to make maps?” Samantha asked, sounding surprised.

“Yeah.”

Zoey had no idea that was a job.

“And what do you want to be, Zoey Raymond Garland?” Wyatt asked her.

Caught off guard again, she cleared her throat, but before she could answer, Megan said in a mincing voice, “A race car driver like Danica Patrick. How dumb is that?”

Zoey threw back, “Better than actually being so dumb your friends have to do your homework.”

“Ouch!” Crystal yelped, and gave Zoey a high five. “Good one, Zo! Guess you'll stay out of other folks' business now, won't you, Megan?”

Megan stormed off angrily.

They watched her hurry back inside, and Amari offered sagely, “And she wonders why nobody likes her. You taking notes, Tiffany?”

“Shut up!”

At the end of the school day, they waved good-bye to Wyatt as he was driven away by the woman they guessed was his grandmother, a short blond lady wearing big sunglasses. They then climbed on their bikes and rode the short distance to the store. It sat across the street from the church and down a ways from the old broken-down Henry Adams hotel. It was a beautiful blue-skied afternoon, but a chill in the air let everyone know that they were experiencing the last days of autumn. Winter often came early to the plains of Kansas, and being from Miami, Zoey wasn't looking forward to the bitter cold.

When they reached the store, the parking lot was packed with the familiar vehicles belonging to the elders like Ms. Marie, Tamar, and Mr. Clay. There were also a bunch of big trucks filled with boxes of goods being unloaded onto dollies by groups of men they didn't know and wheeled toward the back doors.

Inside, “Get Ready” by the Temptations blasted through the building's sound system, while the floor was a beehive of activity, with people stocking shelves and wheeling the dollies they'd seen outside. Preston's pop was on a ladder, putting lights in the ceiling, and Amari's dad, carrying a clipboard, waved but didn't stop as he hurried off to handle whatever mission he was on. Tamar and her crew were over by the big front windows, filling balloons from a helium tank, while Ms. Bernadine and Mr. Clark stood a short distance away, consulting about who knew what. Zoey scanned the chaos for her mom and saw her loading small boxes of gum, candy, and the like in the checkout lanes where the cashiers would be. She hurried over to say hello.

“Hey, Ms. Z. How was the day?”

“Good. How was yours?”

They could barely hear each other over all the noise and the music. “Pretty good. Has Mr. Clark put you all to work yet?”

“No, not yet.”

“Well, go check in with him. Lots to do. I'll see you later.”

“Okay.” Zoey hurried away. It was hard not to get caught up in all the excitement in the air, and although she was still concerned by her mom's phone call and hadn't yet had a chance to talk with Crystal about it, she found herself smiling as she joined the other kids.

Mr. Clark came over. “Thanks for volunteering.”

Amari said, “Like we had a choice.” But he was smiling.

Mr. Clark nodded understandingly. “I know you guys are probably hungry, so go out back and grab some hot dogs from Clay and Bing, then find me, and I'll put you to work.”

Their eyes widened at the prospect of being fed first.

“Thanks!” Preston gushed. And off they went.

Sure enough, outside behind the store, Clay and Bing had the grill going. Zoey and her crew were given hot dogs and drinks, and once the after-school treats were consumed, they went back inside, found Mr. Clark, and were put to work.

A short time later, Crystal and Eli showed up, having driven Megan and Samantha home. Eli went off to handle his assignment in the fruit and veggie section of the store alongside his dad and Rocky, and Crystal joined Zoey putting cans on the shelves. Zoey noted that Crys had changed some since she'd come back home. She seemed more serious and hadn't been verbally smacking the boys around as much as she used to. It occurred to Zoey that maybe Crystal had enough problems of her own without having to help Zoey with hers.

“What's the matter?” Crystal asked.

She shook her head and added another can of creamed corn to her row. “Nothing.”

“Quit lying. You've been sad all day.”

Zoey tried to play it off with a laugh. “No, I haven't.”

“Quit lying,” Crystal echoed.

Zoey exhaled a sigh.

“Talk to me.”

Zoey grabbed two more cans from the cardboard box and placed them with the others. “Can you be unadopted?”

“Unadopted?”

“Can your parents change their minds?”

Crys shrugged. “I suppose. Why are you asking?”

“I'm the reason my parents aren't getting along.”

Crys rolled her eyes as if that was the dumbest thing she'd ever heard. “No, you aren't.”

“But I am. I heard my mom say so last night.”

“To whom?”

“My dad. They were yelling on the phone. Or at least Mom was, and she told Dad not to put it on me, because it wasn't true or fair.”

“Then you're not the reason.”

“I am,” Zoey insisted. “Me making Mama Roni sing again was when this all started.”

Crys shook her head. “If your mom said it's not you, then it's not you. You need to believe her.” Crys viewed her closely for a moment. “You think they're going to send you back to foster care?”

She nodded.

“They're not. My mom wouldn't let that happen.”

“But suppose they did. What would happen to me? Where would I live?”

“With us. With Ms. Lily. With Brain. Take your pick, but it won't matter, because it won't come to that. Your folks will work it out, and everything will be okay. I promise.”

Zoey wanted to believe that, but Crys was a kid like her, even if she was older, and kids didn't know a lot when it came to adults and their thinking on stuff. She looked up to see Amari and Brain coming toward them, pulling a flatbed dolly loaded down with boxes.

“Bringing you more stock,” Preston announced. He took a box filled with cans off the dolly and set it on the floor.

Whatever he said next, she didn't hear, because she was too busy staring at Wyatt Dahl and the blond woman she'd seen after school, walking down the aisle in her direction. Amari peered at Zoey's face and then back at the approaching Wyatt. “Zoey? Is there something you want to tell us?”

She turned red and concentrated on stacking cans. “No.”

She missed the smile the boys and Crystal passed between themselves.

“Hey, Wyatt,” Amari said.

Zoey refused to look up.

“Hey, Amari. Hey, Brain. Hey, Crystal. This is my grandma. Ms. Gemma Dahl. Gram, this is Amari. Brain and Crystal.”

“Hi, everybody. Wyatt's been telling me how nice you've been to him. Thanks.”

She eyed Zoey and asked, “And who's this little lady?”

Zoey's heart was beating so fast, she just knew it was going to jump out of her chest and land on the floor.

“This is Zoey Raymond Garland,” Wyatt announced.

Careful not to look at Wyatt, Zoey glanced up. “Nice to meet you, ma'am.”

“Same here. Wyatt said you kids were here helping at the store, and he wanted to help out, too. I'm going to be working here when the place opens.”

“Glad to have you, Wyatt,” Brain said.

Amari added, “You're going to learn that we get volunteered for a lot of stuff around here.”

“That's okay,” Wyatt replied. “Gram and I are hoping to move here, just as soon as she meets with Ms. Brown.”

Zoey's furiously beating heart stopped. She looked up.

With mischief radiating from his eyes, Amari asked, “That would be real cool, wouldn't it, Zoey?”

She wanted to punch him in his chest. “Yeah.”

Crystal asked, “So Wyatt, do you want to work with us, or with the boys?”

“Think I'll hang with Amari and Brain.”

Mrs. Dahl said, “Good. I'll go back up front and find Mr. Clark. He said he had some paperwork for me to fill out.”

So off they went.

Once she and Crystal were alone again, Crys asked, “So, Zoey. How cute is he?”

“OMG!”

Crystal's laughter echoed through the aisle, and she and the grinning Zoey went back to work.

C H A P T E R

11

B
ernadine was sitting in Gary Clark's office, looking over some of the store invoices, when a short blonde stuck her head in the door. “Ms. Brown?”

“Yes.”

“I'm Gemma Dahl. You got a minute?”

Although Bernadine hadn't a clue as to the woman's identity, she nodded. “Sure.”

“I wrote to you a few weeks ago about maybe moving to Henry Adams. My grandson Wyatt and I live in Franklin, but he's enrolled at the academy.”

Bernadine placed her then. She was one of the names on the list of newcomers being considered. “Welcome. Nice to meet you.”

“Same here. So have you made a decision yet?”

“Truthfully, not yet, but I should be able to tell you something soon.”

“Oh, okay.”

The woman's disappointment was plain, and Bernadine tried not to let that bother her. “How long have you lived in Franklin?”

“I was born there. Moved back here last year from Chicago.”

“How long were you in Chicago?”

“Thirty years. You want to hear the story?”

Bernadine didn't want to be nosy, but if the woman and her grandson were going to be considered, she needed to know as much about them as possible. “Yes, I guess I do. Grab a seat.”

She sat, and her story began with her finding herself pregnant at the age of seventeen. “I was young and stupid—headstrong—hardheaded, really. The guy was married, and no way was he going to leave his wife for me. My parents were so embarrassed and angry, they shipped me off to my aunt in Chicago.”

She went silent for a moment. Bernadine waited for her to continue.

“After my daughter was born, my aunt let us stay with her for a few months, but she didn't have the money to take on another mouth to feed, so Gabby and I—that was my daughter's name—went on assistance and moved into subsidized housing on the South Side.”

The implications of that made Bernadine whisper, “Wow.”

“Yeah,” she responded with a bittersweet smile. “A little white girl from Kansas living on the South Side. It was okay, though. I made some good friends, lived in a unit where folks looked out for one another, and then at sixteen, Gabby got pregnant.” Gemma went quiet and stared off into the distance, as if replaying the memories. “The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I guess,” she said softly. “And I finally understood what my parents must've felt with me.”

Bernadine was so grateful she hadn't had to deal with anything of that nature with Crystal—at least so far. “Are your parents still living?”

She shook her head. “Mama died nine years ago. My dad three years later.”

“May I ask why you moved back?”

“Wyatt. Not sure how much you know about the gang problem in Chicago, but it's really bad. Most of the boys he grew up with are either wearing the tats or dead. He was being pressured to join, and when he wouldn't, they started ambushing him going to school and coming home. Last year they beat him so bad he wound up in the ER. Broken arm. Stitches. I'd already lost Gabby in Afghanistan, I wasn't losing my grandson. So I moved us back here.”

“How's it been?”

“A bitch.”

Bernadine cocked her head.

Gemma colored up a bit. “Sorry. Too much South Side. Most of the people in Franklin knew me growing up, and to them I was just a little whore who got pregnant by a married man. As far as they're concerned, that's who I'll always be. Real sick of the whispering and nasty looks.”

“Does your grandson know about any of this?”

“He knows I grew up here, but not the ugly details. I'll tell him when he's a little older. Right now, I just want him to be a kid and not have to worry about maybe catching a bullet or getting a beatdown every time he leaves the house.”

Bernadine understood. Most of the Henry Adams kids had had bleak futures before their arrival. No child should have to go through what Gemma's grandson had endured. Because of the story and the sincerity she sensed, Bernadine was ready to take Gemma by the hand, give her the keys to one of the double-wides, and get her moved in in the morning.

“No idea if I can qualify for a mortgage,” Gemma confessed, “but if you have a place that I can rent, I can definitely swing that. I'm going to be a cashier here when the store opens this weekend, so I do have a job.”

“Good to know. Town has a few double-wides out on Tamar Jefferson's land that are empty and fully furnished. Let me know when you're ready to move in, and I'll get you the keys.”

“Just like that?”

“Any warrants?”

“Nope.”

“Drug use?”