Drive-By (5 page)

Z
ev was on top of me.

“Sorry, Tito,” Zev said. “I didn’t mean to knock you over. I tripped.”

“What are you doing here? Don’t you have rules about this kind of thing?” His mother had a rule about everything.

“I thought you might be in trouble.”

“How did you know I was here?”

“I can see from my bedroom window. I was watching all the time in case the gangbangers captured you. I was going to call 911. When you didn’t come out, I was afraid you were trapped.”

I looked at him and shook my head. The kid knew nothing about sneaking out at night. He still had his pajamas on. How was he going to explain grass stains on his pj’s to his mom?

“Thanks,” I said finally, and wrapped my arm over his shoulder.

“Zev,” I said, “am I your first friend since you’ve come to America?”

He laughed and it sounded fake. “I have a million friends,” he said.

“Good,” I said. “Because right now you don’t want to get caught hanging out with me.”

I climbed back over the fence and left him standing in the backyard. I figured he had enough sense to go home.

In my bedroom I took the gun from its hiding place and put it in my backpack between my science book and my English book.

Tomorrow was going to be a big day for me.

I
got up early and left the house with the backpack over my shoulder.

I didn’t eat breakfast. Skipping a meal upsets Mom. That was nothing compared to what she was going to do when she found out I didn’t wait to walk Mina to school.

I couldn’t worry about eating or being in trouble with Mom with everything else that was going on.

A trash truck whined and coughed down the alley. I ran after it. When the men weren’t looking, I flung my backpack over the top into the bin. I stood next to the poinsettia and waited, hoping the gun wouldn’t fire.

Motors whined. The big truck began compressing the trash.

Then I ran to Big Molly’s Diner.

Lamar and Ice Breaker Joe stood outside, holding cartons filled with French fries. Steam rose from the chili covering the fries.

I walked up to them, pretending not to be afraid. They laughed at me, but I kept thinking what Mom always said about whoever laughs last, laughs best.

“I figure I know where Jimmy left the stuff he owes you if there ever was any stuff,” I said. I wasn’t going to tell them I had seen it.

“Look how tough he’s acting now,” Ice Breaker Joe said.

“Jimmy crawled under the house all the time saying he was fixing pipes,” I said.

They looked at each other. Something connected in their big dumb brains.

“There’s a board over the entrance to the crawl space behind the pink hibiscus plant. You’d never see it if you didn’t know it was there. But I wouldn’t go there,” I said.

“And why wouldn’t you go there?” Lamar asked, and stuffed a mess of French fries covered with chili and cheese in his mouth.

“Because cops have been watching the house day and night.”

“There’s no cops there unless they’re invisible,” Ice Breaker Joe said.

“Yeah, well, I guess they’re all undercover,” I said. “I see them all the time.”

“Then why don’t you go get the stuff?” Lamar said.

“Because I’m no gangbanger and neither was Jimmy.”

“Then why you telling us about under the house?” Lamar said.

“I did what you asked so all the gangbangers would stop coming around and breaking into the house. I told you. I warned you. Now we’re even.” I started walking away. I walked really slow even though my legs were hammering with nerves.

I walked into Big Molly’s Diner and took a seat.

Sonny came over. “Those boys at the car bothering you?”

I shook my head so Lamar and Ice Breaker Joe could see and know I wasn’t a squealer.

Sonny placed a menu on the counter and gave me a glass of water.

When I heard the car pull away, I went to the pay phone and punched in 911.

The only undercover cop who had been hanging around the house was me.

I told the voice on the line that Jimmy Cahill had hidden drug money he stole from his gang under the house at 1501 Logan Street, and that the gangbangers who killed him were going to get it now. Then I hung up.

I knew police would be buzzing around here and buzzing around the house, so I went up to Sonny.

“My mom gave me money for breakfast and I lost it,” I lied. I’d been telling too many lies. I promised myself this was my last. “I tried to call and no one’s home. Do you have any work I can do to earn money for breakfast?”

Sonny gave me a doubtful look. He didn’t know if I was gaming him or not.

“You want to clean the rest rooms?” he asked.

I nodded.

“I’ll give you breakfast every morning,” he said, “if you’ll clean out the rest rooms every day. I hate that job.”

“Can I bring my sister sometimes?”

“How old is she?”

“She just turned five,” I said. “She likes French fries.”

“All right.”

By the time I was rolling the bucket of suds into the bathroom, I heard sirens. I was glad to be hiding out in the bathroom with Clorox fumes in my nose. That way I had an excuse to mind my own business and I didn’t have to get in anyone’s way.

I finished and went back to Sonny.

He checked into the men’s rest room, then knocked on the women’s door and, when no one answered, ushered me inside.

“Good job, son,” he said when I finished. “You’ve got a job.”

He held out his hand for me to shake.

“Call me Sonny,” he said. “Everyone does.”

I shook his hand. He was a nice man. I wondered if he was married. He looked so skinny, I knew he could use Mom’s cooking.

“What do you want to eat?” he asked.

“Could I wait until lunch and come back with my sister? She’ll be really impressed if I can treat her to some French fries.”

He chuckled, but his laugh felt good.

“You bet,” he said.

Gus didn’t show up at school.

I sat in my classroom all morning, really nervous.
I wondered what had happened, but I knew not to ask anyone because that would be too suspicious. I had to wait and let the news come to me.

Mrs. Bilky busted me for losing my science book and my English book. She asked Lisa to share her books with me and said we should do our science and English together until I found my books.

At lunchtime, I picked up Mina from kindergarten and we walked home.

Yellow police tape was flapping all around the front yard of our old house. They had cut down the pink hibiscus bush in the side yard.

Mina and I went inside Mrs. Washington’s house.

Mom and Mrs. Washington stood at the window, looking outside. Mom wore her white uniform. Someone had gone to the hotel where she worked and brought her home.

“They caught Jimmy’s killers,” Mom said. “At least they think they have. Detective Howard said they have a gun that they think will match the bullets found in Jimmy.” Mom’s words choked then.

I just nodded.

“Why did you leave this morning without breakfast or Mina?” Mom asked. She fisted her hands on her hips. That meant she was serious.

I looked out the window.

“I had to finish some work for Jimmy. It’s what he would have wanted me to do.”

She took in air in a huge gasp and hugged me so tight, I couldn’t breathe.

“Mom,” I said.

“No more,” she said. “No more.”

She let me go then.

“I’m going to take Mina down to Big Molly’s Diner for French fries,” I said.

“How did you get money?” She looked scared.

“Don’t worry, Mom,” I said. “I scrubbed out the bathrooms. You can call Sonny and check. You don’t have to worry about me. Sonny gave me a job scrubbing out the bathrooms so Mina and I can have French fries every day.”

“For me?” Mina said. She was so happy, she did look like a princess then.

Big Molly’s Diner was really busy. Mina and I sat at the counter. Mina spread a paper napkin over her lap and tucked another one into her collar.

I liked playing big brother to Mina the way Jimmy used to do.

Behind us a woman was passing out paper
party hats, crowns and pirate hats and pointed caps. She had one gold crown left over.

I saw Mina stare at it, then turn around and dunk her French fry in gravy and slip it in her mouth.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” I said, but then I went over and asked the woman if I could buy the crown for my baby sister.

I didn’t have any money. I was hoping the woman would give me the party hat. I mean, what kind of person would sell a kid a paper party hat that would end up in the trash anyway?

“I have extra,” the woman said. “You can have it.”

“Thank you,” I said.

I handed the gold-paper crown to Mina.

Mina nearly swallowed her French fry whole.

She wiped her fingers on her napkin and put the crown on her head.

I sat there feeling my toes stretch to the end of Jimmy’s shoes.

I wanted Mina’s life to be perfect. I never wanted her to grow up needing a gang. Maybe she
can
become a princess, or at least play a princess in the movies, if she keeps her mind on her goal.

How could Jimmy ever join a gang? Maybe he
had too much responsibility helping Mom, but in the end I knew that in his heart he wasn’t a gangbanger. Jimmy liked life too much.

After dinner that evening, I picked up my baseball and glove and Jimmy’s, too. I walked across the street and knocked on Zev’s door.

Zev opened the door.

“Can you come outside?” I asked. “I want to show you how to play baseball.”

I’ve never seen a guy smile as big as Zev did that day.

I did learn how to play chess, and then I taught Lisa. She’s good at it and always beats me.

I’m sure Jimmy’s laughing about that. He’s probably laughing at all the crazy singing my life does.

At least I hope he is.

Harper Trophy® is a registered trademark of
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

Drive-By

Copyright © 1996 by Lynne Ewing

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition © AUGUST 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-02833-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ewing, Lynne

Drive-by / Lynne Ewing

p.    cm.

Summary: Twelve-year-old Tito, while helping to care for his little sister, struggles to find his way during the aftermath of his brother’s death in a gang-related shooting.

[1. Gangs—Fiction. 2. Death—Fiction. 3. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. I I. Title.

PZ7.E965Dr 1996

[Fic]—dc20

95-40643

CIP

AC

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