Jack's New Power (21 page)

Authors: Jack Gantos

BOOK: Jack's New Power

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“What about Mom and Dad?” I asked.

“Dad's going to stay until he settles the bills. Then he'll join you in Miami. Mom just wants to get a head start and get you boys in a new school.”

I couldn't even think of a new school. Just the thought of meeting new people wore me out. I drifted down to my bedroom to rest. For the next two hours I just sat on my bed thinking of things I should do. I should write Mr. Cucumber a thank-you note. He was tough, but smart and fair. I should go say so long to the Naimes and Shiva and the Hunts. But I didn't. I just felt empty. Used up. Every time I thought of saying goodbye, I expected they'd ask “Why?” And I'd just throw up my hands and shrug.
“Adults,” I'd reply. “I just do as I'm told and hope for the best.”

Dad arrived and loaded the station wagon. He and Mom didn't speak. They seemed to communicate in grunts. Marlene had swept up the glass, but their feelings for each other were still smashed up. But they'd make up soon. They always did.

Pete and I took our seats. I was numb, until I looked at Betsy. She was crying. I waved, then sucked in my gut and held my breath until we were out of the driveway and around the corner.

At the airport, Mom, Pete, and I stood on the terminal balcony and waited for the jet to land. We watched it circle overhead, then turn toward the runway. But it dropped down too fast and hit the runway with a thud. The tires blew and the jet screeched up the runway, leaving two long black trails of smoking rubber. The ground shook as the jet slowly shuddered to a stop. Suddenly the hot tires burst into flames. The fire crews hustled onto the tarmac. They sprayed a swoopy circle of white foam, like whipped cream, over the tires and put out the fire. It looked as though the jet had landed on top of a birthday cake.

Above the fire crew, the jet doors swung open and orange plastic slides unfolded like enormous waking caterpillars. One by one the passengers slid to safety and ran through the foam toward the terminal.

“This is an omen,” Mom murmured, shaking her head from side to side.

“What does it mean?” I asked.

“We shouldn't leave,” she replied.

Just then, Gunnie rushed up to her. “We're throwing a
Betty can't leave party
at our house,” she gushed. “Come on.”

Mom looked hesitant.

“It'll be fun,” Gunnie said and reached for Mom's straw carry bag. “You could use a lift.”

“Okay,” Mom replied. “It doesn't look as if we're leaving.”

Yes!
We're staying. Mom and Dad will make up, and Dad's business will improve, and Betsy will stay with us, and if we hurry we can get BoBo II back, and I can get the Henry plaque back on the gate.

We rushed across the terminal and back to the parking lot. We hopped into the station wagon and suddenly everything was different. Dad wasn't scaring us. Everyone was happy at the same time. This is what's important, I thought to myself. Not
where
we live, but
how
we live. If we stuck together, I wouldn't care if we lived in a shack, wore rags, and ate lima beans out of a can.

Gunnie and her husband, Tim, grilled hot dogs and fish. They had a case of Lemon Squash and I ate and drank until I couldn't stay awake. I looked around the room. Mom and Dad were sitting together and laughing. Everyone was having fun. Things were returning to normal.

I slipped into the spare bedroom. Pete was already asleep. I lay next to him and conked out.

In the middle of the night I was awakened. “Let's go,” Mom whispered. “They're waiting for us at the airport.”

I was confused. “Huh?” I said sleepily. “What?”

She lifted me up by my arms and swung my legs over the edge of the mattress. “I have to get the baby,” she said. “You wake Pete and get him ready.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“They brought in new tires from Puerto Rico and the plane is ready,” she replied. “Now hurry.”

“I thought we were staying,” I asked.

“That was just party talk,” she said. “Wishful thinking.”

I wished it were true. “Where's Dad?”

“Asleep,” she said. “Tim's driving us.”

“Why?” I asked. Dad always did all the Dad stuff.

“He needs his sleep,” she said impatiently. “He'll join us later. Now get going.”

I helped Pete stagger out to the car. In a few minutes we were at the airport. The airline crew was waiting for us. We climbed up the stairs and entered the jet. As soon as we took our seats they closed the door and we taxied down the runway, turned, and took off.

Once we were up in the air I looked out the window. The sugarcane fires were still glowing. As we traveled farther away I thought Barbados would look frightening, as if we had just escaped a burning ship. But I was wrong. The fires stretched from coast to coast like party lights strung across the deck of a beautiful luxury liner. It wasn't the island that was sinking. It was us. The plane banked to the west. I looked out the window. The island was gone.

THE JACK HENRY ADVENTURES

By Jack Gantos

Newbery Honor author of the Joey Pigza books

Jack Adrift: Fourth Grade without a Clue
Jack on the Tracks: Four Seasons of Fifth Grade
Heads or Tails: Stories from the Sixth Grade
Jack's New Power: Stories from a Caribbean Year
Jack's Black Book

The five books in the Jack Henry series are partly based on the diaries I (like Jack Henry) started keeping in elementary school. Some might think I have filled my alter ego's world with oddball characters and strange situations, but to me the stories are mostly about the everyday stuff that went on in my family and in whatever nutty neighborhood we happened to be living at the time (we moved around a lot). I never thought I was special, because most of the kids I knew thought the world looked as loony and off-kilter as it did to me. Now, when I talk to kids about my family stories and neighborhood characters they still give me that knowing look which says, “The world hasn't changed that much.” Weird stuff still happens to kids, and around kids. Weird stuff is everywhere. An eleven-year-old reader summed it up. After reading one of the books in the series, she wrote to say she had recommended the book to her friends because “Your stories are filled with the unsaid things that go on inside kids' brains.” Who could argue with that?

âJ.G.

eISBN 9781429936323

First eBook Edition : March 2012

First edition, 1995
Sunburst edition, 1997

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gantos, Jack.

Jack's new power / by Jack Gantos. 1st ed.

p. cm.

Summary: Thirteen-year-old Jack learns that life is not always idyllic on an island paradise when his father moves the family to Barbados.

ISBN: 978-0-374-43715-2 (pbk.)

[1. Family lifeâFiction. 2. AmericansâBarbadosâFiction. 3. BarbadosâFiction.] 1. Title

PZ7.G15334Jac 1995
[Fic]âdc20

94-44442