Shelter (15 page)

“Huh?”

“So we can buy Mickey a night-light,” Spoon continued. “You know, him being scared of the dark and all.”

Ema smiled. “Yeah, little Mickey need a nighty-lighty? Maybe a blankee too?”

I just looked at her. She shrugged an apology and said, “Drop off Spoon first.”

I did. Spoon directed me to a two-family house on the outskirts of Kasselton. There was a small truck parked in the driveway. The truck had a crossed mop-heads logo on the side. Cute.

When we pulled up, the front door opened. A man and a woman in their forties appeared. The man wore a janitor’s uniform. The woman had a business suit. The man was white. The woman was black.

Spoon shouted, “Mom! Dad!”

He ran up the stoop and they all greeted one another as if a hostage standoff had just ended. Ema and I watched in silence. I felt a pang of envy, but I felt a bigger pang of responsibility. Look at this kid with his loving parents. I couldn’t risk putting him or Ema in danger.

Spoon pointed at our car. His parents smiled and waved to us. Ema and I waved back. Ema said, “Wow, look at them.”

“I know,” I said.

They disappeared into the house.

“So what’s the plan?” Ema asked.

“We both go home. We do a little online research, see what we can find out about our tattooed friend Antoine LeMaire. We meet up in the morning and discuss.”

“Sounds good.” She pulled the door handle. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Wait, I can drop you off.”

“No need,” Ema said.

“You live around here?”

“Close enough. Bye.”

“Wait.”

She didn’t. She got out of the car and started down the road. I debated following her, but she quickly veered right and vanished into the woods. I thought about pressing the issue, getting out of the car and running after her, but I had my secrets—wasn’t Ema entitled to hers too?

I was worried that Uncle Myron might be home. How would I explain driving the car? He knew that I had a fake ID. When he first found Mom and me in that trailer park, I was working under the name Robert Johnson at a nearby Staples. Still, I don’t think that he would like me driving illegally to a tattoo parlor or anyplace else, for that matter.

I parked in the garage, grabbed something to eat, and headed down to the basement. I Googled Antoine LeMaire, but nothing useful came up—not even a Facebook page or Twitter account. Pretty much nothing. I put the address into MapQuest. From the satellite photograph, the area looked pretty seedy. I could also see that it was right next door to a place called the Plan B Go-Go Lounge. I frowned and again thought about where my search for Ashley was taking me.

I looked to the wall of old basketball greats.

“What’s all this have to do with Ashley?” I asked out loud.

The posters did not reply.

I heard noise above me and then I heard Myron yell, “Mickey?”

“Homework!” I shouted back.
Homework
was a great word to ward off unwanted guardians. When you yelled, “Homework,” parents always left you alone. It worked better than a cross keeping away a vampire.

I stared down at my desk. My laptop was beat up from travel. My dad bought it three years ago when we were in Peru, and so it had been around the world several times over. Funny. I don’t have any of his possessions. He had taught me that they were irrelevant. A ring isn’t my dad. A watch isn’t my dad. None of those things would bring comfort. As my dad had explained to me, no true joy was ever found in a “thing.”

But oddly enough, this laptop seemed more personal, more “him,” than any of those more classic items might. He had spent time on this laptop. He had composed letters, worked on progress reports, looked up information on this machine. I thought about that sometimes, about his hands on this keyboard.

We each had our own folder—Dad, Mom, and me—and I clicked on his. I moved the files in order from when they were most recently opened. For a moment I was surprised to see one opened only six weeks ago, but then I remembered. Uncle Myron had searched this computer, looking for clues about his brother’s fate.

The last file he’d opened—the most recent—was called “Resignation Letter.” I clicked on it and the document appeared:

To: The Abeona Shelter

Dear Juan:

It is with a heavy heart, my old friend, that I resign my position with our wonderful organization. Kitty and I will always be loyal supporters. We believe in this cause so much and have given so much to it. In truth, though, we have been more enriched than the young people we’ve helped. You understand this. We will always be grateful.

It is time, however, for the wandering Bolitars to settle down. I’ve secured a position back in Los Angeles. Kitty and I like being nomads, but it has been a long time since we stopped long enough to grow roots. Our son, Mickey, needs that, I think. He never asked for this life. He has spent his life traveling, making and then losing friends, and never calling one place home. He needs normalcy now and a chance to pursue his passions, especially basketball. So after much debate, Kitty and I have decided to get him settled into one place for his last three years of high school, and then he can apply to college.

After that, who knows? I never imagined this life for myself. My father used to quote a Yiddish proverb: Man plans, God laughs. Kitty and I hope to return one day. I know that no one really ever leaves the Abeona Shelter. I know I am asking a big thing here. But I hope you’ll understand. In the meantime, we will do all we can to make this transition a smooth one.

Yours in Brotherhood,
Brad

I read the letter twice more, my eyes blurring with tears. There was noise coming from upstairs, but I ignored it. I already knew most of what was in this letter, I guess. There were no real surprises. But to see it written out like that, stated so plainly by my now-deceased father, it was like a hand squeezing my heart.

Yes, I had grown weary of the constant travel. I had wanted a normal life, in one community, a place where I could join a school basketball team for an entire season, test my skills with real teammates, make lasting friends, stay in one school, maybe apply to college.

Well congratulations, Mickey. You got what you wanted.

I thought about our lives when my father wrote that letter. We had been so great, hadn’t we? Mom and Dad had been happy and in love. Now, thanks to my wants, Dad was dead and the only thing Mom was in love with came out of a needle. And the truth—the unmistakable truth when you looked at it with honest eyes—was that it was my fault.

Nice work, Mickey.

The basement door opened behind me. Myron called down, “Mickey?”

I wiped my eyes. “Homework!”

Myron’s voice had a happy-little-singsong quality to it. “You have a visitor.”

“What?”

I could hear his footsteps coming down.

More singsong. “There’s a young lady here to see you.”

I spun around. Myron reached the bottom of the steps with the biggest, goofiest, dorkiest smile I had ever seen on a human being. Behind him, coming into view just now, was Rachel Caldwell.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” I said. Mr. Romance.

Myron smiled at us like a game-show host. “Do you kids want me to make you popcorn?”

“No, thanks,” I said quickly.

“How about you, little lady?”

Little lady? I wanted to die.

“I’m fine, Mr. Bolitar, thank you.”

“You can call me Myron.”

He was still standing there, smiling like the most pleased jackass. I stared at him, flaring my eyes a little so that he’d catch the hint. He did. Awkwardly. “Oh, right,” Myron said. “I’ll just leave you two alone then. I’m going to head back upstairs, I guess.”

Myron pointed up the stairs with his thumb. Like maybe we didn’t know where “upstairs” was.

“Great,” I said, hoping to move him along.

Uncle Dork took one step and turned back toward us. “Uh, um, if it’s okay—and even if it’s not—I’m going to leave the basement door open. It’s not that I don’t trust you two, but I think Rachel’s parents wouldn’t approve—”

“Fine!” I said, interrupting him. “Leave the door open.”

“Not that I feel like I have to check up on you or anything. I’m sure you’re both very responsible teenagers.”

I wondered if I would ever in my life feel more mortified. “Thanks, Myron. Bye.”

“If you change your mind about the popcorn—”

“You’ll be the first to know,” I said. “Bye.”

Myron finally headed up the stairs. I turned to Rachel, who was smothering a chuckle.

“I’m sorry about my dorky uncle.”

“I think he’s nice,” Rachel said. “By the way, is everyone in your family over seven feet tall? Remind me not to wear flats when I visit you.”

I laughed at that, maybe a little too hard, but I needed a laugh.

“I’ve got two tests next week,” Rachel said, “so I thought maybe we could get a jump on the French Revolution project?”

“Sure,” I said.

Rachel took in the basement. Myron’s posters. Myron’s lava lamp (yes, he had one). Myron’s beanbag chairs. “Cool room.”

“It’s my uncle’s.”

“For real?”

“Yeah. I’m just here temporarily.”

“From where?”

“All over,” I said.

“Nice vague answer,” Rachel said.

“I was trying to be a man of mystery.”

“Try harder.”

I liked the way she said that.

“So, man of mystery, what were you doing by your girlfriend’s locker yesterday?”

I almost said,
She’s not really my girlfriend,
but I didn’t. “Just checking on something,” I said.

“Checking on what?”

“Do you know Ashley?” I asked.

“Not really, no.”

I didn’t know how much to say here. Rachel looked at me with deep-blue eyes a boy could fall into and never find his way out. And he’d be happy that way. “She left school,” I said. “I mean, I haven’t seen or heard from her in a week. I don’t know where she went.”

“And you thought her locker . . . ?”

“I don’t know. I thought it might hold a clue or something.”

Rachel seemed to consider this. “Ashley is new to the school too, right?”

“Right,” I said.

“So maybe she just moved away.”

“Maybe,” I said.

From upstairs Myron yelled, “How’s it going down there? Anybody want some popcorn and apple juice?”

Apple juice?

Rachel smiled at me. I felt my face flush.

Myron shouted down again, “Mickey?”

“Homework!”

chapter 14

LATE THAT NIGHT,
while I was getting ready for bed, I got a text. Ema:
can you get out?

Me:
Yes. What’s up?

Ema:
something I saw in the woods at Bat Lady’s. I think we should take a closer look.

Now? I thought, but then again, when would it be a better time? We needed the cover of dark, I guess, because I wasn’t sure we could approach the yard during the day without being seen. I threw on a pair of sweats, grabbed a flashlight, and headed for the front door.

When I reached for the knob, I heard a voice behind me say, “Where are you going?”

It was Myron. “Out,” I said.

He made a production of looking at his watch. “It’s late.”

“I know.”

“And it’s a school night.”

I hated when my uncle tried to play parent. “Thanks for the heads-up. I shouldn’t be gone long.”

“I think you should tell me where you’re going.”

“I’m just meeting a friend,” I said, hoping that would end it. No such luck.

“Is it that Rachel girl who was here earlier?” my uncle asked.

I needed to nip this in the bud. “We had a deal when I agreed to stay here,” I said. “Part of that was, you were going to stay out of my business.”

“I never agreed to let you go out at all hours.”

“Yeah, you kind of did. I’m just meeting a friend. It’s not a big deal.”

I rushed out before he could argue. I knew that Myron was trying to do the right thing here, but man, he was the wrong guy to try. I found Ema about a block away from Bat Lady’s house.

“How do you get out so late?” I asked her.

“What?”

“You’re fourteen years old and you’re out at all hours,” I said. “Don’t your parents get mad?”

Ema frowned. “Are you writing my biography or something?”

I frowned right back. “Good one.”

“Yeah, sorry, that was pretty lame.”

“Writing your biography.”

“I know,” she said. “I used to be funnier. I mean, before I hung out with you.”