Another Kind of Hurricane by Tamara Ellis Smith Page A

toward the rearview mirror. He touched the baseball with his foot. He wished like a parrot with its zygodactyl-like toes, forward and backward. He wished forward that Tiger would find his way home, and that he would find his marble in New Orleans. He wished, backward—with every bone in his body—that he could let Wayne win that last race down the mountain.

chapter 27

ZAVION
    Zavion figured out how to get to New Orleans.
    The clown brothers had helped him.
    “Why’d the bird NOT cross the road?” Skeet said
.
    “Why?” asked Tavius and Enzo in unison
.
    “Because it couldn’t swim!” Skeet hooted. “Get it? The street had been flooded with water? And it couldn’t swim?”
    “But it could fly,” said Tavius
.
    “Yeah, birdbrain,” said Enzo
.
    Zavion had been making bread at the time. He was on the thirty-sixth knead when Skeet told his joke, and he had laughed out loud, almost losing count.
    “Count me in for a piece of that bread,” said Tavius. “Honey oat with a heaping spoonful of guffaw!”
    “Food for the heart,” said Enzo.
    “Food for the soul,” echoed Skeet.
    As Zavion folded and pushed and turned and folded thedough, he laughed again, thinking about the bird joke. He liked the clown brothers.
    Why’d the bird NOT cross the road?
    Ha!
    Aha!
    Birds!
The bird lady. Diana. She went to New Orleans all the time. Maybe he could hitch a ride with her.
    The marble on the windowsill
was
a good idea. Zavion had slept a little better. And now he had the first idea for his plan.
    —
    Osprey ran into the kitchen, flying a green Converse sneaker on her leash like a kite. The sneaker bounced on its heel on the floor and hit Ms. Cyn’s leg. Two mugs slipped from her hands.
    —
    The sound of ceramic shattering.
    The smell of coffee splattering against the cupboard.
    The crash rattled something in the back of Zavion’s brain.
    All of a sudden, Zavion couldn’t breathe.
    He was underwater.
    He gasped.
    “I’m sorry—”
    Zavion didn’t know if he said those words out loud or not.
    —
    “Lordy, child—” Was Ms. Cyn talking to Zavion or Osprey?
    Zavion snapped back. He waited for her to add
You scared the living pee out of me
, but she didn’t this time.
    “Coffee down,” said Enzo.
    “That’ll keep the snakes away,” said Tavius.
    “Hush, you,” said Ms. Cyn. She wiped coffee off the cupboard.
    Zavion picked up pieces of the broken mugs.
    “Osprey,” said Enzo, “you need to be more careful.”
    “Watch out, Osprey,” said Skeet, “he’s going all father-figure on you.”
    “I
am
her father,” said Enzo. He hugged Osprey, who squirmed in his arms.
    “Poor kid,” said Tavius.
    Osprey broke free from Enzo and ran around the kitchen table.
    “Poor father,” said Zavion.
    The clowns laughed.
    Zavion had told a joke that made them laugh.
    Enzo stood up. “Let me help, Ms. Cyn,” he said. Osprey ran a lap around him.
    “You’ve got your hands full,” she said.
    Zavion straightened up, his own hands full of shards of ceramic mug. “I can take Osprey for a walk,” he said.
    He wasn’t sure why he offered.
    Osprey stopped running. “We can take Green for a walk,” she said.
    “Green?” asked Tavius.
    “My dog,” she said, pointing to the sneaker.
    “Cute pup,” said Skeet.
    Enzo blinked his eyes a few times fast. Tavius and Skeet immediately threw their arms around him. Zavion remembered that their real dog, Crow, had died in the hurricane. He felt a wave of sadness for Enzo.
    “I used to babysit at home,” offered Zavion again.
    “Go on,” said Ms. Cyn. She rinsed her dish towel in the sink. “Get on out of here so I can clean up.”
    “You?” said Tavius.
    “Clean?” said Skeet.
    “The kitchen?” said Enzo, grinning. To Zavion, he said, “Thank you.”
    —
    Osprey stopped at the corner.
    For someone with such short legs, she was fast.
    “This way,” said Zavion. It had occurred to him as they began their walk that he could investigate the bird lady