froze, but I hadn’t raised two boys for nothing. “Behave, both of you! Ricky, go on back inside. Lewis, go to the car. We’ve asked what we came for.”
“Got more than you came for.” Ricky looked like he might even strike me!
“Ricky!” the girl squealed from the door. “Stop it! You could get in real bad trouble.”
He gave her a glare that would have had me packing my bags if I’d been her, but he must have decided she had a point. Giving Lewis one quick kick in the back, he stomped up his front steps, shoved the girl aside, and slammed the screened door behind him.
Lewis climbed to his feet, nursing his jaw and holding his back, and limped to the car.
“Just a minute!” I called before Beverly could disappear. “Josheba, do you have paper and a pen?” I sure did miss my pocketbook. I’d need to get one as soon as Jake—
I wasn’t up to thinking about Jake right then. Quickly I took the pen and a grocery receipt Josheba handed me, and wrote down my name, Jake’s name, and his phone number. I held them up to the girl, who stood lumpishly on the top step. “I’m staying at my brother’s while he’s in the hospital. This is his phone number. Please call me if you hear from Harriet.”
She took the paper without a word. Ricky, already lolling on the couch watching television, called, “Fat chance.”
Fat chance he’d hear? Or fat chance he’d call me if he did?
Ten
[She] who brings trouble on [her]
family will inherit only wind.
Proverbs 11:29
“I probably asked for that,” Lewis admitted as he started the engine, “but that doesn’t make me feel any better. Did we learn a blessed thing?”
I felt as dismal as he sounded. “Not a thing.”
“Learned not to mess with mean white boys.” Josheba leaned up from the backseat and lightly touched his jaw. “Does it hurt real bad?”
Lewis worked it back and forth. “No more than if I’d been hit by a ten-ton truck.”
“Come by my place,” she offered. “My mama taught me a poultice that’ll take your pain right out.”
“Don’t have time,” Lewis mumbled. “I got a date.”
“Me too,” Josheba said tartly. “A hot date. I was just being nice.”
I looked around in surprise. Josheba winked and held one finger to her lips.
During the next few minutes, several thoughts jumbled around in my brain. If Harriet had inherited her grandmother’s house, then surely she’d gotten more from the sale than three thousand dollars. Where was the rest? In the bank, probably—but how had Harriet gotten out the three thousand? Fifteen-year-olds can’t withdraw money from a bank. Dee must have gotten it for her—but for what? I should have told Dee I’d found the money—except she might not be as worried if she thought Harriet had money to live on. I knew I was more worried thinking she didn’t. “Where could that girl be?” I asked the others. “Surely a child can’t completely disappear.”
Lewis had just pulled onto the Southern bypass, a busy strip of fast-food places and chain motels that utterly lives up to its name: it bypasses every blessed thing that’s nice about the South. “See all this?” he waved his hand out his window. “Busy, anonymous, and just like every other city in America. It’s easy to get lost in that, and for a lot of kids, it looks better than what they’ve left behind. Harriet, for instance, gets to choose between living with a snotty cheerleader cousin, or living with Ricky and putting up with who-knows-what.”
“Paying his bills, if she has any money,” Josheba suggested behind me.
Lewis nodded. “Or going on the streets to pay them if she doesn’t.”
“Surely not!” I’ve seen a lot in my time, but what he’d just said made me sick.
He shrugged. “In my business you see brothers selling sisters, Mac, much less foster brothers selling kids they don’t give two bits for. I’m not saying Ricky did put Harriet on the streets, but he would’ve tried in a blinkin’ second if
“Got more than you came for.” Ricky looked like he might even strike me!
“Ricky!” the girl squealed from the door. “Stop it! You could get in real bad trouble.”
He gave her a glare that would have had me packing my bags if I’d been her, but he must have decided she had a point. Giving Lewis one quick kick in the back, he stomped up his front steps, shoved the girl aside, and slammed the screened door behind him.
Lewis climbed to his feet, nursing his jaw and holding his back, and limped to the car.
“Just a minute!” I called before Beverly could disappear. “Josheba, do you have paper and a pen?” I sure did miss my pocketbook. I’d need to get one as soon as Jake—
I wasn’t up to thinking about Jake right then. Quickly I took the pen and a grocery receipt Josheba handed me, and wrote down my name, Jake’s name, and his phone number. I held them up to the girl, who stood lumpishly on the top step. “I’m staying at my brother’s while he’s in the hospital. This is his phone number. Please call me if you hear from Harriet.”
She took the paper without a word. Ricky, already lolling on the couch watching television, called, “Fat chance.”
Fat chance he’d hear? Or fat chance he’d call me if he did?
Ten
[She] who brings trouble on [her]
family will inherit only wind.
Proverbs 11:29
“I probably asked for that,” Lewis admitted as he started the engine, “but that doesn’t make me feel any better. Did we learn a blessed thing?”
I felt as dismal as he sounded. “Not a thing.”
“Learned not to mess with mean white boys.” Josheba leaned up from the backseat and lightly touched his jaw. “Does it hurt real bad?”
Lewis worked it back and forth. “No more than if I’d been hit by a ten-ton truck.”
“Come by my place,” she offered. “My mama taught me a poultice that’ll take your pain right out.”
“Don’t have time,” Lewis mumbled. “I got a date.”
“Me too,” Josheba said tartly. “A hot date. I was just being nice.”
I looked around in surprise. Josheba winked and held one finger to her lips.
During the next few minutes, several thoughts jumbled around in my brain. If Harriet had inherited her grandmother’s house, then surely she’d gotten more from the sale than three thousand dollars. Where was the rest? In the bank, probably—but how had Harriet gotten out the three thousand? Fifteen-year-olds can’t withdraw money from a bank. Dee must have gotten it for her—but for what? I should have told Dee I’d found the money—except she might not be as worried if she thought Harriet had money to live on. I knew I was more worried thinking she didn’t. “Where could that girl be?” I asked the others. “Surely a child can’t completely disappear.”
Lewis had just pulled onto the Southern bypass, a busy strip of fast-food places and chain motels that utterly lives up to its name: it bypasses every blessed thing that’s nice about the South. “See all this?” he waved his hand out his window. “Busy, anonymous, and just like every other city in America. It’s easy to get lost in that, and for a lot of kids, it looks better than what they’ve left behind. Harriet, for instance, gets to choose between living with a snotty cheerleader cousin, or living with Ricky and putting up with who-knows-what.”
“Paying his bills, if she has any money,” Josheba suggested behind me.
Lewis nodded. “Or going on the streets to pay them if she doesn’t.”
“Surely not!” I’ve seen a lot in my time, but what he’d just said made me sick.
He shrugged. “In my business you see brothers selling sisters, Mac, much less foster brothers selling kids they don’t give two bits for. I’m not saying Ricky did put Harriet on the streets, but he would’ve tried in a blinkin’ second if
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