On his way to the Chicken Shack, Jaris dropped Chelsea off at the Ice House. Her friends were already there. She saw them around a table. There were Athena, Keisha, Inessa, Maurice, Heston, and a girl Chelsea had never seen before. It had to be Falisha.
Chelsea ordered a frozen strawberry yogurt and rushed over to the table. Athena said, “Chelsea, this is our new friend, Falisha.”
“Hi, Falisha,” Chelsea greeted. Falisha had cornrow hair, like Carissa, the girlfriend of one of Jaris’s friends, Kevin. “I love your hair. I think it looks great,” Chelsea commented.
Falisha wasn’t pretty, but she was nice looking. She was one of these people who have nice features but who are put together in a way that isn’t beautiful. Falisha was tall and thin, and she had pretty brown eyes. They were her best feature. They were smoky brown and full of mystery.
Chelsea could tell right away that Falisha was very shy. She would have trouble making friends. Chelsea was not like that. Even though she worried about not having friends, whenever she got among people, she talked to everybody. She could even be pushy. She remembered in first grade running around introducing herself to all the other kids. One girl in braids snorted, “Who’s that pushy girl?”
But Falisha looked very nervous. Her smile was weak. It danced on and off her lips like a ballerina who wasn’t sure of her routine. Only somebody as forceful as Athena could have bonded with her so quickly. Only Athena could have encouraged her to share her life story with all its secrets. Athena was so outgoing, she could overpower anyone’s shyness and drag them into the group.
“You’re not still mad at me that I didn’t hold that opossum are you?” Heston asked Chelsea.
“I was never mad, silly,” Chelsea replied, laughing. “I don’t care if anybody wants to hold an opossum or not.”
“I held old Magic right away,” Maurice boasted. “I’m not afraid of nothin’.”
“Yeah,” Inessa remarked. “I see you riding your skateboard and flying through the air like a maniac. I’ll tell you guys one thing. The day I touch an opossum or any other wild animal is the day you better have me locked up ’cause you know I just lost my mind.”
“I hate opossums,” Falisha announced in an emotional voice. “I think they’re just so ugly I can’t stand it.” Chelsea figured Falisha wasn’t just talking about opossums.
“One man’s ugly is another man’s beautiful,” Keisha commented. “Everybody different. That’s good. Otherwise we’d all like the same thing, and there wouldn’t be enough of it to go around.”
Athena turned to Falisha. “We gotta get something straight here, girl,” she affirmed. “We’re all friends, y’hear what I’m saying? Anything you say to us, stays with us. Me, Chelsea, Keisha, Inessa, Heston, and Maurice—we’re here for each other. We got each other’s backs, girl, y’hear me?”
Falisha smiled a little. “I never had real good friends before,” she confided. “We kept moving a lot ’cause Mom was a substitute teacher. Now she’s got a regular job.”
“What I’m saying is,” Athena explained, “we all talk from the heart. We don’t have to be afraid. Like I’m admitting I’m dumb. Once, some guy gave me a sports bottle and said it was good stuff. I drank it and passed out ’cause it was whiskey. I was lying in the alley, and some old bum found me. Lucky for me, he called nine-one-one before something bad happened.”
“Athena!” Falisha gasped, shocked. “Really?”
“Yeah, we’re dumb sometimes,” Athena admitted. “Like, ’nother time, me and Keisha and Chelsea got in a dude’s car. He took us for a ride goin’ over a hundred miles an hour. Chelsea and Keisha got grounded.”
“I got busted for hanging with the Nite Ryders,” Maurice added. “I don’t do that no more.”
Heston looked around nervously. He cleared his throat and confessed, “My thing is I get scared easy. I mean just seeing Chelsea’s brother, Jaris, or her Pop, sends chills up my spine. I want to be real brave and stuff, like I’d of loved to pick up that old opossum and impress Chelsea. But I started gettin’ shaky, and I hated myself.”
“Hey dude,” Maurice said, giving Heston a friendly poke in the shoulder, “seeing Chelsea’s lunatic brother even scares me. Don’t worry about it.”
Falisha looked around at her new friends with a sense of wonder. Then she said, “I told Athena about my problem, and she asked if it was okay to tell you guys. I said okay. I didn’t want it all around school, so kids won’t make fun of me. See, my mom likes this guy Shadrach, the guy who rescues opossums. He has one eye, and he’s scarred. He scares me, and I don’t want him around. He gives me the creeps. I’m scared Mom’ll marry him and he’ll . . . you know, live in our house.”
“Is it ’cause he looks bad that you don’t like him, Falisha?” Chelsea asked.
“It’s like everybody looks at him and shudders. I know he can’t help it, but he creeps me out so bad,” Falisha said.
“I don’t blame you, Falisha,” Inessa agreed. “He scares me too.”
“I got this uncle,” Maurice chimed in. “He so ugly, first time I seen him, I ran to my room and cried. I thought he was that weird critter that’s supposed to live in the woods. Bigfoot. My uncle was huge and hairy. He’s like got this shambling walk. Man, my flesh creeped. He got hairs coming outta his nose like six inches long . . . his ears too.”
Keisha laughed hysterically. “Nobody got hairs six inches long coming out of their noses!” she howled.
“Ain’t he ever hear of a hair clipper?” Heston asked.
“But then,” Maurice went on, “he kept coming around. Next time I seen him, he wasn’t so ugly. He offered to take me fishin’ from the pier. I never been before, so I said okay. Now me and him go fishin’ all the time, and he ain’t bad lookin’ no more.”
“Yeah,” Heston added. “The longer you know people, the more you kinda focus on their personality. Pretty soon, you don’t even see the scars and stuff. Shadrach, he’s such a good guy I don’t notice the scars much.”
“My older sister got zits last year, and I didn’t even want to sit next to her in church,” Keisha admitted.
“If I ever get bad zits, I’m gonna wear a mask,” Chelsea swore.
“I know what you guys are doing,” Falisha declared. “My grandmother always says, ‘Beauty is what beauty does.’ But I don’t care what anybody says. I don’t want that Shadrach near us. I hate those old opossums like nobody’s business.”
“Well,” Inessa suggested, “your mom probably isn’t even serious about the guy. He’s probably just a friend.”
Then Keisha added something. “My dad is getting too fat. He’s got a big stomach. Mom and me are embarrassed by him. Mom nags him all the time to lose weight, but he loves his fried chicken. I’d rather have a skinny stepdad with a few scars than a big fat guy.”
Keisha turned to Chelsea, “Your dad is sooo handsome, Chelsea.
Chelsea giggled. “Ewww, I gotta remember to tell Pop that!” she snickered.
Falisha glanced out the window of the Ice House. “There’s Mom. She’s taking me home.”
The group split up. Keisha and Inessa walked home. Heston had his bike. Chelsea and Athena and Maurice went with Ms. Colbert in her van.
Maurice’s mom dropped Chelsea home, and Chelsea gave Falisha a good-bye hug. “I’m glad we’re friends, Falisha,” she told the girl. Falisha smiled, but she was stiff when Chelsea hugged her. She acted as though she wasn’t used to getting hugs.
The following day, Jaris dropped Chelsea off at Tubman High. Chelsea wanted to show Ms. Colbert how she was coming along with her journal. Jaris would be back to pick her up. When Chelsea got to Ms. Colbert’s office, the teacher was just walking into the classroom with Falisha. Falisha smiled at Chelsea and announced, “Mom, she’s one of my new friends. I got a whole bunch of new friends now. We’re all gonna eat together when we come to Tubman, and we’re gonna study together and everything.”
“I’m so happy Falisha is making nice new friends,” Ms. Colbert said to Chelsea. Chelsea looked at the teacher. She was really pretty, and she looked younger than her middle thirties. She had dark hair, dark eyes, and dark skin. Falisha was much lighter.
Chelsea felt sorry for Ms. Colbert. She was too young to live the rest of her life alone. And nice guys were hard to find, especially for women past thirty. That’s what Chelsea heard on television, anyway. They said most of the good guys were already taken. Probably Ms. Colbert wanted a gentle man with a good heart who would take care of her and her daughter. Something about Shadrach had touched a chord in her heart. Chelsea thought it was too bad Falisha felt as she did about Shadrach.
Ms. Colbert glanced at Chelsea’s journal and stated she was doing a good job so far. Then Ms. Colbert looked at Chelsea and asked, “Are you excited about coming to Tubman?”
“Yeah,” Chelsea responded enthusiastically. “I liked Anderson Middle School, but I really want to be here. I don’t know yet what classes I’ll have except for yours, Ms. Colbert. I’m glad I’ll be in your class ’cause you’re nice.”
Ms. Colbert laughed. “Don’t make any snap judgments, Chelsea. I’m a pretty tough grader. It’s not easy getting an A out of me. Your older brother is a senior now at Tubman, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, Jaris,” Chelsea replied, wondering how Ms. Colbert already knew about Jaris. The teacher answered the question without Chelsea having to ask. “I’ve become friends with Torie McDowell since I came to work here. In fact, she helped me find this position. She and I were students together at UCLA. She was a senior when I was a junior. We belonged to the same sorority. Ms. McDowell has told me your brother is a fine student and a wonderful young man. He must be special to have impressed Ms. McDowell so much.”
“I guess,” Chelsea replied. She loved Jaris a lot, but he was only her brother. She saw him stumbling sleepily down the hall at home in his pajamas. She heard him singing in the shower and sounding pathetic. How could her brother be all that special? Maybe he was big shot Jaris Spain to the rest of the world. To Chelsea, he was often that overbearing guy.
Afterward, Ms. Colbert was leaving the school parking lot and found Chelsea standing alone.
“Chelsea,” the teacher asked, “do you have ride home?”
“I don’t know,” Chelsea said. “My brother was supposed to pick me up, but he’s not here yet. I tried calling him, but he’s not answering.”
“Come on, Chelsea,” Ms. Colbert said. “Hop in. I can have you home in a few minutes.”
Sitting in Ms. Colbert’s van, Chelsea felt as though something was wrong.
In the Spain driveway, she jumped out of the van, thanked Ms. Colbert, and walked toward the front door. Everything about the house looked the same. But nothing felt right.
When Chelsea went in the house, it was eerily quiet. Pop wasn’t home from work yet, but Mom was supposed to be home. “Mom?” Chelsea called out, with a strange sense of foreboding.
“I’m in here,” Mom called from her parent’s bedroom. Mom didn’t sound right, and Chelsea hurried to see her.
“You okay, Mom?” Chelsea asked. Her heart was pounding.
Mom was sitting in a chair next to the bed. “I have a splitting headache,” she explained. “Something awful happened down at the garage.”
“Is Pop okay?” Chelsea almost screamed.
“Yes, yes,” Mom responded, holding her hand up for Chelsea to lower her voice. “He’s down at the police station now with Jaris. He caught that kid he hired—that Boston Blake—stealing from the cash drawer. Your father confronted the kid, and Boston pulled a knife.” Mom was visibly shaken.
“Mommm,” Chelsea cried, shaking now herself. “You sure Pop wasn’t hurt? You sure?”
“He’s all right,” Mom answered, nodding. “He wrestled the knife from the kid. He got him down on the floor and got the knife away from him. It was so awful. Your father . . . your father could have been hurt or killed. He could have been stabbed by this kid. God only knows what might’ve happened. Your father is twice that kid’s age. If he hadn’t been able to overcome him, he’d probably have a knife sticking in his chest. He’d be in the ER with doctors fighting to save his life. Oh my God!” Mom’s eyes filled with tears.
Chelsea put her arms around her mother and hugged her. “He’s all right, isn’t he? You’re not keeping something from me, are you, Mom?” Chelsea begged to know.
“No, he’s not hurt,” Mom sighed. “I called Jaris, and he went down to the police station with your father. The police needed a statement about what happened.”
“They arrested that Blake guy, huh?” Chelsea asked.
“Yes. When your father had him down, he called nine-one-one,” Mom responded. “The police took him into custody. He was charged with robbery and attempted murder. Oh Chelsea, the police told your father that this guy’s been in trouble before. He has a rap sheet. He’s nineteen, and already he has a rap sheet. Your father hired him without checking anything. He said he had a certificate in auto repair from the community college, but your father didn’t even check that. He just sealed the deal with a handshake. No references, nothing.”
Mom sighed heavily. “Oh!” she continued. “Your father has this romantic idea that you just look into somebody’s eyes. If you like what you see, you go with it.” Anger was creeping into her voice, replacing the fear and shock she’d first felt.
“Poor Pop,” Chelsea moaned. “I bet he feels terrible.”
“I feel terrible too, Chelsea,” Mom snapped bitterly. “We put a big mortgage on our home so that your father could own this garage. Now his first big decision has proved a disaster. It almost cost him his life. I’m still shaking just thinking about it. He goes and hires some criminal off the street. Mom was right. Your father has no sense. Nobody these days hires someone without checking their references, seeing if they have a criminal record.”
“Please, Mom,” Chelsea begged, “don’t tell Grandma. She’ll beat Pop over the head with this forever and ever. She’ll never let him forget it.”
“Maybe he should never forget it,” Mom snapped. “Is that our biggest worry, that your father’s feelings will be hurt? Heaven forbid that should happen. No, our big worry is that this is probably only the beginning of his rookie mistakes. In the end, they’ll cost us not just the garage, but the roof over our heads!”
Pop’s pickup, followed by Jaris’s car, came into the driveway. Pop came in first. He had a bad bruise on his head, which he got falling against a desk while grappling with Boston Blake. Otherwise, he was unhurt. Mom rushed to him and hugged him. Chelsea threw her arms around her father and cried, “I’m so glad you’re okay. I was so scared!”
“What a day!” Pop sighed deeply. “I thought this was a great kid. He knew his stuff, he was good with the customers. I watched him work. Not perfect, but definitely getting’ there. I went over the work he did, and it was great. I couldn’t believe it. There he was in the office, helping himself to what was in the cash drawer. I go up behind him, and I say, ‘Wassup, Boston?’ He turns around, and he’s lookin’ wild. He’s been stuffin’ green ones in his pocket. I say, ‘Hold on there. You ain’t robbin’ me, kid, not before I bust you in the chops.’ He ain’t havin’ any of that. Next thing I know, he’s got his knife out. He’s gonna kill me, I’m thinkin’, so I go after him.”
The perspiration was still glistening on Pop’s brow. “We went at each other for a coupla minutes, and I got him down. I called nine-one-one, and they were there real quick.”
Pop shook his head. “I trusted this kid. I really liked him. What a lousy little bum.”
“Lorenzo,” Mom stated, “you didn’t do a background check on Boston Blake.” Her voice was stern. “You didn’t follow the first rule when hiring people. You didn’t do a security check. You gave him access to your office and your business, and you didn’t know him from Adam.”
Pop stood there, his eyes narrowing. He spoke darkly to his wife. “I ain’t had a bad enough day. I almost got a blade stuck in my chest. I banged my head on the desk. Now I got to be scolded by this lady who should be my loving, supportive wife?” Anger darkened his eyes.
“Lorenzo, don’t be a child!” Mom cried. “You made a terrible mistake. You failed to check out this man. That mistake could have cost you your life and destroyed this family! What other stupid mistakes are you making? I’d just like to know that. Do you realize what you’ve put me through today?”
“I don’t need this,” Pop huffed. He turned and went back outside.
Jaris ran after him. “Pop, don’t mind Mom. She’s just hysterical. She doesn’t know what she’s saying. Come back inside, Pop,” Jaris pleaded. “Take a nice hot shower and rest.”
Pop shoved Jaris out of his way and climbed into the cab of the pickup truck. He backed it out the driveway and went roaring down the street like a maniac. Jaris came back inside the house, his face a mask of anguish. He looked at his mother. “Mom, couldn’t you have just held the lecture till the guy got his breath?” he asked. “He almost died today. He fought a man half his age who mighta killed him. Couldn’t you cut him some slack?”
Mom’s eyes filled with rage. “Your father put this whole family at risk. He bought that stupid garage when he didn’t know what he was doing. Now he hires a dangerous criminal to work in the garage, and the guy almost kills him. But it’s my fault! Oh yes, my bad! I should clap my hands and say, ‘Good job, Lorenzo!’”
Jaris felt that maybe he could have held off the lecture too. “Only a fool neglects to check out his employees,” Mom went on. “I’m sick and tired of your father messing up and you kids making me the villain. I am sick and tired of it!”
Mom stomped down the hall, entered the bedroom, and slammed the door behind her. Jaris and Chelsea heard her loud sobbing soon after, and it continued for a long time.
“Jaris?” Chelsea whimpered, “It’s gonna be okay, isn’t it?”
Jaris didn’t answer for a few seconds. He didn’t know the answer to Chelsea’s question. But the terrified look in Chelsea’s big eyes forced him to make up something. “Yeah, sure,” he answered halfheartedly. “Was an awful thing that happened. They’re both . . . uh . . . not thinking straight. They’ll cool down. It’ll be okay, chili pepper.”