The illuminated face of Jaris’s alarm clock glared at him in the darkness. It was ten thirty. Even in the bad old days, when Pop sometimes stopped at a bar after work, he came in before now. Jaris had showered and put on his pajamas, but he couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t even think about sleeping. His eyes were wide and staring. He checked the clock every minute.
Jaris’s imagination ran wild. Maybe this was all just too much for his father. Maybe Pop had started drinking again. Some time ago, he had taken the pledge at Pastor Bromley’s church, and he hadn’t had a drop since then. Not in months. But maybe today he broke the pledge. Maybe he’d been drinking, and a cop stopped him on his way home. Maybe now he had a DUI on top of everything else. Or maybe he’d been in an accident. He was in a terrible mood when he drove off. Maybe he came to some intersection and didn’t notice the red light until he heard the crash.
Jaris had stopped twice at the garage while Boston Blake worked there. He seemed like a nice young guy with a broad smile. He had big shoulders, and Jaris thought he probably played football in high school. Jaris knew his father should have done a background check. Mom was right. But Pop was impressed with the friendly, polite, smooth talking young man. And Blake did know his way around engines. It all made sense. Blake had finished his course at the community college, and now Pop was giving him his first break. Pop was pleased to be doing that—to be giving a nice kid a hand up.
Then Jaris heard Pop’s pickup in the driveway. The boy sat bolt upright in bed. It was almost eleven. Jaris froze. At least Pop made it home. That was a good thing. Jaris listened for the sound of him coming in, his footfall. When he’d been drinking, he sounded a little wobbly. But tonight he sounded okay.
Pop came down the hall. Pretty soon, Jaris heard the hot water running for a shower. Jaris listened for the tap to go off. In the past, when there was trouble, Pop slept on the couch in the living room. But this time he seemed to be going for his parents’ bedroom, which was right next to Jaris’s.
Jaris tensed up, wondering if the fighting would resume. He heard his mother’s voice first. “I’m sorry, Lorenzo. I shouldn’t have—” she began.
“I’m sorry too, babe. I made a boneheaded mistake. I just didn’t want to be reminded of it,” Pop replied.
“I’m so glad you’re okay, Lorenzo. I couldn’t make it w-without you,” Mom said softly, her voice breaking.
There was silence then. He smiled and went to sleep.
The next Saturday, Chelsea, Athena, Maurice, and Heston again went to the opossum rescue center in Ms. Colbert’s van. This time, everybody knew what to do. The four teenagers accomplished a lot. They replaced the soiled newspapers in the cages, cleaned up the bin where the opossum babies lived, and put out fresh food and water. Toward the end of the session, Ms. Colbert returned in the van.
“Everything looks good, Shadrach,” she commented, looking around. “Smells nice and fresh too.”
“The kids were great,” Shadrach responded. “I’m glad you’re here too, ’cause we were thinking about releasing Magic tonight. If anybody is free and wants to see it happen, well, now’s the time to speak up.”
“Oh, I’d love to see Magic go back in the wild,” Chelsea cried.
“Me too,” Athena echoed. “Anything to get me out of my house.”
Maurice and Heston wanted to come too. So Ms. Colbert suggested, “I’ll pick you guys up at your houses. Then we’ll come here and follow Shadrach to wherever he sees a good release spot.”
“That’s so nice of you, Ms. Colbert,” Chelsea remarked.
“It’s no problem,” Ms. Colbert said. “You guys all live near each other. So, about eight-thirty good, Shadrach?”
“Yeah, fine,” he answered. “We should be finished by nine, nine-thirty. I’ve got several spots in mind. We gotta pick just the right one. A brushy area at the edge of a neighborhood. The poorer the neighborhood, the better ’cause those folks tend to be more tolerant of wild things. They won’t mind an opossum occasionally eating off their cat food. Now the richer folks prefer stone animals in their yards . . . stone lions, maybe a stone chipmunk, or two.”
“Will ol’ Magic run like a deer when you release him?” Heston asked.
Shadrach laughed. “Opossums kinda ramble, Heston,” he responded. “They can’t run like deer. That’s why so many of them get hit in the street. They can’t get out of the way fast enough. But watch when Magic gets it into his head that he’s free, that he’s back in the wild kingdom. He’s gonna ramble real fast, you better believe it. They just explode with joy.”
Shadrach glanced lovingly over at Magic. “I’m telling you guys,” he continued, “this is the best part of the whole deal. This is what makes all the hard work worthwhile. This is the night I’m thinking about when I’m dealing with all that wet newspaper. Magic came here all skinny and bloody, and he didn’t have a future. We rescued him and tonight it pays off. He’s young. He’ll do fine. He’ll find himself a girl opossum, and pretty soon his babies’re resting in her pouch.”
As Ms. Colbert handed everyone permission slips to sign, Chelsea watched Shadrach. He looked happier than Chelsea had ever seen him.
When Chelsea got home, she told her mother about the planned release of Magic. “Ms. Colbert, our science teacher is gonna pick us up about eight-thirty. We’re following Shadrach to a good place where he’ll free Magic.”
“Well,” Mom agreed, “as long as your teacher is with you. But be careful out there in the woods.”
“Heston and Maurice are coming too, Mom,” Chelsea chirped. “It’s gonna be so fun.” Then she hesitated. “Uh . . . Mom,” she asked, “is Pop doing okay at the garage by himself?”
“Yes,” Mom answered. “Mr. Jackson has come by to help. All those years your father bad-mouthed him, and now he turns out to be a friend. He doesn’t need the money, but he knows your dad needs help until he can find another mechanic. So Jackson is fixing cars alongside your dad. Three young guys have already put in applications, and this time your father is checking them out.”
Mom looked pointedly at Chelsea. “And just for your information, young lady, I never told Grandma anything about what happened.”
Chelsea gave her mother a big hug. “Thanks, Mom!”
The other three teens were already in the car as Ms. Colbert pulled up to the Spain house. Clutching her journal, Chelsea ran out to join them. They drove the short distance to Indigo Street and began following Shadrach’s truck. Magic was already in a pet carrier in the truck.
“I bet Magic wonders what’s happening,” Chelsea commented.
“Oh, Chelsea,” Athena laughed, “opossums don’t wonder about stuff.”
The moon was a crescent, but there was enough light to see.
“Have you ever seen a release before?” Heston asked Ms. Colbert.
“One time. It was really cool,” she answered. “Up until then, I never really saw the value in rescuing the poor little critters just to live in cages. But suddenly it all made sense.” Ms. Colbert smiled and remarked, “Shad knows what he’s doing.”
Chelsea’s ears perked up. Ms. Colbert called Shadrach “Shad” in a warm and friendly way. Maybe Falisha really did have something to worry about.
“He’s slowing down,” Ms. Colbert noted. “This looks like a good area. Yeah, he’s pulling over.”
She drove in behind him and parked. Everybody got out. “Now we need to be very quiet, you guys,” the teacher instructed. “Magic has been through a lot. We need to let him hear the sounds of the brush, not our voices.”
Shadrach lifted the carrier from the truck and took it a short distance into the brush. The others followed single file.
“Smell the air around here,” Shadrach whispered. “Smells damp. There’s a little stream over there. Even when there’s not a lotta rain, runoff from people sprinkling their yards drains in.”
Ms. Colbert and the four teenagers followed Shadrach as he walked deeper into the brush. “Don’t want to let him out in an unsafe place,” Shadrach whispered.
The teacher and students stood silently, listening in awe. Chelsea thought, “Shadrach is right. This is wonderful and exciting.” They all moved off a little deeper into the brush.
Suddenly Shadrach stopped. He set the carrier on the ground. He was so intent on what he was doing that he seemed oblivious to the teenagers and Ms. Colbert. Shadrach then spoke to Magic in a somber voice. “Okay, Magic, this is it, the parting of the ways, buddy. Don’t go running in the street now, hear? Plenty nice crickets and cockroaches to eat around here, y’hear what I’m saying? Hear those crickets chirping away?”
Shadrach knelt on the ground and opened the door of the carrier. He pulled some apple slices in his pocket and tossed them on the ground in front of the open door. Magic crawled from the carrier. He sniffed an apple slice. He scarfed them all up. Then he vanished in a silvery blur, shambling as fast as he could.
Shadrach stood up and laughed. In the darkness, you couldn’t see his scarred face. He looked like a tall, handsome man laughing heartily. “Ain’t he just like a kid?” Shadrach noted with mock hurt. “You bust your butt getting them hale and hearty. Then the first chance they get, they leave you in their dust. Not even a backward glance. Adios, Magic. Have a blast.”
“That was awesome!” Chelsea gasped, still in a hushed tone. There was something unreal, even spiritual about the moment. They had done a very good thing for a little creature who had no way of repaying the kindness. That made the release even more wonderful.
“You think you’ll ever see Magic again, Shadrach?” Maurice asked.
“I hope not,” Shadrach answered emphatically. “If I see him again, it means he’s in trouble. But I think he’ll be okay.”
Ms. Colbert walked the students back to the street. She made sure everyone was in the van. Then she said, “I’m going to help Shad with the carrier. I’ll be right back. On the way home, we’ll stop at the Ice House for cones.”
Chelsea wondered why Shadrach couldn’t get the carrier on his truck by himself. Why would he need Ms. Colbert’s help? The others were thinking the same thing and grinning.
They all unbuckled their seat belts and pushed forward to peer through the windshield. Mrs. Colbert and Shadrach were standing in front of the pickup. The truck was between them and the van. Even so, the students could just about see through the rear window of the truck. The two figures came together.
“He kissed her!” Maurice crowed in a low tone. “The dude kissed the teacher!”
“Don’t tell Falisha,” Athena said, “she’ll freak.”
“Why shouldn’t she be happy her mom found a nice guy?” Maurice asked.
“’Cause Shadrach turns her off,” Athena explained.
“Big deal!” Maurice responded. “My whole family turns me off, but I don’t mess with what they want to do. I don’t mess with them, and they don’t mess with me.”
“What’s that mean, Maurice?” Chelsea asked.
“Means my folks don’t pay much attention to me,” Maurice replied. “Us kids kinda raise ourselves. It’s okay.”
“My parents are sort like that too,” Athena added. “They got so much stuff going in their lives that sometimes they forget I even exist.”
“My parents are on my case twenty-four-seven,” Heston remarked.
“Mine too,” Chelsea said.
“And then you got that lunatic brother watching over you too,” Maurice told her, shuddering.
Mrs. Colbert started back to the van. The students scrambled back into their seats and buckled up.
When Ms. Colbert got into the driver’s seat, she seemed in a very good mood. “That was special, wasn’t it, you guys?” she commented.
“Yeah,” Chelsea agreed. “Magic took off and never looked back. He had food and water and safety in that little cage back at the shelter. But he didn’t have what he really wanted—freedom. He’s got that now.”
“Freedom’s a great thing,” Athena remarked. “But there was a girl rock-and-roll singer a long time ago. Mom liked her. I think her name was Janis something. Anyhow, she was big in Mom’s time. She had this line in a song of hers. Freedom is sorta just another way of saying nothing left to lose, or something like that.”
The other kids were staring at Athena. They weren’t sure where she was going with this. “I guess it’s not that way with opossums,” Athena continued, “but for people. I mean, what if you can do anything you want without even telling anybody? Does that mean you’re really, really free? Or does it mean nobody cares much about you?”
Chelsea looked at Athena and felt bad. Chelsea knew Athena’s parents weren’t like Mom and Pop. Chelsea’s parents went a little crazy when she went on that dangerous car ride with the Yates brothers. But not Athena’s mom and dad. They didn’t seem very concerned. Chelsea always thought their reaction didn’t matter to Athena. But maybe it did.
They stopped for yogurt cones, and Ms. Colbert dropped Chelsea home at ten. Mom and Pop were in the living room, discussing which new mechanic Pop should hire.
Mom looked up when Chelsea appeared. “Have fun tonight sweetie?” she asked.
“Oh yeah, Mom, it was great,” Chelsea responded. “Magic is free now, and it was beautiful. Hi, Pop. You decided who to hire yet?”
“No, little girl,” Pop answered with a half smile on his face. “Your Mom wants to make the decision. She’s got me on a short leash now.”
“Oh, Lorenzo,” Mom laughed. “Don’t be silly.”
“Oh yeah,” Pop insisted. “She’s wantin’ to be assistant manager of the beater shop now. Wantin’ to make sure the old man don’t screw up no more.” Pop sounded sarcastic, but not in an angry way. He was, as usual, poking fun at Mom.
“Oh, Lorenzo,” Mom corrected him, “it’s just that I know two of the boys you’re considering. I think I can give you some valuable input. They’re both good boys. And they’re probably good mechanics if they graduated from the community college with auto repair certificates. Now Rashard Jefferson is a nice quiet boy, very trustworthy. But Darnell Meredith is not only that, but he has a great personality. Your customers would really like him. He’s really sharp too. He was making money doing oil changes for people in the neighborhood when he was at Anderson Middle School.”
“Well, Madame Chairwoman, you make the call,” Pop announced. “You tell me who to hire, and it’s done.”
Mom laughed again. She was clearly enjoying the fact that Pop was asking for her opinion. “Stop being silly, Lorenzo. You couldn’t go wrong with either boy. But if I were you, I’d hire Darnell.”
“I’ll call ’im Monday mornin’,” Pop declared.
Later, Pop was walking behind Chelsea as she went to her room. “So the little opossum got his send-off tonight, huh, little girl?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Chelsea responded, a little sleepily. She stopped and turned to face her father. “Shadrach released Magic. It was kinda sad to see him go, but it was great. I got so much good stuff in my journal about working at the rescue place. I’m way ahead of most of the freshman ’cause I already know and like one of my teachers.”
Chelsea then paused. “Pop, will you have to . . . you know, go to court against that guy who tried to rob you?”
“I guess so,” Pop said.
“He didn’t belong to a gang or anything, did he, Pop?” Chelsea asked. She dreaded the thought of Boston Blake’s fellow gang members coming after Pop.
“Not sure, baby,” Pop replied. “But he had no tattoos, didn’t dress funny. ’Sides, why would he be workin’ in a fix-it shop if he was in a gang?”
“Still it kinda scares me that . . . you know, he’ll be mad at you and stuff for sending him to jail,” Chelsea told her father.
“I’m not thrilled about it either, little girl,” Pop admitted. “But the kid has got to be stopped before he does something real bad. I can’t let fear stop me from telling the truth about what happened.”
“But what if he has bad friends and—” Chelsea started to say.
“Baby, you can’t think about stuff like that,” Pop cut in. “The kid pulled a knife. That’s bad. He needs to spend some time in the slammer. Maybe then he’ll straighten out and be okay. But I gotta do my duty. A man ain’t much of a man if he lets fear get the best of him.”
Pop realized that speech wasn’t what Chelsea was worried about. “But don’t worry about it, little girl,” he changed his tack. “The kid probably has a lawyer. He’ll work out some plea bargain so there won’t even be a trial. Don’t worry about it. You got more important things to think about, okay?” Pop gave Chelsea a hug, and she went into her room.
Lying on her bed, Chelsea checked over her journal. She couldn’t believe all she had written. Shadrach’s work had really touched her. Working with the injured and sick opossums and the babies had helped Chelsea make her decision. Someday she might be a veterinarian.
After she fell asleep that night, she even dreamed about opossums. In her dream, Magic reclaimed his place in the wild kingdom to much fanfare. All his old friends welcomed him back.