chapter 14

HENRY

“The school secretary didn’t mention there was a field trip to our house today,” said Jake. “And on the second day of school too.” He sat next to Nopie, drinking a cup of coffee.

Nopie was at the table!

Henry couldn’t believe it. But there he was, hunched over a piece of paper, drawing something. A heat rose up inside Henry. A smoky heat that curled and wisped from his feet all the way to his face. What was Nopie doing here, just sitting all comfortable, in Henry’s chair, the chair Henry had sat in a million times before with Wayne right next to him, like he belonged there?

Nopie’s head shot up all of a sudden like a spark had singed his eyebrow, and he grabbed hold of a Tupperware container full of something white.

“My mom needed some sugar,” Nopie said. “She’s making an apple pie for Pop and she ran out of sugar and when we went apple picking the other day we got a whole lot of those tart apples, ’cause it’s really too early to pick apples, the kind that make your eyes water when you bite into them, so she really needs the sugar to sweeten ’em up and—”

“Give it a rest, Nopie,” said Henry. “Your mouth is gonna fall off.”

“Henry…” Annie cut the bottoms off some flower stems. She shot Henry a look.

“So I came here to get sugar,” Nopie finished, and took in a deep breath.

“Great,” said Henry. He put his hand out to pat Brae, but Brae lumbered over to Nopie and wagged his whole body against his shiny, silver-booted leg.

Nopie sat there, shaking the sugar container like it was a maraca. He had lived up the road from Henry for as long as Henry could remember. His motor mouth was the most glaring thing about him, always talking a mile a minute like he had lost the brakes on his tongue. But there was other weird stuff about him too. Like Nopie kept a rabbit at the school all last year in the lighting booth in the school auditorium. He had stolen a key from the janitor. Henry had to admit that was pretty impressive, but still, Nopie was a grade-A weirdo electric mixer–turtle dude.

“Sit down, Henry,” said Annie. “I’ll make you boys something to eat.”

Henry didn’t want to eat. He thought if he managed to swallow anything it would end up charred in his belly.

“So which neighbor saw Tiger last?” Nopie interrupted Henry’s thoughts.

“Four neighbors said they saw him,” said Annie. “I think the last one was Mack.”

“I’m making a map of all the houses on the road and then marking where Tiger’s been spotted,” Nopie said to Henry.

“Good for you.”

Jake put down his coffee. “Tiger’s been gone since the day Wayne died.” His leg began to bounce up and down under the table.

“He used to take walks with me,” said Annie. She brought a plate of apples and peanut butter to the table. “Like a dog. He would follow me onto the trail and walk the whole thing at my side. Honestly.”

“Tiger is a strange cat,” said Nopie.

“You’re strange,” said Henry.

“Was a strange cat,” said Jake. “Maybe a fisher’s gotten him.”

“Don’t say that, Jake,” said Annie.

Tiger could not be gone. Oh man, all the wrong things were disappearing—Henry glared at Nopie—and all the wrong things were staying rooted right where they were.

Nopie chewed on his apple, sucking peanut butter from between his teeth. Henry focused on that. Henry couldn’t decide which was a worse sound: the chewing-sucking one or the Nopie-running-his-mouth one.

“See,” said Nopie, his tongue thick with peanut butter—great, Henry was going to be serenaded by both sounds, “the four neighbors who saw Tiger are all on the same side of the road.” He pointed to his drawing. “One, two, three, four…all of them heading up to Mansfield.” Nopie paused. “Maybe he’s looking for Wayne.”

Jake’s bouncing leg got faster.

“Animals get sad when their owners leave them,” said Nopie. He leaned way down and put his arms around Brae’s neck. Henry’s whole body stiffened. Brae licked the peanut butter off the corners of Nopie’s mouth.

Annie filled a jar with water and put a handful of flowers in it. “There was an interview on the radio this morning with a man who had to leave his dog behind when he escaped the hurricane. And he was sure that the dog had died.” Annie plucked a flower out of the jar and held it up to her nose. “But he was wrong. The dog escaped from the house, swam through the flooded streets, and found him.”

Jake’s leg doubled its speed. The table wiggled as his knee hit it from underneath.

“Animal navigation,” said Nopie. “Like homing pigeons. Scientists don’t know how they can find their way back home.”

“That’s what they said about this dog,” said Annie. “They don’t know how he got out of the house or how he smelled the man with the water washing over everything, but he found him.”

“Animals have an extrasensory perception,” said Nopie. “I bet Tiger feels something strong about Wayne, and he’s looking for him.”

“Ah!” Jake pulled his hand away from his coffee mug. “Shoot! I burned myself!” He rubbed his knuckles with his other hand.

“I wonder if Tiger knows that Wayne died,” said Nopie. “I bet he doesn’t—”

Jake stood up suddenly and almost knocked over the table. Nopie’s pencil fell to the floor.

“I’m going to New Orleans,” he said.

“Perro,” said Annie.

“Pardon me?” said Jake.

“Isn’t that the Spanish word for dog?” said Annie.

“Yes,” said Henry. “We learned the names of animals in Spanish class. Perro. Dog. Gato. Cat. Pájaro. Bird.”

“I’ve been thinking—I want to learn Spanish.”

“Did you hear me?” said Jake. “I’m going to New Orleans—” Jake stumbled around his words. “Early Saturday morning,” he said with clarity. “Before the sun comes up.”

“There’s more French in New Orleans, isn’t there?” said Annie. “Not as much Spanish?”

“Annie?” Jake asked her name like a question.

“I understand,” she sighed. “You’re going to New Orleans.”

“They still need folks to drive truckloads of food and clothes. I’ll only be down there for a few days. I need to go.” Jake walked to the kitchen door but then turned around. “I’ll be sad to miss that apple pie, Nopie.”

Nopie looked up from his drawing. “I’ll freeze you a piece,” he said solemnly.

Jeez, what a stupid thing to say.

“I’ll be back to eat it,” said Jake. He turned and walked out.

—

For a long time, Henry and Nopie and Annie sat at the table and stared at the flowers in the jar. Henry watched their petals brighten and dim as clouds passed over the sun again and again, then looked outside the window at Jake fiddling under the hood of his rig. The big, shiny green eighteen-wheeler brightened and dimmed too, and the heat inside Henry slowly burned down, until all that was left were flickering embers—on and off, on and off—barely lighting the darkness inside his body.