Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere (19 page)

The flash of hope I got from seeing something I knew and recognized got swallowed up quick by the rush of nausea that filled my whole body.

Uncle T-Bone's house was gone. If the steeple was poking up out of the Bible-filled water, my good sense told me that Uncle T-Bone's house should've been right there. Even if it was under the water, it should've been right where I was looking. But it wasn't.

Mama let out a gasp.

“Y'all all right, ma'am?” Mr. Oscar asked.

Mama squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head no.

“We're almost there,” he said again in that same calm voice.

I was fixin' to ask him once and for all if he knew where the heck he was going when my mouth snapped shut.

Something in the water caught my eye. A wave of familiar swept through me, bringing tingles to the back of my neck. I stared and stared, trying with all my might to remember what the floating thing was, and where I'd seen it before. The thought crossed my mind to ask Sealy when out of nowhere, the answer slammed into my head.

Floating there in the water, right along with all them waterlogged Bibles, was a big, floppy tangerine hat—the exact hat that Miss Shug, Lorraine, wore so proud on her head at my birthday party.

I leaned over the side of the tiny metal boat named Nessie and vomited fried lemon pie and bottled water.

My head was pounding and the sour taste still lingered when I seen Mr. Frank's ol' beat-down school bus sitting upside down on top of the building next to the doughnut shop. It was lying up there like a dead animal off to the side of the road, with its legs stuck straight up in the air, except it was the Goodyear tires pointing to the sky instead of stiff armadillo legs.

The bright red shingles of the doughnut shop roof were poking out of the murky water. The shop my Daddy got doughnuts from at the end of every month was the only one in the whole Ninth Ward with a roof the color of snakeberry red.

A new batch of tears went to building up when, all of a sudden, Mr. Oscar brought the little boat to a stop. “This is gonna be as far as I can take y'all,” he said.

Mama made herself busy gathering up babies.

“But Mr. Oscar, there ain't nothing here.” I swooped my arm, trying to show the nice man that he'd made a mistake.

Mr. Oscar was fiddling with his boat engine and was obviously too busy to notice that he'd stopped his boat in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by water.

“Water's shallow here,” Mr. Oscar said, to no one in particular. He wasn't making no eye contact.

“Shallow?” The familiar feeling of panic was creeping in. “What are you trying to say, Mr. Oscar?”

“He's saying the water's not very deep here,” Sealy said.

I glared at my sister. “I know what shallow means, Sealy.”

I was surprised when Mr. Oscar was the first one to get out of the boat, mostly 'cause he didn't have to get out at all. When he stood in the disgusting, murky water, it came up to somewhere between his kneecaps and his belly.

Sealy picked up the damp Bible from the bottom of the boat and brushed it off with her hand.

“Let me see, darlin',” Mr. Oscar said, and took hold of the used-to-be-waterlogged book. He pulled a red bandanna out from his back pocket. He wrapped the Bible up in the cloth and handed it to my sister.

Sealy just beamed. “Thank you, Mr. Oscar.”

“Yup,” is all he said.

Sealy put the wrapped-up book down in her book sack and nodded like she was good to go. I closed my mouth and rolled my eyes. I couldn't believe she'd stick anything that'd been in that water inside her book sack.

“Ground's slippery,” Mr. Oscar Dupree said, still keeping his eyes busy not looking at any of us. “Y'all be careful ya don't slip.”

Whatever
. It was obvious he didn't really care, or he wouldn't dump us like a batch of unwanted kittens on the side of the road.

Mr. Oscar offered his hand to Mama, and she took it. She didn't move, though. She held Kheelin with her other arm and stood there for the longest time, staring at the man whose hand she was holding.

A feeling of relief swept over me. Mama wasn't gonna get off the boat. She had too much good sense for that. I wondered how she was gonna inform the man that he had to take us somewhere with land. Dry land.

Mr. Oscar gave his head a little nod, and Mama nodded back at him. “I've got ya, ma'am,” he said. “I ain't gonna let ya fall.”

Mama turned and handed Kheelin to me without saying a word. A pounding started in my head. I reached for Memaw's locket, forgetting that Mama was still wearing it.

Mama grabbed hold of the corner of her dress and held it up all ladylike. I hoped she wasn't thinking that was gonna prevent it from getting wet. The boat rocked back and forth till Mama was finally up and over the side of the boat and down in the water.

As soon as she was standing, Mama's lime-green party dress took to floating and puffed up like a parachute all around her. The big air bubble caught up under her dress was the problem. Mama started doing her best to push the silly giant bubble down without making a fuss.

Khayla was the first one to start laughing. “Funny, Mama!” she said, pointing at the ridiculous sight.

Sealy's giggle made Mama smile, and before I knew what was happening, Mr. Oscar started to chuckle. His big ol' stomach took to bobbing up and down, causing the water to make laugh ripples.

I'd seen enough. I set Kheelin down in the bottom of the boat and jumped over the side, not even pausing for a second to consider what I was jumping into.

I made a terrible splash. Memaw's boots filled with water, making my efforts to get to Mama clumsy and slow. I slapped at Mama's dress with my hands flying every which way. I didn't care that my splashing was getting Mama and Mr. Oscar's faces wet. I didn't care that I was scaring my brother and sisters to death.

I kept on slapping till I'd shoved all of Mama's poofed-up dress down into the water where it belonged and looked normal.

“There,” I said, satisfied and out of breath. I looked at Mama for the first time since I'd jumped off the dry boat. The look on her face stopped me cold. Her eyes were huge, but droopy in the corners. Her mouth was turned as far down as it could've gone without the whole thing just slipping right off her face.

Mr. Oscar had his head down, staring at his own big belly.

“What?” I said, turning toward the boat. Sealy was clutching the twins. Tears streamed down her baby-looking face. Kheelin looked at me like he didn't know who I was.

Mama touched my arm. “Armani, are you all right?”

“Sure, Mama. I'm just fine. Fine as pie.” My voice was extra high and disrespectful. “We're all just fine, ain't we, Mama?” I glared at her, sliding my head—crying.

Mr. Oscar Dupree had his arms around me. “Hush, hush . . .” he shushed in my ear.

I wiped my teary face into the man's shirtsleeve.

“You gonna be fine,
bébé
.”

I nodded. I couldn't look at him. I wiped my nose on the back of my hand. I reached into the boat and took Kheelin from Sealy. It was plain that he didn't wanna come to me by the way he pulled away and tried to latch onto Sealy for his dear little life. I didn't care. I gave an extra firm tug and took him anyway.

I tried to stomp my way over to Mama, but the dang boots made it feel like I had melons tied to my feet. Kheelin sat up high on my hip, and his legs dragged through the water.

I plopped my baby brother into Mama's arms. I turned back to get another kid before Mama or anybody else had a chance to say a word.

We slogged through the soupy water—one foot in front of the other—not even knowing if we were walking in a straight line. Every time I took a step, I'd scrunch up my toes to keep Memaw's boots from sliding off my achy, wet feet. I tried to concentrate on counting my steps to keep from thinking about what might've been lurking up in that thick, nasty water with us.

Then I started to see all the people. At first it was two or three walking together, making their way through the muck, then I seen more and more. Survivors—like us. It was strange. Never in my whole life had I seen people coming together in the same place, at the same time, and not one of them saying a word. There wasn't no, “Hey, what's up?” or “Hi, how ya doing?” Helicopter buzz filled the air, but it couldn't hide the sounds of the sloshing water, babies crying, dogs barking, and Mama's sniffling.

The heaviness up inside my own self was growing bigger and harder to carry every time another soggy, sad somebody joined our growing group. It was like all the sorrows coming together was turning into its own somebody. Everyone had the same look—scared, confused, hungry, and wore down.

Mr. Oscar Dupree had gave us the foam cooler for one of the twins to ride in. Sealy was so scared her book sack was gonna get wet, she took it off and laid it down under Khayla in the Styrofoam boat. Sealy's only job, besides staying upright on her own two feet, was to help push the cooler holding our little sister while I pulled.

Every time I looked down at Khayla, I was about a hop-skip from losing it. The girl was all smiling and happy, like she was having a good ol' time. She even said, “Go faster,” a couple times, like she was on a ride at the church carnival.

I'd be lyin' if I didn't admit that I had more than one thought of wishing I were small enough to ride in the cooler and let someone else worry about hauling my butt through the water while I sat all dry and happy. The thoughts didn't stick around long 'cause I was too busy pulling the dumb Styrofoam boat, switching from my right arm to my left every few minutes.

I dragged my stupid heavy feet through the slime. Heavy on account of the ridiculous, ugly boots. Memaw's boots. Heavy 'cause they didn't fit. Didn't fit 'cause Memaw didn't have enough sense to find shoes that fit. I wiped my idiot tears and snot on my shoulder. Memaw should've known they'd fill up with water. She shouldn't have died in the attic. Everything was so heavy.

Sealy did the best she could pushing the boat-cooler, but the ground up under the water was uneven and slick. We looked like we were drunk the way we kept swaying this way and that.

I was fixin' to ask Mama how much further when my foot slid into a hole in the ground and went sideways. I stumbled. My face was headed for the nasty water!

I grabbed hold of the side of the cheap boat-cooler with both hands to keep from falling. A chunk of white Styrofoam broke off and sent the boat-thing into a rocking wobble.

Khayla squealed and clapped.

Sealy froze.

Mama reached for Khayla's arm too slow.

Khayla tipped right out into the water, making a
plop
sound, just like my birthday puppy did when she spun herself off the roof. She went face first into the goo-water-stew. Me, Mama, and Sealy all scrambled at the same time, all but knocking each other down trying to rescue her.

“Khayla!” Mama shrieked.

I grabbed hold of one of her flailing arms and yanked fast and hard.

Lord have mercy
. Memaw sighed in my head. Her voice was so clear and real, I turned my head, expecting to see her standing right there next to me. But she wasn't there. There was no Memaw, no Daddy, and no Georgie, just us—me, Mama, Sealy, forever-wheezin' Kheelin, and soaked-to-the-bone, lucky-to-be-alive Khayla.

It was like the cooler had a mind of its own. It dumped my baby sister out, then went right back to sitting as nice as it could be, with Sealy's book sack tucked all neat and snug at the bottom.

Khayla coughed and made gagging sounds. The disgusting water spewed from her mouth. A tiny bit even dripped out of her nose. She was flapping her arms like a baby bird fixin' to fly. I went to remembering the broken bird family in the nest on top of Daddy's truck. A cold, fast shiver ran from the top of my head to my toes.

“Khayla, are you okay?” Mama cried. Behind the river of tears and trembling lips, I seen something I thought I'd never see in my mama's
face—the soft around her eyes was gone. Her face was all squished into the side of Khayla's plump, wet cheek. She was staring at me and not looking at me at the same time. The sight of her fright had me too scared to speak.

My insides jumped when she took in a big gulp of air and said, “First Georgie, now
Khayla
?” She squeezed her eyes shut. “This is Henry and Shelton all over again. . . .” Her voice drifted off into a whimper.

I was nauseous. Whatever was happening, it was
nothing
like what happened to my dead uncles. Tears fell. I opened my mouth to say sorry, but Mama spoke first.

“What is
wrong
with you?” She whispered the hateful words that cut through me like no kind of hurt I'd felt before. Mama ain't never spit words out at me like she did just then. She glared at me with teary eyes, then just like that, she turned away.