The Colossus of Roads

by Christina Uss

  “Tell me about the new school,” his dad said. “Are you finding the work challenging enough?” Both Dad and Mom were worried that the school Rick had transferred to for fifth grade might be crummy.

  “Sure. Plenty of challenges,” Rick answered.

  “Like…?” Dad prompted.

  Rick said, “Ummmmm…” Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary’s most striking feature was how every hallway was plastered with quotes from famous people exhorting the students to reach higher, believe harder, and never give up on anything. “The art teacher has a museum curator coming to talk to us tomorrow.” He propped himself on his elbows and sipped some water while he tried to think of something else to say. His stomach questioned whether it wanted any water yet. His face must have shown it, because his dad winced.

  Dad took the cup from Rick and sat down next to him on the couch. “Someday, son. Someday this won’t be a challenge for you. And on that day, we’ll zoom to In-N-Out and eat fresh, hot burgers and fries there until our heads explode.”

  Someday cheeseburgers? his stomach asked, sounding apologetic. Fresh and hot In-N-Out Double-Doubles?

  “Someday,” Rick said, wishing he believed it was true.

  DO THE RIGHT THING

  RICK HAD TRANSFERRED to a school within walking distance of home this year for fifth grade because his old math-and-science magnet school had changed his bus route last winter. While the old route had made him pretty sick, the new one had been agonizing. His parents had tried rearranging their schedule so one of them could drive him to school and home to the Herreras’ to save him the embarrassment of losing his breakfast or lunch on the bus while horrified fellow students looked on. Adding exhausting hours to Mom’s or Dad’s already-epic driving days was hardly worth it—driving with his folks dialed back the motion sickness but didn’t eliminate it.

  Rick’s town-house complex had a full block-long sidewalk with concrete right up to each front stoop, but once Rick crossed at the light to walk toward Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary, the sidewalks were broken and disconnected. The homeowners in the neighborhood between him and the school didn’t seem to take much pride in keeping up their properties. Rick ended up walking to school across crumbling driveways and unkempt front yards, hoping not to get chased by too many dogs.

  Walking this route the next morning, Rick noticed how the cars crawling along in the street didn’t sound very oceanlike when you were next to them. Honking and hiccupping exhaust in his face, they made the hot August morning feel even hotter. He scanned the small empty lot where he’d found the ROAD WORK sign but didn’t see anything else worth bringing home.

  After dodging one tiny, yappy dog and entering Eleanor Roosevelt’s double doors, he passed his ten-year-old neighbor, Mila Herrera, on his way to homeroom. She gave him a small smile while walking under the poster of Spike Lee telling them to DO THE RIGHT THING, but she didn’t say anything.

  Rick returned her smile. Her silence didn’t bother him. He knew she wasn’t a particularly talkative person. He’d been going to Mila’s house after school every day since his brothers had moved out for college. He’d spent a good chunk of the past summer over there, too, since Aleks and Thomas had won scholarships to attend special summer civic engagement classes.

  School had been in session for a week, and Mila was the only person he knew so far. He knew he could cope with being a loner; he just didn’t want to be one. At his old magnet school, his classmates lived scattered around the city, and after a while his friends’ parents had become unwilling to drive the distance to bring their kids to Rick’s house. When several friends had started Pee Wee football, Rick had tried joining, too, so he could see them at practices and games, but having to lie prone on the bench trying to get his stomach to stop howling meant he wasn’t much of a team player. He’d only made it to two practices before he gave up.

  It was hard to start at a new school, but on the positive side, it meant shedding the nickname Carsick Rick. The odds were good he could protect himself from that nickname here. He also had a plan to fit in. He’d focus on joining conversations about the video game Ninja Smash Warriors (he’d reached the thirteenth level) and never mentioning his subscription to Traffic Technology Today to anyone. Not talking about his favorite hobby was definitely the way to go. When he was younger, he thought if he explained his Snarl Solutions well enough, other people would think they were as interesting as he did. But he’d learned his lesson in third grade when the teacher had taught them similes, describing comparisons using like or as, like “the vanilla milkshake was as white as snow.” He’d read his long list out loud, including “traffic is like an ant farm,” “traffic is like water drops chasing each other down a shower curtain,” and “traffic is like pouring rice through a funnel.” The similes didn’t interest anyone. Even the teacher’s eyes had glazed over. He wouldn’t make that mistake here.

  Rick struggled not to yawn through his English and social studies classes, pretending to take notes but doodling instead. So far, his teachers were teaching stuff he’d already learned last year. He thought his parents weren’t wrong to worry that Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary might be kind of a crummy school.

  Art class promised to be different today, at least. The teacher tapped on the board with a pointer to get everyone’s attention. She announced, “As promised, we have a special visitor today from the California Museum of Ancient Art to tell us about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Professor, take it away.”

  The professor started up a slideshow. “Now, most of you probably know about the last standing Wonder of the World, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.” He showed a picture of a yellow-hued pyramid surrounded by sand. “But there were others, including the Hanging Gardens of Babylon”—a painting of plants cascading over a white building with lots of pillars and stairs—“the Lighthouse of Alexandria”—another painting, of a super-tall lighthouse surrounded by clouds—“and the Colossus of Rhodes.” This last one was a black-and-white sketch of a giant naked guy with a crown like the Statue of Liberty’s.

  The class immediately starting buzzing with laughter. “Settle down!” their teacher exclaimed. “This is very educational!” The professor looked flustered. Rick felt bad for him, so he raised his hand.

  “Excuse me, who was the Colossus of Roads? Was he famous for building the first roads somewhere in the ancient world?” If that was true, Rick thought he’d enjoy learning more about him.

  “No, no,” the professor said, “not roads like we drive on, it’s the Colossus of Rhodes, an island in the Greek archipelago. RHodes.” He made an emphatic breathy sound on the letter h and then clicked ahead in his slideshow to where Rick could see it written down. This slide had nothing but words and dates on it, so the students quieted down somewhat. “The Colossus was a bronze statue of the Greek sun god Helios, by far the tallest statue known to the public in two ninety-two BC.” Rick pretended he was interested in the next details, because he could see the professor was getting his groove back, but was a little disappointed the discussion wasn’t going to circle around to ancient freeways.

  Rick doodled a fully clothed man standing over a freeway, holding a speed limit sign like a spear. He wrote THE COLOSSUS OF ROADS in angular Greek-looking letters underneath it. A much better nickname than Carsick Rick, for sure. Was there a way to start up your own nickname? He looked around at his classmates. Nah, he’d stick with video games and hope for the best. He didn’t need another nickname with a potential for provoking laughter.

  At lunchtime, Rick found an empty seat at a cafeteria table with kids arguing over which video games were the best. He tried interjecting something about Ninja Smash Warriors into the conversation, but a kid sitting at the far end of the table widened his eyes and shook his head at Rick ever so slightly, so he clammed up.

  After the final bell, he waited under the baking sun with the handful of students who walked home. The teachers wouldn’t let the walkers leave until every school bus had been loaded and every car-line
kid was picked up, presumably to protect vulnerable pedestrians from impatient parents speeding into and out of the school driveway. Almost no one walked at Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary, probably for the same reasons Mila caught the bus home instead of walking with Rick: disconnected sidewalks, few crosswalks, and territorial dogs.

  When Rick got to the Herreras’, Mrs. Herrera threw open the door at the first knock, hugging Rick and kissing him on the top of his head as she ushered him into the kitchen. She was an unstoppably huggy-kissy kind of lady. He didn’t mind it so much as long as no one from school ever saw her doing it. Mila and her baby sister, Daniela, didn’t count.

  “Hungry, Rick? I can make you eggs, I can make you arepas, I have mangos.” Mrs. Herrera tried to feed anyone who was sitting still, and made some really interesting food. Her arepas were these cornmeal pancake things she would grill on the stove and fill with stuff like shredded beef or chicken or butter and cheese.

  “Thanks, Mrs. Herrera. If you have some arepas around, I would like one with that crumbly cheese,” Rick said. “Hi, Mila. Hi, Baby Daniela.” When he’d started coming last year, Mom had pulled Mrs. Herrera aside to explain that Rick would arrive sweaty and unable to say much after the ride and would have no interest in snacks for at least an hour. It was a nice change to walk right in and talk about food.

  Mila sat at the table finishing some deep-yellow mango slices. “Hi,” she said. She nearly always beat him home. (When she’d found out Rick was switching schools and would be walking, she’d asked his mom, “Doesn’t Rick want to take the bus with me? The driver is really nice, and our street is the first stop in the afternoon.” When his mom had started to answer, “Oh, the bus doesn’t work for Rick,” he’d clutched her hand to stop her from revealing anything humiliating. He wanted as few people as possible knowing the details of his affliction.)

  Seven-month-old Baby Daniela was nodding and blinking slowly, buckled securely into a plastic chair clipped onto the edge of the kitchen table, a shred of mango clutched in one fist. As Rick sat down, he watched her eyes close and her head sink to her chest. She didn’t relinquish her grip on the mango, though. Not even a nap could get between Baby Daniela and a munchie.

  Mrs. Herrera put a plate in front of him with two buttery, toasty arepas topped with a crumbly fresh cheese from the Mexican grocery store, plus a cut-up orange and a glass of guava punch. Hooray! his stomach burbled. No matter what you asked for, Mrs. Herrera served you at least one thing more. Her snacks made her one of his stomach’s favorite people. If it wouldn’t have embarrassed his parents, Rick would have suggested they regularly invite themselves over here for dinner.

  “Lots of homework today, kids? Or do you want to join me and Abuelita and watch the race?” Mrs. Herrera asked. When the family wasn’t watching soccer games broadcast from other countries, they were watching international bike races. Both Dr. and Mrs. Herrera had special cycling outfits in the same colors as the Venezuelan flag, and Dr. Herrera rode his bike to work as a medical resident over ten miles each way. The only person in their house who owned a car was Mrs. Herrera’s mother, an ancient lady they all called Abuelita.

  “I’ve got some graphing I really want to tackle,” said Rick.

  “And I’ve got word problems I didn’t finish in class,” said Mila.

  “Well, try your best to keep it down in here,” Mrs. Herrera said, winking. She often kidded them about their noisiness, because Mila and Rick could sit together scarcely speaking for hours, doing homework, playing Uno, or watching Cartoon Network. Mila was into art and was always sketching stuff like castles and dragons and unicorns, while Rick worked on his Snarl Solutions. “When you finish, come join us to watch the mountain stage of the race.” She waved her hand in front of her face as if cooling off a sudden fever. “Those racers ride like angels. But such skinny angels!” Then she noticed Baby Daniela’s head tipping even farther down her chest. The girl let out a little baby snore. “Daniela, mi vida, let’s get you in the crib,” Mrs. Herrera said, unbuckling her and tugging the mango shred out of her hand. (Mi vida, which means “my life” in Spanish, was what the Herreras called each other.) She grunted as she lifted Daniela and laid the baby’s head on her shoulder, murmuring in her ear. “If you grow up to be a bicycle racer, you will be a strong, sturdy sprinter, not a skinny mountain climber.”

  Mila opened her backpack and pulled out her homework. “Is your graphing for school, or are you working on another one of your street things?”

  “One of my street things,” Rick said, pulling out two rulers, his best mechanical pencil, and his graph-paper pad. He and his dad had mapped out the best routes to the two events Smotch had catered yesterday, but last night, after the pizza had finally come and been consumed, he’d spent some time on Google Street View virtually visiting these routes. He’d examined the road signs along both the surface streets and the 5 Freeway, and his fingers were itching to sketch out Snarl Solutions based on what he’d seen. Once he studied a map, digitally or on paper, he had it memorized for good.

  Mila said, “Oh, okay,” and started in on her sheet of word problems. Rick took a bite of his arepa and sucked the juice from a slice of orange. They both scratched away with their pencils in easy silence.

  The kitchen around Rick faded. He didn’t hear Mrs. Herrera cheering cyclists’ names as they cruised up hills. He didn’t hear Abuelita saying, “If I could have raced bicycles when I was younger, I would have gone so fast, they would have nicknamed me Meteoro,” and Mrs. Herrera answering, “Really? You’d have ridden like a meteor? Then why do you drive so slowly now?” He was lost in a happy place of straight lines and road signs, his stomach chirping delighted comments about the arepas.

  Rick reached for the last piece of orange and knocked his pencil to the floor. When he picked it up, he saw that Mila had put away her homework and was watching him.

  “Did you know you’ve been humming?” she asked.

  “Humming? I don’t think so,” Rick said.

  “You’ve had the biggest smile on your face, and you’ve been humming at your graph paper,” Mila said. “You’ve done it before, but never this loudly. You must really like what you’re doing.”

  Rick looked back at the solutions he’d finalized. With the changes he’d made, he could see his parents having a smooth, flowing trip along the routes they’d taken yesterday instead of being late. He hummed the first notes of the Ninja Smash Warriors theme song. He heard himself this time.

  Mila covered her smile with her hand.

  “Okay, okay, I do hum. I hum awesome ninja-inspiring tunes,” Rick acknowledged. “And I do like what I’m doing. See these, here, here, here, here, here, annnd here? If someone could switch these signs, move these other ones slightly, and decrease the speed limit near this freeway exit like so, enough drivers would drive properly. That’d tip the balance and things would smooth out for everyone. Small changes tend to cause a chain reaction, like in an ant farm. Once a few ants figure out how to cooperate, the rest of them start doing it too. Ants don’t have traffic jams.”

  Mila responded with a polite but unenthusiastic, “Oh, okay.” His shoulders slumped a tiny bit. He questioned for the gazillionth time why the patterns he saw were invisible to everyone he knew. He wondered if a well-trained hunter or tracker who could point out a tiny detail and say “A single male raccoon walked south by this tree two days ago carrying a crawfish in its mouth” had friends and family looking over their shoulders saying, “What? You mean that smudge on the ground means something?”

  Mila scrunched up her face a little, like she was trying to think of something more to say. “Maybe you should send these to the people who put up the signs.”

  Rick shook his head. “I’ve tried that loads of times, but no one has ever emailed me back. Maybe they can tell my emails are written by a kid, so they think they’re not important.” In fact, the email address he’d found was supposed to be for traffic complaints, so he’d started wondering if every complaint email fell
automatically into some electronic Department of Transportation recycle bin. He sighed. His Snarl Solutions seemed destined to remain nothing more than pieces of graph paper until he was old enough to get a job making them real.

  They’re still good, his stomach said. Feels nice to imagine a better world.

  Mila stood up and pushed in her chair. “Want to come watch the race?” she said just as the doorbell rang. Mrs. Herrera dashed in from the living room to open it to Rick’s mom. Mrs. Herrera gave her a quick hug and kiss and said, “Nice to see you early today! Come join us!” She then dashed back to the television, where Abuelita was loudly encouraging a cyclist to pick up his pace.

  “Can’t today, Maridol. Thanks anyway,” Mom called into the living room. “Hi, Mila. Ready, Rick?” Her curly black hair was back in a messy ponytail, and she had a smear of what looked like mustard on one of her round cheeks.

  “I guess,” Rick said, gathering up his stuff. “Why are you early, Mom?”

  “Bye, everyone!” Mom called out as they left, then answered him, “Why am I early? Just lucky, getting to spend some extra time with you, Roo.”

  Rick made a face. Another nickname it was time to shed. He was working on reducing his folks’ fondness for calling him Roo, after Kanga’s baby boy in Winnie-the-Pooh. In spite of asking him to demonstrate more Pre-Teen Responsibility, they often seemed stuck seeing him as a baby that needed to be protected in a pouch. “Rick, Mom, it’s Rick,” he corrected her.

  “Right, that’s what I said, Rick-who-is-definitely-not-a-Roo,” she answered with a smile. But her smile looked strained.