“She the girl with the singer mom who was in South Africa? The one with the gold coins?”
“Yeah. I’m crushing on her.”
Lucas paused mid-dry. “Really?”
“Big time. She doesn’t know it yet, but we’re getting married when we get older.”
Lucas’s mouth dropped. He’d liked a few girls back when he lived with his parents but he’d never thought about marrying any of them. He wondered if it was because Wyatt was twelve and he was only ten.
Wyatt rinsed a glass and placed it in the drain. “She and her mom flew home last night and she sent me a text when they got here.”
“Does she like you?”
Wyatt shrugged. “I think so.”
“You think so,” Lucas echoed dubiously.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure she does.”
Lucas thought you had to be real sure whether a girl liked you back if you were going to marry her someday. He wanted to ask Wyatt more about that, but didn’t think they knew each other well enough yet. Rather than risk making him mad, Lucas kept his misgivings to himself and picked up some forks to dry.
When they arrived at Tamar’s house, Lucas hadn’t expected to find that she lived in the country. Open land surrounded the place as far as he could see. Getting out of the car, he eyed all the cars, motorcycles, Jeeps, and the big silver RV parked out front. He was surprised to see a bunch of tents off in the distance and to hear drums. This being his first time visiting he asked Ms. Gemma, “Are the tents here all the time?”
“No. They belong to Tamar’s relatives. They’re visiting.”
“Are they playing the drums, too?”
“I think so.”
He and Jaz followed Ms. Gemma and Wyatt to the house. There were picnic tables spread over the yard with laughing and talking adults seated at them. He saw Ms. Brown, Uncle T.C., Doc Reg, and many others he’d met at the Dog but whose names he didn’t remember. Because some of them were playing cards and others dominos, he thought maybe they’d been invited to have fun.
“Our crew’s over there,” Wyatt said. “See you Gram.”
“See you.”
She headed for the adults and Wyatt led Lucas and Jaz over to a white picnic table where the kids were. The kids greeted them with smiles and made room for them to claim seats. The only unfamiliar face belonged to a short dark-haired girl sitting next to Amari. Judging by the smile she gave Wyatt, Lucas guessed her to be Zoey. The quick introduction that followed proved him correct.
“How was South Africa?” Wyatt asked from his seat across from her.
“Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. The next time Mama Roni and I go, I’ll ask if you can go with us.”
“Nice,” Wyatt said.
Lucas noted her southern accent and wondered where she was from, and if she’d been in foster care too at some point in her life.
Brain asked, “Anyone want something to drink?”
Everyone said yes, so he and Leah got up and walked over to a table holding munchies and drinks. While the Acosta kids talked about their trip to Mexico, Lucas found himself taking in the gathering and listening to the faint beat of the drumming. The entire scene brought to mind again how different Henry Adams was from every other place he’d been. It wasn’t anything like the subdivision he’d lived in growing up, or the cities he’d traveled to with his parents, or the ones he lived in as a foster kid. But he liked how relaxed everything seemed to be and was glad he and Jaz were back.
Brain and Leah returned with cups of grape Kool-Aid, paper plates, and two large mixing bowls filled with chips and pretzels. Everybody helped themselves. Amari was telling everybody about riding back from South Dakota on the back of his bio dad’s motorcycle when Tamar walked over. Lucas doubted he’d ever forget the way she’d verbally smacked around Ms. Krebs that day in Ms. Brown’s office. He also reminded himself to avoid getting on her bad side at all costs. Accompanying Tamar was an older man in a motorized wheelchair. He had two long gray braids hanging from beneath an awesome-looking white cowboy hat.
“Hey, youngins,” he said.
The kids laughed. “Hey, Uncle Thad.”
Tamar turned to Lucas and Jasmine. “Lucas and Jasmine Herman, I want you to meet my brother, Thaddeus July.”
They greeted him respectfully.
He replied, “I hear you’re my sister’s newest pups. Welcome to the family.”
“Thank you, sir,” Lucas and Jaz said in unison.
A grinning Devon asked, “Uncle Thad, are you going to mess with Tamar’s truck before you leave?”
Amari’s mouth dropped and he stared at his little brother as if he’d lost his mind. Preston, warily eyeing Tamar, moved to the far side of the table, which left Devon sitting by himself. Lucas had no idea what was happening but the look in Tamar’s eyes pinned Devon to his seat. In response, Devon appeared to shrink, giving the impression that he probably shouldn’t have asked that question. Lucas made a mental note to find out later from Wyatt what this all meant.
But Uncle Thad was grinning and said, “I’ll let you know, Dev.”
Tamar smacked her brother on the back of his head and sent his white hat flying before she whirled and marched off. Leah caught the hat before it reached the ground and handed it back.
“Good hands, Leah,” Thad said.
“Thanks.”
Uncle Thad put his hat back on over the two long gray braids and said, “Sisters are a pain.”
Jaz, hand on hip, said, “Hey!”
Everyone laughed at that.
Uncle Thad turned his twinkling dark eyes on her. “Do you know the significance of August First, Ms. Jasmine?”
“Does it have anything to do with knocking your brother’s hat off?”
He laughed. “No, but you’re quick. I like that. You could grow up and take Tamar’s place around here.” He turned to Amari. “Would you give the Lady Jasmine a quick rundown.”
So, Lucas and Jaz listened and learned that England freed their slaves in the West Indies on August 1, 1834. In commemoration, abolitionists in the United States began celebrating the date with picnics, parades, and speeches.
“They hoped the US would get the message and free its slaves, too,” Amari explained. “And after Emancipation here in the States, some places like Henry Adams kept the celebrations going.”
Brain added, “You should’ve seen the August First parade Amari and I put together a few years ago. It was pretty awesome.”
Jasmine looked confused. “But August first isn’t until Monday. Why’s everybody here today?”
Uncle Thad said, “To iron out the last few details of the picnic we’re planning, and to pick teams for what the Native people call Little Brother of War.”
Tiff asked, “Which is what?”
“The game known to Americans and the Europeans as lacrosse.”
Everyone looked surprised.
Leah asked, “Why’d the Natives give it that name?”
“Because sometimes the tribes back east used the game instead of wars to settle disputes with other tribes over territorial boundaries, personal disagreements, things like that. Some chiefs called for games on their deathbeds as a means of tribute, which is why we’re going to play. Our cousin Eula may be passing on soon, so we’ll play to honor her.”
Even though he looked sad about that, Uncle Thad turned out to be a lot of fun. He went on to tell them the Cherokee myth behind how the game of lacrosse began. “According to legend it comes from an incident known as How the Bat Got Its Wings. Picture this: land animals against the birds of the air. On the land team are bears, deer, and turtles. The winged team members are birds led by the hawk and the eagle. After the teams were set and ready to get started two little furry guys show up wanting to play, but the land animals said, ‘You’re too small. Beat it.’”
“That’s rude,” Zoey declared, looking outraged.
Uncle Thad chuckled. “Real rude. But the winged team took pity on the newcomers and said they could be on their team.
”
“Nice,” Brain said. “When I was little, kids would tell me I was too fat to play, so mad love for the wings.”
Amari grinned and Preston did, too.
Lucas was enjoying himself.
“But there was a problem,” Uncle Thad said, continuing. “For the little furries to play on the bird team they had to be able to fly. They were land animals, remember, and didn’t have wings.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Alfonso Acosta said.
Alfonso’s sister, Maria, asked, “So, what did they do?”
“The birds found some groundhog leather left over from the making of a drum head and they attached it to one of the little guys and changed his name to Tlameha.”
Leah asked, “Which means?”
“Bat.”
Everyone smiled.
“But there wasn’t enough leather left to fix the second little furry, so you know what they did?” He glanced around at their rapt faces and when no one answered, said, “The eagle got on one side of the little furry and the hawk got on the other and they pulled his skin until he stretched.”
“What?” Devon voiced skeptically. “You can’t stretch somebody like that.”
Amari snapped, “Dev. It’s a myth. Just go with it. Okay? Jeez.”
Uncle Thad chuckled softly, “Thanks, Amari. So anyway, they stretched him and changed his name to Tewa—the flying squirrel.”
“Yes!” Brain cried.
Wyatt and Alfonso shared a high five.
Tiff said, “I love this story.”
Jaz asked, “So who won the game?”
“Picture this,” he said again. “The ball is tossed up. The flying squirrel, on the ground repping the wings, grabs it and runs it up the tree to his crew. The birds start flying the ball to the goal, but they drop it. Before it hits the ground, here come Tlameha, the bat. He dives out of the sky at warp speed, grabs the ball by his teeth and takes off toward the goal. He’s dipping and dodging so wildly not even the fastest deer can catch him. He finally makes it to the goal, throws the ball in and scores!”
The kids’ cheers drew smiling glances from the adults seated nearby.
Uncle Thad ended the story by saying, “And for many years it was traditional for players of the game to weave a piece of bat wing into the webbing of their lacrosse sticks for good luck.”
Lucas knew he’d remember the story for a long time. Yes, he liked living in Henry Adams very much.
Amari asked, “So, who’s going to be playing Little Brother of War for August First.”
“It’ll be my guys against Henry Adams,” Uncle Thad said.
Leah groaned, “So you can kick our butts like the last time we played?”
“As I remember, you scored two touchdowns.”
“Our only two touchdowns.”
Amari said, “Yeah. We got slaughtered. 56–14.”
“This time we’re going to put both your dads on your town’s team, Amari, and some of my boys will play for you, too.”
“That might help,” Tiff said. She turned to Jaz, Maria, and Zoey. “You want to be cheerleaders with me?”
Jaz replied with an excited “Yes!”
Maria did, too.
Zoey shook her head. “I want to play on the team.” She looked at the boys. “And don’t tell me I can’t.”
Amari said, “No one’s going to argue with you, Zo. We’ll need all the help we can get.”
She folded her arms. “Good.”
They were momentarily distracted by the sound of a motorcycle. A guy with dark skin and a long braid down his back got off, and there was a girl in a halter top and short shorts seated on the back.
Amari asked, “Is that cousin Diego?”
Preston replied, “Looks like it. Crystal’s going to flip.”
Once again, Lucas had no idea what that meant and wondered how long it would take to learn all the different personalities tied to the town. He hoped it would be quickly. Wyatt was right. Henry Adams did feel like a big family and Lucas wanted to be a full-fledged member.
He set his curiosity aside, and, with the others, followed Uncle Thad over to where the adults were gathered. The picking of the teams began. Griffin and Trent stepped forward as co-captains of the Henry Adams team. The Oklahoma Julys began arguing over who’d be their captain until Thad picked the newly arrived Diego, which set off more arguing. When Tamar stood up and threatened to end the fuss with a blast from her shotgun, they quickly deferred to their patriarch’s choice.
A standard lacrosse game called for ten players. The Henry Adams team, after fielding all the boys, Zoey, Leah, the members of Dads Inc., Griffin July, and three of his cousins, topped out with sixteen members. The Julys went with eight.
Diego said, “We could probably whip you with five, but we’ll go with eight.”
The townspeople booed him and good-naturedly threw empty paper cups. Ducking, he grinned.
It was dark when Ms. Gemma pulled into the driveway. Lucas, Wyatt, and Jaz went to their respective rooms, took their showers and got into their sleepwear. Lucas had finished the two Harry Potter books he’d borrowed from the library. Wanting to know when they could make another trip so he could get more he went downstairs and found Ms. Gemma alone in the kitchen making her lunch for the next day.
“Hey, Lucas. Did you have a good time at Tamar’s?”
“I did. I really like the people here.”
“I do, too. It’s a pretty special place.”
“Can we go back to the library?”
“Sure. I have class tomorrow night but we can go Saturday morning if you want. Need more books?”
“I do.”
She placed her now finished sandwich in a ziplock bag. As she stuck it in the fridge, she said, “When you get older, we’ll see about setting you up an online account with one of the book sites so you can order what you want—with my approval of course.”
He grinned. “Of course.”
For a few moments, she didn’t say anything else, just looked at him. He could tell she had something she wanted to say, but he wasn’t sure what.
“Lucas, I know I told you this when we were at the airport in Cincinnati, but I’m really glad to have you and your sister back.”
“We’re glad to be back.” His mind revisited the few short days he’d been with Aunt Wanda. The memories were still raw. “It felt like we were gone a million years.”
“I’m sorry she was mean to you.”
He was, too. “Mr. Gladwin said our parents left us a lot of money.”
“They did.”
“Can we buy you and Wyatt something?”
“That isn’t necessary.”
“But suppose I want to? To say thank you.”
“You can thank me by doing good in school, always looking out for Jaz, and growing up to be the awesome young man your mom and dad wanted you to be. I don’t need anything more than that, Lucas.”
He nodded. “Has Wyatt ever been to Disney World?”
“No.”
“Jaz and I used to go once a year. Can we take him so he can catch up?”
She didn’t respond at first, but seeing the tears shining in her eyes made him feel terrible. “I’m sorry. You just told me no. I won’t ask about stuff like that again. Please don’t cry.”
“No, honey. You didn’t do anything wrong. I got teary because you have such a big heart.” She tore a piece of paper towel from the roll and wiped her eyes.
Lucas said, “Wyatt and I are going to be like brothers, I think, so I just want him to get to do some of the stuff Jaz and I got to do. Do you think we can go to Australia too, maybe next year?”
She stared and laughed. “Australia? How about we see about Disney first, okay?”
He laughed, too. “Okay.” When he left the kitchen, she was still wiping her eyes and he felt good.
Chapter 15
The next day, Gemma was scheduled to work the ten-to-four midday shift, so after breakfast, she left the kids watching a Dexter’s L
aboratory cartoon marathon and headed out the door. She’d gone to bed thinking about Lucas asking about Australia, and the over-the-top request made her smile again. Thinking about that helped take her mind off her impending interview for the assistant manager’s job, scheduled for after work. She was determined to give it her best shot and told herself there was nothing to be apprehensive about but she was.
As she approached her car in the driveway, she stopped. For some reason the gray Taurus looked off balance. Not sure what was going on with it, she walked closer and her knees turned to jelly. All four tires were flat. How could that be? She took a slow tour around the vehicle.
“Hey, Gemma? Everything okay?”
She looked up. Across the street, Trent was coming down his steps, probably on his way to work, too. “Could you come look at my tires, please?” she called, still puzzled.
He came over. After hunkering down by the tire on the front passenger side, he looked up with concern. “Hate to tell you this, but this one’s been slashed.”
“What!”
He inspected the other three and found them all vandalized.
“Who’d want to slash your tires, Gem?”
“I have no idea.” And truthfully, she didn’t.
Colonel Payne lived next door and he came over to see what was going on just as her kids stepped out onto the porch.
Wyatt asked, “Something wrong with the car, Gram?”
“Just some flat tires,” she explained, not wanting to make a big deal of this and have them worry. “I must’ve run over something. You guys go on back in the house.”
They obeyed, albeit reluctantly.
Trent said to her, “I have some tires at the shop that might fit. If not, I’ll run over to Franklin and pick up some new ones for you.”
“Thanks, Trent.” He left, and a few minutes later, she saw him driving away in his truck.
The colonel was on his phone. When he ended the call, he said to her, “Just talked to Gary. He said come in when you can. I also spoke with dispatch over at the sheriff’s office. They’ll send someone out as soon as they can. I’ll stay with you until then if you want.”
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