Trouble Next Door

by Karen English

  “Where’s your dad?” Calvin asks.

  “Somewhere,” Harper says, as if there’s nothing more to add.

  Before they leave, Mrs. Jeffers puts money in Harper’s hand—​probably for the movie tickets and snacks. They cross the driveway back to Calvin’s house in silence, and as soon as they step into the living room, Harper asks if he can use the bathroom.

  Calvin’s heart drops. He looks at his watch.

  “Sure,” his dad says. “Down the hall and then to the right.” He points the way.

  Now it’s more waiting. And waiting. Soon Calvin is wondering what’s taking Harper so long. Just as Calvin’s dad is ready to send Calvin to check on him, he comes lumbering back down the hall. Finally, Calvin thinks.

  In the car, Calvin’s been relegated to the back seat, and he wonders why. His dad probably wants Harper to feel welcome. Calvin guesses he doesn’t mind all that much. His dad begins to do his usual routine: asking a lot of questions. “So, Harper, how do you like your new neighborhood?”

  “It’s okay,” he says, with his face aimed out the window.

  Now that Calvin has a close-up view, he’s looking at Harper very carefully. Harper could use a haircut or maybe just a brush run through his hair. His cotton shirt is a little wrinkled, and he has a sad slump to his shoulders. He doesn’t look mad. He looks unhappy. Calvin almost feels sorry for him.

  “What about school?” his father asks. “What’s your favorite subject?”

  Calvin wonders why grownups always ask a kid that question. Maybe Harper doesn’t have a favorite subject. Come to think of it, what’s his own favorite subject? Calvin wonders. Science. It occurs to him, just then, that he likes science.

  Harper doesn’t answer. Then, out of the blue, he says, “I like working in gardens. I’m going to be a gardener.” Calvin can feel his dad’s approval.

  “Now that’s a really original answer. I’m betting you’ll make a great gardener,” Calvin’s father says.

  Calvin sees Harper glance quickly at his dad, as if to see if he’s serious or not. Then he smiles and looks down like he’s suddenly embarrassed.

  Calvin notices that Harper doesn’t pull out his money to pay for his own movie ticket but instead lets Calvin’s dad pay for everything. He buys their popcorn and Milk Duds and cherry slushies, plus Raisinets and another large cherry slushie for Harper. But when Calvin’s dad passes the candy and drink to Harper, Calvin is surprised to hear Harper say, “Thank you.”

  The theater is filling up fast, but they find seats on the aisle halfway up just as the previews begin. Harper goes first, then Calvin’s dad, then Calvin. Calvin likes the aisle seat. He doesn’t really care about who sits where, as long as he has the seat next to the aisle. Harper can sit next to his father, because Calvin has his father all the time.

  He digs into the popcorn and Milk Duds. Great combination. The previews are just as entertaining as Calvin expects The Thing from Another Planet 3 will be. He feels excited. He glances at Harper. He’s staring at the screen with a blank look on his face. Funny how he’s seeming less and less like a monster boy.

  Thirty minutes into the movie, he taps Calvin’s father on the shoulder. “Can I go to the bathroom?” he asks.

  With his eyes still on the screen, Calvin’s father says, “Sure.” Calvin is immediately suspicious. Didn’t Harper just go to the bathroom at Calvin’s house?

  Fifteen minutes later, during a really exciting chase scene between a humanoid and a robot, Calvin’s father nudges him. “Go see what’s taking Harper so long.”

  “Dad.” Calvin doesn’t want to leave the theater—​especially in the middle of this chase scene.

  “He might be sick,” his father whispers. “You need to go check.”

  What Calvin wants to know is why his father can’t go check. Why does he have to send him?

  He sighs, pulls himself up, and makes his way down the aisle. He takes the steps two at a time, exits the theater, and starts down that long hallway to the big lobby. He can see the bathroom with the sign of a figure of a man over the door. He pushes it open, expecting to see Harper standing in front of a sink drying his hands or in a stall being sick to his stomach.

  The bathroom is empty. Empty? So where is Harper? This guy is making Calvin miss the movie! He looks in every stall again, just to be sure. All vacant. He stomps his foot in frustration. This is his father’s fault. Why did he think it was a good idea to invite Harper anyway? Harper, of all people? He tried to tell his father that there would be some kind of problem, some kind of glitch.

  Forget it, Calvin thinks. He’s just going to go back to the movie that he’s been wanting to see for weeks. But as he’s crossing the lobby, he sees Harper come out of one theater and go into another. What is he doing? Calvin wonders. He looks up to see the marquee announcing the latest feature-length Dooly Duck cartoon. A cartoon? He glances at the three teenagers behind the refreshment counter. They’re busy talking to one another. He checks the girl taking tickets. She’s checking something on her cell phone.

  With his eyes still on her, he slips into the theater. It’s half full of little kiddies and their mothers or fathers or babysitters. He scans the rows, searching for Harper. A few of the moviegoers look over at him, but the eyes of the audience generally remain on the screen. At the very back, in the middle, with vacant seats surrounding him, sits Harper.

  Calvin climbs the aisle and stands next to the last row. “Pssst,” he whispers, to get Harper’s attention. But Harper doesn’t hear him, apparently. In fact, Harper bursts into laughter at something on the screen. Calvin looks back to see Dooly Duck break dancing. It’s a funny sight. Calvin almost laughs too, but he catches himself. “Pssst,” he whispers a little louder, catching the attention of a teenage girl, who’s probably someone’s older sister or babysitter, a few rows down. She gives him a big disapproving stare.

  He ignores her. “Harper!” he whispers, and finally Harper looks his way. Calvin makes a motion for Harper to follow him out of the theater. He can feel his reluctance as he shuffles down the aisle behind Calvin.

  “What are you doing?” Calvin says as soon as they are back in the lobby.

  “What do you mean?” Harper looks genuinely puzzled.

  “Why are you in that movie instead of the one with me and my dad?”

  “I seen that one already.”

  “What?” Calvin stares at Harper in amazement. “Then why didn’t you tell us? Why did you agree to go?”

  “My foster mother wanted me to. She said I don’t have any friends and I need friends. And you live right next door.” Harper looks at Calvin as if that’s that.

  Calvin stands there, staring at Harper. He doesn’t know what to make of him. He just doesn’t get him. “My father sent me to find you.”

  “Okay,” Harper says. Calvin is surprised by how cooperative he is.

  He follows Calvin back to their seats in the theater showing The Thing from Another Planet 3.

  “Are you okay?” Calvin’s dad asks, probably thinking Harper was in the bathroom so long because of some kind of ailment. Harper nods his head.

  It’s too late for Calvin, however. He tries hard to get back into the movie, but he can’t. He’ll have to see it again. He sneaks a look at Harper and sees that he continues to have a completely blank look on his face.

  “I don’t get him, Dad,” Calvin says later that night over Chinese takeout. “He didn’t even act like he had done something wrong or that you might be worried when he didn’t come back. I don’t think he knew that you just don’t do stuff like that.”

  “Let’s not be too hard on him. We don’t know what he’s going through. Pass the hot mustard, please.”

  Calvin thinks about this. He thinks about it as he’s brushing his teeth before bed. He thinks about it as he turns off the light and stares at Harper’s bedroom window with the blinds closed. He wonders what it would be like to be a foster child—​to live in a strange person’s house, sleep in a strange be
d, eat strange cooking.

  Mrs. Jeffers is . . . okay, he guesses, but she’s not Harper’s mother. A real mother is different from a foster mother.

  Eight

  Harper’s Mom

  There’s no need to hide anymore. No need to slip into his father’s car early and peek at Harper leaving his house for school and walking down the street, punching the air. No more finding reasons to go to a friend’s house after school just to avoid him. Everything is out in the open now. Harper knows Calvin lives right next door. The funny thing is, Harper hasn’t questioned Calvin about it. He hasn’t asked Calvin why he didn’t come over and welcome him to the neighborhood or ask to shoot hoops with him or skateboard or whatever. It’s almost like Harper doesn’t expect regular stuff to happen to him. It’s kind of sad.

  On Monday Gavin and Richard and Calvin and Carlos are walking down Ashby, heading to Mr. D.’s store for candy. It’s an early-dismissal day, and Calvin feels free. Suddenly he hears a voice behind them.

  All the boys turn around at the same time. They turn back to Calvin once they realize that Harper is calling him. He’s already told his friends about Harper’s strange behavior at the movies. They’ve all decided that, on top of everything else, Harper is a little weird.

  “You better find out what he wants,” Gavin says.

  The group walks on to Mr. D.’s while Calvin waits—​reluctantly—​as Harper approaches. There’s a rare smile on Harper’s face, and Calvin wonders why. He looks back at his friends, but they’ve disappeared into the store. He’s on his own.

  “I’m going to see my mom. Do you want to go with me?”

  “Uh,” Calvin says.

  “My foster mother doesn’t know we got out of school early. She won’t be expecting me until three.”

  Calvin remembers that his father won’t be expecting him either. He has permission to go to Richard’s and do homework. Then he and his friends planned to play basketball. “Okay,” he says. He doesn’t know if it’s curiosity that he feels or just worry about what Harper might do if he turns him down.

  Harper is silent as the two backtrack up Ashby and turn on Marin to where the street dead-ends at Miller’s Park. Calvin wonders just how far they’ll be going and what everyone will think when he doesn’t catch up to them at Mr. D.’s.

  But then, just as quickly, he wonders if Harper’s mom lives in one of those homeless encampments under the freeway. Calvin doesn’t want to go to a homeless encampment under the freeway.

  Maybe Harper’s mom is in some kind of shelter. Or perhaps they’ll go into the park, where Harper’s mother will be sitting on a bench with all her belongings in a shopping cart, wearing a big lawn-and-leaf bag as a shirt. Calvin saw a woman wearing a lawn-and-leaf bag as a shirt one time, and he couldn’t help staring at her. He and his parents had been coming out of a restaurant, and she was standing there in the middle of the sidewalk, blocking their way with a cup in her hand. His father had reached in his pocket, pulled out two dollars, and dropped them in the cup.

  She had smudges of dirt on her face, and her hair looked like it had never been combed. When she smiled, Calvin saw that she had two front teeth—​on the top—​missing. The teeth that were left were brown. “Thank you sooo much,” she’d said, and Calvin had worried that she might hug him. And get bugs all over him.

  When she was no longer in earshot, Calvin had said, “I don’t like that woman.”

  “We don’t know that woman, and we don’t know what her life’s been like,” his father replied. “You be grateful that we have better circumstances.”

  His father’s words had made him feel a little ashamed, and he’d thought about running back and giving her the change in his pocket. But he didn’t.

  Harper and Calvin don’t go all the way into the park. They take a side street and Harper, still leading the way, walks through the open gate of the community garden. Calvin doesn’t know what to think. What are they doing here? He knows about this place—​though he’s never been here—​because his mother volunteers there on Wednesday mornings. She brings home vegetables all the time. She can get really excited over kale and cauliflower, but none of it excites Calvin the way french fries do.

  He likes the look of the community garden. It’s something surprising in the middle of the regular neighborhood street. He hears classical music coming out of a speaker attached to the toolshed at the back of the lot.

  Then, from behind the shed comes a woman in overalls, wearing a red kerchief on her head and carrying a tray of seedlings. She stops in her tracks, puts the tray down, and comes to where he and Harper are standing. She hugs Harper and gives him a kiss on the cheek! Calvin is surprised.

  Harper hugs the woman back, and that’s when Calvin understands: The lady is Harper’s mom. Calvin looks from Harper to his mother and back to Harper again. He can see that she looks like the woman in the photograph on Harper’s dresser but it’s hard to put the two of them together as mother and son. She’s small and pretty, and young-looking. Harper is big and likes to frown a lot.

  “This is my friend Calvin, Mom,” Harper says in a voice Calvin has never heard come out of him before. A nice voice. Not at all gruff.

  Harper’s mother turns to Calvin and extends her small hand. “I’m Aileen.”

  Calvin reaches out and shakes it.

  “He’s the one I went to the movies with. His dad is really nice,” Harper says.

  Harper noticed that Calvin’s father is “really nice”? That’s another big surprise.

  “Um.” Calvin pauses, because he doesn’t know if he can call Harper’s mother by her first name. He’s aware that lots of kids call adults by their first names, but his parents always insist he put a Mrs. or Ms. or Miss or Mr. before it. “Miss Aileen? What’s that music for?”

  “To make the plants grow better,” Harper says.

  Calvin frowns, feeling a little confused.

  Harper’s mother laughs. “Yes, supposedly classical music makes plants grow better.”

  Could that be true? Calvin wonders.

  “That’s what I’m doing my science-fair project on,” Harper adds.

  Calvin turns to stare at him. He didn’t even think Harper would be doing a science-fair project. He figured he’d skip it, like he skips a lot of his work.

  “Yeah,” his mother says. “Harper’s really excited about it. It’s the sound waves traveling through the air to the plants, kind of stimulating them. He’s using radishes—​grown here and where he’s staying.”

  Staying. Calvin thinks of that word. It sounds so temporary.

  “I started the ones with no music at Mrs. Jeffers’s old house,” Harper says. “And I brought them with me.”

  Calvin is feeling a little uneasy. This is sounding like a really interesting project, and it’s sounding way more scientific than Calvin’s. Harper can talk about sound waves and what sound waves do. Then he can come up with a really scientific-sounding hypothesis, and from that a prediction. Calvin wonders if Harper knows all that.

  “You guys want some lemonade?” his mother asks cheerfully.

  “Yeah,” Harper says. They follow her to the toolshed, where there’s a miniature refrigerator. She reaches in and takes out two bottles of lemonade. She hands one to Calvin and one to Harper.

  Calvin looks around. There’s a cot in one corner with folded linens and a blanket on it. It looks like someone is using an upturned crate for a nightstand. There’s a lamp on it and a CD player. At the foot of the cot is a box of folded clothes.

  They go back outside, and Miss Aileen shows Calvin around the entire community garden.

  “My mom volunteers here on Wednesdays,” Calvin says.

  “What’s her name?”

  “Valerie Vickers.”

  “Oh, Val,” Miss Aileen says. “I know Val. Though I haven’t seen her in a while.”

  “That’s because she’s in New Mexico taking care of my Grandma Kate. She broke her hip.”

  “Ouch!” Miss Aileen
says, and Harper and Calvin laugh at the funny face she makes while saying the word.

  Harper pulls a small package wrapped in Christmas paper out of his jeans pocket​—though Christmas was months ago. He holds it out to his mother.

  “What’s this?” she asks.

  “A present,” Harper tells her. “But don’t open it now,” he adds quickly. “Open it later.” He looks at Calvin. Calvin wonders what it is.

  As they leave, Calvin wants to ask all kinds of questions. Like, who’s living in the toolshed? Because clearly, someone is living in there. He doesn’t have to ask, though, because Harper explains things as soon as they get out onto the sidewalk.

  “That’s where my mom lives,” he says flatly. “And it’s where I lived too.”

  “In the toolshed?”

  “Yeah. The people who own the land let her. We didn’t have anywhere else to go. My mom lost her job, and then we didn’t have the rent money.”

  Calvin is trying to take all this in. He can’t imagine living in a toolshed.

  “Someone found out and they called the child-protection people and then I had to be put in a foster home.”

  “Do you wish you lived with your mother?” Calvin asks.

  “I am going to live with my mother. ’Cause she’s going to get a job, and then we’re going to get an apartment.” Harper seems like he’s sure about this.

  “How often do you see her?”

  “All the time. ’Cause I help her a lot in the garden because I love plants.”

  Calvin looks over at Harper, realizing that sometimes you just don’t know what a person is all about, at all.

  When they get to their houses, just before Calvin turns toward his front door, he says, “Harper . . .” The name still feels strange in his mouth.