Better With You Here (9781609417819)

by Zepeda, Gwendolyn

  The apartment door opens, and Oscar lets us in. I introduce everyone, and Oscar reexplains the situation to Officer Brown. I let him, without interrupting.

  Officer Brown has questions. I answer them clearly, without letting myself become upset. I need to stay calm so the police can do their work as efficiently as possible.

  Mike interrupts. Mike is upset. Now he’s pacing and perspiring. He goes to the kitchen and makes a call. “No, not yet,” he says. “Damn it, I know. We’re waiting to find out.” I ignore him.

  I keep calling Geronima’s number. There’s no answer. I’ll keep trying.

  There’s a knock at the door. Oscar opens it. It’s Sara with her kids.

  “Hey,” she says. I let her hug me, quick. “What do you need me to do?”

  Good question. “Just…think. Think of where they could be.”

  Sara sends her kids to Tiffany’s room. Good idea. Get them out of the way. She goes to the kitchen. She’ll see Mike there. Will he say anything to her? Don’t worry about that now.

  Officer Brown says, “Well, Mr. Buenaventura, Ms. Davila, that’s all I can do right now, is file the report. We’ll put out the APB and get the alerts going on the highways, of course.”

  That’s all he can do. He’s leaving now. Sara comes out of the kitchen. “Have you eaten?” she says.

  No. There’s no time.

  She hands me something, and I eat it. She hands me water, and I drink. She does the same for Oscar—it’s a cookie—and he thanks her. Mike is hovering in the background.

  “Okay, so tell me again what’s the last thing that happened,” Sara says.

  Oscar tells her the same thing he already told me. Nothing new, but maybe someone new hearing it will make a difference. Now Mike’s eating a cookie and Angelica’s hovering in the background, listening.

  Oscar says, “I called the grocery store and had them page her, but they said she’s not there. They’re checking to see if anybody remembers seeing them.” That’s good. Oscar’s smart.

  I say, “What about restaurants? Maybe La Sultana?”

  “Taqueria las Brisas,” Sara offers.

  I’m on the phone calling Information and getting the numbers. It doesn’t take long to call each one and find out that they haven’t been there. We need to get back into the cars and drive until we find them. Standing here isn’t doing anything.

  Angelica sidesteps slowly to her mother and whispers.

  “What?” says Sara. “Angelica, let the grown-ups talk right now.”

  The girl speaks louder. “Maybe they went to see Cristina.”

  Oscar looks down at Angelica with a start. “Where did you hear that?”

  Angelica clears her throat. She’s nervous, not used to this kind of attention. I realize that I’ve never heard her speak more than one sentence before. She says, “Miss Buena’s been talking to Robbie. He’s Cristina’s boyfriend. They had a baby.”

  “What?” says Oscar. He’s surprised. This is news to him. He says, “She’s still with that punk? They had a baby?”

  Angelica nods. “I think so. We heard Miss Buena talking about it on the phone. She said the baby was six pounds. Robbie wanted her to come see the baby, but she said she had to tell you first.”

  Oscar stares at her. “He wanted her to go see the baby in Alabama?”

  Angelica shakes her head. “They live here now. They came back. That’s why Robbie called Miss Buena, because they came back. Miss Buena only talks to him when you’re not here.”

  Oscar is shocked. We all are. Sara says, “Girl, how in the hell do you know all that?”

  Angelica looks down at the floor. “We were playing spies,” she mumbles.

  This is important. This is a good thing. I fall to my knees in front of her so that we’re face-to-face. I put my hands on her arms and say, “Angelica, that’s good. I’m glad you were playing spies. You can help us now.”

  She meets my eyes. She bites her lip, looking exactly like her mother for a split second. She’s nervous, but I can see that she wants to help. And she’s not stupid. Thank God Angelica’s here and she’s a smart little girl.

  “Sweetie, can you tell us where Robbie and Cristina live? Did you ever hear Miss Buena talk about that?”

  She thinks back, thinks hard. I imagine I can hear the thoughts flicking through her head, like a file of index cards. She says, “No-o-o…Well…one time she asked him, ‘It’s a trailer? You mean like a mobile home?’ And then she said, ‘Well, I guess mobile homes can be nice.’”

  I stand. “A mobile home. That means it has to be outside the city limits.” My mind flips through its own index cards now. Where do people live in mobile homes? “Angelica, did she ever say where they lived? What neighborhood? Was it in Dallas or another town?”

  She’s straining to remember, I can tell. “I don’t know. Maybe?”

  “Fort Worth? Did she ever say Fort Worth? Or Abilene? Denton? Scarborough?” Sara and Mike look at me like I’ve gone crazy. Why aren’t they helping? Why aren’t they thinking of towns with mobile homes?

  Angelica shakes her head. “No.”

  Oscar says, “Red Oak. Did you ever hear her say Red Oak?”

  Angelica turns to him. “I think…maybe. Yeah. She said, ‘So y’all ended up back in Red Oak.’ I remember now.”

  Red Oak. That isn’t far from here, is it? A half hour, I think. I bend down and hug Angelica. I could cry from relief, from happiness that she’s here right now and that she’s a nosy little girl with such a good memory.

  Oscar’s telling us, “Cristina used to hang out with some hoodlum kids in Red Oak. If Robbie’s the one I think he is, that’s where she met him.”

  Everyone falls silent and absorbs this. Oscar’s looking down at the floor. In concern? Shame? He says, “After Cristina had Tiffany, we said we’d take care of her so she could finish school and keep working. But instead Cristina started running around wild all the time. Drinking, drugs, all that. Then she went to live with this Robbie kid, and…I didn’t like that. He was…he wasn’t like us. I told her if she was going to live with him and end up pregnant again, I didn’t want to see her anymore.” He takes a deep breath. This is hard for him, telling us this truth. “She left us and left her own daughter. She moved away with this Robbie kid to Alabama. Since we sold the house and moved to this apartment, we’ve lost touch with her.”

  I see the surprise on Sara’s face and the utter bewilderment on Mike’s. Angelica’s quietly listening—she shouldn’t be in the room right now. She’s already heard too much about our grown-up problems, obviously.

  Oscar continues, “When Gero started baby-sitting for you and Haley, I thought it was good for her. It made her happy to have so many kids in the house and people to cook for. But then she started talking about Cristina again, after all these years, and saying she felt like we made a mistake. I should’ve known she was talking to them again. I should’ve paid more attention.” He sighs. “I’m sorry, Natasha. To both of y’all,” he adds, indicating Mike with a nod. “Sorry y’all got dragged into this mess.”

  “I’m going,” I say. “I’m driving to Red Oak.”

  “Wait,” says Sara. “You can’t just run off without knowing where they’re at.”

  “That’s where they are,” I say. “That’s the only thing that makes sense. I’m going. Call me if you hear anything.”

  “Wait,” they say. I can’t hear them. I’m on my way.

  God, please let them be safe. I’ll do anything. Please let Geronima be okay without her medicine and able to drive safely. Please let them be somewhere brightly lit, easy to find. Please watch over them and don’t let them be hurt.

  God, I know I haven’t spoken to you in a long time, and I haven’t been a very good person lately. I’ve been angry and judgmental, and I haven’t taken time with the kids like I should. I’m sorry for that. And I’m sorry I never pray or give thanks. I am thankful for everything we have. But I need your help now, please.

  I promise th
at once they’re back, I’ll be a better mother: Be more patient with them. Listen to them more. Get along better with their dad…

  God, I swear I’ll do whatever it takes. Do you want me to stop fighting with Mike? I will.

  Do you want me to accept Missy as their new stepmother? I will.

  God, if you want me to let Alex live with Mike…If you want both of them to go…I feel like that’d kill me. I hope that’s not what this is about. But if Alex wants to live with Mike and Lucia wants to go follow him, then I promise I’ll let them and I won’t complain. And I won’t let them see that I’m unhappy, even if I can barely stand it. I promise. And I’ll work with Mike to make everything good for the kids, to keep them happy. I swear, God.

  Please just let me find them, and let them be safe.

  Alex

  Miss Buena keeps trying to call Robbie, but her phone isn’t working. “I think we’re too far out,” she says. “Alex, do me a favor, m’ijo. You hold the phone, and I’m going to drive. You tell me when the phone starts working again.” She hands me her phone.

  “What do you mean?” I say.

  She takes it and points to the corner of the screen. “I forgot to turn on my phone earlier. But now it’s on and I can’t get a signal. See these little lines, how they’re flat? When we get closer to the signal, the lines will get bigger. You see?”

  I say yes, and she starts to drive. “Tell me when they get big.”

  We have to go for a long time, kind of.

  Lucia says, “Alex, I’m scared.”

  “Don’t be scared,” I tell her. Then I look at the phone and I see that one of the lines got bigger, just like Miss Buena said. “There’s a signal,” I say. “There’s a line.”

  “Okay, good. Let’s call Robbie and get better directions.” She pulls over again and takes the phone. But when she calls, no one answers. “Where are they? Why don’t they pick up?” she says.

  I don’t know. “Maybe their phone doesn’t have a signal now.”

  Miss Buena says, “Maybe.” She starts to look worried. She’s getting a little bit of sweat on her lip, like my dad does when he works in the garage. But it’s cold outside, and it’s starting to feel cold in the car, too. She says, “Alex, do me another favor. Look in the glove compartment and get me one of the peppermint candies that’s in there.”

  I find one at the bottom of all the papers and give it to her. She opens it and says, “You can have one, too, if you want.”

  I say, “No, thank you. I don’t like mints.”

  She says, “Well, see if the girls want one.”

  I turn around and see Lucia staring at me. I try to give her the candy, but she doesn’t take it. Tiffany’s asleep all the way now. Her face is pressed against the door.

  “Well,” says Miss Buena, “I guess we should keep looking.”

  She turns on the radio again, but it takes her a long time to find a station that works, and the one she finds doesn’t have music, only news and people talking about stuff. The deejay’s talking about the Dallas Cowboys. It’s getting darker, but Miss Buena keeps driving.

  I take out my Game Blaster and restart it, but this time on the easiest level. I turn around and give it to Lucia. If she thinks about the game instead of looking out the window, she won’t be afraid. She takes it from me. I say, “You have to jump over the spikes. Don’t fall in the water.” She starts playing it. That’s good.

  Now we’re out of the trees and back to the part where there’s streetlights again. There’s houses, too, but they’re skinny ones with little steps instead of porches. Some of them have lights in the windows. One has men sitting in front of it. It looks like they’re drinking sodas or beers.

  “We need to pull over,” says Miss Buena. “I need to figure out—” Then, she says, “Oh, no.”

  “What is it, Miss Buena?”

  “We’re about to run out of gas.”

  That means we need to go to a gas station. We passed one a little while ago. “Maybe we should turn around,” I tell her.

  She says okay and pulls over off the road a little bit. She checks to make sure no other cars are coming and then turns our car around and starts going back the way we came. It’s really dark now, and we can barely see anything except the streetlights and sometimes lights from somebody’s house far back in the trees.

  “Oh, no!” Miss Buena says again, but this time louder.

  “Looky!” Lucia says real loud.

  There’s a big animal in front of our car. A deer. It jumps real high. The lights from our car shine on its eyes and make them turn red.

  Miss Buena slams on the brakes and turns the car real hard. We run over a bunch of bumps and then skid into the grass. I can feel it under the tires.

  The deer’s gone. Lucia starts to cry. Now Tiffany’s awake, and she starts crying, too.

  “I’m sorry, m’ijos. I’m sorry,” Miss Buena says. Then she opens the door and gets out. I undo my seat belt and lean over to see. She fell on her knees in the grass next to the car. She’s coughing and holding her stomach. I think she’s going to throw up.

  The radio turned off. The car’s all lit up now, because the door’s open, and it’s making a beeping noise.

  Lucia’s crying even louder. “I want to go home!”

  I call Miss Buena’s name, but she doesn’t answer. She has her head against the car door with her eyes closed. She’s making little noises like a kitten. I don’t think she can hear me.

  I don’t know what to do.

  I wish I had my Venom mask. I feel like if I had it on right now, I’d know what to do next.

  Natasha

  There’s a gas station ahead, and I need directions. I don’t want to stop, but I have to. Maybe I shouldn’t have driven out here like this. I’m in Red Oak but have no idea where to go. I should have looked up the various trailer parks in the area or…something.

  But there’s nothing happening at the apartment either. Every time I call, Oscar and Sara sound more and more hopeless. The police aren’t doing anything. Nothing’s happening. I have to find them myself, before it’s too late. I can’t stop thinking about…God, don’t think about it. Just find them.

  I’ll stop really quick to ask the gas-station clerk where the trailer parks are. Maybe…

  Mike. Mike’s followed me here. That’s his car pulling up beside me. Through the window he says, “Natasha, wait.”

  I don’t want to wait. I don’t want to talk to him. There’s no time to waste. I just want to find out—

  “What are you doing?” he asks.

  “I’m going inside to find out where the nearest trailer park is.”

  I go inside and ask the woman behind the counter. She tells me about Sunnyside Park, on this road, and Rainbow Park a few miles away. But she says there are other trailers all over the town, not in parks but on their own land.

  Fine. Sunnyside first, then the others. I’ll drive to every trailer in Red Oak if I have to.

  Mike stops me again when I come out. “Natasha, wait. Look. I have it.” He holds up his phone, one of the expensive ones with the fancy screen. It’s showing a map. “Sunnyside Trailer Park,” he says.

  He can help me. “Give me the phone,” I say. “I’ll take it with me.”

  “No, I’m coming with you.” He points the remote at his car, locking it, and follows me to the Blazer. “They’re my kids, too.”

  There’s no time to argue. I need to keep moving. He gets into the passenger seat, and we drive.

  Alex

  Lucia is crying so much she’s hiccupping. “Alex! I want to go home!” Tiffany’s crying, too, and saying, “Grandma! Grandma!” I wish I knew how to drive, and how to drive us back home. Or if there wasn’t enough gas, I’d…

  We have to call Mom. I say, “Miss Buena, we need to call my mom.” But her eyes are still closed. She’s making noises like she’s having a dream.

  Her phone is in her purse. I open her purse and find it in one of the pockets. I open it, but the light
doesn’t come on. Maybe it’s broken.

  No, I think it’s asleep, like my Game Blaster goes to sleep when I stop playing it. I push one of the buttons, and the light comes on.

  I know Mom’s phone number by heart. I dial it, but nothing happens.

  A truck comes up the road. I see its lights. Can it see us? It’s a stranger. Should I honk the horn or should I hide? The truck passes by.

  “What happened?” says Miss Buena, real quiet.

  I have to keep trying. I press the button with the picture of the green phone. Nothing happens. Then I see that the lines in the corner of the screen are flat again. There’s no signal.

  The last time we found the signal, we were farther that way, by the gas station. But Miss Buena can’t drive us there now. She’s too sick.

  What if I walk that way? If I walk just a little bit, can I find the signal and call my mom?

  I open my door. Lucia screams, “Alex, no! Don’t leave!”

  I say, “I’m not going far. I have to find the signal again, so the phone will work and I can call Mom to come get us. Y’all stay here with Miss Buena.”

  Tiffany’s crying so loud I can barely hear anything. Lucia says, “Don’t leave us. I’m scared of the dark.”

  I say, “I’m going to leave the door open, so the light will stay on. Don’t be scared. I’m coming right back. Look—take off your seat belts and scoot up. You can watch me out the window.”

  That makes them stop crying a little bit. Lucia takes off her seat belt and wipes her nose on her dress. Then Tiffany copies her. They scoot way up so they can see me get out of the car and walk in front of it. It’s hard to walk here, because the grass is really tall. I can see the tracks where Miss Buena ran over it and flattened it out. It looks red from the car’s lights in the back.

  I walk around to Miss Buena’s side and see her sitting in the grass next to the car. “Miss Buena? Are you awake?” She looks really tired, like she fell asleep right there. She kind of looks like Tiffany now, with her face pressed against the car and a little bit of slobber coming out of her mouth. “Miss Buena, I’m going to try to call my mom. I’ll be right back.”