Jin took pity on him. “You don’t have to answer that,” she said, shooting an icy stare in Alex’s direction.
“He’s my grandfather,” Elvin blurted out. “The man who came into your store.” His eyes darted nervously in Jin’s direction. “He’s my grandfather, and he was attacked last Wednesday. Since then, I’ve been trying to find out what happened.” His voice dropped to a whisper as he fished around in his coat pocket and pulled out a folded newspaper clipping, which he passed to Jin.
“ ‘Man Found Unconscious in Harlem Community Garden,’ ” Jin read the headline aloud. “ ‘A man identified as Harlem resident, Jacob Morrow, was found unconscious in the Zora Neale Hurston Community Garden around 3:00 a.m. Thursday morning.’ ” Jin looked up. “Okay, this is really bizarre. That’s the same garden where Jarvis Monroe found the painting, literally a day before.”
“What painting?” Elvin asked.
But Jin was too busy skimming the rest of the article to answer. “ ‘Authorities believe that Morrow, who is currently being treated for head injuries at Harlem Hospital, was wounded late Wednesday night. Police are still investigating the incident. There are no suspects in custody,’ ” she finished reading, and looked up at Elvin. “What was your grandfather doing in the garden, anyway?”
“That’s what I need to figure out,” Elvin said.
Jin shot him a worried look. “Maybe you should go to the police.”
“No! No police!” Elvin shouted. “They’ll take me away. Nobody will know where I am and I’ll never find out what happened to my grandfather.”
“He’s right.” Alex frowned.
“So you’re out here all alone?” Jin asked, wide-eyed. She’d never met a homeless kid before. Elvin nodded, eyes on the ground. He obviously wasn’t ready to tell them his whole life story yet.
“We need to find you a place to stay.” Alex started pacing. “But first, you probably need something hot to eat. We could go back to the Magic Skillet,” she suggested.
Jin had a better idea. “Let’s go to the bodega. I’ve got to be back soon anyway. Halmoni should be starting dinner by now. She makes a ton of food because our relatives are always dropping by and they’re always hungry.”
Elvin hesitated. “I’m not sure. I don’t usually go places with strangers. I mean, we just met and all.”
“We’re not ax murderers,” Alex joked.
“Yeah, okay, I’ll go,” he agreed. If anything happened, I could always outrun them, he thought to himself.
“Then it’s settled.” Alex nodded. They headed in the direction of the bodega, the rattle of Alex’s cart thudding along the sidewalk the only sound between them. Dusk swept away the last crumbs of sun, making the pleasantly crisp late-September air feel downright frigid. Instinctively, they veered toward one another, forming a three-person barrier against the cold. Jin matched her stride to Elvin’s.
“You know,” she whispered, “I think your grandfather bought the goat especially for you.”
Halmoni was sweeping out front when they arrived at the bodega. Jin cringed when she saw that her grandmother was wearing her “store clothes”: a faded smock with an ugly flower pattern, a ratty green sweater, and hideous brown sandals with white socks. She wished that her grandmother could be a little more fashionable, but then she looked at Alex with her ripped-up clothes and Elvin in his oversized coat, and she realized that they probably hadn’t even noticed Halmoni’s outfit.
“Hey, Halmoni,” Jin greeted her. “These are my friends.”
Halmoni didn’t answer. Instead, she reached for her glasses, which dangled from a chain around her neck, and slipped them onto her face. “Who are you?” She squinted and pointed at Elvin.
Jin blushed. “This is Elvin, and you met Alex earlier. They’re going to hang out for a little while, if that’s okay. And also we’re starving. Could you, uh, maybe make us something to eat?”
“When my work finished? When someone cook something to eat for me?” Halmoni fussed. She pointed her broom at Alex. “I already give her food today.”
Alex tugged at her hair and shifted her weight. Jin could tell she was uncomfortable and rushed to her defense. “Yes, but she donated it to a shelter. And Elvin … ” She paused when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alex mouthing the word no. Jin swallowed, trying to think of something to say. “Um, Elvin’s just hungry.” She shot Alex a look, which Alex answered with a very quick nod.
Halmoni frowned suspiciously. “You three lucky I’m so generous. I make something. Go sit at the table,” she said, and waved them away.
Jin led her small entourage to the back of the store. “Have a seat.” She gestured toward the card table and three folding chairs.
Alex parked her cart against the wall and flopped into a chair. “It must be cool to live in a bodega,” she commented, glancing around the room at Halmoni’s clothesline, sagging with towels and aprons, the stack of plates and glasses on top of a small refrigerator, and the television blaring out the news.
“We don’t live here. My grandparents own this store. We work late, so we keep some stuff here,” Jin snipped.
“Okay, okay, no big deal.” Alex held up her hands, as if she were the one being attacked.
As the girls argued, Elvin shook off his huge coat and folded it over the back of one of the remaining chairs. Before he sat down, he peeled off the baseball hat. Spikey, ear-length dreadlocks sprang out around his head.
Jin looked at him, amazed. “Without your coat and hat, you look like a normal kid,” she said before she could stop herself.
“Uh, thanks, I guess,” Elvin mumbled, taking a seat.
Alex leaned forward. “So what are you? Nine, ten years old?” She asked. Elvin’s brown face turned a deep shade of crimson.
“I’m twelve. In the seventh grade.” He winced. “I just happen to be a little short for my age,” he glared at Alex. “Has anyone ever told you that you ask really rude questions?”
“Good one, Elvin!” Jin raised her hand for Elvin to high-five.
“What is this? Everyone-gang-up-on-Alex day?” Alex swiveled in her chair to turn her back to the table.
“No gang up on anybody at my table.” Halmoni appeared at that moment, carrying a tray loaded with three bowls of rice, each with a fried egg and a generous dollop of kimchi on top. As Elvin sniffed his bowl, Jin let out a low groan.
“It’s fermented cabbage,” she explained, anticipating the question that everyone asked when presented with Halmoni’s specialty.
“Yeah, I know. I love kimchi!” He grinned. “One of our neighbors back in California used to make it for my mom and me.” He shoved a huge bite into his mouth. “So how do you two know each other?” he asked in between mouthfuls.
“We go to the same school,” Jin explained. “We’re seventh graders, too,” she added.
Alex sat up in her chair and pushed her bowl aside. “Let’s get down to business, shall we?” She folded her hands on the table and fixed her gaze on Elvin. “What’s your real story? Start from the beginning, and don’t leave anything out.”
Okay, here goes, Elvin thought as he shifted in his chair and cleared his throat. “My mom is sick. Cancer.” The words felt heavy and sharp as they fell from his mouth and sank in the air like clunky chunks of metal.
“Elvin, I’m so sorry.” Jin reached across the table to touch his arm.
“Me too,” Alex mumbled.
Elvin nodded but kept on with his story. If he was going to get this out, it would be now or never. “Three weeks ago, my mom had to go into the hospital for treatment. We don’t really have any other family in Berkeley, where I’m from, so she sent me here to stay with my grandfather until she gets better. I’d never met him, never even knew I had a grandfather before that.”
He told them how, last Wednesday night, he had heard his grandfather going out for his nightly walk around eleven o’clock. “I was already in bed, so I just went back to sleep. I woke up again around two a.m. to get some water,
and my grandfather still wasn’t home, which was strange. His walks usually only took an hour or so—”
“Sorry to interrupt.” Jin raised her hand as if she were in class. “Do you mind if I take a few notes?” she asked.
“Okay.” Elvin shrugged. Jin grabbed her notebook, opened to a new page, and quickly wrote:
ELVIN’S GRANDFATHER’S ATTACK
Clues:
Nightly Walk 11 pm. 1 hour.
Wednesday: Went out for walk. Probably attacked in garden before midnight.
When she was finished, she nodded at Elvin to continue.
“Like I was saying, I thought my grandfather not coming home was really weird, and I kind of started freaking out. I didn’t want to end up by myself in this city, so I decided to go out to look for him. I probably should’ve thought that idea through a little more carefully, because I didn’t even grab a jacket. I also left my phone and keys in the apartment, so I couldn’t get back in, which is how I ended up homeless and cold on the streets of New York—the exact thing I didn’t want to happen.” Elvin sighed, and then continued.
“Luckily, when I got outside, the super from the building next door was putting the trash out. I asked him about my grandfather, and he told me that he sometimes sees him walking near the garden next to the senior citizens’ apartment building. I rushed over there and saw something at the entrance that looked like a pile of old clothes, or maybe a few bags of trash. I went over to get a closer look. It was my grandfather, and he was barely conscious. I yelled for help, and this man who was out walking his dog called an ambulance. They took us to Harlem Hospital.
“The doctors said something hit my grandfather on the back of the head. He’s in a coma now, and they don’t know if he’s going to wake up. I wanted to stay with him, but the nurses kept asking if my parents would be stopping by, and eventually I overheard one of them say that she was going to call Child Protective Services to come and pick me up for the night. But my mom and grandfather are the only ones who know I’m here. I couldn’t risk being taken away, so I disguised myself in my grandfather’s hat and coat, snuck out of the hospital, and ran.”
Jin looked concerned. “So you’ve been wandering the streets of New York by yourself?” She couldn’t imagine not having Halmoni and Harabeoji to take care of her. And yet, she suddenly realized, if they hadn’t come along, she could’ve easily been left to fend for herself.
“I’ve been hiding out in the 135th Street subway station for the past three days,” Elvin explained. “Then I saw you guys walking by with your bread. For the record, I never stole anything before that. My mom would kill me if she knew, but I was so hungry … ”
Alex sprang out of her seat. “Forget the bread, dude! This is awesome! I mean, it’s not awesome that your grandfather was hurt, but awesome that we get to help you solve a real-life mystery.” She turned to Jin. “What about this painting that the kid found in the garden?”
“Right. Jarvis Monroe was digging around in the garden and found a potentially rare and valuable painting buried there.” Jin flipped a couple pages back in her notebook. “He found it on Tuesday, but they announced the discovery on Wednesday, which was the same night Elvin’s grandfather was found in the garden.”
Alex paced back and forth, rubbing her temples. “This is strange, very strange.” She stopped abruptly in front of Elvin. “Could your grandfather have been doing a little treasure hunting himself that night? Maybe he was searching for more of the paintings, but then something went wrong. And maybe he hit his head in the process, or ran into someone else with the same idea and got into a fight?”
Jin was horrified. “Alex! How could you suggest that?”
“It’s not impossible,” Alex argued.
Jin glanced at Elvin. “Do you think your grandfather would go searching for buried paintings?”
The truth of the matter was that Elvin didn’t know what kind of person his grandfather was or what he was capable of. He didn’t think that his mother would send him to live with a man who would risk so much for a painting, but maybe she didn’t know her own father that well, either.
“I’m not sure. I guess it’s possible,” Elvin answered quietly.
Alex softened her gaze. “Do you have anything of your grandfather’s that might help us figure out what’s going on?”
“Just the goat. And this.” Elvin fished a crumpled note card out of one of his grandfather’s coat pockets and slid it across the table to Alex, who scanned it and then passed it to Jin. At the top of the card, printed in raised black font, were the letters SMH. The note itself was handwritten in neat cursive.
J—
Please let bygones be bygones. I need to speak with you at once. Call me as soon as you can.
Yours Sincerely,
VMS
“This doesn’t give us much to go on.” Alex started to pace again.
Jin, who had been busy scribbling, looked up from her notebook. “The SMH at the top of the card seems like some kind of letterhead. The thing that I don’t get is, if it’s SMH’s stationery, why would the note be signed VMS? Do you know anyone with those initials?” she asked Elvin, chewing on the end of her pen.
Elvin shook his head.
Jin turned back to her notebook. “Okay, so step one: we need to figure out what ‘SMH’ and ‘VMS’ stand for,” she said as she wrote. She paused to snap a picture of the note card with her phone, then typed and sent a quick message. “I’m texting this to my friend Rose. She’s great at research and should be able to help us to decode the letters. Now for step two … ” Jin stopped mid-sentence when she heard the slip-slap sound of Halmoni’s sandals approaching. She put her finger up to her lips and whispered, “Don’t say anything.” Alex and Elvin nodded as Halmoni emerged from behind a stack of boxes.
“Why so quiet? What’s going on?” Halmoni demanded.
“Nothing, Halmoni.” Jin smiled. “Thank you for the food. It was very good.”
“Yes, very good. Thank you,” Alex echoed.
“I loved the kimchi. Thank you very much,” Elvin added.
“You welcome very much.” Halmoni beamed. A split second later, she was kicking everybody out. “Okay, Jinnie, it’s late. Time for your friends go home now.”
“Let’s meet tomorrow morning,” Alex said once Halmoni had gone back to the front of the store.
“But where is Elvin going to stay tonight? We can’t send him back out into the streets. Maybe there’s some kind of place for homeless, er … I mean, kids who are on their own.” Jin punched in a search on her phone.
“Wait a second, I have an idea. Someone give me a pen,” Alex said, whipping a monograph notepad out of a bag in her cart. Jin passed her a pen, and Alex quickly scribbled something on two sheets of the pad, then neatly tore them off and folded the notes. “Let’s go,” she said.
“Hey, you!” Halmoni pointed at Elvin before they could slip out of the store.
“Take this. Might get hungry later.” She handed him a bag of groceries and a jar of her prized kimchi. Maybe Halmoni actually did have a soft spot somewhere in her fussy heart, Jin thought, proudly.
But as Jin followed Alex and Elvin to the door, Halmoni frowned. “Jin, where you go? Too late to be out.”
“Can I just walk them home? I won’t be more than an hour, promise,” Jin pleaded.
“Not today.” Halmoni crossed her arms. Jin knew her answer was final.
“Sorry, guys, I can’t come.”
“Okay. I’ll meet you here tomorrow, and then we’ll hook up with Elvin,” Alex whispered. Jin gave her a quick thumbs-up as Halmoni picked up her broom again and, jabbing at their feet, swept the two of them out the door.
Elvin lagged several paces behind Alex once they left the bodega. Even pulling a shopping cart, she walked so fast he could barely keep up. She also hadn’t bothered to tell him anything about where they were going. He didn’t quite know what to make of this girl, who seemed as demanding and unpredictable as the city itself.
“Wait! I can’t go in there. They’ll just kick me out.” He hunched his shoulders, shrinking even further into his massive coat.
“Don’t worry, my dad works for the company that owns this building. I’ve got everything under control.” She yanked open the tall glass doors.
Inside, Elvin hung back near the entrance, swiveling his neck to take in the pristine lobby, with its gleaming white stone tiles and ultra-modern fountain. Alex parked her cart beside him and marched straight to the reception desk.
“Hola, José,” she called. A man dressed in an elegant suit stood up from behind the desk to shake Alex’s hand.
“Hola, Miss Roebuck. How can I help you today?”
“I’m here to drop off our latest celebrity guest. He goes by E,” she said, gesturing toward Elvin with an exaggerated, exasperated sigh, then leaned in closer to José and lowered her voice. “Apparently, he’s a big star on one of those silly kid shows, and he’s in town recording his first record at Sony—as if anyone really wants to hear him sing or rap or whatever he does. Anyway, the studio asked my dad to put him up in 6H so that he can focus on writing songs and so they can keep him away from the press until the official launch. You know the drill. We just need the key.”
Frantically, José began to riffle through stacks of paper on his desk, a confused look on his face. “I, uh, don’t see any ‘E’ on our VIP guest list. And there’s no rental agreement from Sony on file.”
Alex didn’t flinch. “There is no agreement. Dad is doing this as a favor to one of his friends over at Sony. Didn’t his secretary call?” Alex asked calmly. José shook his head.
“Dad was afraid this might happen. He has a new secretary, Brenda, and she must’ve forgotten. She’s really busy with that big new project. He gave me a note to give to you. Just in case. There’s also a note from E’s parents saying it’s okay for him to stay here by himself.” Alex handed him the notes that she’d written back at the bodega.
The Harlem Charade Page 4