by Anne Schraff
“Girl, I’m nice, but I ain’t no fool. This party is for my friends, remember? Last I checked, Brisana don’t fall nowhere near that category. ”
Darcy looked more closely at Tarah. She could not be sure, but it looked like Tarah had lost weight. “Tarah, you dieting or something? You look thinner. ”
A big smile spread over Tarah’s face. “Girl, don’t you bother givin’ me no birthday present, you hear what I’m sayin’? You just gave me the best present a girl could get. I lost five pounds, and I didn’t think anybody would notice! You better believe I been passin’ up fries and chips and everything else that’s good!”
All week, Tarah invited people to her party. She asked two dozen kids from her classes, a few of her cousins, and friends from the neighborhood youth center. It looked as if it was going to be a good mix of girls and boys. Everything went well until Wednesday, when Shanetta Greene confronted Tarah during Phys Ed. “Hey girl,” she said, “how come you ain’t invited nobody from 43rd Street to your party?”
“Got nothin’ to do with no street,”Tarah snapped. “We don’t want trouble, you hear what I’m sayin’? It’s gonna be a nice party with good food and good music, no fightin’, no booze, you get my meanin’?”
Shanetta glared at Tarah. “Girl, I don’t know what you talkin’ about. You must be crazy or something. ”
“I seen you with Londell James and Bobby Wallace, Shanetta—you the one must be crazy, messin’ with them,” Tarah said. “They ain’t nothin’ but trouble. ”
“Girl, you need to get your eyes checked,” Shanetta said. “I ain’t hung around with them for months. ”
“Well, ain’t that somethin’?” Tarah laughed. “I seen Londell’s twin brother with you at the dollar store last night, and that’s real strange ’cause he ain’t got no twin brother!”
Shanetta rolled her eyes, turned, and stomped off.
“Londell James stole money out of my purse in middle school,” Darcy said. “We were all scared of him. ”
“You told on him, didn’t you?” Tarah asked.
“No,” Darcy admitted. “Like I said, we were scared. ”
“That boy is real trouble. ”
“I know,” Darcy said.
“Word on the street is that he’s hangin’ out with a bad bunch—and they got guns,” Tarah said grimly.
After English class, Darcy spotted Roylin Bailey standing in front of the door to the library. He often loitered there so he could tease other kids. Lately Hakeem was his favorite target.
The two girls walked in Roylin’s direction, and the boy immediately put on a mocking smile. “H-H-Hakeem here yet?” he asked.
“Boy, can’t you find something better to do than make a fool of yourself?” Darcy snapped.
“I’m coming to the party Saturday,” Roylin announced.
“You ain’t invited,” Tarah retorted.
“It’s a public place,” Roylin challenged. “You can’t keep me away. ”
“You won’t get nothin’ to eat, boy, so you might as well stay at home,” Tarah said.
“B-b-but I can spoil your party, can’t I?” Roylin laughed.
Darcy and Tarah had not seen Hakeem walk up until he confronted Roylin. “Listen up, man, you get in my face, and I’m gonna change the way your face is arranged, you hear me?”
“You don’t scare me, retard,” Roylin said.
Hakeem took a step towards Roylin, his arms swinging. Darcy had never seen so much rage in his face.
“Here comes Keenan!” somebody yelled.
The tall teacher came around the corner carrying his briefcase. “The bell for the next class has rung. All you tough guys can either get in the classroom and sit down or go to the office,” Mr. Keenan barked.
Chapter 5
The bayfront park had picnic tables under the trees and a small pier for fishing. There were at least a dozen barbecue pits and a clear area to fly kites. A cool wind was blowing, and the sky was bright blue. Darcy could smell the roasting chicken and hot dogs as she approached the parking lot. She spotted Tarah’s party by the bunch of colorful balloons tied to a tree. Darcy hurried to add her gift, some art supplies, to those piled on a picnic table.
“Happy birthday, girl!” Darcy said as soon as she spotted Tarah. Both girls hugged briefly, but then Tarah turned away.
“I’ll be right back, Darcy. I gotta watch Coop with the grill, or he’ll burn all the food. Lord knows that boy can’t cook!”
Darcy chuckled as Tarah went over to the grill. Hakeem was standing nearby holding his guitar. Just seeing it made Darcy anxious.
“I’m so nervous about the talent show,” she said as he walked over to her. “I get butterflies just thinking about it. ”
“You’ll be fine, Darcy,” Hakeem replied. He seemed to be in a good mood.
“Man, I’m starvin’,” Cooper complained. “These hot dogs are takin’ forever!”
“They’ll be done in a minute, Coop,” Tarah said. “You don’t wanna eat them raw, do you?”
“I gotta eat now,” Cooper insisted playfully. “I’m a growin’ boy. ”
“Where is the mustard?” Sonia asked. “Who was supposed to bring the mustard?”
“Nobody wants hot dogs without mustard,” Cooper bellowed. Then he quickly said, “Hey, my man Shariff brought the mustard. Here it is. ”
“Tarah said for me to bring the continents,” Shariff said with a broad smile. “And I did. ”
“Not continents,” Keisha explained gently, “condiments. ”
“Speakin’ of continents, I’m hungry enough to eat a whole continent right now,” Cooper said.
After Tarah opened her gifts, everybody began eating. Cooper wolfed down three hot dogs, and he still had appetite left for two slices of Tarah’s chocolate birthday cake. Then some guys started a game of basketball. Some of the girls decided to watch. Others gathered in small groups, listened to music and talked about school and the latest gossip.
Hakeem and Darcy sat under a tree, and he strummed the strings on his guitar.
“I sound like a sick cat when I sing that stupid song I’ve been practicing. That singer on the CD makes it sound so good, but . . . ”
“Sing some old classic,” Hakeem suggested. “I got a great CD we can listen to. There’s one song . . . ”
Hakeem stopped talking and looked off in the distance. Darcy turned to see what he was looking at. A teal-blue Honda had just pulled into the parking lot—Roylin Bailey’s Honda.
Hakeem cursed softly, and a vein in his temple jumped beneath his dark skin.
“Just ignore him,” Darcy pleaded. “Everybody knows he’s a loser. ”
The sun was going down, and it would be dark in about an hour. The pale outline of the full moon already hung ominously over the horizon. Everybody would be going home soon. If only Roylin had just stayed away, Darcy thought. Everything was going so well.
Roylin came to the edge of the picnic area and stood with his hands on his hips, his gaze roaming until it settled on Hakeem. “Oh, there’s the retard,” he called out. “H-H-Hakeem, h-h-how you doin’, man? You learn to t-t-talk right yet? Huh? Huh?”
Hakeem scrambled to his feet.
“Hakeem! No!” Darcy cried.
With the speed of a big, lean cat, Hakeem lunged at Roylin. Roylin tried to block Hakeem’s punches, but one connected with his nose, spraying droplets of blood on his white t-shirt. He seemed unprepared for Hakeem’s rage. With a look of wild fear in his face, Roylin fled across the parking lot.
Darcy was not exactly sure what happened after that. A champagne-colored Nissan had come into the parking lot without anybody noticing it because all attention was on the fight. The Nissan screeched to a stop. Darcy heard Cooper scream, “They got guns!”
For a minute Darcy did not understand. Had Roylin pulled out a gun?
Then rapid shots crackled in the air like firecrackers. Everyone at the picnic ducked. As Darcy hit the grass to escape the gunfire, she saw guns flashin
g in the side windows of the Nissan.
Next to her, somebody was screaming, and the air was filled with the chaotic sounds of bursting cola bottles and splintering picnic tables. A bullet hit the trunk of a tree a few feet ahead of her, shattering the bark into small pieces. Darcy did not dare raise her head.
Mingled with the sounds of screaming and shouting was the wail of a police siren. Help was on the way. The Nissan’s tires squealed as it raced from the parking lot.
The shots had stopped, and kids were getting up slowly like shadowy figures on a battlefield. The comforting aroma of the barbecue was quickly overwhelmed by the acrid stench of gun smoke. It was as if the party itself had been slain and now was broken and bleeding. Limp balloons lay like corpses on the grass, and one of Tarah’s birthday gifts, a teddy bear, had been ripped into small pieces by the gunfire.
Darcy searched for Hakeem, finally finding him standing in the parking lot, blood on his shirt. “Hakeem! Are you okay?” she gasped.
Hakeem nodded. His eyes were strange, and his voice faltered. “Bailey got shot in the head. He was running from me. ”
Darcy followed his gaze and saw the crumpled figure in the parking lot, blood pouring from a head wound. It was Roylin. He was motionless, sprawled there, arms flung out, feet and legs hunched under him as if he crouched into a fetal position when he was hit.
“Oh my God,” Hakeem said, “he was running from me! ”
Everybody gathered around silently—Tarah, her cousins, the kids from the center, Cooper, Keisha, Shariff, Sonia, and all the others from school. Cooper threw an arm around Hakeem’s shoulders. “Hey, man, wasn’t your fault. He never shoulda been here. I seen Londell James in the Nissan. He’s the one shot Bailey. Wasn’t your fault. ”
The paramedics arrived within minutes and began working feverishly over Roylin Bailey, stabilizing him before carrying him into the ambulance.
“Nobody else got shot,” Tarah said in a numb voice. “Just him. Why’d he have to be here? Why? Will somebody tell me that?”
Sonia’s eyes were wide with disbelief. “Why did those guys shoot at us?”
“I let them know I wasn’t invitin’ no troublemakers, and this was Londell James’s payback, that’s what,” Tarah said bitterly.
Darcy gave Tarah a long, silent hug, then returned to Hakeem’s side. He turned and looked at Darcy. “I got him shot. If I’d kept my cool he never woulda got shot. Nobody else was hit, just him. He was an easy target, running in the parking lot by himself. It was my fault he was there. I got him shot. ” Hakeem shook his head slowly. His glazed eyes did not move or blink. It was as if he was watching something horrible happen in the distance, something he had no power to stop.
“Hakeem,” Darcy whispered, “it wasn’t your fault. ”
“His Mom. Bailey’s Mom . . . she’s single, and they got four younger kids. I don’t know what she’s gonna do. Roylin, he gave her money,” Hakeem said, shaking his head and staring at the ground.
Darcy did not know what to say for a moment. Then she said, “Let’s go to the hospital and see if there’s anything we can do, Hakeem. Okay? Maybe we can help Mrs. Bailey. ”
Hakeem looked inspired by the suggestion. “Yeah. Yeah! C’mon, let’s go right now. ”
When they got to the ER waiting room, Darcy and Hakeem found Mrs. Bailey and her children waiting for word on Roylin’s condition. Amberlynn was clinging to her mother’s shoulder and crying. Mrs. Bailey held a baby girl in her lap, and two little boys, about five or six, fought over a toy truck on the floor. Darcy sat down beside Mrs. Bailey. “I’m Darcy Wills and this is my friend, Hakeem Randall. We go to Bluford High with Roylin. We came down to see if there was anything we could do,” Darcy said.
Mrs. Bailey looked stunned. Her two little boys were in a wild tug-of-war over the small truck, and the baby was crying. Hakeem leaned forward and said softly, “Mrs. Bailey, how about me taking the boys down to the cafeteria for some ice cream? There’s a little play area down there where they can work off some steam. ”
“Thank you,” Mrs. Bailey said, gladly turning the warring little boys over to Hakeem. He took each child by the hand, and they danced off with him, lured by the prospect of ice cream and play. Helping Mrs. Bailey seemed to calm Hakeem down too.
Darcy took the baby from Mrs. Bailey’s arms and rocked her gently. “Have you heard anything about Roylin yet?” Darcy asked.
“No,” Mrs. Bailey moaned, shaking her head. “I been sittin’ here waiting ever since they called me. I was home with the children, and they called me. My sister drove me down right away, but then she hadda go back to work. They said the nurse would call me over to that window there when I could see my boy. ”
The baby settled down in Darcy’s arms, and Mrs. Bailey dabbed at her redrimmed eyes. “I couldn’t believe my boy was shot. I just couldn’ believe it. Roylin ain’t no angel, but he never been mixed up with gangs. Why’d they shoot him? Why’d they go and shoot my boy for nothin’?”
Amberlynn had been sniffling softly, but now she looked at Darcy with big, soulful eyes. “Did my brother start the trouble at the party?” she asked.
“No,” Darcy said. Roylin’s teasing of Hakeem and their fight had nothing to do with the shooting. “Some thugs just drove by and started shooting, Amberlynn. It was just a stupid drive-by. ”
The nurse appeared at a small window. “Mrs. Bailey?” she called out.
Mrs. Bailey jumped up. “Oh Lord. Oh precious Lord—what if he’s dead? What if my boy is dead? ” Her eyes were wild with terror, and she was shaking violently.
Darcy put her free arm around the woman’s shoulder and said, “It’ll be okay, Mrs. Bailey. I’ll pray real hard for you. You go on in, and I’ll stay here with Amberlynn and the baby. ”
Mrs. Bailey hurried towards the door that opened into the emergency ward. Darcy sat down with the baby, and Amberlynn sat very close to them. After a few minutes, Amberlynn asked in a small voice, “Is Hakeem your boyfriend?”
“We’re good friends,” Darcy said as she rocked the baby in her arms.
“Roylin said he was retarded, but he’s not, right?” Amberlynn asked.
“No, he’s not. Sometimes, when he gets nervous, Hakeem stutters, but he’s fine,” Darcy said.
“I bet all this happened ’cause of Roylin being mean to somebody. He’s awful mean, stomping on my stuffed animals and smashing my little brothers’ toys. He yells at Mom and stuff too. He calls her bad names sometimes. Darcy, you think that’s why he got shot,’cause he’s mean?” Amberlynn asked.
“No, it didn’t happen because of Roylin being mean, Amberlynn. Some guys drove up and just shot at people at the party. I don’t know why stuff like that happens. It’s just awful,” Darcy said.
Amberlynn played nervously with a shell bracelet on her wrist. “I know one thing. When I get old enough to have a real boyfriend, he won’t be somebody like Roylin. Not me. I want a boy who’s nice. Like Hakeem. ” Darcy smiled at her.
It seemed as if they waited forever in the crowded room. Darcy looked at the other people, an elderly man with a woman in a wheelchair, a gray-haired woman leading a man with a walker, young mothers with coughing babies, asthmatic kids wheezing. There were the relatives of accident victims, the parents of a teenager brought in comatose after a drug overdose. The parents looked so young themselves, and both were weeping.
Finally Hakeem returned to the waiting room with the boys. They were calmer, and they sat down quietly beside him. Hakeem turned anxiously to Darcy. “Did Mrs. Bailey go in?”
“Yeah, about fifteen minutes ago,” Darcy answered. “I don’t know if, you know, she can see him, or if they just want to talk to her . . . I mean . . . ” Darcy didn’t want to say the words. Was Roylin dead? Were the doctors telling Mrs. Bailey as kindly as they could that in spite of all their efforts, her son was dead and there were things she had to do, the stuff that has to be done when someone dies?
“I heard over the radio in the cafeteria that t
he police caught Londell James and the other guys in the car,” Hakeem said. He shook his head. “All the shots went wild, all but the one that got Bailey. Why couldn’t I just have ignored him? Why? ”
“Hakeem, stop it. It wasn’t your fault,” Darcy said. “Roylin is a . . . ” Darcy noticed Amberlynn staring at her and changed the subject. “I’m glad the police got the guys who shot at us. I hope they put them in jail forever!”
Suddenly Amberlynn said, “One time last year Roylin ran away. He was gone a whole week. I was glad. Mama cried, but I was hoping he didn’t come back ’cause it was so peaceful in our house. When Daddy lived with us, it was real bad, and then when Mama kicked Daddy out, Roylin took over messin’ us up. ”
“I’m so sorry, Amberlynn,” Darcy said, putting an arm around Amberlynn’s shoulders.
“Know what?” Amberlynn continued. “Daddy used to whup Roylin up one side of his head and down the other. When Roylin didn’t put out the garbage, Daddy whupped him for bein’ lazy. When Roylin did put out the garbage, Daddy whupped him for doin’ it wrong. Daddy was all the time yelling and beating his fists on the table and cussing out everybody. I guess that’s what made Roylin so mean, but I don’t care. I just kind of hate him ’cause I’m scared of him. ”
“No, Amberlynn, you don’t hate him,” Hakeem said. “Roylin’s your blood, and that’s thicker than anything. ”
Amberlynn’s eyes widened again. “You think if he dies it’ll be my fault’ cause I hate him?”
“No, no,” Darcy said. “It’s got nothing to do with you, Amberlynn. ”
Darcy thought about her own father. He was never like Roylin’s dad. Carl Wills ran out on his family, true. But the years he was there were good ones. Suddenly she felt the need to hear her father’s voice. “I need to make a phone call,” Darcy said, gently placing the sleeping baby into Amberlynn’s arms.