Saving Sailor: A Novel

by Renée Riva

  Sailor suddenly spots a little scrap of a dog the size of a large rat and runs right through the middle of everything to chase it. The little yipper goes rippin’ all over the place and finally hides under a beach chair. Then a bunch of kids run over to Sailor and start playin’ with him. The grown-ups are lookin’ around to figure out where the big dog came from, and here I am, lookin’ guilty. They all seem pretty friendly about us crashin’ their fiesta, and Sailor gets lots of pats and hugs from the little kids.

  Lolita looks up and waves at me like she remembers me. She signals with her hand for me to come over. I’m not one to turn down a good party. Once I make my way over to her, everyone surrounds me wearing big smiles, and they just pull me right in like I’m one of their own. One really old woman keeps touchin’ my hair, like she has never seen yellow hair before. It’s not long before they have me eatin’ fish tostadas and other strange things I would never eat at home, but they taste pretty good here.

  The next thing I know, they’ve put a blindfold on me and are twirlin’ me around ’til I’m so dizzy I feel like throwin’ up my fish tostadas. Then they push me forward to try and whack the piñata. I start to swing the bat like a wild man, but I hit nothin’ but air. Finally, I make contact with somethin’, and everyone starts screamin’. I’m hopin’ it’s not a kid that I hit. When I take off my blindfold, I realize I’ve whacked open the piñata, and all the kids are divin’ for candy. So I dive too. This is way more fun than Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Even Sailor’s gettin’ the hang of this and chomps down a piece of candy with the wrapper still on it.

  I’m eatin’ candy with Lolita when some little boy runs up and hits me, then runs away. I’m thinkin’, Hey, what’s that for? But Lolita pushes me to go after him. So I start to chase him, and other kids start runnin’ around too. I finally swat him back, and everyone stops runnin’ from me and starts runnin’ from him. Now I get it—we’re playin’ tag. Before long, the whole place has gone mad. Kids are runnin’ every which way, all over this island.

  In the middle of all of this madness, I notice someone watchin’ from the sidelines. I nearly break out in hives when I realize it’s Stacy. I begin havin’ inner tube flashbacks, and hearin’ Nicky’s sinister laugh. I don’t care if they are my relatives, the Sophronias are evil. I don’t know how long Stacy’s been standin’ there watchin’ all of this, but it’s not long before some kid runs up to her and tags her. I nearly have a cow when I see my cousin runnin’ around, laughin’, like I’ve never heard her laugh before—except when she was squishin’ me to death on the inner tube. But this time, we’re laughin’ together.

  After we’re all worn out from playin’ tag, Stacy starts givin’ the little kids piggyback rides. This is a side of her I have never seen before. She shows them how to make a human pyramid and even volunteers to be on the bottom. I just don’t get it how this snobby rich cousin of mine is havin’ the time of her life without worryin’ about lookin’ cool to anyone. But the funny thing is, this is the first time she’s ever looked cool to me.

  We all sit around the big fire pit with all the moms and dads, aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, brothers, sisters, cousins, and dogs like we are all just one big happy family. Stacy has all the little girls lined up, waitin’ their turn to have their hair braided. She makes them all look so pretty, and their mamas just love it. I feel like I could just stay here all night and fall asleep to this guitar music, but my dream ends the minute I look up and see the Big Fat Blue Baby and African Queen comin’ toward shore. It looks like a boat parade with all of Fat Baby’s lights on. That’s when I realize we must’ve been here a long time.

  As they pull in near shore, almost everyone here runs into the water to look at the bright blue jet boat. No one seems terribly impressed by our boat, except a few little girls. It is kind of a little princess boat. Daddy’s callin’ to me that it’s time to go home. Me and Stacy look at each other, and I can tell she’s as sad as I am about leavin’ our new friends. All of the kids wade out to the boats with us to see us off.

  I look at Lolita before climbin’ into the boat. “Adiós” is all I can say.

  “Adiós mi amiga,” she says back to me. Then we just look at each other like we know we’ll probably never see each other again.

  I see Stacy just standin’ there watchin’ us. Lolita looks at Stacy, and the next thing I know, Stacy throws her big arms around Lolita and hugs her, then turns, and wades out to her boat with tears in her eyes. I’m seein’ things I never expected to see. All the kids are yellin’ “Adiós” as she climbs aboard Fat Baby Blue. Daddy hoists me and Sailor into our boat, and we all wave good-bye as we begin our journey back home.

  The one thing I can’t seem to get out of my mind is how much happier Stacy was playin’ with a bunch of kids who have hardly nothin’, than she is when she’s braggin’ about how she has everything. She didn’t even tell a single fib all day—not that she would know how to tell one in Spanish—but I don’t think she even wanted to. I think she was just enjoyin’ herself for once. It’s funny how the people who I thought were very poor seem so much happier than the one who is very rich, but the one who is very rich seems happier playin’ with the poor people, who really don’t seem poor at all when you realize how much fun they have with each other. I’m not sure if I’m rich or poor, but I do know one thing, either way—Life is good.

  12

  Betrayal

  It feels so good to sleep in my own bed again. The only thing that feels different is the weather. It seems to have dropped about thirty degrees overnight. It’s so cold, not even Sailor wants to get up this morning. I have to push him off my blankets so I can climb out of bed. Hard to believe this is August. I half expect to look outside and see a freak snowstorm.

  The weather isn’t the only thing that seems weird. Danny didn’t show up to go fishin’ with J. R. this mornin’. He knew we were comin’ home last night. I would think he would’ve been here first thing this mornin’, but when I got up for breakfast, J. R. was still sittin’ here waitin’ for him. The fish will be all done with breakfast by now. That grabs my curiosity enough to take Sailor and head to the other side of the island to find out what’s up.

  When we reach Mr. Mueller’s property, I stand outside the cabins watchin’ for some kind of action, but no one is stirring. Even the little kids who are usually wild and noisy aren’t makin’ a peep. I’m thinkin’ maybe they’ve all gone to shore, but the boat’s still at the dock. Where is everybody? This feels too eerie, like something out of the Twilight Zone: Family Disappears without a Trace.

  I can’t just stand around all day waitin’ for somethin’ to happen, so I start back toward home.

  When I reach the trailhead to the beach, I see someone standin’ at the water’s edge lookin’ out at the lake. As soon as Sailor runs off wagging his tail, I realize it’s Danny. I follow Sailor, hoping we aren’t intruding.

  “Danny?” I say, in a quiet voice.

  He turns and looks at me. His face looks sad, like I’ve never seen it before, and his eyes have a world of hurt in them.

  “Danny,” I whisper, “what’s wrong?”

  Sailor licks Danny’s hand, and he lays it gently on Sailor’s head. “It’s … my dad,” he answers.

  “Something’s wrong with your dad?”

  “Oh, something’s wrong with him all right, but it’s not what you would think.” He takes a deep breath. “My mama got a call this mornin’ from her friend who lives next door to us in Oklahoma. She told my mama that some other lady’s car has been in our driveway every night since we left.”

  I have to think this through for a minute. “Are you sayin’ that your daddy has been havin’ a sleepover with another lady?”

  “That’s what I’m sayin’.”

  I can’t imagine someone with a wife as pretty as Danny’s mama havin’ a girlfriend.

  “Are you sure it isn’t just a friend stayin’ to keep your daddy comp’ny?”

  “No, A. J., this w
oman’s been trouble before, but my daddy swore …”

  Danny turns his head away. He picks up a rock and throws it as hard as he can into the water.

  I don’t know what to say. I try and think of how I would feel if my daddy ever had a sleepover like that with someone besides my mama. But I just can’t picture my daddy spendin’ the night with anyone besides my mama—not in a million years.

  Danny looks back at me. “I don’t know how a man can do that to someone who loves him.” He shakes his head. “I just don’t know how my daddy could do that to my mama.”

  The rest of the day moves in slow motion. Me and Sailor walk Danny back to his cabin. I stand with him at the front door long enough to see all of his aunts in a huddle around his mama. The kids are all playin’ board games on the floor, being told to “hush” when they get too loud.

  The women are all yackin’ back and forth on what they think their sister, Stella, should do.

  “You need to go back and confront him.”

  “You stay right here. We can go pack your things and bring them back for you. You don’t need to see that man again.”

  “Everyone leave her alone to decide for herself what’s best.” I side with Aunt Rebecca on that. I think it’s best for me to say good-bye and go back to my cabin, but I want to know if Danny’s gonna have to leave. It doesn’t seem fair for him to have to go before his vacation is over. None of this seems fair to anyone. I don’t even know this man, but I already don’t like him. One person sure can mess things up for a lot of people.

  “If you have to go home, Danny, come say good-bye to J. R.”

  “I will,” he says, then closes the door.

  When I get back to our cabin, Mama’s sittin’ at the table in her bathrobe, sippin’ her mornin’ coffee. I tell her what happened over at the Morgans’. Mama stops midsip and sets her mug down real slow on the table.

  “A. J.,” she says, “cover your ears, before you hear what I’m thinking about that man right now.” She picks up her coffee again and takes another sip, probably to keep those thoughts from spillin’ out in front of me.

  “You shouldn’t let that man make you think bad thoughts, Mama. You’ll end up having to tell the priest all about it, word for word.”

  “Well then, I will tell him that the first word that came to mind can actually be found in the Old Testament.”

  “Then it can’t be that bad of a word if it’s in the Bible.”

  “No, kiddo, it’s not, if it’s used in its proper context; however, I might be using it out of context in referring to Danny’s father.”

  “Well, what contest do they use it in, Mama?”

  “That’s context, A. J., and that context would be how the King James would refer to Balaam’s donkey. I think we’d better leave it right there.”

  I don’t think the priest could get too upset about Mama referrin’ to Danny’s daddy as a donkey. I’ll bet those priests have heard much worse in Grandma Juliana’s confessions. I can’t count how many times my mama has had to cover my ears when Grandma Juliana gets goin’ on what Mama calls her “high horse.” Grandma Juliana spends a lot of time on her high horse when it comes to talkin’ about my daddy or Grandma Angelina.

  I can tell Mama feels real bad for Danny’s mama, but she says there’s not much we can do to help in a situation of this kind.

  “Well, Mama, I think maybe we could pray for her.”

  “Yes we can, A. J., and you’d better pray that Mr. Morgan never steps foot on this island within earshot of your mama.”

  It seems an eternity before Danny shows up on our front porch with the report of their plans. His mama and brother will go back to Oklahoma to deal with the whole big mess and pack her bags. Danny will stay on the island with his grandfather for now. He doesn’t think he can face his daddy, so he’ll wait here for his mama to return. Once she gets back to the island, they’ll decide what to do from there.

  This comes as a great relief to J. R. and me, as neither one of us wants Danny to leave. He isn’t sure what Jason will do, but feels he will probably choose to stay in Oklahoma and help run the farm, since that’s where his future is.

  Of course, Adriana doesn’t take the news very well. What hurts most is, Jason never comes to say good-bye to her before he leaves that afternoon.

  I feel sorry for Adriana. I remember the words I heard Danny whisper at the potluck: “Like father, like son.” They have some bad blood goin’ on in that family, if you ask me. I just hope Danny escapes its curse.

  The sun has now gone down, and I’m lyin’ in bed thinkin’ about what has happened to Danny’s family. Somehow it reminds me of Grandma Angelina’s cow.

  When I was little, in the second grade, we went to visit Grandma Angelina and Grandpa Alfonso almost every weekend. Before Grandpa died, they lived on a farm, and they had this cow named Elsie. I watched Elsie grow from a baby into a mama. Every visit, I went out and petted Elsie and fed her dandelions from my hand. One day when Grandma Angelina and I were sittin’ in the kitchen, a man in an old green pickup truck came up the drive. He stopped by Elsie’s pasture and stepped out of his junky old truck with a rifle in his hand.

  “What’s that man doin’ with a gun?” I asked my grandma.

  “Oh, honey, he’s here to put Elsie down.”

  “Put Elsie down? You mean shoot her?”

  “Well, Angelina, that’s what we raised Elsie for. That’s how we get our food for the winter.”

  “What? You’re going to eat Elsie?” I remember feelin’ like I was going to be sick.

  “It’s really no different than the meat your mama buys at the store, honey.”

  “No different? This is your pet, for Pete’s sake. You are going to eat your pet.”

  I jumped up, darted to the window, and looked out. Just then a shot rang out, and I saw Elsie fall dead right before my eyes. How on God’s green earth could this happen? Poor Elsie, betrayed by the very people she thought loved her.

  That’s how Danny’s mama must feel right now. “Pow!” And Danny must feel like I felt, watchin’ it happen before his own eyes, and not being able to do a thing to stop it.

  I hate suffering of any kind. When I went to school the week after Elsie was assassinated, I told about it for Show and Tell. I told all about how the man came and shot poor Elsie. And how Elsie lay there with a pool of blood around her head, her eyes staring straight ahead like a zombie.

  Mama came to pick me up at school that day because she had somethin’ Grandma Angelina had asked her to deliver to the science teacher. When my teacher saw Mama in the hall, she asked if she could have a word with her. That always makes me nervous because it usually isn’t to tell your folks what a great kid you are. Mama sent me out to wait in the car, where I got to try and guess what I’d done wrong this time. But when Mama got back to the car, she was grinning from ear to ear.

  I was relieved that it didn’t appear to be somethin’ I’d be punished for. “So, what did she want this time, Mama?”

  “Well, A. J., Miss Blazing was just sharing with me about your Show and Tell today. She thought it may have made some of those town kids a little queasy to hear all the details about poor Elsie—not having been raised in the country and all. Miss Blazing also mentioned how you sometimes remind her of little Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family.”

  “Wednesday Addams? … Like how?”

  “Well, like the moth you found with a wounded wing, and insisted it must be ‘taken out of its misery.’ Then you stomped on it.”

  Mama was tryin’ to look serious for my sake, but I could tell by the twinkle in her eye, she was doin’ everything she could not to laugh at me.

  “Well, first off, it wasn’t a wounded wing,” I said, defending myself. “It had lost a leg, and I wasn’t going to let it just limp around for the rest of its life on one leg, so I mercy killed it, that’s all.”

  “That’s okay, kiddo, I can live with a merciful moth killing now and then,” she said.

  �
�So, is that all you were smilin’ about?” I asked.

  “Well …” a little rumble started up in Mama’s throat … “after your teacher finished telling me how you remind her of Wednesday Addams …” the rumble turned to a high-pitched laugh that made it hard for Mama to get her words out.… “I pulled two frozen cow eyeballs out of my purse … handed them to your teacher in a waxed paper baggie, and asked if she could give them to Mr. Biddle from Grandma Angelina. He had requested them for his science class.… If she thinks you’re Wednesday Addams,” Mama squealed, “then I must be Morticia.”

  Mama was laughin’ so hard, she had to roll down the window and hang her head outside for more air. By now teachers and kids were pourin’ out of the building to go home, and there was my mama in a full-blown laugh attack.

  “Mama,” I hissed, “you gotta stop.…” But I knew it was hopeless. Then I saw Perry Perroni, the boy I’ve had a crush on all year, comin’ right toward our car. Just my luck, we were parked right next to his mama’s car.

  “Mama, please stop,” I begged, from under the dashboard where I was hiding. Then my worst nightmare came true. Perry stuck his head in my car window.

  “Hi, A. J.,” he said, then he took one look at Mama. I could tell he was thinkin’, Man, your mom is a loony.

  I will never understand this until my dyin’ day, but at that moment I burst into a fit of laughter just like Mama. So, there we were, the both of us, hangin’ out of our car windows like a couple of laughin’ hyenas. That was the moment I first realized I had inherited Mama’s laughin’ genes and would be cursed for the rest of my life. It didn’t much matter that the entire school body and faculty were watchin’ us as they got in their cars to go home. If anything, it only made us laugh harder.