Drive-By
Authors: Lynne Ewing
Lynne Ewing
For
Amber Fitzgerald,
Jonathan Fitzgerald, and
Mair Jack Mayesh
I peeked around the building.
A car stopped near Jimmy. The shadows and trees made it hard to see. Four guys slouched low in the car. I could barely see their heads. I thought maybe they were asking Jimmy for directions.
Then gunshots exploded.
White angry fire flashed from the backseat.
Jimmy fell.
I
don’t go out at night anymore.
Sometimes I have to for Mom.
Like the night Jimmy died.
Jimmy was my brother. Mom laughed at all his dumb jokes. She called him funny bones.
I’ve never known anyone who could make people laugh as much as Jimmy could.
Mina, my little sister, giggled at Jimmy’s faces. Mina wants to be a princess when she grows up. She’s still at an age where she thinks that’s possible.
I’m the serious one. Jimmy called me a worry toad.
That made Mom laugh.
They’re all good-looking. Not me. I don’t look like I belong in the same family. My nose is too big for my face. My eyes are too small for my nose. Mom says I have character, though. Zev
across the street says that means I’m honest and dependable.
The night Jimmy died, Jimmy and I were walking Mina home from a birthday party. Mina had tied her long black hair on one side in a ponytail. She thinks that’s what a princess does.
Near the library, the wind started blowing. Leaves fell from the elm trees and scattered across the sidewalk. The library, dark and silent, had been closed for a long time. It looked haunted. Everyone said it was.
So, of course, Jimmy decided to play the claw.
“I can’t control my hand,” he yelled.
He made his right hand into a claw.
“Help me,” he cried.
Mina screamed.
“Don’t do it, Jimmy,” I said. “We’re already late.”
Jimmy stumbled around, fighting his right hand. He used to scare me with that claw routine, too.
He ran after Mina. He made it look like his hand was chasing Mina. He staggered after her, fighting his hand.
She squealed and ran.
I hated Jimmy’s claw routine more than anything. There was no way you could stop him when he started.
That was the last thing I saw him do.
Mina ran behind the library.
“Great work, Clawman,” I said. “We were supposed to be home an hour ago.”
That was my fault mostly. I couldn’t say no to a second piece of chocolate birthday cake.
“Don’t be such a worry toad,” Jimmy said. Then he smiled.
I shook my head. “We shouldn’t be out this late.”
“Tito, relax. Okay?” Jimmy said.
My real name is Timothy Thomas, but everyone calls me Tito.
I left Jimmy alone on the sidewalk and ran after Mina.
Behind the library, wind rushed through the trees, making shadows shift and change shape. Branches creaked and groaned.
I found Mina right away. Without the claw chasing her, she didn’t think it was fun to run and scream. Besides, it was dark and scary behind the library.
“You got to stop running away from me,” I said. “Someday I won’t be able to find you.”
She didn’t answer. She didn’t think a brother should talk to his princess sister that way.
We walked toward the front of the library, our shoes kicking up dead leaves.
That’s when I heard music, hard and heavy loud music. The beat made my chest pound. I knew gangbangers were rolling nearby.
Tires skidded.
I peeked around the building.
A car stopped near Jimmy. The shadows and trees made it hard to see. Four guys slouched low in the car. I could barely see their heads. I thought maybe they were asking Jimmy for directions.
Then gunshots exploded.
White angry fire flashed from the backseat.
Mina grabbed her ears. When she feels really scared, she doesn’t scream and run. She freezes and sucks in air in a long sigh.
Jimmy fell.
I knew he was teasing, and it made me angry. I couldn’t believe he’d tease me that way.
I only thought that for a heartbeat.
The car sped away. The taillights—different
colors, one red, one orange—blurred as the car disappeared around the corner.
I ran to Jimmy.
I’ve never run as fast as I did that night.
I kept hoping he’d get up. I wanted him to laugh at me for being so scared and call me a pathetic worry toad.
Jimmy lay still as a stone. Something seeped onto the sidewalk around him.
I stopped and pushed Mina behind me.
“Go sit on the steps,” I said.
“No,” she said, and ran to Jimmy, her ponytail flying.
I didn’t want her to see Jimmy like that.
I grabbed her and carried her to the library steps. She dug her face into my shoulder and sobbed. She had seen too much.
I went back and stood over Jimmy. I cried, too.
Things don’t always make sense. Animals don’t kill other animals for fun. So why do people kill each other? All Jimmy ever did was make people laugh.
When you’re little and something like this happens, you always wake up. It’s a nightmare and your mom is sitting on the edge of your bed. Now
I felt like someone had pushed me into a nightmare while I was wide awake.
Two police cars pulled up without sirens. The cars stopped near Jimmy. The headlights shone over him.
The cops walked quietly and whispered like ghosts. They were afraid gangbangers might hear and come check things out and then go kill someone else in revenge.
A huge man with hands bigger than basketballs came over and stood next to me.
“I’m Detective Howard,” he said. “Do you know the boy who was killed?”
I nodded. “My brother.”
“I’m sorry, son,” he said, and squatted next to me.
He wrote down information about Jimmy and about me in a small notebook, all the time talking in a low, sad voice.
“I think the shooting might have been in revenge for a shooting last week a few blocks away,” he said. “Do you know what gang Jimmy belonged to?”
“Jimmy was no gangbanger,” I said.
Jimmy always told me there were only two
kinds of gangbangers: those who were dead and those who were going to die. Joining a gang didn’t make sense to Jimmy, so I knew he wouldn’t do it.
“Jimmy’s been jacking people for their money and rolling with some dope-dealing killers,” Detective Howard said.
“That’s not true,” I said. “Jimmy wasn’t involved in the gang thing.”
Jimmy was innocent. Everyone knows the guys doing the shooting want to kill gang members, but sometimes they settle for killing someone who lives in the gang’s neighborhood.
“You know Lamar Callas or Ice Breaker Joe?”
“Everyone does,” I said.
“Jimmy was their ace man.”
“You’re wrong,” I said.
The detective patted my head. I jerked away. I didn’t want a liar touching me.
“Can you identify the car?”
“It was too dark.”
He handed me his card. “Call me if you think of anything.”
The ambulance came.
Mina stayed on the steps and cried.
I thought I should go to her, but I couldn’t leave
Jimmy. The ambulance attendants wrapped him in white cloth and put him in the ambulance.
“Be careful with him,” I yelled. I don’t think anyone heard me.
The ambulance doors slammed.
A fireman washed away the blood. I hadn’t seen the fire truck until then.
Someone tapped my shoulder.
“I’ll take you home,” Detective Howard said.
I went to get Mina.
T
hree television cameras watched us at the funeral.
I could look over and see a reflection of myself in the camera lens. The last thing I wanted to see was the way my face looked at Jimmy’s funeral.
The local TV stations were helping to raise money for Mom to pay for Jimmy’s funeral. I guess they thought that gave them the right to be in our faces.
Mom wanted Jimmy to have a proper funeral. Roses and carnations filled the church and made the air too sweet to breathe. Strangers sent Jimmy flowers. Even some famous people did. I wish people had paid that kind of attention to him when he was alive. They would have liked Jimmy. Everyone did. He could make anyone laugh.
I watched Mom. I didn’t think she’d ever smile again. I knew I wouldn’t.
After the funeral neighbors came to our house. They brought Jell-O salads and cold fried chicken and tried to make Mom feel better.
Zev brought his chess set. He’s always reading or playing chess. I don’t think he had even thrown a baseball since his family came to the United States from Russia.
“You want to learn how to play chess?” he asked.
“No,” I said.
Mom always tried to make me play with him.
I did once. Mumblety-peg. I got in trouble for playing with a jackknife. Then I got in trouble for making Zev pull the peg out of the ground with his teeth. That’s what the loser has to do in mumblety-peg. Try to explain that to your mom.
Zev followed me into the kitchen. Casseroles and cakes lined the kitchen counter. I don’t understand why people eat after funerals.
“Do you want something to eat?” Zev asked. “My mother says there’s nothing better for a boy than that he should eat.”
Zev’s mom had brought over her baked-potato
pudding. Usually I can eat three helpings, but I didn’t feel like eating without Jimmy calling me a sloppy pig.
I went outside.
Zev started to follow me.
I turned at the door.
“Zev, do you mind?” I asked.
“Mind what?” he said.
“I want to be alone.”
“My mother said you would need a friend to talk to,” Zev said.
I almost said, “Yeah, well I don’t see Gus here,” but I stopped. Zev didn’t have any friends. He wasn’t funny and cool like Gus. Zev looked like he believed what his mom said about nothing being better for a boy than eating. He weighed as much as Gus and me together.
“Not tonight,” I said instead.
I went outside and sat on the swing near the garage.
Mina followed me outside and crawled on my lap.
That’s when loud music came like thunder down the alley.
I didn’t have to ask Mina if it sounded like the same music we heard the night Jimmy was killed.
She sucked in air in a long sigh and pinched my arm.
The music thumped my heart around inside my rib cage.
A blue Oldsmobile rolled slowly down the alley toward us. Tires crunched over rocks and gravel.
I hid Mina behind a bush; then I ducked inside the garage.
I peeked out the dusty window.
The car stopped.
I couldn’t breathe, my chest hurt so badly. My leg jumped all over with nerves.
Lamar Callas sat in the passenger seat. Ice Breaker Joe drove the car.
The back car door opened. A guy wearing a baseball cap jumped out. He wore a bandanna over his face like a bandit.
He walked into the backyard. He reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t think who.
All of a sudden, he ran back to the car. His back was to me, so I couldn’t tell if he had something in his arms or not.
The tires grabbed the gravel and spun. The car sped away, throwing gravel all over the alley.
A spray of pebbles pinged the window in front of me.
I ran to tell Mina she could come out from behind the bush.
Mina was gone.
“
M
ina!”
I looked around the bushes, then on the other side of the garage and in the alley.
I ran down the side yard. Leaves and branches on the big hibiscus bush scraped my arms and face.
The front gate was locked. I didn’t think Mina could unlock the gate by herself.
I looked up and down the street anyway.
“Mina!”
I ran to the backyard.
Mom came flying out the back door. The screen door pounded behind her.
“What happened?”
“Some guys came by and I hid Mina. Now I can’t find her.”
“Maybe she’s in the alley,” Mom said.
We both ran until our feet crunched the gravel in the alley.
Broken glass shone like silver and jewels in the moonlight.
I thought I saw Mina picking up a piece of glass. That would be just like her, collecting jewels when we’re going crazy looking for her.
I ran that way. Mom ran behind me.
“Mina?”
A poinsettia bush bobbing in the wind made the shadow.
Mom put her hand on my shoulder. I wished she hadn’t. I could feel her cold fingers trembling against my skin.
“Mina always wanders off,” I said. “She does it all the time. You better talk to her.”
People were coming out to the backyard.
“What’s wrong?” Zev’s mother asked. She always wore a head scarf and a long skirt.
“Go on home,” I yelled. “All of you. Haven’t you seen enough?”
“Tito,” Mom said. “They just want to help.”
Mom tried to put her arm around me. I jerked away and ran down the alley.
“Timothy Thomas!” Mom yelled after me.
I wanted to go back to her. I would have if the whole neighborhood hadn’t been in our backyard.
When I got to the street, I looked both ways trying to think where Mina might have gone. She loves French fries more than anything. If she ever does become a princess, she’ll eat French fries at Big Molly’s Diner for every meal.
Maybe I could find her there.
That’s when I heard feet pounding behind me.
Zev ran up to me, wheezing and trying to breathe.
“I’ll help you look for Mina,” he said.
I almost said yes. Zev looked so sad and lonely behind his glasses.
But then I turned and ran the six blocks to Big Molly’s Diner.
Inside, the diner smelled of fried onions and hamburgers. I hadn’t eaten since before the funeral, and the smells woke up my stomach.
I walked from one end of the diner to the other. I thought I’d find Mina sitting on one of the red stools.
I turned to leave when a man left his seat at the counter. He also left a big pile of fries on his plate.
I sat on his stool and salted the fries, then
looked around. No one noticed me. Jimmy taught me how to do this. People always waste food.
The manager came over. He’s Big Molly’s son, Sonny. He’s tall and thin. Big Molly is tall and fat.
“Great fries,” I said, and bit into another.
Sonny shook his head and set a clean glass of water in front of me.
“Thanks,” I said.
Sonny walked away.
Jimmy said other people didn’t like to see food go to waste either.
I watched the door. I figured Mina would pop in any minute.
The only person who popped in was Zev.
He sat down next to me at the counter.
He didn’t say a word.
He couldn’t.
He gasped and gulped for air like a big red whale.
Sonny came over and stood next to us.
“Son, you okay?” he asked.
Zev nodded.
“He’s with me,” I said.
Finally, Zev and I walked home. I hoped Mom had found Mina by now.
Mom stood on the front sidewalk with Mrs. Washington, our next-door neighbor. Mrs. Washington had her arm around Mom’s shoulder. I knew right away they hadn’t found Mina.
A police car stopped in front of the house.
I walked slower and slower. Zev’s hot hand held my shoulder.
Detective Howard stepped from the car.
I couldn’t breathe.
What happened to Mina?