Finding Someplace (14 page)

“This is Aunt Tish's office,” Reesie explained, closing the door.

“Sure doesn't look like any office to me,” he said, craning his neck to look around.

Reesie hadn't given it much thought, but following his gaze, she agreed. The only two bookcases were filled with a mix of books and framed pictures of Aunt Tish performing onstage, or posing with other actors, some famous. On one wall, there were huge framed posters from the three movies she'd been in so far. Reesie had a d
é
j
à
vu moment. This was just like Miss Martine's dining room!

“This is good,” Orlando said, leaning forward. “I wanted to … to kinda be alone with you.”

Reesie abruptly sat down in the chair facing him. Her heart was speeding in her chest, just the way it did that time she'd run her fastest fifty-yard dash.
Be alone with her?

“I couldn't stop thinking about you!” Orlando blurted out.

Reesie felt like laughing. She felt like crying at the same time. What did he mean? Did he mean what she thought he meant? Did he mean what she wanted him to mean? But what did she want it to mean?

Instead of answering, she reached toward Orlando and peeled off one of his damp purple gloves. Her fingertips tingled with a slight electric shock.

“Ouch!” She pulled away a bit, then eased off the other glove and sat back, wadding both of them into a tight ball. He was just staring at her.

Aunt Tish suddenly breezed in with a tray holding two steaming mugs. “Thought you might like some refreshments!” she chirped.

Reesie took a deep breath, able to focus a few seconds on something other than Orlando—the smell of cinnamon and apple cider.

“You two carry on, now!” Aunt Tish said cheerfully. Then as quickly as she'd appeared, she was gone.

“I—” Reesie tried to recover her voice and her thoughts. “I guess I didn't know … I wasn't sure if … if things would be the same.” She looked at him. “I mean, when we actually saw each other!” she added.

Orlando shook his head again. “Girl, things won't never be the same! We neither one of us has got a house, your family is split up; Jimmy lost his business.…” He threw his hands in the air, and her heart skipped a beat. Had she misunderstood?

Then he shrugged. “Everything is changed, except you and me.”

Reesie smiled slowly. “Us?”

Orlando grinned. “Yeah.” He picked up a mug and sipped. “What is this?”

“Cider. Apple cider.” Reesie sounded impatient, but she was really working up her nerve. “So, back when you came to my house—”

He narrowed his eyes at her over the rim of the mug. “Yeah?”

She sighed. He was his old self, not making anything easy. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “When you, you know …
kissed
me! Was that a hurricane kiss?”

He burst into laughter, spraying cider out everywhere. “What is wrong with you? Can't a guy kiss his girl?”

“Your
girl
?”

“I convince Jimmy to drive all the way up here for Christmas, and you got some kinda confusion about how come I did it?” He faked a disgusted attitude, putting his mug down and rising from the chair. “I guess I better be gettin' to goin', then.…”

Reesie pulled him back. “Oh, sit down,” she said.

He did. For a few minutes they only looked at each other. Reesie was calm. It was totally comfortable sitting with Orlando and not talking—she didn't think it had ever happened before. He seemed content with being quiet too. This was new.

“You're right,” she finally said, thinking out loud. “Everything else did change. I can't believe it about Ayanna, can you?”

“Weird, huh?” Orlando said. “How can somebody we've been seeing every day of our lives be gone like that, no bye, no nothin'?”

“It hurts,” Reesie said. She'd been having mixed feelings about how close she'd become to Felicidad while Ayanna's friendship felt more and more distant. But she knew that people had scattered from New Orleans after Katrina,
evacuees
landing all over the country. Some had definite plans to go back, like Uncle Jimmy, while others had made new lives, like Ayanna's family.

“It's unbelievable that this stuff can happen, right?” Reesie said. “I've been so scared about my parents! I still don't understand what that craziness was all about, but I think they might be making up.”

“Your folks ain't divorcing, Peanut Butter.”

“I just couldn't get that out of my head, that and—” She stopped. His expression didn't change; he didn't move. He was simply looking at her with the same Orlando brown eyes and the easy smile he always had for her.

Then, like the awful river breaking through the levees, her deepest fear came tumbling out of her all at once.

“I thought I was never going to see my family—you—anybody ever again.” She was trembling. “I thought—I thought I was going to die,” she whispered.

Orlando held her hand.

She took a deep breath. “I wish I could forget it. I have nightmares that I'm drowning. They're worse than anything that really happened.”

“But you got to fight. I know you fought that dude who mugged you. Tree said you did!” Orlando said.

She nodded, with tears in her eyes, but she didn't cry. “I fought,” she said.

“Bad dreams are like bad memories. So you got to keep thinking about the good stuff, to block that other stuff out.” He squeezed her hand tight. “That's what I do every time it comes back to me, that scene when my mama was lying in that hospital bed, dying. I think about my sister and Dr
é
, Jimmy starting up the restaurant again—you.”

Reesie blushed.

“We fight!”

She bit her lip and nodded. “You think … one day … we might win?”

He leaned and touched his forehead to hers. “Yeah,” he said softly. “Yeah.”

 

Chapter Twenty-One

D
ECEMBER 25, 2005

“Santa Claus was here!” Little girl lips pressed against Reesie's ears in what Aunt Tish called a “stage whisper,” which meant it wasn't a whisper at all.

“Jazz, the sun isn't up yet!” Reesie mumbled. But her cousin rushed to the window and yanked the blinds open. Reesie pulled the covers over her head, wishing that there had been some other sleeping arrangement besides sharing a room with a kindergartener.

It felt like she'd just gone to bed. After staying up till all hours baking with Mom and Aunt Tish, she'd helped Uncle Teddy, Junior, and Orlando assemble both a bike and a tricycle with Japanese directions. In between, they'd played a rowdy Monopoly game and acted as judges to Daddy and Jimmy's oyster stuffing cook-off.

“Pleeeese! Reesie, pleeeese!” Jazz threw Reesie's covers off. Reesie moaned. Then she remembered how she used to do the same to Junior, practically dragging him out of bed on Christmas Day.

“Okay, okay.” She blinked her sleepiness away and looked at herself in Jazz's pink princess mirror. Her hair was wild—she'd been too tired to wrap it with a scarf. Orlando couldn't see her this way! She grabbed Jazz's hairbrush.

“Come on!” Jazz was pulling at her. “You're already pretty!”

“Thanks, Jazzy.” Reesie pulled jeans on with the oversize T-shirt she'd slept in. She could hear little Jason shouting downstairs already, and Uncle Teddy's good-natured grumbling.

At the foot of the stairs, Jazz caught sight of the tree and forgot all about Reesie. Reesie dropped to sit on the bottom step, taking everything in.

Jimmy, wearing a loud red velour robe, shouted names as he scooped boxes from underneath the Christmas tree, each time causing it to shudder dangerously. Junior was showing Jason how to set up his train set; Mama and Aunt Tish were laughing over how they'd gotten each other the same scarf.

Reesie hugged her knees. She hadn't expected that everything would be so
normal
, but she didn't want it any other way.

“Merry, merry, baby girl!” Daddy ruffled her hair through the stair rail as he came from the kitchen with a mug of strong coffee and chicory. Reesie inhaled deeply. Yes, this was normal.

“Same to you, Daddy!” She jumped up to kiss him on the cheek, and bounced into the living room looking for Orlando.

“Hey, Merry Christmas, Peanut Butter.” He was behind her.

She turned in surprise and grinned, thinking of Dr
é
. She'd never noticed before how much they looked alike. Orlando pushed a clumsily wrapped package at her.

“Wow, thanks!”

“Well, I hope you have a gift for him too!” Daddy raised his eyebrows and passed by them.

Reesie shook herself. “Uh, yes! Course I do, Daddy!”

“Wait. Open yours first,” Orlando said. He leaned against the wall, watching her. She was strangely aware that everyone else was watching her now too.

Reesie tore open the paper with one rip—she'd never been a careful gift opener.

There was a folded length of bright purple cotton fabric. Her mouth dropped open, and she looked up at Orlando as if seeing him for the first time. His face lit up.

“I was thinking, you know, you're a designer, and all your—what you call it? Your
stash
was underwater!” He was talking fast. “And—and I know your favorite color is purple. You got purple shirts and a purple backpack and—”

Reesie dropped the fabric and threw her arms around his neck.

“Thank you! Thank you!” she said.

The family clapped as if they were in a TV show audience. Reesie let go of Orlando.

“Okay, y'all. Now you've embarrassed me in front of my boyfriend.”

“Oohh! Boyfriend?” Uncle Teddy teased.

“What?” Junior said.

“When did this happen?” Mama asked.

“Somewhere around second grade, I think.” Aunt Tish winked at Reesie, and Reesie wondered how aunts managed to remember every silly little detail you ever told them.

“Jimmy, you'd better keep this boy in line, now,” Daddy said.

Orlando ran his hand over his hair. “Mr. Reesie's Dad,” he said with a straight face, “is this okay with you?”

“I'm not the one to ask, Mr. Knight. It's got to be okay with Teresa.”

Orlando blew a sigh of relief, and Reesie picked up her fabric, holding it tight as she went to search for his gift. It wasn't much, only a New York Yankees shirt, but she knew he'd wear it.

“Do you spell Orlando with an
O
?” Jazz asked, holding up the right package.

“Yeah, thanks!” Reesie said. And then Uncle Teddy rolled in the bikes, and high-pitched squeals and riding lessons took over.

“Reesie?” Aunt Tish was holding a gift bag. “Here's another one for you.”

Reesie tipped around toys and stepped over boxes to get across the room. There was something heavy in the bag. Reesie lifted out the yellow tissue paper and saw a book. She looked at her aunt for a moment, then into the bag again.

“
Woman Everlasting
! Thank you so much!”

Aunt Tish hugged her tightly. “It was out of print, but I lucked out yesterday at that bookstore I know in New York. I thought you'd like to have it.”

“Yes,” Reesie said. “I—this Christmas—is the best I ever had.”

Aunt Tish nodded. “Life can surprise you, kid. Katrina was one of the bad surprises. But then those are the ones that make the good surprises so sweet.”

A few hours later, once the feast was eaten, kids were calmed, and a football game was blasting in surround sound, Reesie and Orlando tried to sneak out of the house. She really wanted him to meet Dadi. Unfortunately, Orlando's struggle with a pair of Uncle Ted's snow boots slowed them down, and Reesie's mother materialized at the top of the stairs before they got to the door.

“Hey!” she said pleasantly. “Where are you two going at this hour on Christmas Day?”

“Mom, it's only five o'clock!” Reesie tried not to whine. The day had been wonderful so far, and she didn't want to ruin it.

“It's already dark, though.”

“We're only walking up the street. The diner is open. I'm introducing Orlando to Dadi.”

“Ah. The old friend meets the new.” Her mother twisted her wrist to look at her watch. “Be back by seven.”

Orlando straightened up, grinned, and saluted. “Yes, ma'am, Mrs. Sergeant Reesie's—”

Reesie jerked him out the door. Even after it was shut, they could hear her mother laughing. They held hands while tromping through the snow. It was almost too cold to speak, but Orlando managed. He filled her in on Jimmy's stubborn search for a new space to open up Blue Moon Two, on who was back in town and who was still MIA. He told her how both Dr
é
and Eritrea had found work and an apartment uptown.

“Okay, so when are
you
coming back to New Orleans?” he asked.

“Spring break—April.”

“I mean, for good.”

They rounded the corner onto busy Bloomfield Avenue, and the glare of the streetlights and headlights made the new snow so bright that it almost seemed like daytime. Reesie looked over at Orlando and realized that she actually had to look up. He'd grown at least two inches taller since August.

“Depends on my mom,” she said.

They stopped at the traffic light across the street from the Silver Diner. Reesie could see Felicidad watching from inside. She raised her arm to wave furiously. Dadi waved back, and it looked like she was saying,
Nice!

“Yeah, you're right!” Reesie said under her breath as she ran across the wide street with Orlando Knight beside her.

 

P
ART
F
OUR

Finding Someplace

 

Chapter Twenty-Two

A
PRIL 14, 2006

Reesie had never liked airplane takeoffs or landings. She closed her eyes, gripped the armrests, and pressed herself back against the seat, waiting for that odd sensation of lifting into the air. This time both her stomach and her knees were shaky, and she wasn't sure that flying again was the reason.