The Zippy Fix (13 page)

This is bad, I thought. Bad, bad, bad.

Tito started for the front door.

I tried to block him, but he shoved me aside. “I said be nice, Coco-punk, or else I might have to rearrange your face. You like I do that?”

I winced when I saw Stella squinting out the window.

Tito saw her, too, and blew her a kiss.

Jeese!

Stella banged out the door before Tito took another step. She blocked his way, her hands on her hips. “Rag boy,” she said.

Rag boy. The one other time Stella had seen Tito he was wearing a T-shirt with stains all over it. She said, “You always wear rags?” It was funny … then.

Tito must have thought rag boy was one of Stella’s terms of endearment, because he didn’t even blink.

“Heyyy,” he said, grinning like a horse.

Stella glowered over Tito’s shoulder, giving
me a look that made Bozo’s stink eye look like a Valentine’s card.

I shrugged. What could I do?

Then I heard a familiar sound in the distance. I turned to look down the street.

Boooom … boooom … boooom
.

Tito heard it, too, and nodded his head to the beat, playing it cool. He lifted the grocery bag toward Stella. “I brought you a birfday present.”

Stella gave him a long stare. “
Brifday
?”

“Yeah.” He winked. “Happy birfday… Stel-lah.”

Good grief.

Stella eyed the bag.

Boooom … boooom … boooom
.

Across the street Bozo and Frankie Diamond sprang to their feet, their eyes glued to the big pink car rumbling closer.

Tito jiggled the grocery bag.

Stella didn’t take it. “What’s in it?”

“A present. I got um for you at the store. Some kids had a box of them. I got it free.”

Stella hesitated, then took the bag.

The pink car thumped closer.

Boooom … boooom … boo-

The radio went off as Clarence pulled up and parked his pink supertanker in our driveway.

Stella peeked into the bag.

“Yahhh!” she
shrieked.
“Yahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Clarence stumbled out of the car and ran over. He grabbed the bag from Stella. Stella ran back into the house, the screen door slapping and echoing down the river.

Tito stood frozen, confused, gaping.

I gaped, too, wondering what the spit was in that bag.

Clarence peeked in, then looked up at Tito.

Tito blinked.

Clarence reached gently into the brown paper grocery bag and came out with a fluffy white kitten, so small it fit into his hand like a parakeet. He scratched the kitten’s chin, his eyes still on Tito. “Who you, boy?”

“Uh … me … uh … uh … I go Calvin’s
school. He’s my friend, ah, Calvin? We friends, right?”

I nodded. “Sure, uh … yeah.” It was that or get strangled next time I see Tito.

Clarence turned toward the house. Stella stood in the front window looking out, holding a dishrag over her nose and mouth.

“Stella,” Clarence said, turning back to Tito. “She’s allergic to cats.”

“Oh.”

Clarence studied Tito, petting the white kitten.

Tito cleared his throat. “Well… I go now.” He looked at the kitten. “What I going do with that?”

“I take it,” Clarence said. “Give it to my sister.”

“Yeah-yeah, good, give um your sister, good.” Tito backed away. He nodded to me once to remind Clarence we really were good friends, and when he reached Bozo and Frankie Diamond in the weeds, they took off like spooked mongooses.

Clarence nodded to me. Hey.

Hey, I nodded back.

“You got a small box I can use?”

“I’ll go see.” I ran into the garage. There was an old shoe box. “This okay?”

“Perfect.”

Clarence took the box and gently set the kitten in it.

He handed the box to me. “Hold this a minute, ah? I got something for Stella in the car.”

I took the shoe box, careful not to touch the kitten. If any cat got on me, Stella might swell up again. Luckily, the kitten curled up and went to sleep.

Clarence stopped by the spigot on the side of the house. Water gushed out and splashed
his feet. He squatted on his heels and washed his hands, over and over. When he was done, he stood and wiped them on his shorts.

When he saw me watching, he flicked his eyebrows. “Cat.”

I nodded.

Clarence headed for his car and brought out a bunch of flowers and six papayas, the best I’d ever seen.

He gave them to Stella, then drove away.

Boooom… boooom… boooom
.

26

“T
hat night we celebrated Stella’s birthday.

Mom cooked up Stella’s favorite dinner and invited Ledward and Clarence over. Clarence couldn’t come because he had to take his little sister to hula class.

But Ledward came, and the minute he walked into the house, Mom grabbed his arm
and steered him into the kitchen. I was sticking candles into the cake Mom had brought home that said
HAPPY SWEET SIXTEEN
.

Mom pushed a wrapped gift into Ledward’s hands. “This is for Stella. It’s from you.”

Ledward took the present and played along.

“And this one is from me,” Mom said, handing him another one. “Would you take them out and put them next to her plate on the table?”

Mom had tied white helium balloons to Stella’s chair, and though Stella tried to look embarrassed when we all sat down, I could tell that she really didn’t mind. She even smiled.

Mom and Ledward sat at opposite ends of the table. Darci and I sat in the middle, across from Stella.

Mom took some spaghetti and passed the bowl around. “Did your mom call you this afternoon, Stella?”

Stella hesitated. “No … not yet.”

“Well, maybe she’ll call tonight.”

Stella nodded. “Maybe.”

Maybe not, I thought. When Stella first moved in with us Mom said Stella and her mom needed a break from each other. They never seemed to call each other.

Ledward spun spaghetti onto his fork. “When I was sixteen, I moved furniture. Hardest work I ever did.”

Stella said nothing.

Ledward took a bite, chuckling, thinking back. “Every birthday I ever had, my moms made me a coconut cake. Nowadays, I still love coconut cake.”

Mom smiled. “Well, then, you’d fit right in here at the Coconut home.”

“I like that thought.”

What?

Ledward looked at Mom, shylike. “I mean—”

“So,” Mom said, turning to Stella. “How does it feel to be sixteen?”

Stella shrugged. “I can get a driver’s license.”

“You sure can,” Mom said.

For a moment nobody spoke.

We finished eating.

Mom reached over and tapped my hand. “Grab some of these plates and come with me.”

I followed her into the kitchen and set the plates by the sink. Mom handed me a book of matches. “Light them up.”

We sang “Happy Birthday,” the candle glow wobbling on Stella’s face. When she blew out the candles, I watched to see that she didn’t spit all over the cake.

Mom nodded toward Stella’s gifts. “Looks like you got a couple of presents. I wonder who they’re from?”

Stella reached for one and tore off the wrapping paper. “Thank you!” she said, lifting the gold necklace Mom had gotten her out of its long box. “It’s beautiful!”

Mom beamed. “It will look great on you.”

Stella put it on. “I love it.”

Darci pushed the other present toward Stella. “This one’s from Ledward.”

Stella opened it and looked up.

“Uh—uh,” Ledward stammered. “That’s uh … that’s uh … a book about… uh.”

“It’s a book about her life,” Mom said smoothly. “One she will write herself. What a nice thought, Ledward. Every girl needs a journal.”

“Yeah,” Ledward said. “You write it.”

Stella eyed Ledward like, Right. “Thank you,” she said.

“No problem.”

Mom turned to me. “Calvin, did you get something for Stella, too?” Her frozen smile said, You’re toast if you didn’t.

“Me and Darci got her one together.”

“Darci and I got
her one,” Mom said.

“You and Darci got her one, too?” I said.

“Let’s just see what you have, Calvin.”

It was on the floor under my chair. I picked it up and gave it to Stella. She read the card, smiled, and showed it to Mom.

Mom beamed. “This is so
sweet.”

Stella reached across the table and touched Darci’s hand. “It’s a really nice card, Darci. You made it, right?”

“Calvin did some of it, too.”

Stella took the card back and squinted at it. “Oh … yeah … I see he signed it.”

“Hardy-har.”

Stella picked up the birthday present
wrapped in Valentine’s Day paper. She looked at me. “Hearts?”

I shrugged.

“Love must be in the air,” Ledward said, and winked.

“Not!” I spat.

“Ledward,” Mom said.

He held up his hands, grinning.

Mom turned back to Stella. “What did Calvin give you?”

“It’s from Darci, too,” I muttered.

Stella unwrapped it, slowly at first. But when she got a glimpse of what was inside, she ripped the paper away, grabbed the CD, and raised it above her head. “Yes!”

Mom looked at me, then back at Stella. “What is it?”

“The new Chris Botti CD! The one I wanted!”

Mom turned back to me, confused. “How did—”

“The weeds… and some other stuff.”

Mom’s eyes flooded. “Oh, Calvin.”

Stella hugged Chris Botti. She looked at him again, and kissed him.

It was starting to freak me out. I turned to Ledward.

Ledward pushed his chair back. “Uh … how’s about you and me go do the dishes.”