Crazy For The Storm Part 4

Mom's eyes blinked a few times, as if tamping something down, and she turned back to the weeds in the pot. I tugged on the string attached to my zipper and began peeling off the wetsuit. I wasn't holding out hope that they would get back together-I had known them as two separate ent.i.ties far longer than as a couple, so it seemed normal to me.

So, he said when he came astride me.

I looked up at him, brus.h.i.+ng my hair out of my eyes. His shoulders were silhouetted and they looked wide and blocky-a powerful image.

Nick's full of s.h.i.+t, Ollestad. Don't listen to him.

I know, I said, thinking Dad never said that to Nick's face. They were always real friendly to each other and there was never any sign of tension. Not even jealousy. At least none that I ever saw.

Steer clear of him, okay? said Dad. That's what I do.

I thought of how I might do that, maneuvering around his body in the living room, eating dinner in my room, playing with Sunny in my fort.

What if he grabs me?

My dad looked away, casting something off again, this time into the muted light. He made a faint growling sound in his chest that I'd heard before.

Don't say anything to Nick, my dad grumbled. Nod your head and just stay out of his path.

I was perplexed, trying to figure out how to do that, and he added, Stay at Eleanor and Lee's as much as possible while I'm gone.

Dad knew that Eleanor showered me with unconditional love, that she was my fairy G.o.dmother. Everyone always said that Eleanor and I had an immediate, inexplicable connection from the moment I was born. And I never pa.s.sed up a chance to stay with her and get treated like a prince, so I said okay.

I'll call Eleanor when I get home, he said.

I nodded and he looked worried. He put his hand on my shoulder.

I'll be back later, he said. We'll see how you feel in a couple hours. Okay?

I nodded again, not understanding what a couple hours would change.

He moved directly in front of me, reeling me in with his infectious smile.

See you in a couple hours, he said.

Okay, I said.

He took the walkway toward the access road this time, stepped into the sun and vanished.

I spent the rest of the morning at my fort with Sunny. I came home to get some milk because it was hot out. My mom was on the phone and I guzzled half the bottle.

Norman. Wait.

She hung up the phone.

That was your dad.

Yeah.

He wants you to come with him to Grandma and Grandpa's.

I scrunched my face.

It'll be fun, she said. You guys will surf on the way down and the ferry's really neat. And you know Grandma and Grandpa will be thrilled to see you. Besides you get to skip a week of summer school.

There was no accounting for the fact that my fear of surfing in Mexico outweighed my fear of confronting Nick again, even after he had just given my mom a black eye.

I don't want to go, I said.

Well you'll have to talk about it with your father. He wants you over there right now. Let's pack up.

She moved toward my room. Staying put, I rested my hand on Sunny's head.

Norman.

I shook my head.

Why do I have to go?

Because. Because it will be good for everyone. You haven't seen your grandparents since last summer. Don't you miss them?

No.

Well according to your father you're going, so you'll have to work it out with him.

Why? I thought Sandra was going.

Apparently she's not going anymore.

s.h.i.+t, I said.

CHAPTER 9.

I ASCENDED FROM ASCENDED FROM the baby tree, trying to veer out of the icy funnel. I reached my right arm as far to the right as possible, anch.o.r.ed my fingertips into the ice and raked my body laterally. I repeated this several times before my fingers gouged crust instead of ice and I knew I was outside the funnel. It took a long time, maybe thirty minutes, to climb the remaining twenty feet to my dad. I wasn't going to slip again. I knew I had gotten lucky nabbing that tree. the baby tree, trying to veer out of the icy funnel. I reached my right arm as far to the right as possible, anch.o.r.ed my fingertips into the ice and raked my body laterally. I repeated this several times before my fingers gouged crust instead of ice and I knew I was outside the funnel. It took a long time, maybe thirty minutes, to climb the remaining twenty feet to my dad. I wasn't going to slip again. I knew I had gotten lucky nabbing that tree.

I hiked past pilot Rob. His disembodied nose was dusted over and one side of his body was collecting snow, forming a drift. Soon he would just be a lump under the snow. A fact, like the wind and cold, that I filed away, not quite believing.

My dad was only two or three feet above me when I found him. Same position: seated, his upper body doubled over, his wrists bent over his knees.

I put my lips to his ear.

Dad. Wake up. Wake up.

I shook him and that broke my footing. My feet skated for purchase and I had to let go of him for fear of dislodging him and sending the two of us down the ice slide. The snow was softer in this spot and luckily my fingers got a good hold. I decided to dig out a shoe step so that I could attend to him.

While I kicked my shoe toes into the crust Sandra began to jabber-a circle of mixed-up words and phrases. My Vans only blunted against the snow, hammering my toes until the pain forced me to stop. I looked to my right and uphill a few feet. Sandra was still perched on the edge of the funnel. I watched her for a moment. Her eyes drifted, the lids opening and closing in time with her alternating eruptions and low murmurs. Consciously I turned her noise level down and she faded away.

I kicked into the snow again. My feet were numb and stiff now and that helped me hack out a step. Then with my other foot I hacked out another step. I had two secure leverage points. I clamped both hands around my dad's arm and shook him.

Wake up. Dad. Dad. Dad!

Wind spearheaded down the chute and sc.r.a.ps of plane teetered and I heard my seat groan, making me turn my head. Poof, my seat shot down the curtain. Gone in a flash. I let go of my dad, worried again that I might send the two of us down the icy chute.

I rested my palm on my dad's back. He didn't seem to be breathing. What if Sandra's right, I thought. What if he's dead?

I watched the wind-driven snow thrash from all directions, wave after wave. My toes cramped from having to grip the tiny notches in the snow-the only thing keeping me from plunging down like my seat. Another blast of wind nearly tipped me backward and I had to hug close to the ice curtain. Even the trees I saw earlier looked cold and afraid, huddling for protection, I thought.

The wind hushed and I leaned toward my dad again.

Daddy, I said, pressing my palm to his back.

But he was folded in two like a broken table.

He had taught me to ride big waves, had pulled me from tree wells and fished me out of suffocating powder. Now it was my turn to save him.

I wormed my shoe tips deeper into the notches. Got plugged in. With the heels of my palms under his shoulders I pushed. He didn't budge and I was pinned under him like a scrawny stick trying to hold up a big rock. So I got over him and tried to pull him up. Too heavy. If only I was bigger and stronger.

Why am I so small? You're such a weakling.

I stared down at him. My fingers quivered and pain seeped into my heart. His curly hair tickled my nose as I leaned in to kiss him, hugging him tight to my body.

I'll save you. Don't worry, Dad.

He's still warm, I told myself and squeezed him closer.

CHAPTER 10.

MY MOM'S VW Squareback climbed the Topanga Beach access road. The hard gray suitcase rattled in the back. We darted across the Pacific Coast Highway, turned up the canyon, then into my dad's dirt driveway. Suddenly a guy on a motorcycle was coming right at us, a plume of dust around him. My mom slammed on the brakes and the bike swerved around us and I glimpsed Sandra's silky hair. Her arms were around the guy's stomach. Squareback climbed the Topanga Beach access road. The hard gray suitcase rattled in the back. We darted across the Pacific Coast Highway, turned up the canyon, then into my dad's dirt driveway. Suddenly a guy on a motorcycle was coming right at us, a plume of dust around him. My mom slammed on the brakes and the bike swerved around us and I glimpsed Sandra's silky hair. Her arms were around the guy's stomach.

Sandra and I locked eyes for an instant. She looked angry and her mouth tightened.

Hey I don't even want to go, called my inner voice. You go. You go!

Then Sandra was whisked into the dirt cloud.

My G.o.d, said my mom. They almost ran right into us.

Where is she going? I said.

I have no idea, she said.

That's how it always was with Sandra, a mystery. She just appeared one day with my dad down at Barrow's and it was understood that she was his new girlfriend. Beer-Can Larry called her a feisty little honey feisty little honey and a and a dark Scot dark Scot. Her skin would tan a dark caramel brown-except for her pink lips, thick compared to her otherwise delicate face-and her wide-set chocolate eyes blended in with her skin when she got really tan. Barrow said he was sure she was from a poor neighborhood in Scotland, even poorer than his and Dad's old neighborhood. After fighting with my dad she would always come shrinking back. Once when they were broken up she came by my dad's office and asked for money, desperate, and he gave her some. He even signed something so that she could extend her visa. He seemed to feel sorry for her, wanting to protect her all the time. Nonetheless Sandra hated that I always came first, her eyes flaring at me when Dad had to take me to hockey practice or away skiing.

When we got in the pickup truck the seats were already sticky. My dad wedged his guitar case behind the seat bench and tuned in a country station that was playing his favorite, Willie Nelson. It was dusk when we hit the Tijuana border. A fat man in a uniform and hat approached us. He circled around the truck bed, eyeing the tarped was.h.i.+ng machine and our two surfboards rainbowing over the edge. He waddled to my dad's window.

Buenas nochas, said my dad.

The man nodded and asked in Spanish for something. My dad reached in the glove compartment and handed the man the Sears receipt. The man inspected it for a long time. Then he said a number-I knew this because I had learned some Spanish while visiting my grandparents last summer.

My dad grumbled and said a different number.

The man smiled and flashed his gold teeth. Before the man spoke again my dad handed him some pesos. The man counted them. As he did my dad put the truck in gear and rolled forward. The man looked around before stuffing the money in his pocket, and my dad hit the gas.

Why'd you have to pay him?

They call it a tax. But it's a bribe.

Isn't that against the law?

Sure is. But he is the law.

He's the police?

Basically.

If the police break the law then who arrests them?

I don't know. Good question, Ollestad.

He let me stew over the paradoxes for a while. Then he spoke.

In a poor country like Mexico people try to get money any way they can. They even do it in a rich country like America. It's not right. But sometimes-like with that guy-you play along because you understand the circ.u.mstances.

He checked on me a couple of times as we wound out of Tijuana and back along the coast. It was black outside. A few lights scattered around in the distance.

He's a liar then, right? I said.

The border guard?