Homework done hours ago and Clarence long gone the six of us sat in front of the TV set Wednesday night and waited for Pop’s return from the hospital.
When I handed in my composition on Monday, I felt a whole lot better. My brain wasn’t empty like it had been on report card night. I had new things to think about; and that made the things I usually liked to think about even better. My private thoughts weren’t alone anymore, they had company.
I wouldn’t be alone in my room anymore either, not after Doreen moved in. Pop had said that it was important that we were sensitive to Doreen not being used to us, so I wrote about her in my composition.
It must have been scary and confusing for a baby to see its family for the first time. She probably couldn’t see yet, anyway.
I rearranged my room, so it was ready for anything. I cleaned and straightened out my desk and closet. I put all my textbooks and old assignments under the bed. I shredded and threw away the fake math work, so no one would know about it, and on my old test papers, I wrote the correct answers next to the wrong ones.
At nine o’clock I carried Austin up to bed. On my way back downstairs, I heard Pop coming in. “You have everything ready for school tomorrow?” he asked, locking the door.
“Yes,” we chorused as I dropped on the couch.
“Mom sends her love,” he said.
“When’s she coming home?” Kriston asked.
“They’ll be home Friday,” Pop said, turning off the TV set. “Get ready for bed. Justine, I need to speak to you.”
I felt everyone’s eyes watching me as I followed Pop into his den. What did I do now?
He shut the door and sat on the edge of his desk.
“Do you remember when Tyrone had his vaccination shots?” he asked. “Didn’t Mom take you with him?”
“Yeah,” I told him. Tyrone had let out a high-pitched scream that day. I would have never thought a baby could sound so loud, but Tyrone proved me wrong. “Why?” I asked.
“I can’t find any of Terell’s vaccination records, and Darrick doesn’t remember giving him shots.” Pop rubbed his chin with the tips of his fingers. “But you do remember going with him to the doctor?”
I nodded, gasped, and my whole body stiffened.
My Uncle Darrick was a doctor, a pediatrician, which meant he was hated by every kid on this block. Because he was our pediatrician, we wanted nothing to do with him either. He worked in the medical center connected to Mom’s hospital.
“Might have to take him down there when I pick your mom up,” he said and then the phone rang. “Hello . . . Hey Dar . . . No I can’t find anything . . . Yeah, I was thinking—”
I was gone. I ran up the staircase in hot pursuit for Terence and Tyrone. “Hey!” I shrieked, bursting into their bedroom. “Terell’s in it bad this time!”
“Why’d you say that?” Terence asked.
“Pop just told me they forgot to give him his vaccination shots when he was a baby.”
“So?” Tyrone asked.
I stared at him. “So? They’re going to give it to him now!”
All at once, their eyeballs swung to the door where Terell was standing rigidly.
“Don’t let them get me!” he begged. “Don’t let them get me!”
I ran over and wrapped him in my arms.
“Please don’t let them get me!”
“Shhh, Pop will hear you.” I pulled him in and shut the door.
“What’re we going to do?” Tyrone asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, patting Terell’s back.
“How’d they forget something like that?” Tyrone asked.
I shook my head.
Terence hopped over to the door and cracked it open. “Guess who’s coming?”
We didn’t have to guess. Terence flipped the light switch down and he and Tyrone jumped into their beds. I pushed Terell under Tyrone’s bed and ducked under Terence’s.
The door opened and two big feet stepped in, circled both beds, and left.
“He kissed me!” I heard Tyrone say in disgust.
“Well he kissed me too!” Terence argued.
I crawled out and looked at the two of them. “He didn’t kiss me yet.” I ran to the door and peeped down the hall.
Austin’s door was partly opened.
I grabbed Terell’s hand and dragged him out from under Tyrone’s bed. We sprinted to the next bedroom. I tossed Terell in bed and pulled the sheet up to his neck. Leaving a bewildered Kriston in the other bed, I zipped across the hall and into my room. I leaped into bed fully dressed and pulled the sheets up.
My eyes shut as the door opened. I felt Pop’s warm breath upon my face and I could smell his aftershave. A hand gently rubbed against my cheek and lips touched my forehead.
Then there was a rustling sound in the distance. With one eye, I peeped over the rim of my sheet at him in front of my old baby crib, which they put back together in the corner of my room.
He clicked the lights out and left. I sat up to pull my sneakers off. I threw them in the corner and unbuckled my shorts.
His sudden footsteps forced me to lie flat again. He reentered my room, placed baby clothes into the crib, and left.
I jumped out of my shorts and shoved them under the mattress.
One more time the door opened and I had to crouch beside the bed in my underwear. He laid a bassinet on top of the clothes and shut the door on his way out.
I crept to the door and watched him enter his bedroom. I waited a few minutes, threw on my pajamas, lined my pillows under the covers to give it a body shape, and snuck back into Terell’s room.
I peeled the sheets off and plucked him out the bed. With Kriston carrying a pair of Terell’s pajamas, we rushed across the hall.
Terence and Tyrone leaped out of their beds, and we all huddled in a corner behind a heap of laundry-covered toys. Everyone looked at Terell, who was wrapped up in my arms.
“Is this because of the poison ivy?” he asked me.
I shook my head no.
“What’re we going to do?” Kriston asked.
“We’ll think of something,” I told him.
“Yeah, but what?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll think of something.”
Any time we got scared we always felt safer together with our backs against the wall so that nothing could sneak up from behind.
Out the window, through the budding tree branches, I saw a single star twinkling in the dark sky. Quickly, I made a wish, before the star could disappear behind the clouds. I looked down at Terell and leaned my chin on top of his head.
How could something like this happen? We all had worked hard to get some type of order going in our lives, and we were doing so well. I had started to feel really good about school and the new baby. Now everything came crashing down and we didn’t even cause it this time. I felt like I was in a daze and this was all a bad dream.
I shook my head again. I didn’t get it. What went wrong? How could they not remember giving Terell his shots? I stared at Tyrone’s school uniform hanging on the closet door. What was the point of all that hard work at school if you wound up feeling just as miserable at home? I shut my eyes and sighed and eventually we all fell asleep.