Romi was incredulous. She gasped in surprise. “I can’t believe this! Are you for real?”
Malaka was unruffled. “Real as a heart attack.”
“What about Julio?”
“What about him?”
“Is he in any danger?”
“If he don’t learn the rules, he might have to be taught a lesson.”
“What rules? Who made up these rules? How can he follow laws when he doesn’t know what they are?”
“The Devildogs don’t want to hurt you, ’cause you’re one of the sisters on the list. You always dressed like a sister, and hung with the sisters, so there was no problem. But now you’re about to get cut off the list. And that’s dangerous.”
“The list? You’re talking crazy.” Romi was angry, irritated, and very late for lunch now.
“I’m trying to get some basic stuff into your black head. And never forget—it is black,” Malaka reminded Romi. “If you get cut off the list, you got no protection.”
“I never asked for any protection from some gang! I don’t want it or need it.” Romi was so angry she wanted to cry, but she refused to give Malaka the satisfaction.
“Suit yourself. That Mexican ain’t got a chance.”
“What did he ever do to you? Or to anybody black?” Romi asked in disbelief.
“Nothing. We just don’t need no foreigners around here mixing it up with the sisters.”
“He’s not foreign! He was born in this country just like you were!”
“Doesn’t matter. We don’t want him here.”
“You’re treating him just like whites treated us! Don’t you think that’s a little stupid?” Romi asked, trying to appeal to Malaka’s sense of reason.
“I don’t make the rules. I just pass on the information. Gang rules. Gang laws. Things change.”
“You sure have changed, Malaka,” Romi said angrily. “You used to think for yourself.”
“Now I got Mr. T to think for me, and take care of me. I like that better.”
“You really like Terrell?”
“Yeah, he’s got it together. He makes me feel strong and safe.”
“Look, can’t you see? That’s how Julio makes me feel.”
“You shoulda picked somebody black.”
“I didn’t pick him. It just happened! You don’t pick who you fall for. You just fall, and when you pick yourself up, he’s part of your life. Can’t you understand that?”
“Look, I’ve already said too much. Be careful. Something is going to go down, and soon. The Devildogs have to make a statement—make a showing to the school. There’s too many white kids for them to try anything, but your Mexican is the perfect target. It’s nothing personal. Peace. Bye.”
At that, Malaka disappeared into the lunchtime crowd. Romi stood there for a minute, musing on what Malaka had told her. “Peace?” she said out loud. “Nothing personal? What are we going to do?” She ran up the stairs to find Julio.
30.
Lunch
When Romi got to the lunchroom, most of the students had finished eating and were sitting at the tables in small groups, talking loudly, yelling, joking, laughing. Trays were strewn all over the tables, and some were on the floor. Balled-up lunch bags, broken pieces of cookie, orange peels, all decorated the tables and floors. Romiette hated the way the kids kept the lunchroom, but she wasn’t a one-woman cleanup crew. She looked for Julio at the back table near the soda machine. He sat with Ben, sipping a soda. Ben, who Romi knew had study hall that bell, was making a design on his tray with Jell-O cubes.
“Hi, Julio,” Romi said with a soft smile. “What’s up, Ben? What in the world are you doing?”
“I’m making the world’s greatest Jell-O sculpture. This may be worth lots of money one day. Where’s your bud Destiny? Doesn’t she have lunch this bell?”
“Destiny is probably in the volunteer room, tutoring. She likes working with the younger kids. They make me itch. Aren’t you supposed to be in study hall, Ben?”
“Yeah, but I studied the hall and decided I had to get out of there. Besides, I had to check on my man Julio and your problems with our purple-wearing friends. I hate what they’ve done to purple. I had to get rid of all my purple hair dye because of them. Such a good color on me too.”
Julio laughed. “Don’t worry, Ben. There are enough other colors for you. Romi, did you eat yet?”
“I had some chips earlier. I’m not hungry,” she said. “But, Julio, we have a really big problem. That gang is out to get us—to get you. You’re a target, just because you’re new, and you’re alone. So they think. But you’re not alone. You’ve got me.”
“And me!” added Ben. “Although I have no idea what I could do to help. I see bad guys and I run the other way.”
“It’s always good to know your friend’s got your back,” Julio said with a smile.
“You’ll never be alone,” Ben promised. “But I’m not sure what to do.”
The thought of being helpless and at the mercy of thugs made Julio so mad he wanted to bite. “What do you think they’ll do? Jump me?” he said angrily. “I know how to watch my back. I can fight. And I’m not afraid. We just left a place because of fear. I’m not gonna run away like my parents!”
Romi understood his anger and frustration. She touched his arm. “Remember our silly fantasies, Julio? Maybe we need to invent a place where we’ll be safe and far away from all this trouble.”
Julio was still tense. He shook her hand off his arm. “Where? On the moon? On Mars? On that moonlit beach? No, we’ve got to live in the real world—and they’ve got to let us!” He smiled at her then, and put his hand on her arm. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Romi. I swear. I’d give my life for you. I told you that. I meant it.”
“Ouch, Julio!” Romi laughed uncomfortably. “I sure hope you don’t have to. And I was just getting the hang of hot sauce on my peanut butter sandwiches!” she joked.
Ben added, “Now that sounds like a good lunch!”
“You have potential, Romi.” Julio grinned. “My long-range plan is to get you to drink hot sauce straight from the bottle!”
“Dream on, Julio!” she challenged him with a smile.
“But what do we do about the Devildogs in the meantime?” Ben asked.
“We need a clear plan of defense by Monday,” Romi said sensibly.
“Maybe we can figure this out Sunday, when I come over to get the puppy, Romi,” Julio suggested. “Ben, I’ll call you tonight.”
“She gets the house call and I get a phone call. There is no justice in this land,” Ben moaned.
“She’s better-looking than you.” Julio grinned.
“But can she do a Jell-O sculpture?” teased Ben.
“You win in that category, Ben.” Romi laughed as Ben tossed his masterpiece in the trash.
“There’s the bell,” said Julio. “I gotta go. I’ll be over Sunday at three, Romi.”
“Even my mom is getting excited about meeting you and giving you the puppy,” Romi told him.
“You know, my mom was pretty understanding too,” Julio mused with surprise.
“Parents do that, you know,” Ben inserted into their conversation, “just so we never know what to expect. It’s planned confusion.”
“You got that right!” Romi agreed.
“Later, Ben,” called Julio as Ben sauntered into the crowded hall. Ben waved and was swallowed in the confusion.
“I’ll see you Sunday, Julio. I can’t wait,” Romi said shyly.
“Me either.” Julio smiled, then ran to class.
31.
Saturday Night—
Destiny Spends the Night
Destiny blew through Romi’s front door like a windstorm. She carried two book bags, a plastic bag full of hair curlers, two shoe boxes, a stack of CDs, and a large box wrapped in brown paper. Destiny always arrived with baggage, even if she was just stopping by to pick up an outfit or do homework. She stored much of it in her car, which was her traveli
ng closet. Romi’s mom just shook her head and let her in.
“Hey, Mrs. C.! What’s for dinner?” Destiny greeted her with a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Vegetarian lasagna, Destiny—your favorite!”
“How’d you know, Mrs. C.? You must be psychic like me.”
“No, Destiny, you called me yesterday and told me, remember?” Mrs. Cappelle laughed.
“Well, us psychics gotta be prepared, you know. Thanks for fixing it.”
“Everybody around here likes it too. How’s your mom?”
“She’s fine,” Destiny replied as she grabbed a soda from the refrigerator. “She still says she’s going to quit the airlines, but until I learn how to teleport myself, I need her to work there so we can travel in the summer. Expands my world vision, you know.”
“How very noble of you! Give her my best.”
“OK. Where’s Romi?”
“Romiette is upstairs pretending to clean her room.”
“I’ve seen it messy before, Mrs. C. I’ve seen your whole house messy. Actually, I think I helped mess it up last time.”
“That’s probably true. Get upstairs before I decide to make you wash dishes!” threatened Romi’s mom.
Destiny didn’t have to be warned twice. “Zooming! Later, Mrs. C.!” She ran up the steps to Romi’s large and airy bedroom.
“Hey, Romi. What’s up?” asked Destiny as she tossed her stuff on Romi’s bed.
“What do you mean, what’s up? Did you bring the package?”
“What package?” Destiny replied in mock confusion.
“Quit playin’, girl. The System!”
“Thought you didn’t believe in that stuff!”
“Forty-four dollars and ninety-nine cents of my money gives me the right to believe! Where is it?” Romi asked.
“Got it right here!” Destiny grinned with delight.
“Did you open it yet?”
“No—still in the wrapper. I figured that we should open it together.”
“OK, as soon as it gets dark, we check it out. Did you bring the shoes?”
“Yeah, did you want the green ones? I brought the black ones just in case.”
“Sweet. Now I’ll wear your pants with the white shirt. Do you think this will make me look fat?”
“I don’t know. Try it on. Let me see what you look like in the outfit.”
“I am so huge! Julio is gonna think I’m a blimp.”
“If he thought you were a blimp, he wouldn’t be coming over tomorrow. Chill.”
Romi slipped the slacks and shirt on, pushed her hair up off her face, and looked in the mirror. “What do you think?”
“That white shirt is kinda boring. Try the green sweater.”
“That’s what I had out in the first place.” Romi changed quickly. They wore each other’s clothes and interchanged tops and pants and shoes so often that neither of them could remember whose outfit was whose originally.
“That’s the best,” Destiny assured Romi. “You look just a little sweet, just a little sexy, and not fat.”
“Good. That’s the look I was trying for. Guess who called me just before you got here?”
“Who?”
“Malaka Grimes.”
“What’d she want? Didn’t she already hassle you on Friday at school?”
“She basically called to threaten me again, I guess.” Romi shrugged. “‘Warning me,’ she called it. She made it clear that I better stay away from Julio because the Devildogs didn’t like it.”
“What do they care about Julio?”
“They don’t like him. They don’t want us together.”
“Why? What did he ever do to them?”
“Nothing. That’s just it. He’s new. And he’s not black.”
“Since when is there something wrong with being Spanish or Greek, or Martian, for that matter? You just can’t tell somebody how to live their life,” complained Destiny.
“You can if you’re with the gangbangers.” Romi sighed and sat on the bed.
“You gotta be careful, Romi. Maybe you should tell your father,” Destiny suggested.
“Tell him what? That some girl who used to live down the street four years ago told me not to spend time with the new kid at school? That sounds stupid.”
“Just be careful. Promise me, OK?”
“What could happen? Besides, Julio won’t let anything happen to me. He told me.”
“Girl, you got it bad! Hey, I checked the star book for Julio’s birthday.” Destiny dug down into one of her bags and pulled out a well-read, much-used astrology book. Destiny didn’t even brush her teeth in the morning without first checking her book.
“What does it say?” Romi asked curiously.
“Check this out. It says he is idealistic, passionate, and poetic.”
“That’s Julio!”
“And it says he is drawn to magical possibilities and fiery relationships.”
“That’s me!”
“And it also warns of the danger of fire and water meeting. It warns you to be mindful of the consequences.”
Romi looked serious. “You know, most of that stuff is so general, it could apply to anybody. We just make it apply because we want it to. But Julio and I were just talking about fire and water the other night—the two strongest forces in the universe. There’s strength there too, as well as danger.”
“Powerful vibes we’re dealing with, Romi.”
“What about the dream I’ve been having? Maybe we shouldn’t mess with this dream stuff we bought.”
“No, you will not have bad dreams tonight, because I am here, and because we have the System. The stars are with us tonight. And dreams cannot hurt us.”
“Do you really believe all that stuff, Destiny?”
“Believe it? I live it!”
“Yeah, but with all of the people in the world, how can all those predictions be true?”
Destiny brushed her hair. It was a dark reddish color, and if it grew straight, it would have been down to her shoulders. But it was soft, puffy, curly, and had a mind of its own. Sometimes she braided it to “teach it a lesson,” but her hair always won and would unbraid itself by the end of the day and curl into puffs of defiance. “I never question the stars—I simply trust them,” she said quietly.
32.
Julio and His Father
Julio opened the front door and entered with a blast of chilly air. Spring was promised, but the evenings were still cold and damp. He carried a grocery bag and a small leash. His dad was reading the paper.
“What you got there, son? Did you bring any juice? I’m thirsty.”
“Yeah, Mama said to bring some when I told her I was walking down to the store to get the dog food. You want a glass of apple juice?”
“Sure, sounds great. What’s with the dog food?”
“I’m going to get the puppy tomorrow, Papa, from Romiette, the girl from school who I’ve been talking to. Remember? She’s something really special, Papa.”
“The young lady, or the puppy?”
“Very funny, Papa. Both, I guess. But I really like talking to Romiette. She makes me want to sing, and I can’t even carry a tune!”
“Julio, you’re not getting too involved with that girl, are you? I don’t like it.” He took the glass of juice and set it down.
Julio hated to disagree with his father, but there were some things his father had no business interfering with, and one of them was Romi. He bristled with instant anger. “What do you mean, you don’t like it? You don’t have to like it! I’m the one who likes her!”
“I am your father, and you must obey me!” Even as he said it, Luis knew it sounded old-fashioned and stupid, but he felt like he had backed himself into a corner.
“You gotta be kidding! I’ll obey you about doing my homework, or calling when I’m out late, but I will not obey you about who I see or who I care about. You can’t make a rule about my likes and dislikes, just like you can’t make me like bananas or not like pizza.” r />
“Try to understand, Julio. I speak from experience,” Luis pleaded.
Julio was not to be quieted yet. He was amazed at his reaction to this. He had never spoken to his father like that before. “You speak from fear! You’re old! And you have forgotten what it’s like to be young and happy and maybe even in love!”
“In love? Has it come to this already? You just met this girl!”
“I never said I was in love. I said you forgot what it feels like!”
“No, my son. I have not forgotten. Let me tell you a story about fear, and about forgetting. When I was a young man—about fifteen years old, and long before I met your mother—I was very much in love with a beautiful young woman. Her name was Angelina Rosina Diaz, and I knew that I would one day marry her. Her smile lit up my whole world.”
“I would say that’s how Romi makes me feel, but you don’t want to hear it.” Julio’s face was set in anger. He sat on the sofa, waiting for the story he knew was coming.
“Let me finish, son. One day after school—even then there was trouble—she and I were walking home together. It was March third. I will never forget that day. Anyway, a large group of young men—college boys, we found out later—drove by us. They were very loud and very drunk. They screamed obscenities at us and chased us off the road with their car. We were terrified and ran in the ditch by the road, trying to escape that car. A fence blocked our escape across a field. They kept at us, purposely edging the car toward us, trying to knock us down. Angelina finally tripped and fell and … and … as the young men cheered, the car sped up, rolled over her, and crushed her. They drove off, then, screaming and laughing. I held the bleeding Angelina in my arms until she died.”
“I’ve heard that story before, Papa. I know it saddened the rest of your life, but what does it have to do with me and my relationship with Romiette?”
“I know you know the tale, Julio. But did you know the young men in the car were black? I have had a fear of black people since then, and what they can do. I will not allow you to develop a relationship with one of those people!”
“‘One of those people’? You think Romiette is related to those kids from a million years ago? Give me a break, Papa.”