Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere (17 page)

So we just sat.

Sealy jumped to her feet and pointed at the sky. “Armani, do you see it?”

I really didn't feel like playing one of Sealy's immature guessing games, and I definitely wasn't in no mood to be bothered. So I just said, “Um-hmm,” and kept staring at the way Memaw's boots caught the sun when I moved them just so.

Mama had a grip on Sealy's wrist, but the girl started waving at the sky with her free arm.

“Armani, look! It's a helicopter!”

Whop, whop, whop, whop, whop
 . . .

I tore my eyes away from the boots and put my hand up over my eyes to block the glaring sun. That's when I seen it. It
was
a helicopter!

I practically tossed Khayla onto Mama's crowded lap and jumped to my feet.

Please stop, please stop, help us, please stop
 . . .

My heart was racing. I went to bouncing on my tippy-toes up inside the boots. I almost smiled. But I didn't. I was full of nervous and excited at the same time.

“Mama! It's going to be all right!” Sealy hollered. “We're gonna be rescued!”

Me and Sealy jumped up and down, shouting and waving our arms at the approaching metal bird.

Mama stood with the twins sitting between her spread legs. She waved and hollered louder than I've ever heard before. “Over here! Over here! I have children! Over here!” She stifled a whimper with her hand over her mouth.

All of us, even the twins, were yelling and flapping our arms as it got closer.

The wind coming off that thing made waves that slapped up against our house so hard it shook. The helicopter was right above us.

Sealy was hollerin' about something, but I couldn't hear her on account of the loud
whop, whop, whop
of the helicopter blades twirling
two thousand miles an hour. It flew so low, I thought it was gonna take off the tops of our heads.

A man hanging out of the side of the helicopter waved at us. We waved back, smiling and jumping for joy!

And then, just like that, the helicopter was gone. The pilot flying that thing flew right past us, like he sees families jumping and shouting on rooftops every day.

I felt like I'd been punched in the belly.

Sealy whipped around with big ol' puppy eyes. “They're coming back, aren't they, Mama?”

Mama stood there with her sorrowful eyes locked on the empty sky. Her whole face sagged.

I fiddled with Memaw's locket and took a big breath. With an award-winning smile, I said, “Well, of course they're comin' back. They can't just go landin' helicopters on people's roofs without permission. Right, Mama?”

Mama looked at me, her eyes telling me I'd found the right words, so I kept going. “They're most likely flyin' back to their headquarters right this very minute, so they can get the go-ahead to fly on back here an' rescue the Curtis family. Watch. You'll see.”

Sealy looked sideways at me. “Are you sure they saw us?”

Mama took a step away from the twins and stepped closer to me. She put an arm around my shoulder and kissed me lightly on my cheek.

“Of course they saw us, sweetheart,” Mama said. “Armani's right. There are procedures for things like this. They saw for themselves
that we're fine, and they'll be back before you know it.” Mama gave an award-winning smile too.

Sealy let out a sigh. “Well, that makes sense.” Then she gave us one of her sunshiny smiles and said, all bubbly, “I can't wait to be rescued!” She all but skipped back to her spot on the roof and pulled the journal out of her book sack.

Mama hugged me and whispered in my ear, “Thank you.”

She went back to sitting with the kids, making sure no one moved from their spots. I stood for a good bit staring into the murky water, wondering how long it takes for a person on a roof to die from no food and no water.

I was fixin' to sit back down with my family when a big ol' speckled dog came floating by. He was standing on top of one of them red and white coolers, just a-wagging his tail, letting out happy barks, like he was having a good ol' time. He sailed right on up to the side of our house, bounced off, then kept right on gliding by, taking the same exact path that Daddy and Georgie had.

Mama and Sealy decided that since we were about to be rescued, we should try to clean ourselves up. We took turns fixin' each other's hair. Mama tore the hem off her dress and tied lime-green headbands on Khayla and Kheelin to keep the sweat from running in their eyes. It almost felt—normal. But then, I'd hear a far-off shout, or sirens, or a
whop, whop, whop
and my brain would snap right back to the
nightmare we were living. I wished more than anything that Memaw would've been there to hum us through our horrible time on the roof.

Sealy had her hands all up in Mama's hair and I was looking out across the nasty water trying to count rooftops when a yellow butterfly came and landed right on the toe of my rubber boot. Khayla took a swat at it but it stayed there, opening and closing its bright, perfect wings.

I was fixin' to ask how it was that a little butterfly could survive a storm that had ruined everything else when I felt a bump up against our house.

“Excuse me, ma'am?” The man's voice came out of nowhere. Me, Mama, and Sealy almost rolled right off the roof at the same time.

Sitting right there, so close I could touch him with a stick, was a big, burly white man in a teeny-tiny boat.

We must've looked a sight to that man. All of us sat there for the longest time staring at him, like we wasn't expecting company.

Then Mama started to shake. The quivers traveled from Mama's head up Sealy's arms, where she still had her hands lost in Mama's hair.

Mama pulled loose from Sealy's fingers and stood on shaky legs. She pointed at the water in the direction where Daddy and Georgie had floated away. Her hand was trembling so bad, I had to keep myself from reaching up to hold it still.

“My . . . my . . . my husband and son . . .” Mama managed to say, but then she shuddered with upset.

The man looked in the direction that Mama had pointed. He pulled off his black and gold ball cap and hooked one of his thumbs in the tattered strap of his blue jean overalls. He wiped the top of his almost bald head with the back of his arm, and put the hat back on.

“Yes, ma'am. I been gettin' a lot of that from folks.” He hung his head and shook it back and forth a couple times too many.

When he looked back up at us, he squinted at the twins. “You got babies up there.” He said it like maybe he was telling us something we didn't know.

Before he introduced hisself, he tossed up bottles of water. It was the most delicious water I'd ever had. It was clean, and sweet, and cold.

Mama cried grateful tears. She kept saying thank you while we took long gulps of the water.

When he threw the fried Hubig's pies to us, Mama reacted like she'd been thrown a bag of gold. Khayla tore into hers before I could even get the wrapper all the way off. She had the whole thing gone before we had a chance to thank the generous man.

I ate about half of mine, chewing every sugary bite real slow, while my taste buds popped and grabbed hold of all the crusty, creamy lemony flavors.

Khayla stared at me with her mouth hanging open, eyes glued to my food, globs of lemon filling from her forehead to her elbows. I was starving. I could've ate at least a hundred of them flaky fried pies right there on the spot. But when I seen the hunger showing on my baby sister's face, I took one more small bite, then gave the rest to Khayla. She didn't say thanks, but her smile let me know I'd done the right thing.

Sealy unwrapped hers all gentle-like. She took one bite, and moaned, “Mmm . . . ,” chewing at the same time. Then, like in slow motion, she folded the edges of the wrapper back over the top of what was left and tucked it down inside her book sack. She took a careful step closer to the edge. Mama grabbed her arm. “Are you here to rescue us, Mister?”

“Well, I reckon y'all need rescuin', that's for sure.” He had a smile that I liked.

“I—I can't leave,” Mama said in a panic.

“But Mama,” Sealy said, “we
have
to leave. We can't stay here.”

Mama looked at Sealy with eyes full of worry and confusion.

“Ma'am?” the man said directly to Mama.

Mama tore her eyes from Sealy and planted them on me. “I don't know what to do, Armani.”

Tears were flowing. I didn't know what to say. My own eyes were blurry.

Sealy stared at me with her face all hopeful. The sweaty, sleepy-looking twins sat there on the hot roof, too pitiful to even fuss.

I looked down at the plump white man in the tiny boat, with the smile I'd taken a liking to. I caught a glimpse of something yellow on his cap. I rubbed my eyes with my fists to get rid of the blurriness. There right on top of the wore-out ball cap was the yellow butterfly that had been resting its wings on my boot a few minutes earlier.

I couldn't take my eyes off of it. “We would sure appreciate it, sir, if you could get us off this roof.” As soon as I said the words, the butterfly fluttered away. Chill bumps raced down my arms.

Mama moaned.

I took her hand. “Mama, we have to get the twins somewhere safe.”

Her eyes were closed and she wouldn't stop crying.

“I promise, Mama,” I said, like I was the mama and she was the child, “we'll tell the police or someone about Daddy and Georgie.” A cry got caught in my throat. “But we
have
to go with this nice man.”

Sealy was crying quiet. I kept my teary eyes on Mama. I took hold of Sealy's hand and walked her to the edge of the roof.

I sat down, my legs hanging over the side. Sealy climbed up on me, and I whispered in her ear, “I'm gonna slide you down. You'll be okay.” A tear rolled down my face.

“I trust you, Armani,” Sealy said in a whisper-cry.

The man in the tiny silver boat reached up, and I slid my little sister off my lap and into the arms of the stranger.

His name was Mr. Oscar Dupree. He's the man who saved us from wasting away on that roof.

After Sealy, I slid Khayla down. As soon as that baby thunked into the bottom of the boat, she grabbed hold of Mr. Oscar's leg and made it clear she wasn't letting go for nothing.

When I asked Mama to give me Kheelin so she could get on the boat next, she turned from me and started to cry all over again.

“You—you go on without me,” she sputtered.

“Mama, you have to come with us.” I swiped at a useless tear, wishing she would stop being so hardheaded. I real careful got to my feet.

There was a fear and a sadness carved into my mama's beautiful face that filled me with a knowin' that I figure I'll always have.

“Armani,” she said, nodding her head, talking like she was begging me to keep a secret. “Take the girls and go.” She looked past my shoulder and down at the little boat.