Home, Away by Jeff Gillenkirk

Author:Jeff Gillenkirk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chin Music Press Inc.
Published: 2011-03-18T04:00:00+00:00

THE NEXT morning his father was gone — the Rockies opened the season in Houston. Rafe walked the route they had practiced the day before, and arrived alone at his new school. Everett F. Stokes High School was a dark, neo-classical structure built in 1962 and gone to seed. An equestrian statue of Don Quixote at the center of a long semicircular drive, marred with graffiti, had its placard altered to read, “Don Corleone.” Rafe lingered alone on the sidewalk, then merged at the bell with the stream of mostly African-American, Chicano and Southeast Asian kids crowding through the front door.

The morning was a blur. The steam heat from the old radiators made it feel as if someone was holding a dusty rag over his face. Lunch time was even worse. Tables were lined up in rows in the old gymnasium; the high windows and dingy light reminded him of Juvenile Hall. He escaped to a bench outside, alongside the asphalt schoolyard. The snow-capped peaks of the Rockies loomed in the distance, a bank of gray clouds boiling above them. Everything seemed so different — the light, the weather, the air. He worried that he had made a mistake coming here. His father was gone but what could he do — go live with his mom again? That wasn’t an option he wanted to exercise.

He took his lunch out of his bag — a roast beef sandwich he had bought on the way to school, a bag of chips, an apple — but didn’t touch it. The other kids spilled from the gymnasium, taunting, teasing, tossing balls. They passed him as if he weren’t there, which he wished he weren’t, except he couldn’t figure out where else he wanted to be.

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