The Fix by Sharon Leder

Author:Sharon Leder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: KiCam Projects
Published: 2017-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven | 1959—1961

When Sara turned twelve and a half, Aunt Annette and Uncle Nat began going out on Saturday nights to see shows at the Brooklyn Fox Theater. They paid Sara to babysit for her sister, brother, and cousin, but she couldn’t control them. They’d shout and race up and down the long apartment hallway like it was an Olympic track, and they refused to go to bed on time. Because Sara often felt like a confused and helpless child herself, babysitting only reminded her of her own parents’ absence.

She had a fantasy of saving enough babysitting money to hop onto a Greyhound bus and turn up at her parents’ efficiency apartment in Coconut Grove. When she got there, she’d let them have it for all the disappointments and worry they’d caused her. But she’d also let them know how happy she was to be with them again. When Sara told Ruth about her fantasy, she asked Sara why her parents were gone so long. Sara didn’t dare to share her father’s secret with Ruth, so she couched their absence in pretense: Her father was trying out new job possibilities and dragging his feet.

One day, with great excitement, Sara showed Ruth all the money she had saved and the map she had drawn by hand detailing her itinerary. Ruth didn’t think the trip was a good idea, but she was willing to accompany Sara on the subway one afternoon to buy the tickets at the Port Authority. At the last moment, Sara changed her mind. Ruth was right after all, Sara thought as she stood there, feeling very small amidst the noisy crowds at the Port Authority and imagining making the lengthy trip on her own. She was also frightened by what she saw at the bus terminal—the homeless men, mostly older Negro men, wearing torn shirts and pants and do-rags on their heads, asking for handouts, and slurring their words, like her father did when he was high on drugs. Ruth said to her, “Sara, let’s go home,” and they took the subway back to Williamsburg.

Sara sometimes forgot about her situation by writing stories and traveling in her imagination. She was inspired to write about girls her age in Mexico, Africa, and Australia after studying the stamp collection her cousin Ben shared with her brother Robbie. She began talking to her mother on the phone again and told her about all the stories she was writing and submitting as assignments in Miss Heller’s English class. “And, Ma,” she shouted into the receiver one night, “I’ll be graduating from junior high a year sooner than I thought, because I made the Special Progress class.”

“That’s great, honey. Your father will be so proud of your accomplishments.”

“Is Daddy playing in the band tonight?” Sara asked.

Helen took a while to answer.

“Well, is he?” Sara demanded, her anxiety returning.

“Yes, Sara. But he told me to tell you that we’ll return home by next summer. Don’t hold me to it, but that should be a whole year before you graduate.

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