Undertow by Buckley Michael

Author:Buckley, Michael [Buckley, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Pale-faced parents wait and watch until they are reunited with their kids, and together they succumb to sobbing. There are reporters everywhere scurrying around the police, military, ambulances, the bomb squad. A few protestors triumphantly bellow how they told us something bad would happen, but most of the others seem shocked. I wonder if they feel any responsibility for this.

My father rushes to me and pulls me into a hug, wrapping me up like he will never let me go. His face is pale and tired. I have never seen him afraid. I hate it. I want that Easter Island head. I want my stony, unmovable dad. Then there are more arms. My mother is here.

“Are you okay?” she cries.

My father panics. “Summer, you can’t be here.”

“I can’t be anywhere else,” she says.

Bex’s dauntless smile has shattered. Shadow stands nearby, trembling and off-kilter. Their shoulders lean in to each other, forming a bridge between the two, a way to pool and share what courage they still possess. The connection is broken only when Shadow’s mother arrives. She’s a short, round Latino woman with thick glasses who drags the boy into a hug, nearly knocking him and Bex to the ground. His mother sobs, chattering a mile a minute in Spanish, while he tries to calm her. I don’t know more than twenty words in Spanish, which is disgraceful, since one of my best friends speaks it fluently and I am surrounded by people who use it every day, but I don’t really need to know what she’s saying to her son. She’s grateful.

“I’ll take everyone home,” my father promises.

Shadow tells this to his mother. Worry flashes across her face, and she shakes her head and waves us off.

“It’s really no trouble,” my father tries to explain. “It’s best if you go home with a cop. There might be other people out here bent on hurting kids.”

Shadow shakes his head. “We’re fine.”

“I really have to insist,” my dad presses.

“Dad, let it go,” I say.

Shadow takes his mother’s hand and walks away.

“She’s not a citizen,” Bex explains.

My father nods. “Yeah, okay.”

Tammy pushes through the crowd. Her hair is wet, and she’s wearing a pair of dirty shorts and a shirt that stretches across her belly.

“Are you okay?” she cries, trying to hug Bex. My friend’s arms are up, keeping her from a full embrace.

“I’m fine,” Bex says as she steps back.

“Who did this?” Tammy says.

My father scowls. “Someone inside the school opened a door and let a lunatic inside. We’re going through the tapes now, and we’ll be able to identify them soon. None of the children were hurt.”

“Did they catch the guy?”

“He’s dead.”

“Mom, I want to go with Lyric,” Bex says.

“I want you home. You belong with me,” Tammy cries.

“It’s really no problem,” my father says.

Tammy turns on him, and there is a fire in her face that reminds me of the way a lioness protects her cubs.

“You have been good to her, and I appreciate that, but she already has a family,” she bites, then snatches her daughter by the hand and drags her down the street.

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