Zane and the Hurricane by Rodman Philbrick

Author:Rodman Philbrick [Philbrick, Rodman]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2014-09-10T04:00:00+00:00

After paddling like mad for a mile or so, Mr. Tru takes a pause, sliding the canoe out of sight between a couple of half-sunk cars and a building that was turned sideways by the flood. Branches reach out of the water from drowned trees, some of them with leaves still green, as if a crazy, junkyard jungle has started to sprout from down below.

We haven’t said barely a word, none of us, since we made our getaway, but you can tell Mr. Tru is trying to decide about something. It feels like we’re all stuck between one second and the next and can’t take a breath until the clock ticks over. Finally he goes, “Dawlin’? Time we told this young man the troot about what he got hissef into.”

Malvina avoids looking at me. Instead she fusses over Bandy, scratching his ears. The little dog whines, like he’s trying to understand why the humans are acting so stiff and weird, and finally I go, “It’s okay. Really, it’s none of my business.”

“You part of it now, like or not,” Mr. Tru insists. “Malvina?”

She folds her skinny arms across her chest. “My mom got arrested and sent to rehab,” she announces in a flat voice, staring out at nothing. “She an addict.”

“She gone beat it this time,” Mr. Tru says softly.

“That what you always say.”

“Have faith in your heart, dawlin’. Your momma love you more than anything.”

Malvina shrugs, like she’s heard this all before and it can’t touch her anymore.

“Rehab doin’ its work. Your momma getting well. You see.”

Malvina only looks away.

“That man back at the school, Dylan Toomey?” Mr. Tru says. “He a local drug boss. Like he say, he done Malvina’s momma a few favors, if givin’ her drugs is a favor. And when she got arrested in possession, and they send her to rehab instead of jail, might be he’s worried she say somethin’ to the po-lice about his bidness.”

“My momma ain’t no snitch!” Malvina says defiantly.

“She do the world a favor, lock up a gangsta like him. And you know that, dawlin’.” He glances at me. “So, Zane, you understan’ why we leave? Why we had to make our run?”

I shake my head. “Not exactly. I mean, he’s a scary-looking dude and all that, but it seemed like he was trying to help us.”

Mr. Tru nods. “Oh, I can see how it might appear that way to you. But he intend to help hissef, not us.”

“By giving us food and shelter?”

He shakes his head. “Nah, nah. No gift. Man don’t give nothin’ away. Always a price. Dylan Toomey, he worried. If Malvina’s mom have to choose between going to prison and coming home to her child, she choose her child. She love you, dawlin’.”

The heat and stench of the floodwaters makes our eyes sting, so I can’t be sure if Malvina is crying or just blinking away the sweat.

Tru sighs and says, “If Toomey get hold of Malvina, and keep her under his evil eye, then her momma don’t dare say nothin’ to nobody about his criminal ways.

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