“Sheila!” Mr. Salvaggio shouted up the stairs. “You better pay up or my cousin Guido and I are gonna put you out on the street for good. You hear me?”
Frightened and wondering what would happen if Mama didn’t have any money when she got home, Bobby Ray went to the nightclub where Mama worked. He slipped in a side door while a delivery was being unloaded. It was dimly lit inside. The place smelled bad. A man in shirtsleeves and a loosened tie signed paperwork on a clipboard and handed it to the uniformed truck driver. Opening a box, he pulled out a bottle and then spotted Bobby Ray. “What’re you doing in here?” He jerked his chin. “Get out of here, kid! You trying to get me shut down?”
Bobby Ray stood his ground as the man came toward him. “I’m looking for my mother.” His voice quavered.
“How would I know who your mother is?” The man grabbed him by the shoulder and thrust him toward the door. “Get outta here and stay out!”
Fighting tears, Bobby Ray stayed inside. “Her name’s Sheila Dean. She works here.”
The man spit out a foul word. “I didn’t know Sheila had a kid. I’d like to know where she is, too. She was supposed to dance last night and didn’t bother showing up.”
Bobby Ray didn’t know where else to look and didn’t want to go back to the apartment house and risk getting grabbed by Mr. Salvaggio. So he went to school. Class had already started, so he had to sneak into the room when Mr. Talbot wasn’t looking and slip into his seat, hoping no one would say anything. No one did, but Mr. Talbot looked from Bobby Ray to the wall clock and then went back to explaining an arithmetic problem he’d written on the chalkboard. At least Mr. Talbot didn’t send him to the office for a tardy slip. He would have had to make up a lie for the school secretary.
The classroom was warmer than the apartment, and Bobby Ray fought to keep his eyes open. He tried to make sense of the arithmetic problems on the paper Mr. Talbot handed out. His stomach hurt. He put his head in his arms.
The bell startled him awake. He hadn’t finished the assignment. Kids headed out to recess. Mr. Talbot stood beside his desk. “Everything all right, Bobby Ray?”
Bobby Ray said everything was fine. At lunch, he ate only half of his sandwich, keeping the rest, worried he might not have anything to eat later.
When school let out, Bobby Ray ran all the way home. The apartment was unlocked. Heart leaping with hope, Bobby Ray ran to the bedroom, expecting to see Mama asleep. She wasn’t there. When he came out, he saw the empty space where the television had been. Had burglars come in or had Mr. Salvaggio taken the only thing of any value in the apartment? Bobby Ray was afraid to go downstairs and ask. Instead, he went out again and searched the neighborhood for Mama.
The liquor store owner said he hadn’t seen Sheila Dean in three days. Bobby Ray walked until Turk Street ran into Market, then followed Market to Grant. He came up to Geary and walked around Union Square, then on down past the Curran Theater until he came to Leavenworth and headed down to Turk again. It was dark by the time he got home. The apartment lights were off and didn’t come on when he flipped the switch. Mama still wasn’t home.
Exhausted, hungry, and afraid, Bobby Ray sat on the old sofa. What should he do now? Where should he look? Mama always came home by morning. Why hadn’t she returned?
Bobby Ray stretched the Smucker’s Goober PB and J and the Wonder Bread for three days. He still had a couple of dollars in his pocket, but he was afraid to spend it.
Mr. Talbot asked him again if everything was all right, and Bobby Ray said yes again, throwing a little attitude to make it sound true. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
“Because you’ve been wearing the same shirt for three days.”
“Mama hasn’t gotten around to doing the laundry. Okay?”
“All right, but where is your homework? You always do your homework, and you haven’t turned anything in for two days. And you’re not finishing what I’m giving you in class. That’s not like you, Bobby Ray. What’s going on?”
“I just forgot. That’s all. I’ll do it. I’ll give it to you tomorrow.”
He had to fight hard not to cry when Mr. Talbot put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. “You’d tell me if you needed help, wouldn’t you?”
Bobby Ray bought a banana and a Snickers bar on the way home. He worked on homework at the kitchen table. Someone knocked on the door, and Bobby Ray’s heart picked up speed. He tiptoed over and peered through the peephole. Mr. Talbot stood outside the door. He rapped again. “Mrs. Dean? Bobby Ray?” His teacher knocked again, louder this time. A man’s voice rumbled from below. Mr. Talbot said he was checking on a student. He left the doorway, and Bobby Ray couldn’t see him anymore. What was Mr. Salvaggio saying to him?
Bobby Ray worried about that visit. He tried to concentrate on his homework and finish everything he was supposed to. He took a shower, washed his hair, and brushed his teeth, hoping Mama would open the bathroom door and tell him he was taking too long.
He wore different clothes the next morning. Mr. Talbot looked him over and didn’t say anything. Bobby Ray’s stomach growled so loud the students around him laughed. Face hot, he kept his head down while Mr. Talbot called them all to order and went on with the lesson.
When Bobby Ray got home from school, Mr. Salvaggio was in the entry hall near the mailboxes with a man Bobby Ray didn’t recognize. Mr. Salvaggio nodded at Bobby Ray. “He’s the one. Nobody’ll miss him.” The man slipped a wad of folded bills into Mr. Salvaggio’s fat fingers as Bobby Ray ran up the stairs.
The door was open this time. “Mama!” Relief surged until he saw the empty living room. All the furniture was gone. “Mama!” He ran for the bedroom. Not finding her there, he came out again, confused. The apartment was empty, except for a couple of boxes of Mama’s clothes in the middle of the room.
The man who’d been with Mr. Salvaggio came into the apartment. “You’re coming with me, kid.”
Bobby Ray backed away. “My mother’s coming home.”
“When was the last time you saw your mother? Four days ago, from what I hear. She’s gone. I’m gonna take care of you.” When Bobby Ray tried to dart past him to the door, the man caught him by the arm. When Bobby Ray fought and screamed, the man clapped a hard hand over his mouth. Bobby Ray bit him. The man backhanded him so hard, Bobby Ray saw yellow and black spots before being tossed over the man’s shoulder and carried out of the apartment, his legs trapped against the man’s rock-hard chest.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Bobby Ray heard his teacher’s voice coming from the landing below. Pounding the stranger’s back, Bobby Ray screamed for help. “Put that boy down!” Another man was asking for ID. Bobby Ray felt himself dumped. He bounced down half a dozen steps before someone caught hold of him. “I’ve got you.”
Mr. Talbot held him while a police officer went up the stairs, talking fast into a small radio mounted on a shoulder harness. “Six foot, 190, white, dark hair cropped short, brown bomber jacket, Levi’s, and black boots . . .”
Mr. Talbot asked Bobby Ray if he was hurt. He hurt everywhere. Mr. Talbot lifted him onto his lap and held him close. “It’s okay, Bobby Ray. We’re here to help.” Sobbing, Bobby Ray pressed into his teacher’s arms, his heart still pounding in fear. “Who was that man? Anyone you know?” Bobby Ray had never seen him before. “Where’s your mother?”
“I don’t know.” He hiccuped. “She promised she’d come back. She always comes back.” When asked how long ago she’d left, Bobby Ray scrubbed at his eyes and tried to think. He didn’t want to say five days. “I did my homework.”