He told them fables from Mexico about turtles and rabbits and frogs and crows.
You never saw a happier bunch of kids or a happier man.
I was so glad Niko had changed his mind.
DAY 11
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“EVACULATION”
After breakfast the next morning (Chloe was my helper and she said, “Just do whatever, Dean. I want to hang out with Robbie!”), Josie and Alex gave Robbie a tour of the store. All the little kids went along, shining their flashlights all over the place.
I was getting lunch on the table when Jake wandered into the Kitchen and slung himself down at a booth.
He looked worse than he had the day before, if such a thing was possible.
“You okay?” I asked him.
“Dean. Dude. Is there any coffee?”
“Sure, Jake,” I said. “You take cream and sugar, right?”
He nodded and his low-hung head began to bob. He was crying, I realized.
I put my hand on his shoulder as I set the coffee down.
“It’s gonna be okay,” I said.
“It’s not. It’s never gonna be okay again.”
I just stayed standing where I was. I felt like if I sat down, he’d stop talking.
“I keep taking these pills. But everytime, they’re working less. It’s like I squeezed all the good feeling out of my brain and now I’m out. I drained it all out and I’m done.”
“Jake, you gotta lay off the pills.”
“I know. I know,” he mumbled. “I’ll stop today.”
He turned to go, just as Sahalia came over.
She was wearing leggings, a tank top, and some kind of blazer.
“Have you guys seen Robbie?” she asked.
“He’s with Josie and Alex and the little kids,” I said. “They’re touring the store.”
“Sweet,” she said. “See ya.”
Robbie was definitely the big man on campus.
As I was plating the food, Mr. Appleton walked in. He was definitely looking better.
“Mmmmm,” he said, eyeing the steaming-hot orange chicken I was dumping into a bowl. “Chinese?”
“Yup,” I answered. “I’m serving fried rice, too.”
“Have you seen Niko?” Mr. Appleton asked me. “I want to start packing up.”
That was interesting to me. I had sort of assumed that Mr. Appleton wanted to stay, as Robbie clearly did.
“LUNCH!” I yelled.
Mr. Appleton jumped.
“Sorry,” I said. Then I hollered again. “LUNCH! Come and get it!”
I heard the sound of the hungry hordes moving toward the Kitchen.
“You’re feeling like you can travel?” I asked Mr. Appleton as I set out the plates, forks, and napkins.
“I want to honor our agreement,” he said. “And, yes, I guess I am anxious to get on the way.”
“Why?”
“Well, we need to have another meeting,” Mr. Appleton said. “So I can tell you about Denver.”
The kids swarmed in.
“Mmmm! Chinese!” Max said.
“I love Chinese!” chirped Caroline.
“Wait,” I said to Mr. A. “What about Denver?”
Niko came in. He had his arms crossed over his chest.
He stood behind Batiste on line.
“Oh, Niko,” Mr. Appleton said. “I want to talk to you about our departure plan.”
“Really?” Niko said. “Okay. Good.”
“And I realized we haven’t told you about Denver yet.”
“What about Denver?” I said, shooing Ulysses and Max off to a table.
“What’s this now?” Robbie said, ambling up.
“They’re evacuating people,” Mr. Appleton said to Niko and me. “If you can get yourself to the Denver International Airport, you can be evacuated.”
“What do you mean ‘
By now most of the kids had their plates and were seated.
Mr. Appleton turned to face them. It looked like a class set in a Pizza Shack. Weird.
“Well, children,” Mr. Appleton said. “When there is a crisis in an area, the government comes and evacuates the people living in that area. Evacuation is the transfer of large groups of people to a safer place.”
“What do you mean?” Batiste interrupted.
“Many people in this area are making their way to the Denver airport,” Mr. Appleton explained. “It is rumored that the government is flying people out by helicopter and taking them to Alaska.”
Caroline raised her hand.
“Do you mean like our mommy?” she asked. “Like our mommy might be going to Denver to go away in a helicopter?”
“Possibly,” Mr. Appleton said.
All at once everyone was talking, screaming, shouting: Denver, Denver, Denver. We had to go to Denver. We could drive the bus to Denver. We had to leave today for Denver.
Niko was shaking his head, already imagining the chaos this news was going to create.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Mr. Appleton said, holding his hands up. The kids gradually fell silent though Henry had the hiccups. “It’s not at all feasible for you kids to make it to Denver. Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous out there for you.”
“But we want to find our mommy!” Caroline said.
Her freckled face was so sad. It was hard not to just sweep her into a hug.
“I understand that, Caroline,” Mr. Appleton said. “And that is why Robbie and I are going to Denver. We will be airlifted to Alaska, and then we will find your parents and tell them where you are so they can come for you.”
The little kids started smiling. They started clapping and grinning, wiping their tears away.
Niko was grinning.
This was the happiest I’d ever seen Niko and I understood why: The men were leaving; he hadn’t had to make them leave, so he didn’t look like the bad guy anymore; and on top of it all, now there was a prayer we might be rescued.
Hope. It was a real glimmer of hope Mr. Appleton had just given us.
Everyone talked with excitement. Niko, Alex, and Mr. Appleton started talking about what supplies the men would need.
Only one person looked unhappy: Robbie.
I could tell that he really had wanted to stay with us.
