The Haywood house wasn’t bad, but it needed some serious updating. It had been built in the 1950s, and very few improvements had been made since. Hector knew that Mitchel Haywood was occasionally unemployed, leaving Colleen to balance the budget on her teacher’s salary. Hector also knew that Mitchel was a bit of a drunk, and not the nice kind, like Otis on the Andy Griffith Show.
Hector hoped that, someday, Ellie would tell him the real reason she was in Hibbing. All he knew was that at one time she had been in a hospital, and when she got out, she wanted to—or had to—move. He wasn’t sure which it was. But he liked her and wanted to help. He was also very protective of her. People in town knew Hector. They also knew he was the “errand boy” for the “shut-in” down the block. Occasionally, people would stop and ask him questions about the mysterious woman, but Hector said she was a nice lady and couldn’t leave her house. She could have been in a wheelchair, for all they knew. But there were no ramps. What there was was lots of speculation.
Every Halloween, there would be several big plastic pumpkins filled with candy for the kids to take. No one ever saw who put it there, but they suspected it might be Hector. And their suspicions would be correct. Under Ellie’s direction, Hector would purchase the candy and leave several plastic pumpkins hanging on the front fence.
At Christmas, the front door had a wreath, and lights adorned the front porch. Ellie would bake cookies and cakes and leave them for Hector to take to the church holiday bake sale. For all intents and purposes, Ellie was an active member of the block. Except she never physically came out of her house. Her generosity of spirit was the only thing visible.
Hector’s wish was that she would one day invite him into the house and show him all of her cool electronic devices. But for now he had to be satisfied that he was her confidant and assistant.
Hector often rode his bike when he ran errands for Ellie. He had a driver’s license, but the family only had two cars, so he had to depend on his legs to get him to and from a lot of places. He was now a senior in high school and had been applying to several high-ranking colleges. He hoped the money he’d earned from the sale of the game would cover most of his expenses. He was making good money running errands for Ellie. He would be happy to do it for free, but she insisted on paying him $200 a week. That enabled him to help with the family bills. He did his own laundry and lots of chores, so his father could get a break on the weekends.
He was not your typical high school kid. Except for the part about him spending time in the basement playing video games. But his parents no longer worried about that. Hector had proved that his hobby could be lucrative. They were very proud of their son.
Hector’s grandparents had come to America on one of the last Freedom Flights from Cuba in 1973. His parents were born six years later in Miami and had been raised a few blocks from each other in the area called Little Havana. They had been high school sweethearts and married when Hector’s mother turned twenty-one. Hector was born a year later.
When Hector was ten years old, they moved to Hibbing, which was near a manufacturing plant. At first, Hector loved living in a small town, but once he became a teenager, he realized there wasn’t a lot for him to do, so he shuttered himself in the basement, where he learned to play video games. When he turned sixteen, he spent his summers mowing lawns and became a part-time employee of a landscaping service. His parents let him spend half of his own money on the games, insisting he save the other half for college. When Hector was in high school, it became clear that the family could not afford to send him and his sister away to college, so Hector decided to look into getting a degree in electronics through an online course of study. At least there would be no room-and-board fees, except what he gave his parents every month from his various jobs. His sister got a scholarship to a state college and worked as a waitress to help pay for her room and board.
The family wasn’t poor, but they understood the importance of saving money and not being irresponsible about spending. Besides, Hector actually liked living at home. His mother was an excellent cook, specializing in many originally Cuban recipes, and his father was a great musician, playing guitar and serenading the family on Sunday afternoons. Friends and neighbors would stop by often. Some would bring instruments, and they would have jam sessions on the front porch. If it weren’t for the boredom, Hector would have liked it just fine. Miami was too big, and Hibbing was just a little too small, but for now it was home. And he had a friend a few blocks away. Even if he couldn’t hang out with her.
Chapter Nine
Mitchel Haywood slumped down in his car as the police officer drove past. He guessed that the cop knew he was sitting in the driver’s seat, but he didn’t want to be too obvious. He couldn’t tell if the cop had seen his face. Yeah, the cop could run his plates. But so what if he did? You can’t arrest a guy for sitting in his car. Mitchel knew the rules. A hundred yards. He had measured it one night.
