Random Acts of Senseless Violence (10 page)

I crouched on the floor under the glove compartment because there wasn't enough room to sit between Daddy and VanMan. I didn't want to sit down there but I was glad soon enough. Daddy's knees kept bumping me in the head when we hit a bump which was every five seconds. VanMan didn't have paint on his van or door handles inside but he had a CD. He played Gregorian chants like we heard at school in music class. Daddy asked him to drive slower and VanMan said he'd try but he was having a religious ecstacy. VanMan would speed up whenever he went through the lights. Every time we turned we could hear more stuff break.

VanMan was braindead Anne and I wonder now if he was on drugs. I think he was. It got really awful then. We drove across the park and went north on Broadway and
then we stopped and VanMan jumped out. I knew we weren't at the apartment yet and so I looked to see where we were. We were only at 92nd Street. VanMan was going through some trash on the sidewalk getting a chair loose. Daddy yelled out the window what are you doing? Van-Man said oh hey I can resell this great chair it's aces. Daddy said I'm paying you by the hour come back and get it on your own time. ‘Daddy let him get the stupid chair he's crazy' I said but Daddy didn't listen. I knew he should have.

Everybody on the street was looking and laughing at us. VanMan finally got back in the van. Anne, when someone is
insane
crazy we say he's pissed for blood and that's what he was. When he took off he turned up the volume on the CD as loud as it would go and then he started speeding. He was running the red lights. Daddy said slow down my daughter's in here but VanMan didn't care. He kept going faster and faster it felt like. I sat up and looked over the dash once and saw we were heading right toward a bus. Daddy pushed me down. We didn't hit the bus. I kept thinking the police would arrest us but they didn't.

We got all the way to the new apartment before VanMan stopped. Mama and Boob were already there standing outside. VanMan jumped out before Daddy did and ran to the back of the van. I got out and ran back after Daddy. VanMan had a big crowbar that he kept hitting the side of his van with. He told Daddy to pay him the rest of the money before he'd let us get our stuff. When Mama and Boob came over VanMan swung his crowbar like he was going to hit them but he didn't. A lot of people stood around watching but nobody said or did anything. Daddy gave VanMan money and then VanMan unlocked the van. He threw everything in the street as fast as he could not even looking to see where he was throwing it. Some of the boxes hit other people's cars and they'd come over but VanMan would jump out and start waving the crowbar again and they'd back off. One guy was so mad though he
pushed Daddy against the side of the van and called him a fucking asshole. I thought he was going to hit Daddy but then he walked off and got in his car and pulled out. He ran over a lamp of ours when he did and smashed it and then drove off. We tried to keep piling the stuff VanMan threw out of the van together but the boxes kept breaking open and everything was spilling out. Then VanMan finished throwing everything out and he got back in and he drove off. I guess he went back to get that chair on 92nd Street, he must have wanted it bad. Some of the people watching started helping us once they saw VanMan wasn't going to bash them. Some Hispanic ladies and two older black men carried boxes over from where he pitched them. Younger girls that looked like my age watched me and Boob like they were sizing us but they didn't do or say anything. Eventually we got everything sort of together. Mama and Boob stayed with our stuff while me and Daddy carried it into the lobby. Finally we got the elevator loaded and we rode up to the new apartment.

Daddy called another guy named Man With Van to rent another van but he wasn't available until today. He also called the doorman at our building to let him know what happened and when we'd be back to get the rest of our things. Daddy looked pale and was breathing hard like he'd been running. I was afraid he was going to have a heart attack but after he sat down he looked a lot better.

Once we got everything inside we looked to see what got smashed. Besides the run-over lamp there were broken dishes and glasses and our turkey platter. Mama's favorite flower vases were just little bits and a small chest of Daddy's he kept on his desk was splintered. Nothing expensive got broken which is a miracle. Daddy held onto his computer so it didn't get thrown out and I grabbed the TV before VanMan got his paws on it. I asked Daddy if he was going to report him and he said he didn't think it would do any good.

After we got everything sorted this morning we found out
that not all of our neighbors were neighborly. Some of them must have stolen things from us while we were fighting with VanMan. Nothing was left in his van when he peeled and there's nowhere else the stuff could have gone. Mama can't find the kitchen knives or the coffeemaker. Daddy says some of his shirts were lifted and a box of his books though he's not sure which ones yet. Boob didn't lose anything she doesn't think. A box of my books got stolen. It had my Pooh books and Oz and
Life Among the Savages
which was Mama's copy. She says it's been out of print for years and she doesn't know if we'll be able to find another right away if at all. I feel so awful Anne that was one of my favorite books and now it's gone. It makes me so mad some fool just came up and stole it. I bet they just threw it in the trash once they saw it wasn't money. Thank God nobody stole my purse which is where I had you for safekeeping and at least VanMan didn't kill us which is what I was sure he was going to do, he went post office so fast.

When Daddy tried to plug in his computer and printer today we blew a fuse. It was a couple of hours before the super brought up a new one and put it in. Daddy watched him to see how it was done and he says he'll change it the next time. Daddy's all thumbs when it comes to handyman work though so I guess the super better get used to it. Daddy says we'll have to turn something off whenever he's using his computer but we haven't figured out what yet.

Today Boob and I helped Mama put up the curtains and shades and then we swept out the kitchen. There're icky cockroaches in the bottom cabinets so we put down roach motels and boric acid. There's nothing I hate as much as bugs and roaches. Boob of course loves them or at least claims she does. I don't see her picking them up and playing with them though. She doesn't like mice for sure because she thinks they're baby rats in disguise. Last night she said she heard noises in the wall that sounded like scratching. Since our beds weren't here we slept on the floor last night on blankets. Boob kept kicking me and saying ‘It's rats Booz
do something.' ‘It's not Boob go to sleep' I said. I think I heard something too. Maybe it's just the way these old buildings groan. We haven't seen any mice yet.

Today also Daddy went back to our apartment and met Man With Van. They brought over the rest of the furniture this afternoon. Man With Van was younger than VanMan and not as seedy. Nothing happened except Daddy had to spend twice as much money as he'd expected to, but Man With Van didn't pull an insaner or anything. I didn't go along this time because I'd had enough driving for a while but I sat outside to keep an eye out for thieves while they brought it upstairs. I looked at the people walking by and standing around. Some of them were there yesterday and now I wondered if any of them had stolen from us. They looked innocent mostly but I knew better. I tried to figure out who looked guiltiest and I finally decided they all looked as guilty as they did innocent.

While I was thinking about who looked the most guilty a black girl walked over to me. She looked my age and was very dark. She wore tight bike shorts and a dirty sweat shirt with a puppy on the front. When she spoke she didn't sound like a black girl. ‘Moving in?' she asked. ‘Yes' I said. ‘You Columbia?' she asked. ‘No' I said. ‘Columbia building' she said. ‘How do you know?' I asked. ‘They awning the windows' she said. The grocery in the bottom floor has a big awning and I guessed that was what she meant. ‘You gonna school here?' she asked. ‘Public school?' I asked and she nodded. ‘No I go to Brearley' I said. ‘Private?' ‘Yes.' ‘What's name?' she asked. ‘Lola what's yours?' ‘Is.' ‘Is what?' ‘Is. Isabel. Call me Iz' she said. ‘Okay.' Daddy and Man With Van came back downstairs. She looked at them and I saw this big bruise on her neck like somebody hickeyed her. She wore four pairs of earrings and a nose ring and has a mouth so big I bet she could put a whole tomato in at once. ‘He wildeyed too?' she asked. ‘The van guy?' She nodded. ‘Not this one. You saw us yesterday?' ‘Mmhmm' she said. ‘Man oughta dillinger his ass second he
blindside' she said. ‘What?' I asked. Iz smiled and held up her hand and made her thumb and finger like it was a gun. She put her finger on my forehead and wiggled her thumb. ‘Dillinger like that' she said. ‘BaBoom. Later' she said. Then she turned around and walked up Broadway. Was she bothering you, Daddy asked and I said no not at all. So that was my first conversation with somebody in the neighborhood Anne.

Today it finally looks almost like somebody lives here. This apartment is so much emptier than our old place even though it's smaller. We don't have any rugs here because we put ours in storage, and also the furniture like the dining room table and cupboard. All the pictures we had hanging up are in storage too so we're going to have to look for posters to put on the wall. Boob in fact did a drawing with crayons this evening before we ate dinner. It's the four of us sitting in a big yellow square. We're all smiling and happy. Outside the square are these thick black swirls like in a storm or fire. She showed it to us and then Mama pinned it up on the wall in our room for her.

Everyone but me went to bed early tonight. I'm staying up not because I'm less tired but because I missed writing you and telling you what happened. Lately it's so hard to tell if I'll get the chance to write when I want to what with Boob so close by and so I'll try to take advantage of every opportunity. It'll be harder in some ways now. I'm writing this at the kitchen table because I don't want to wake Boob up by keeping the light on in our room, and I can't turn the TV on to provide distracting noise because the walls are so thin it'd keep everybody up. Outside I hear siren after siren and loud music. The subway goes by on the el every ten minutes and it's incredibly noisy. I never knew how quiet our part of town was. I'll be glad to go to school tomorrow Anne and get away from here.

Well now we're all moved in and we'll see what happens next. Night night.

* * *

MARCH
30

Great start to the week LIE. Boob and I left this morning at eight right after Daddy. We wanted to try to get to school before nine. When do you think we got there? Nine thirty. Everything went wrong of course.

The bus didn't come for ten minutes. Then when it finally did it was one of three that showed up all at the same time. Two drove on and the most crowded stopped for us. Since it was the most crowded it was also the slowest naturally. The bus just inched along but by forcing our way to the back we at least got seats for a few minutes. We didn't get to keep them long though because at 108th a man in a wheelchair got on. The bus driver made us get up so he could put up our seat and make room for the challenged guy. Then he lowered the bus and helped him roll on. He started yelling at the bus driver saying two or three buses had passed him claiming that they didn't have room. Before the driver could get back to the front the challenged guy started asking for his name or number so he could report him. I don't know why he was going to report the driver who stopped but I think he was crazy even though he was in a wheelchair. He sat there cursing the whole time. Boob accidentally bumped against his chair as we were getting off and he slammed his hand down like he was trying to hit her. We were so glad to get off that bus. We transferred to the crosstown and of course it took ten minutes to get there and then it crawled too, all the way across the park and down 86th to where we got off. We ran down to Brearley but it was no use, we were already a half hour late.

We had to go to the office to get excuses from Ms Cutler. We didn't get serious damage but she said we should start leaving a half hour earlier in the morning since our commute is so much longer. None of their buses go up that far anymore or they'd send someone to pick up Boob, she said. I'd still have to go the way I do now so no extra sleep for me in any event. Great! If the buses keep showing up on time like they did this morning maybe soon I'll start having to
wake up before I go to sleep. Ms Cutler acted psycho this morning when she was talking to us, staring at us like we were going to bite her or something. ‘What's wrong?' I asked her as we got ready to leave her office. ‘What do you mean' she said. ‘Nothing' I said. It was the way she was looking at us, like we were dirt or something. I didn't know how I could say that without her blowing so I didn't. Maybe she thinks I'm getting too Loriesque all of a sudden.

I hope Lori's all right, I miss her so much. None of us have heard anything more so I guess she's still in treatment.

This evening I asked Daddy why he leaves so early in the morning since he takes the awful but much more speedy subway. He said Mister Mossbacher is very strict about people getting to work on time. He's worse than Ms Cutler Daddy says. Mister Mossbacher tells his workers that if they're five minutes late they'll be docked an hour's pay. It doesn't matter if they're managers or not. Mister Mossbacher says that if you know when you're supposed to be at the store you shouldn't have any excuse for being late no matter what happens, Daddy says. ‘Don't you get there way early?' I asked. Yes Daddy said but he's able to get more work done before the store opens. When Daddy talks about Mister Mossbacher he sounds like he wants to hit him.