The First: EVO Uprising (39 page)

Kimberly turned on her heels and exploded with a powerful leap toward the jungle. Sophia stood watching her leaving. She slowly turned realizing everyone was watching her. Heads quickly went down, or turned away, which made how she felt a billions times worse. It was clear everyone was embarrassed for her.
 

She turned and timidly crept away in the opposite direction with her head down, her dreads covering her face as she wrapped her upper body with her arms. Those who stood in her away quickly moved out of it. Earl, with a hand motion, dispersed the crowd as he watched her head back to her home.   
 

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An hour after the incident, Sophia sat quietly in Robert’s Camaro. 95.9 FM “The Ranch” played soft country music on the radio as she zoned out.  On some Sunday afternoons or Saturday nights this was her alone time away from the world. Everyone around knew that when the music started playing, unless it was a dire emergency, not to bother her. It was actually Earl who put that rule into effect.
 

Earl, being the first to break his own rule, strolled up to the car running his hand casually across the vehicle’s passenger side.  Without her permission, he opened up the passenger door, hopping in. This was not the first time he had been inside of it, being a car enthusiast himself, he could not help but admire its beauty every time he got around it. Earl turned to view what Sophia was spacing out to, from their vantage point they had a beautiful view of part of the village, the beach, and the clear blue ocean that went on forever.
 

“
I know what you’re thinking,” Earl broke the ice, “you are not sending that child back to where she came from.”
 

“
I have no right to keep her here.” Sophia cleared her throat. “If she does not want to be here.”
 

“
She’s a child,” Earl fired back. “She doesn’t know what she wants.”
 

“
Earl…” Sophia sighed.
 

“
Before you tell me this is none of my business,” he continued to speak, “you remember the first time we met? There I was at Port Authority in the blazing summer
heat sucking on a bottle of Old Turkey. I reeked of booze and urine soaking through the pants of my old fatigues, which didn’t matter to me, and here you come walking up with those creepy glowing blue eyes of yours, asking me if I’d like to come home with you to your island and get cleaned up.”
 

“
You said screw me and my island,” Sophia smirked a bit, “that you were fine right where you were.”
 

“
Thank you for using the PG version of my comment.” Earl bowed his head. “Your smile never broke on that day. You then asked me my name, and told me to take care of myself. This went on for about six months. Every four days or week would go by, and you’d show up, always with clean clothes and something for me to eat. We’d talk for awhile and, just before you left, you’d always ask me if I wanted to come home with you.”
 

“
And you’d say, ‘thank you kindly, but I’m good right where I am,’” she responded.
 

“
You knew that was booze and stubbornness talking.” Earl glanced at her. “You know what did it for me? Grandpa Chip.”
 

The mention of his name created mist around her eyes as she stared off into space.

“
Back then we called him Crazy Chip,” he continued. “He’d walk around PA in all four seasons with just a torn white ratty shirt, and a pair of jeans two sizes bigger than him. He stunk to high heaven from soiling himself all the time; feet were as black as tar because he wore no shoes. He went into fits where he beat his chest cursing and yelling, usually saying ‘I ain’t gonna take this f’n shit no more.’ Used to be a good ole joke for us hanging around there. We’d chime in sometimes.”
 

Earl’s face changed as he zoned out going back to that time.
 

“
I remember that hot ass day in August. Chip went
into one of his fits, but it was worse than usual. He was screaming and banging his chest, saying the same thing over and over again, ‘I ain’t gonna take this f’n shit no more.’ It became so annoying, we started to move away from him. He kept going till he was frothing at the mouth, and then… you showed up.”
 

Earl lowered his head losing his composure. She held his hand rubbing it to comfort him.
 

“
You just walked up to him, and without a word just threw your arms around him and held him.” His lips trembled as tears fell from his eyes. “And I watched that screaming fit… turn into crying sobs. And he held onto you… Lord, he held onto you. And I realized, all that time, he was trying to say ‘I can’t take it anymore… help me… someone please help me.’”
 

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She remembered that day and the rest of the story. It was the one and only time she ever took a plane ride to her island. Chip held her hand during the entire flight as he rocked back and forth in a daze. Once there, she personally cut his hair and beard, stripped him out of his soiled rags, and washed him from head to toe. Treated his scalp for lice, groomed and cut his overgrown yellow nails, and then went to work slowly removing the black callous from his feet.
 

He was the only other person to live in her home. She worked on him for two days nursing him with soft foods like porridge and liquids. His fits would come now and then, minus the profanity. During those times, she held and sung to him, songs her mother sang to her, until they subsided.
 

She did not know his story, and she did not care.

Sophia began addressing him as Grandpa Chip, and eventually he began to respond to it. In time, he answered her with three words. The only three she would hear him speak, “God bless you.”
 

When she was on trips or missions, he would sit on the edge of the beach watching the waves roll up to the shore as the sun shined on him. She took him on routine strolls around the island and watched the life that was lost for decades return to him. He liked strawberry ice cream and his head to be rubbed. The first time he laughed, her heart filled and her eyes burst.
 

She enjoyed his company for eight long months.

One Friday night when she put him to bed.
 

He smiled at her and said, “God bless you, my child.”
 

The Saturday morning, she went to get him for breakfast, she found him peacefully sleeping in his warm bed.

She placed him on the beach where he could always look out and watch the ocean run up and feel the sun on him.    
 

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 “
That day you didn’t have to come over to me and ask if I wanted to come home with you,” Earl continued. “Needless to say my first three weeks here weren’t heaven when you’re trying to get clean for the umpteenth time. And my disposition wasn’t the best stuck on an island where I couldn’t run to a liquor store or cop some heroin or crack.”
 

“
There was a tribal vote to kick you off after the second week,” Sophia interjected.
 

Her remark caused Earl to crack up laughing. His laughter was contagious as she cracked a smile.

“
I’m going to die on this island.” He turned to her with glassy eyes. “Me and everyone else with my disease have come to terms with that but, because of you, we’re alive. And I would like to think that one of my purposes in this life is to be sitting in this car talking to you right now and
helping you out for a change.”
 

Sophia’s smile trembled as her eyes became glassy.
 

“
I know when people have really given up on you.” Earl smiled. “When they’ve thrown in the towel and written you off as dead. My wife and kids did it, and I deserved it. That’s not what’s going on here today. Right now as we speak, your little girl is sitting in the animal preserve waiting for you. Zeek and Oz took the ATVs to look for her and radioed in her position. She’s out there angry and hurt waiting for you to weather that storm she’s got built up in her, to be there for her.  You know it, and I know it.”
 

“
I’ve failed her Earl,” Sophia whimpered. “I wasn’t there for her… I don’t know how to be a mother…”
 

“
BS,” Earl fired back sternly. “You damn well know how to be a mother, even to a big baby like me! You didn’t hesitate the second you saw her shoot up into that sky today.  You went after her, and God help anyone or anything that got in your way. That is the building block of a good mother… a great parent! You just got rattled because she cracked the chink in your armor. You’re human. It happens to the best of us.”
 

The human part is what made her break down; he placed a fatherly hand on her shoulder.

“
If she really wanted to leave,” Earl pointed out, “I doubt there’s anything that could stop her. She would have swum, leapt, or whatever her way back to the states. She is out there waiting for you. All you’ve got to do is go get her.”
 

She gave him a daughterly hug, which took him a back a bit. He embraced her back as he would his own.
 

“
Now, the price for my advice is…” he started to slip in.
 

“
You’re not getting my car, Earl,” she said flatly.
 

He chuckled, which made her laugh again. Breaking up their hug, they sat there for a while longer enjoying the view and listening to the radio.
 

CHAPTER 18

Twenty minutes later, Sophia flew over her wildlife preserve searching for her daughter. She had sectioned off a good portion of the island creating habitats for endangered species to thrive and multiply in. One section was for apes and monkeys; another was for bigger animals such as elephants and rhinos, while another was for big cats. She taught herself how to care for each species taking into consideration their environment, health, and dietary needs. From time to time, she would fly in a specialist to assist in giving them regular checkups to ensure they remained healthy. Her hope was to replenish the population under her protection and reintroduce them someday back to the real world where they belonged.

She slowly descended into the big cat section of her preserve. It was not long before a young male South China Tiger walked up to her growling. He playfully jumped up placing his massive paws on her shoulders while trying to sink his teeth into her impervious skin. Sophia shook her head scratching him around the back of his ear.

“
How are you doing Butch?” she spoke baby talk to him. “You being good?”

She pulled him off, setting him back down on his feet. He, in turn, rolled on his back where she rubbed his belly.

“
Head on back to Gloria, big boy.” She gave him a pat. “I’ll see you later.”

She walked off leaving him laying there watching her walk off. She tried her best to stay detached  to prevent domestication. Her big heart gravitated toward beautiful things.    

Just as Earl confirmed, she found her daughter sitting underneath a tree. Two young cheetah cubs lay next to her as their mother sat watching from a protective distance. She rubbed the male’s belly as it playfully clawed at her hand, while the female found its head resting on her lap. Sophia slowly strolled over catching the attention of the cubs. Though her back was turned, Sophia felt her daughter rolling her eyes in disgust at her presence. The male pup sat up as she neared the tree and sat down next to her daughter.

Neither one said a word nor looked in the other’s direction. The young male cheetah finally stood up and walked over placing its paws in Sophia’s lap curiously sniffing her. She scratched his chin which got him purring as she fought to form the words in her head that she wanted to say.

“
There’s this nasty habit in Caribbean and Latin American cultures that I’ve always hated,” she began with her icebreaker. “It’s actually prevalent in a lot of other cultures but, in my opinion, it is the worst in those two. When something horrible or traumatic happens to someone, especially children, you’re expected to get over it somehow and sweep it under the rug. To talk about it is to bring shame to the family or opening old and unnecessary wounds. I always thought it was a horrible and detestable way to live, and I was never going to partake in that aspect of my heritage.”

The young male cub rested half of its body on Sophia’s lap as she gently scratched his ear and neck causing his hind leg to rapidly kick.

“
I don’t expect you to get over this or forgive me for what happened to you.” She slightly closed her eyes. “You have every damn right to be angry and furious because I’m furious too.”

She paused a minute, expecting her daughter to say something. She slightly braced herself for, “I really don’t want to hear what you have to say”; instead, she felt her shifting where she sat attempting to be more attentive.

“
I always wanted a baby,” Sophia continued. “I had two Barbie dolls growing up and twenty different baby dolls. Cabbage Patch, you name it. I used to run up to pregnant mothers and ask to touch their bellies. I wanted to hold little infants but was too young to hold them, and when I was old enough and could hold them, a part of me didn’t want to give them back. I was so baby crazy I think I scared my mom. I overheard her one day telling a friend she was scared I’d get pregnant once I hit puberty. Probably the reason I was never allowed to have a boyfriend until I was seventeen.”