A Missing Peace (6 page)

It was dark, so I didn't notice. I didn't see it until the next day. Usually, I was out of bed by eight every day of the week, but last night was a long night, so I slept until ten. I figured nearly being run down by a car was an excuse to be late for school, so I wasn't that worried about it. After all, Killeen High's wonder boy could vouch for me. I got up and showered, threw on some jeans and a three-quarter-sleeve shirt, grabbed my book bag, and headed out.

Something told me Caleb wasn't coming home for a few days. I figured I'd take the books we got to the hospital, in case he got bored. I'd hang around if he wanted me to and do my calculus while I was there.

But when I walked outside the house, Abrahem was running a paint roller over the garage door. Before I could ask why he decided to randomly paint the garage door, the answer slapped me in the face.

It was metallic pink, the same color as one of the two convertibles in the student parking lot. It said, ‘RAGHEADS GO HOME!' in looped letters. The single exclamation mark at the end was dotted with a heart.

I dropped my backpack. “Oh my God. Were you home?”

“I came home after it happened. It's no big deal. We already knew we weren't wanted here.”

“Should we call the police before you paint it?”

Abrahem laughed. “It's a military town. You think the police are on
our
side?”

“True. But I know who did this.”

“I don't think it's going to happen again. You don't have anything to worry about.” He pushed the roller up and down.

“What makes you think that?”

“I just know.”

“How?”

He smiled. “Just do.”

The air squeezed out of me.

It was my fault we had to leave Iraq. Kailee Hill was out to get me, and I didn't even know why. If we had to leave here, that would be my fault, too.

I lost all interest in going to see Caleb. It wasn't like I forgot about him. More like, I couldn't breathe. I had to think. I forced myself to pull my backpack off the ground and retreated to my room, where all sorts of taunting thoughts raced through my head.

I wondered if bumping into Kailee last night was really a coincidence. It was a small town. It was possible.

The image of Caleb and Kailee in the game room entrance the night before took root in my head—Caleb pacifying her, followed by the brunette's words, “He loves her, you know?”

It hit me like a ton of bricks.

With both
Ommy
and Abrahem working night shifts, I should have been the only one home last night. I could ask my brother to confirm, but I had a feeling there were things I didn't see. Things he'd already cleaned up.

Caleb got me out of the house last night, so his girlfriend could vandalize it. And I was stupid enough to fall for it.

This new revelation stung. I'd fooled myself into thinking I was too tough to be hurt anymore. I really believed that I'd seen it all, but I was wrong. On top of the betrayal, guilt ate at me. Should I really be upset about this when Caleb got hit by a car last night?

Caleb

It all happened so fast I couldn't even process it. I was walking home with Mirriam, and I knew she must be upset by what Kailee had said to her, but if she was, she hid it well. She was no ray of sunshine on that walk, but she was Mirriam, and she was no more caustic than usual.

Then out of nowhere, she squealed my name. She grabbed my arm with both hands. Ten tiny fingers gripped my bicep, and I was about to turn to her and ask if she was pretending to be scared to have a reason to touch me, when I saw it. Two beams of light shone through the dark, right in front of me.

I knew we needed to get out of the way. I was more worried about Mirriam. She was so small that she seemed breakable, but before I could react, I was knocked to the ground. It took a moment for the pain to register. At first, I knew something huge had crashed into my body and knocked the ground out from under my feet. All at once, Mirriam was telling me I was okay between sobs, tires screeched, and headlights veered toward me again. I was wet. My body leaked in more than one place. I couldn't see it, but I didn't have to. It was blood.

Mirriam locked a hand around each of my wrists. She apologized, and then asphalt and earth dragged across my body. The scrapes against my legs were the worst. I wanted to yell at her—to tell her to leave me alone. Every movement hurt, and she needed to get out of the way. But I couldn't force the words out.

In the time it took her to drag me across the curb, I didn't hear her sob. I only heard heaving grunts. This was hurting her, too.

There was something soothing about the dirt under my skin. It was almost cooling—almost. Mirriam let out a heavy sigh, and the next thing I knew she had my head in her lap. She kept stroking her hand over my face whispering, “It will be okay.”

Everything went black…

I was in a room I hadn't seen before. Mirriam had her hand in my pocket. I must be dreaming…

I drifted in and out of consciousness, then I woke up long enough to figure I was in a hospital. Mirriam was still there. Sometimes she sobbed. Sometimes she sat silent.

I tried to piece together the events of the night. First, I had dinner with Mirriam. We walked home. Something hit me.

I woke up here—at the hospital with Mirriam. Mom wasn't here. My friends weren't here. Only Mirriam. I slipped in and out of a hazy black sleep, almost like darkness mingled with smoke. But every time I opened my eyes, Mirriam was there.

She was like my angel—the only thing anchoring me to the room.

Then she wasn't there anymore. I would have thought I imagined the whole thing, except my mom was here by then, and she told me how Mirriam stayed with me. How she'd insisted on saying goodbye before she left.

The next time I got a visitor, I thought it might be Mirriam. Maybe I even hoped it would be her. But it wasn't. It was Josh and Matt.

“‘Sup, Miller?” Josh asked.

“Not much.”

“They found the driver, you know,” Matt said. “They've arrested him. My dad told me.” Matt's dad was a cop.

I nodded. “What was that guy's problem? I mean why was he tryin' to run people down?”

Matt shrugged. “Dad said he was a drunk. He didn't mean to hit you. Then he freaked out and tried to leave, but since he was drunk, he had a hard time getting out of there. He hit a tree a few minutes later and left his car smashed into the tree. That's how he got caught.”

“As soon as I can stand up, I'm going to kick that guy's ass.”

The guys went quiet and exchanged a look before Josh said, “You know that's going to be a while, don't you?” The words came out of his mouth slowly and carefully. I had never heard my best friend speak with this amount of caution before. Ever.

When I didn't answer, Matt said, “He's behind bars. They're charging him with assault with a deadly weapon.

I never imagined a car being a deadly weapon. I wanted to laugh, except the parts of my body I could feel hurt like hell, and I had no idea when I was getting out of that bed.

The guys hadn't been gone long when Kailee showed up.

First of all, I was not in the mood to see girls. There was just something unimpressive about a bed-ridden gimp. Even though, I kept finding myself looking for Mirriam. Kailee was not the sort of the person you want to talk to when you're vulnerable.

“Hi, Caleb,” she said as she waltzed in.

“Hi.”

“How are you?”

Is she serious?
I looked up at the IV dripping into my arm. “Fine.”

She nodded and sat down in the chair beside my bed. “Can I get you anything? Is there anything I can do for you?”

“I'm fine.”

“So when do you think you'll get to go home?”

“Soon.”
I hope.

She settled back into the chair. She didn't say anything for a minute, and then she got to the point. It was Kailee. There had to be a point.

“Well, I see your girlfriend's not here.”

“She's not my girlfriend, and she was here all night Sunday.”

“I don't really know what you see in that A-rab chick.”

“I—we're working on a project together. Do you have to call her that?”

“You were working on a project at Pizza Hut?”

“What do you want? We're not together anymore.”

She laughed for a minute. “The next time you see Miss A-rab, tell her I said hi.” I wanted to kick her out, but before I could, she said, “Well, I have to run. Ciao.”

There was something strange about Kailee asking me to tell Mirriam hi, but at this point, I hadn't seen Mirriam in days. I didn't know what Kailee was up to, so it was probably better if I stayed out of it. Not to mention, I had bigger problems to worry about. Like if I'd ever walk again.

Mirriam

By the time I made it to school, it was lunch. I caught Kailee at her locker with the two girls that followed her around. The brunette from Pizza Hut—I found out her name was Farrah—and the blonde, Lacey.

I stepped up into the semi-circle the three girls formed around Kailee's locker. Of course, the princess was the center of attention. I stared Kailee down and waited for her to acknowledge me. When she saw me, she said, “Uh, you're in my space.” She snapped her fingers. “Back up.”

I moved closer to her. “Stay the hell away from me. Got it, bitch? Stay away from my family, and stay away from my house.”

She didn't back away. Instead, she locked her eyes with mine. “Except you are in my space. Don't tell me to stay away from you. You stay away from me. And stay away from Caleb while you're at it. Don't act like you run things around here. This is my school. Got it, bitch?”

I took another step toward her. I had to bend slightly to whisper what I didn't want everyone else to hear, because in my tennis shoes I was still taller than Kailee and her two-inch heels. “Mess with me, and you can be the first headless cheerleader on YouTube.”

Her eyes grew wide. “Oh, yeah right.”

“Try me.”

Kailee froze, and I laughed as I straightened up.

“What's funny?” she hissed.

“Your heels weren't tall enough today.”

Our confrontation started to attract attention, making it harder to get away from Kailee and her minions. “Don't repeat what I told you,” I said.

“If I do?”

I drew a finger around the edge of my neck.

She crossed her arms and glared. “Oh, yeah right. You're full of crap.”

I clapped my hands in front of my chest then shot them up over my head like I'd seen the cheerleaders do. “Am I?”

“I'm calling the police. That kind of thing isn't funny ‘round here.”

“Do what you have to.”
Zmal.
If she called the police, Abrahem would kill me, assuming I didn't get arrested first. We would have to move again. My fault. “Wouldn't be a good idea,” I said, hoping I sounded mean. I thought I scared her. That was the thing. You didn't have to be Muslim. You only had to look it, and people were already afraid.

I headed for the cafeteria, but I wasn't far from Kailee and her group, when someone behind me called, “Hey.”

I turned around to see a fat white girl about the same height as me. She was wearing a blue dress with a matching feather boa, fishnet hose, and black boots. We'd been sitting at the same lunch table since I came here, but she'd only spoken to me twice. The first day, she said I was in her spot but it was okay. The second day she said, “It doesn't pay to be different here, does it?” I hated that. I didn't need another lunch loser patronizing me.

“Hey,” I said.

“I saw you stand up to Kailee back there. That was awesome. She deserved it. I'm glad someone finally put her in her place.”

I sighed. “Thanks, I guess.”

“I saw what she did to your house. I'm sorry.” The girl was walking beside me now.

“Is that why you're talking to me now? You don't have to.”

The girl's eyes narrowed into slits and her lips turned up, but she wasn't really smiling. “Mirriam, I've talked to you since you came here. This is just the first time you've talked back.”

I ran our previous encounters through my head. I'd thought she was angry I took her seat without knowing, and I didn't like her pointing out that I was different. I knew that without anyone telling me, but now that I thought about it, she was different, too.

“I'm sorry. How did you know my name?”

“You're the Arabic chick.” She grimaced as she said it. “Sorry. Everyone knows your name.”

“Oh.”

“I'm Morgan,” she said.

“How did you know what she did to my house?”

Morgan shrugged. “Her Facebook profile picture is a garage door that says in metallic pink, ‘Ragheads Go Home!' so when I saw you attack her, I assumed it was yours.”

“She put that on Facebook?” I wanted to go back and slam her head into her locker. And Caleb got me out of the house, so she could do this. I hated him.

“Sorry.”

“She makes me sick.” I lowered my voice, so no one else would hear us. “She threatened to call the police on me.”

Morgan's eyes popped in surprise. “What did you say to her?”

I laughed. “Not much.”

“She tagged your door first. I wouldn't worry about it.”

Except that we aren't citizens.
She
is. Abrahem painted the door without reporting it.

“They don't know that. I doubt they'd believe me.”

“You called the police, didn't you?”

“No, my brother repainted the door.”

“Let's go.” Morgan grabbed my hand.

“Where are we going?”

“The library to print her profile pic. If she threatens you again, threaten her back.”