My Name Is Venus Black(82)

When I state my emergency—my brother was missing and I think I found him—the operator puts me through to a detective. Finally, I’m on the phone with a detective named Cunningham. “My brother was kidnapped in Washington,” I explain. “He’s been on milk cartons. His name is Leo Miller and he’s been missing for six years and I finally just found him here in Oakland.”

I come up for air, then hurtle on. “I have the address. I also can tell you where the kidnapper works. What should I do?”

“Calm down, miss,” says the detective. “Back up. Take it slow. Your brother was kidnapped from where?”

“From Everett, Washington.”

“And when was this?”

“It was in February of 1980. And I just saw him at a middle school and followed him to a house here in Oakland.”



* * *



—



TESSA PUTS ON her apron. She is planning to make lasagna tonight, and she’s kind of glad it takes a long time. It will keep her mind off her worries about the girl with the huge hair who might be Venus who might be Leo’s sister who might be a person who will take him away.

She starts with a large pot of water on the stove. She puts a pound of hamburger in a frying pan on the other burner. She begins slicing onions. The doorbell rings. Her heart leaps. She lays the butcher knife down with great reluctance. That’s how scared she is. In the front room, she glances out the window and sees a squad car. The girl with the black curly hair is sitting in the back. Tessa goes numb with terror. She makes herself open the door. There’s nothing else to do.

“Can I help you, Officers?” She sounds like a person on one of those dumb cop shows.

“Yes, maybe you can,” says one of them. “Can we come in?”

Tessa opens the door and steps aside. “My dad isn’t home,” she says. She’s so glad this is true. She’s aware of the sound of Leo playing his cello in his room. She doesn’t want him to stop. She doesn’t want him to come out here and see police and freak out.

“Do you know when he will be back?”

“Around six o’clock.”

“Do you have a brother named Leo?”

“Well, he’s not my brother. He’s my cousin.” How come she and her dad never talked about what to do if something like this ever happened? What is she supposed to say? She knows she’s visibly shaking.

“Can you call your father and tell him that he needs to come right home?” the cop asks. “We’ll wait here for him.”

Tessa goes to the kitchen to use the phone, but her mind is so frantic that she has trouble thinking of the shop’s number. Her fingers shake as she pushes each button. It reminds her of some of her dreams, where she can’t dial an important number no matter how many times she tries. But she gets it right, of course. And her father answers.



“Daddy?” Her voice is clearly distraught.

“Tessa, what’s wrong?”

She bursts into tears. “The police are here. I’m pretty sure it’s about Leo.”



* * *



—

LEO LIKES TO play his cello after school. He likes the cello better than Tessa’s clarinet and better than other kids’ instruments. He thinks the cello is best because you hear it with your whole body, not just your ears. And it makes a warm yellow sound that climbs in your chest and makes you feel like the sun is shining in there.

This afternoon Leo is playing Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1. As he runs the bow across the strings, he feels the brightness in his chest. The music thrums like when he hums, only better. Then he hears voices in the living room. Someone has come to the front door, and Tessa is talking to a man who isn’t his dad. He starts playing louder and faster to drown out the voices.

After a while, Tessa knocks on his door and Leo stops playing to open it. That is the rule. If people knock, you have to open. “You’re interrupting!” he tells her.

“I’m sorry, Leo,” she says. “But I have bad news.”

“What news?” asks Leo. News is usually on TV.

“I’m sorry. But some people you don’t know are going to take you to a place you don’t know, and I can’t go with you. And Dad can’t, either. But it will only be for a couple days, and you’re going to see your mother and your sister.”

“I don’t want to go,” says Leo.

“Do you remember your mother?” Tessa asks. “Your sister, Venus? Remember how you just saw Venus at school?”

“I don’t want before,” he says in his loud voice.

“I understand, Leo. But right now a nice lady and man want me to help you pack some clothes.”



“Why are you crying?” he asks.

“Because I don’t want you to go,” she says.

“I don’t want to go, either!” Leo shouts. When Tessa opens Leo’s top dresser drawer, he starts to panic. “Not until bedtime!”

“I’m sorry, Leo,” she says. She starts putting some of Leo’s clothes in a small suitcase.

Leo lunges for the clothes and tries to put them back in the dresser. “No!” he yells. “Not until bedtime!”

But Tessa won’t stop. She tells him to stop instead. Then she tells him to play his cello while she packs.