Sierra Santiago and the Invisible City

Chapter 2 - Howl of the Vaultkeep

The howl poured through the window, tearing into Sierra's covered ears. When she looked around, no one else seemed to notice. The brief excitement over the yelling boy faded when no one saw anything out the window, and Mr. Aldridge had gone right back to his lecture. But the howl kept getting louder as other monstrous howls joined it. Sierra looked at Bennie, who was staring at her like she was crazy. Other kids started looking back at her now. Sierra lowered her hands from her ears sheepishly but the howls kept ringing out, searing into her brain. She tried to act normal but sweat was breaking out all over her body and she couldn't sit still. Mister Aldridge shot her an irritated glare. Just when she thought she couldn't take it anymore, kids around started standing up and shuffling out the door. Hideous blue lights flashed urgently from above the door, sketching little dancing shapes in Sierra's vision. Someone had pulled the fire alarm.

Out into the hallway, chaos reigned: students and teachers alike careened madly through the corridors. Aldridge was nowhere to be found. The hall monitor, Ms Greaves, yelled nonsensically and waved her arms. Assistant Principal Kelly heaved his massive weight up and down the halls trying to maintain order but actually stirring up everyone even more.

Bennie grabbed Sierra and pulled her towards a stairwell. "What's wrong with you, girl?" Bennie said.

"You didn't hear that howling?"

"I heard the boy yelling, but that was that. I don't know bout no howling."

"Like a pack of wolves, but worse," Sierra said. "I must be going crazy."

"Either way, that fire alarm means summer's begun! Let's get outta here."

In the street outside PS 291, students were frolicking in their sudden freedom, running every which and causing as much drama as possible. Amidst the adolescent sea, though, Sierra kept noticing burly men with dark blue padded uniforms and gas masks. They were working their way through the crowd towards The Vault. A few helicopters hung low in the sky.

"What's up with the soldiers?" she said, tugging on Bennie's sleeve.

"I dunno, Sierra, and truly, I don't care. School's over. Let's go bug out."

"You don't think it's weird that there's a buncha big dudes in gas masks and helicopters outside our school?"

"I think it's weird that you are hearing weird howling things and won't c'mon and get happy. Now let's get home so we can be ready for Sully's tonight."

They worked their way through the crowd till there was enough room to get on their boards and glide towards open streets. The howling kept echoing back and forth in Sierra's skull. They skated up Schermerhorn Street, past the imposing courthouse building where Bennie's brother Vincent was held in central booking just a few days before he was killed. By the time they crossed Flatbush things were calmer; some folks stopped to stare at the helicopters but the teenager/soldier chaos hadn't spilled past the few blocks around The Vault. As they zipped up Lafayette, Sierra let out a sigh of relief to see everything was normal in her neighborhood. Besides a couple sideways glances downtown, everyone pretty much went about their business on this quiet Friday afternoon on the border of Clinton Hill and Bed-Stuy. The fancy downtown delis gave way to cluttered corner stores, each with at least one cat and a small battalion of Dominicans trading gossip. Fried chicken and Chinese joints crowded in beside storefront churches and hair salons, punctuated by the occasional ultra-fancy, totally-out-of-place- looking bistro.

"Alright," Bennie said when they reached her corner. "See you tonight?"

"Yeah."

The two girls dressed completely different from each other --Benny in her extra-baggy jeans and huge white t-shirts and Sierra in black or gray slacks, chaotically splattered polos and her ever-present purple beret- but they stayed best friends since the first grade. These days, they communicated mostly without speaking a single word. Bennie studied Sierra's tense face.

"What now?" Bennie said. "Boy trouble?"

"Did you see Robbie leave?"

"I didn't see him at all. He vanished."

"You don't have to be so dramatic. He probably just ran out quick. He was looking out the window right before it happened. Probably just saw it coming, whatever it was, and booked."

"Uh uh," Bennie shook her head. "No one left right before." Sierra's heart beat faster as she searched her memory for Robbie's sullen face in the midst of it all. But he was not there. Bennie was right, the boy just up and vanished.

"I'm sure he's...fine," Bennie managed. The two friends embraced and Sierra started back up Lafayette towards her house, the whole day playing over and over in her head like a never-ending movie.

"¿Qúe pasó?" Manny the Domino King asked. He was sitting where he always sits at the little domino table on Lafayette and Bedford along with Rutilio and Mr. Jean-Luis, each of them decked out as always in their best guayaberas and Stetson caps. As always, an empty chair held the fourth spot at the table in honor of their playing buddy Mauricio, whose smiling face gazed out from one of the murals a few blocks away.

"Nothing," Sierra said with a never mind flick of her wrist. "Some nonsense with The Vault downtown."

"That place is full of death," muttered Rutilio.

"When I am finished this move," Mr. Jean Luis declared, "you will be in that nursing home on Classon Ave, rotting like a forgotten old cabbage."

"You're entire family tree is a sad weed that I pull from my garden and spit on before I feed it to the rats," said Rutilio.

"But what happened in The Vault, chica?" said Manny The Domino King.

"No sé, Manny," said Sierra, "there was a horrible scream and helicopters and men in gas masks with gun. Un desastre." The old gentlemen exchanged frowns. It was the only time Sierra had seen them look seriously at each other.

"Why? What's going on?" she asked.

"What's going on," said Mr. Jean Luis, "is that I am about to teach Rutilio here what it means to become one with the earth. And I say that with profound respect."

"I'll drink to that," Manny the Domino King said quickly. As if on cue, they each produced a small brown paper bag with a bottle inside. One by one the three friends poured a little splash of rum onto the pavement for Mauricio and took a quick swig before returning their attention to the domino table.

Sierra rolled her eyes, dropped her board and kick pushed further up the block. "You viejos are ridiculous, you know that right?"

"Stay in school young lady," Manny The Domino King yelled after her. "And send our saludos to your Tío Lázaro!"

Further down Lafayette, Mauricio's great big painted face stared past her with an unmistakable look of concern. "Mauricio," she said quietly, but then decided the day had already been crazy enough without her talking to walls. She skated on, trying to shake the dizziness that kept creeping up on her. Tonight is the party at Sully's, she told herself, and then all of summertime lies ahead. But the thought just hung there dryly, empty of all the promise it held a few hours earlier.

At the portrait of Vincent that was scrawled along the side of Carlos' Corner Store she stopped dead in her tracks. A single painted tear slid down his left cheek. She looked around. What is going on?