Sierra Santiago and the Invisible City

Chapter 10 - The Search

"Sierra, you know this boy?" Sierra's mom held up a page of the Bed-Stuy Community Courier from across the kitchen table. Sierra squinted at it moodily. It was ten AM, she didn't have her contacts in yet and she'd only gotten about three hours of sleep. And the whole world was coming apart around her.

"I can't see anything, Mami, what's his name?"

"Treme Lowery. He goes to your school."

Sierra forked a load of French toast into her mouth. "What about him?"

"He never came home from school yesterday. What's wrong baby?"

Sierra struggled to swallow and breath at the same time. She finally got all the food down and took a big gulp of orange juice to clear out her mouth. "I'm okay, mami," she sputtered. "I don't know him but the name sounds familiar. Lemme see the picture again?"

María passed her daughter the paper. A serious looking boy of about seventeen stared intensely out of its pages back at Sierra. The face struck a chord with her but she couldn't remember where she'd seen him before. The article said he went to school that morning, showed up to all his classes and then simply never made it home. Not a word about the Vault, the howling, or any of the police activity. Or Prospect Park for that matter. "How can they not talk about all the mess that was going on at the Vault yesterday?" demanded Sierra.

"No sé, mi'ija, no sé. Guess someone doesn't want it to make much noise."

The article went on to talk about how his mother, Ms. Magenta Lowery of the Coltrane projects on Gates Avenue, tried to file a missing persons report at the local precinct but was told to wait until a few more days had passed before trying again, given the time of year. "The time of year! Mami, you read this?"

"Yes, Sierra baby, of course. This is how it works; you know that. You remember when Vincent died, how long it took before the police did a single thing about it? Why you acting so surprised all the sudden?"

"I know, it's just..." The image of Twork's sinister, charming grin kept flashing back to her, along with the sharp memory of those howls. She shuddered and poured the last thick splashes of café into her cup. "It's just messed up is all." She passed her mom the paper and let her mind wander over the day ahead of her. Robbie disappeared but she felt pretty sure that he was okay, although she had no idea why. Bennie, Emani and Ysenia probably scattered at first sight of the invading security guys, figuring it for a police raid. Both Maliks being young, black men in Bed-Stuy, they had had their share of unwarranted attention from the police, but the beatings had made them more hardheaded, Little Malik especially. There was no telling what kind of trouble they might've stuck around to get themselves into last night. Sierra dropped too heaping spoonfuls of sugar into her cup and stirred it absentmindedly. A few quick check-in calls would settle it, which would leave her the rest of the day to try and get more information about Lucera and this Treme boy. She threw back the lukewarm café, enjoying the extra bitter, extra sweetness of it, and stood up to leave.

"What you doing today, young lady?" her mom asked.

"Job hunting," Sierra said, kissing her lightly on the cheek.

"That's my baby."

She found Tinibu organizing her sock drawer and scooped him up onto his perch on her shoulder. Together, they prepared a daypack, filling a courier bag with snacks, a notebook, and her cell phone and i-pod.

When the bag was packed, Sierra held her new friend in one hand and looked him up and down. Behind the beautifully carved wooden mask, his eyes stared back at her with that same intense humanity as Biaque's. He cocked his little head to one side at her. "Do you have a slow setting or are you always warp speed?" Tinibu hopped up and down twice and with a joyful squeal launched himself head first into her bedroom wall. The entire house gave an uneasy shudder and a few pieces of plaster fluttered down from Sierra's ceiling.