But it wasn't all right. She could feel tension crackling all around her. She stepped over the doorsill and the hair on the back of her neck rose.
Everyone was packed. Suitcases and duffel bags waited by the door. Shabazz was at the table playing cards with Berkfield, Bobby, and Rider. Everything seemed normal, but wasn't. She could feel Jose and Dan stop for a moment behind her, fidget, and then slide into their seats.
"Morning, y'all," she said in a sarcastic tone, addressing their cool reception with testy humor. "Where's Mar?"
Shabazz slammed down a card hard. "Went to meditate in the woods, again, before we leave this afternoon. Where else?"
Damali chewed her bottom lip and forced her voice to become upbeat. "Cool," she said casually. "Marj around?"
"At the store," Berkfield muttered. "Shopping till she drops, since we're changing locations again. Like we need anything else. If we coulda gotten a morning flight out, then she wouldn't be running around like a madwoman." He looked up with a frown.
"Marlene said a lot of flights have been canceling lately," Rider muttered, studying his fan of cards. "All transportation is screwed because people aren't showing up to their jobs. Drama is breaking out everywhere. In my mind, the sooner we can get this show on the road, the better, 'cause the shit is obviously spreading faster than we'd imagined."
"I can't wait to get out of here," Bobby said, throwing down his hand of cards. "Everything's making me jumpy."
Damali nodded and hoisted the duffel bag up higher. "Guess 'Nez is out and about 'with Mike?" She glanced around, quietly trying to sense for Juanita without asking her whereabouts.
"Mike does the heavy lifting, both the ladies are buying what we need for the road," Shabazz said, glaring up from his hand. "Least that's the story we got."
Static charge was practically lifting Shabazz's locks off his shoulders. Damali nodded again, trying not to be drawn into the attitudes and vibes that permeated the house. "Cool. All right. Well, maybe I'll catch up with Krissy just to be sure we have all..." Her voice trailed off as Berkfield's head snapped up at the same time Shabazz's and Dan's did.
Rider was on his feet with Bobby in seconds, one blocking Dan the other Berkfield.
"Where's my daughter?" Berkfield said, looking at Rider hard.
"Relax, dude," Rider said as calmly as possible. "Let's me, you, and old Shabazz here take a fatherly walk."
"Fuck that," Dan shouted before Berkfield could challenge Rider's reply, making the room go still. "Where's J.L.?"
Jose stood slowly, mirroring Shabazz's moves in a patient dance - and then grabbed Dan as he was about to bolt. Damali dropped the duffel bag and looked at her teammates.
"Yo, yo, yo, what's up with all this, guys?" Damali held her hands up. "We're out of here in - "
"Damali, get 'em off of me or I swear I'll - "
"Let him go," Damali said quickly, going to Dan, watching hot tears rise in his eyes as his face flushed. "Baby - "
"I knew it!" Dan shouted, looking at Bobby and then Jose. He rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, and sniffed back tears of frustration as he sputtered his complaint. "You were supposed to have my back, man! You know good and damned well where she is!"
"Then some-fucking-body tell me," Berkfield said, shrugging Rider's grip off his shoulder. "Wanna enlighten her goddamned father? Huh! Somebody?"
Shabazz shook his head and began walking. "Berkfield, me and you, we take a walk, we talk, and we let cool heads prevail... Aw'right? Been there. Very recently."
Berkfield nodded grudgingly and began to walk. "I need some answers."
"It's best this way," Shabazz said quietly, putting his arm over Berkfield's shoulder. "Better on the team than... She's young, could get jacked in a - "
Before the other brothers or Damali could react, Dan had cleared the table and was going in the direction of the kitchen, headed for the back door. Instinct kicked in, and every man in the house was on Damali's heels as she tried to catch up with Dan, who was making a mad dash for the shed.
"Daniel!" She screamed, closing the gap across the big backyard, her legs pumping as her stride ate up ground. "Don't do it, Dan! Don't go in there! J.L.!" Mental prayers came out in fits of breath. Oh, Lord, oh Lord, not on this team, not another one, not today, not this kid! Get dressed y'all. Shit!
A shotgun blast made her look over her shoulder and lose ten feet of gain. She saw it in slow motion, skidded to grasp the back of Dan's T-shirt that ripped under her hold. J.L. had stumbled out of the shed, tucking his shirttails into his pants, breathing hard. Berkfield was beet red in the face, lowering a sawed-off and being tackled to the ground. Krissy was crying and trying to get her blouse untwisted. Jose body-blocked Krissy from her father's scrutiny while she righted her clothes. Bobby slowed down, conflicted, caught in the withered grass between his father, his sister, and his two best friends. Rider and Shabazz were trying to extricate a weapon from a father who was foaming at the mouth. Dan was about to get his ass kicked by a martial arts pro.
"Stop!" Damali's heart was beating a bruise into her chest.
Nothing Neteru was working. Her legs were lead, time wasn't stopping, the team had snapped its fragile hold on reality. Where was f**king Juanita when another pair of female hands was needed! Damali flung down the ripped fabric, screaming "No!" as Dan hurdled headlong into J.L.'s abdomen and was summarily flipped to land with a thud on his back.
Dan was up in seconds, pure rage blazing in his bloodshot blue eyes. Tears and dirt had created mud on his face. J.L. almost snarled as murder flit through his normally kind brown eyes. Krissy was sobbing and looking at her father as Rider finally got the gun out of his clenched fist.