Forest World Family Disaster EDVER
Miami, Florida, USA

I thought I was prepared

for any emergency. Fires, floods,

hurricanes, rogue gunmen, bombs,

and worse—we’ve covered them all,

in scary student emergency training drills.

We’ve shut down the school,

painted our faces with fake blood,

and practiced carrying one another

to an imaginary helicopter, moaning

and screaming with almost-real fear

as we pretended to survive crazy

catastrophes.

Nowhere in all that madness

did I ever imagine being sent away

by Mom, to meet my long-lost dad

in the remote forest where I was born

on an island no one in Miami

ever mentions without sighs,

smiles, curses, or tears . . .

but travel laws have suddenly changed,

the Cold War is over, and now it’s a lot easier

for divided half-island, half-mainland

Cuban American families

to be reunited.

Mom is so weirdly thrilled,

it seems suspicious.

From the moment she announced

that she was sending me away to meet Dad,

I could tell how relieved she felt to be getting

a relaxing break from her wild child,

the troublemaker—me.

If she would listen, I would argue

that it’s not my fault a racing bicycle

got in my way while I was playing a game

on my phone and skateboarding at the same time.

That’s what games are for—entertainment, right?

Escape, so that all those minutes spent gliding

home from school aren’t so shameful.

As long as I stare into a private screen,

no one who sees me

knows

I’m alone.

Tap, zap, swipe,

the phone makes me look as busy

as someone with plenty of friends,

a kid who’s good at sports

instead of science.

In that way, I’m just like Mom, who hardly ever

looks up from her laptop on weekends.

She just keeps working like a maniac,

trying to rediscover lost species.

She’s a cryptozoologist, a scientist who searches

for hidden creatures, both the legendary ones

like Bigfoot, and others that no one ever sees

anymore, simply because they’re so rare

and shy, hiding while terrorized by hunters,

loggers, and poachers who sell their stuffed

or pinned parts to collectors.

Yuck.

But what if there’s more?

What if Mom’s real reason for peering

into her secret online world

is flirting to meet weird guys

who might not even be

the handsome heroes

shown in their photos . . . ?

What if she’s dating,

and that’s why she needs

to get rid of me, so she can go out

with creeps

while I’m away?