Harbor Me

Haley thinks back to the day several years ago when her uncle told her how her mother died. That day, Haley was on a playground and she was injured when several children crashed on top of her at the bottom of a slide. Scared, her uncle calls Haley Berry, which was the nickname of her mother Beryl. On the way to the hospital, Haley asks her uncle how her mother died. He explained it happened as a result of a car accident. Haley remembers how her mother would sing to her. She also asks if she can still live with her uncle after her father is released from prison. Her uncle assures him everything will be fine.

In November, Ashton takes a turn speaking in the ARTT room, though he asks that the voice recorder be turned off because he doesn’t “want to be remembered for saying the wrong thing” (88). He returns to the topic of racism, wondering aloud if the problem will go away if people stopped arguing. According to Ashton, the first time Amari met him he asked if Ashton was albino because his skin is so pale. Yet he also acknowledges that both he and Amari joked about the question, and quickly became the best of friends. Ashton says how much Amari’s friendship has meant to him, and how much it has helped him ease into life in Brooklyn after his family had to move from Connecticut.

Ashton agrees for the next part of his story to be recorded. He tells the ARTT group that there is a group of older boys who bully him by hitting him on the neck and calling him names that pick on his light skin. Amari, Holly, and Tiago tell him that they care about him. Ashton continues by thinking about his first day of school in Brooklyn, and how he had never seen so many people of color before. That day, for the first time in his life, he finds himself becoming aware of his own racial identity.

Ashton explains that his family moved from Connecticut because his father lost his job and a friend helped him get a job in Brooklyn. His friends assure him that they are glad he is with them. That afternoon, Amari, Esteban, and Tiago escort Ashton out of school so that the bullies can’t bother him.

In December, Esteban is happy to have received a letter from his father, who is being held in an immigration detention center in Florida. His father has written him a poem in Spanish. Esteban translates it for the class. The poem is inspired by his father’s experience of being detained and his attempt to find community in a dire situation. The poem immediately makes Haley think about her own father’s experience in prison. The class is inspired by the poem. They ask Esteban to share more in English and Spanish and “all kinds of American” (102). The support encourages Esteban.

The timeline of the novel jumps ahead to the moment when it opened, after the school year is over. Haley is in her room. Her father has been released from prison and is also downstairs, playing the piano. Haley thinks back to the poem that Esteban read in class. Her uncle is getting ready to move out, but Haley feels a little awkward around her father. Her uncle encourages her to be sympathetic to her father, and to take advantage of the opportunity to bond with him now that he is home again from prison. He starts up her voice recorder and fast-forwards to the part where she tells her own story.