Harbor Me

After school, Haley and Holly talk about what their superpowers would be. Holly expresses a desire to have the power to focus intensely. She often struggles to be still and pay attention, and imagines the benefits of a power that would allow her to concentrate. She asks Haley what superpower she would like. After thinking about it for a moment, Haley decides she would like to have the superpower to forget. She means that she would like to erase what happened with her mom. Holly presses her to admit that she wouldn’t want to forget the few memories she does have of her mother, and helps her realize that what she’s really looking for is forgiveness, not forgetting.

At the beginning of the next week, Amari shows his friends the comic book characters he has created of each of the ARTT kids. Tiago can shoot webs from his hands, Esteban can fly, Holly is imagined as a version of Catwoman, and Haley’s red hair can shoot electricity. Amari tells them the thing he has realized is that many of the superheroes he knows got their superpowers as a result of something tragic they overcame.

Later that night, Haley thinks about what Amari said. She realizes she has become stronger because of what she has had to live through. Her uncle comes to her room to play some songs on his guitar as she goes to sleep, and she realizes that he is also a “superhero” to her.

After Easter break, Esteban is no longer in class. Ms. Laverne tells them he has gone back with his family to the Dominican Republic. The ARTT group is very upset, and Ms. Laverne agrees that they should just spend the day doing what they want to. Tiago cries. Ashton looks out the window. Holly paces the classroom aimlessly before settling down to knit. Haley takes out her voice recorder and quietly plays the last poem that Esteban had shared. The poem tells of family connections, friendships, and personal strengths in the face of difficulties, resonating strongly with the group’s feelings that day.

The ARTT group meets for the last time in June, at the end of the school year. The friends talk about how they’ll miss each other, and they all still feel Esteban’s absence. Even though they know they will be back in school next year, they are aware that not everything will be the same. The group recalls the promise they made to regroup in 20 years in the same room. They spend the rest of the session thinking about how much they’ve grown over the year, and how different they are now compared to the first ARTT session. Haley reminds them that they still have their stories on the voice recorder, and Amari takes one of his drawings out of his notebook and hangs it on the wall of the ARTT room.

The novel’s final chapter jumps forward in time again. Haley is at home, and her father has returned. Her uncle is packing and preparing to move out. She watches her father play the piano and thinks about how the wants to talk to him and ask him questions, but she doesn’t know how. Finally, she asks her father to play “Summertime,” which her mother used to sing to her. Haley’s father tells her he had been dreaming of a moment like that for a long time and she tells him she’s felt the same way, too. She feels as though one story in her life has ended, but also has the sense that something new is beginning.