Harbor Me

Haley describes the beginning of her sixth-grade school year: “Eight special kids” (5) including her were in a classroom together with one teacher. Each of the students has a particular learning need that made it harder for them to keep up in a regular classroom. Their teacher, Ms. Laverne, is kind and patient. Within one week, two of the students left Ms. Laverne’s class, leaving just Haley, Esteban, Tiago, Holly, Amari, and Ashton together.

One day, Esteban comes to class looking sad and tired. Ms. Laverne can see that something is troubling Esteban. When she asks him what is wrong, he tells everyone, “We think they took my papi. Nobody knows where he’s at” (7-8). Immigration officials have taken Esteban’s father. Ms. Laverne stops class and talks quietly with Esteban for a few moments. 

Haley thinks about her own father after Esteban mentions that his has been taken away. She has not told her friends, with the exception of Holly, but her father has been in jail since she was three years old. Haley now lives with her uncle. She feels a sense of connection with Esteban after he is upset that immigration officials have taken his own father. She tries to think of a way to signal that they are facing similar problems. However, Haley is afraid to talk about what happened to her father and does not know how to put her feelings into words and share them with Esteban.

Esteban misses several days of school. When he returns, he tells everyone that his family is afraid that immigration will take all of them away. The family does not know where Esteban’s father has been taken. Haley thinks about her father and how he is not sure if he will be allowed out of prison on parole. She struggles with a spelling assignment until Ms. Laverne tells everyone in the class to put down their schoolwork and follow her. The students gather their things and tease each other, unsure of what is happening. Ms. Laverne takes everyone out into the hall and takes a picture of the students that she later shares with them. They follow their teacher down the hallway, still with no idea of where she is taking them.

Ms. Laverne takes the students to the school’s old art room, which is now unused. The room is mostly empty aside from a few chairs. Esteban and Amari begin to ask aloud why they are in the room. Ms. Laverne tells the group that the students will spend the last hour of each Friday in the old art room instead of their regular classroom. She tells them to use the time to talk with each other. According to Ms. Laverne, the students will be unsupervised during this time because she doesn’t want to overhear their conversations. She tells them, “This is your time. Your world. Your room” (17). Ms. Laverne encourages the students to talk about unfamiliar things and whatever is on their mind but does not offer direction beyond that.

Instead of reacting with joy, the group of students feels unsure and awkward about the prospect of spending unsupervised time together. Amari breaks the ice by jokingly dubbing the space the ARTT room, which he tells them stands for “A Room To Talk” (18). Ms. Laverne reiterates that the only rule of the room is that they should talk respectfully with each other and not use their phones. As Ms. Laverne leaves them, Haley wonders about her classmates’ secrets.

In the ARTT room, the students sit down, with the boys on one side and the girls on the other. They do not talk much. Esteban puts his head down on his desk out of exhaustion. Haley thinks about her hope that Esteban’s father will be found soon, and about the bedtime stories her uncle tells her that have happy endings.

One story in particular sticks out in Haley’s mind. According to the story, two children are lost in a forest. A snake, spider, wolf, grizzly bear, and other animals all tell the children that the way out is through the dangerous animals’ homes. The children are wary of all the animals, but eventually follow a wild boar that tells them the way out is through a thicket of branches. To their surprise, the boar feeds and cares for them and then leads them safely home the next morning. Haley’s uncle told her the story has “[n]o moral. Just a happy ending” (24). Haley reflects on the first moments in the ARTT room and realizes that, back then, she and her friends did not realize how complicated stories could become.