“No, don’t.”
She gave him a look like he was crazy. You killed spiders or they would end up in your bed one night crawling in and out of your mouth, nose and ears! Everybody knew that.
Anthony reached down and picked up the little spider by one leg. It waved its remaining legs which resembled tendrils of hair, and goose bumps ran down Vanessa’s back and she had to suppress a desire to scream.
But Anthony didn’t seem the least bit afraid of it. He dropped the bug into the palm of his hand and amazingly it sat there for a while. Vanessa peered at it…but from a safe distance. Anthony nudged it gently with one finger and the spider began to move across his palm. He turned his hand so that the spider wouldn’t drop to the ground and soon it was on the back of his hand and Anthony continued to rotate his hand so that the spider stayed upright.
“You want to try?” He asked her.
She nearly shook her head, but she did want to try. She held out her palm but Anthony advised that she might want to first try by picking it up by one leg. She did as suggested and watched the little spider struggling in the air. She wondered if it hurt to be picked up like that, forgetting that bare moments before she had planned to flatten it with her shoe.
She allowed it to crawl over the back of her finger and she shivered at the feel of its tickly legs moving over her skin. She looked up to see Anthony staring at her and before she knew it he bent forward and quickly smashed his lips onto hers.
The force of the kiss caused her to take a step back as his teeth clanked against hers. Obviously he hadn’t stolen a kiss from a girl on the regular. The feel of the spider moving up her wrist caused a shrill shriek to escape her lips and she jumped and shook her hand in disgust, ridding herself of the spider’s tickly legs. Vanessa then blinked at Anthony, not in fear but in surprise. She quickly moved her tongue over the empty space that her front tooth had just been, only to discover a shallow and sore hole. She felt the missing tooth on her tongue as her mouth filled with the coppery taste of her blood.
She was just getting ready to laugh and to tell him that the tooth was finally out when she noted the horrified look on Anthony’s face as his eyes took in the blood in her mouth and on her lips.
His mouth worked silently like a fish out of water and he took a stumbling step backwards before turning tail and running away. She watched him curiously before spitting the blood on the ground, careful not to spit out the tooth. She intended to collect her half dollar from the tooth fairy later that night.
As she saw the bloody spit on the ground her lip curled up in amusement. Anthony thought he’d knocked her tooth out—although he’d helped it along, it was going to come out in a few days anyways. However, after that Anthony never ever talked to her again.
~***~
“Scotty. I need to see you after class.” Scotty made a face but when school was over he lingered behind and met Mr. Price at his desk. The teacher was big like a football player. His slight Afro was dotted with grey and his light brown eyes were friendly yet firm.
The teacher searched his student’s eyes and then held up a paper with a big red C marked on it.
“What in the hell is this Scotty?”
Scotty peered at the paper. “That’s the test we did last Friday.”
Mr. Price rolled his eyes. “I know that! What I’m asking is why didn’t you answer all of the questions?”
Scotty met the teacher’s eyes wondering why people asked questions that they already knew the answers to. In fact, why did people always have to talk? He liked when he was able to find moments of calm because everything in his life moved rapidly and required quick thinking to avoid unnecessary strife.
“Scotty you answered just enough questions to pull a C.”
“I know.”
Mr. Price gave him an incredulous look. “But you could have pulled an A! Every question you answered you answered correctly. If you had finished this test you would have pulled a sure A. And Scotty, I know you had time to complete the rest of the test because I saw you finish long before most people did!”
“Because all I need is a C average in this class.”
“What are you talking about Scotty? We’re in the beginning of the school year. Are you telling me that you’ll never do more than what you need to do in order to get a C in this class?”
Scotty took a moment to consider his words. He liked Mr. Price who talked to them on the real and not like they were a bunch of thugs. He respected that. He met his teacher’s eyes. “Mr. Price I’m not going to college. In two years I plan to drop out-”
Mr. Price’s eyes widened. “You have this all figured out at fourteen? Scotty the world can change for you by the time you’re sixteen. You’re…you’re really smart. You took the Walnut Hills test but you didn’t do well—not bad but not good.”
Scotty looked at him in surprise. That had been two years ago. What was he doing checking on things that had happened back then when he wasn’t even his teacher?
Mr. Price nodded. “Yeah I checked. You didn’t answer all of the questions in each category. Some thought you ran out of time. But you just answered enough to get by, am I right?” There he goes asking questions that he already knows the answer to.
The Walnut Hills test that Mr. Price was referring to was a specialized test for children in the Cincinnati Public School District. It was used to select children with above average scores to attend the college preparatory high school.
Mr. Price cocked an eye at the teen. “What I’m beginning to put together is that you cheated on the Walnut Hills test. A boy as dumb as you couldn’t have answered nearly every question that he even bothered to answer as well as you did.”
Scotty gave him a half smile. “Reverse psychology doesn’t work on me Mr. Price. You know I didn’t cheat. Why would I bother when all I care about is doing enough to get by?”
Mr. Price was not impressed by the kid’s attitude. “I could strangle you, you fucking idiot!” Scotty’s clenched his teeth but didn’t otherwise react to the insult. “I want you to take the test again.”
Now it was Scotty’s turn to frown. “Why would I do that? I’m not going to Walnut Hills High School Mr. Price-”
“And that’s your decision to make if you’re even offered an opportunity to go. But I want you to take the test again and this time do the very best that you can.”
He shook his head. “No,” he said flatly.
“Why?!”
“Because I don’t have to.” Scotty responded, his voice bordering on insolence.
Mr. Price sat back in his chair and regarded Scotty. “I’m going to fail your ass. I don’t care if you pull your straight Cs. I don’t care if you drop the occasional A. I’m going to fail you Scotty Tremont.”
Scotty shook his head and suddenly he felt old and very tired. “I was planning to drop out at sixteen anyway. You’ll just make me do it sooner.” He turned to leave but Mr. Price stopped him.
“Shit. Scotty, wait!” He turned.
“I’ll pay you, okay?”
The teen finally appeared interested. “How much?”
“Twenty bucks,” Mr. Price sighed.
“Fifty.”
“Fifty?!”
“Fifty.” Mr. Price hesitated and Scotty left the room. “Okay! Fifty.” He heard the teacher cursing under his breath. Scotty poked his head back into the room.
“Okay. When?”
“Now. I have the answers and I can have the results tomorrow morning.”
Scotty re-entered the room. “And what if I have to go straight home after school?”
“Then I would wonder why I always see you hanging with your buddies after school.” Scotty raised a brow at that. “Besides then I would know that there’s no way for you to cheat because you wouldn’t have had time to prepare.”
“Yeah, but I also wouldn’t have time to study.”
“It’s only arithmetic and reading. What do you need to study?” He held up the test paper with its bright red C mar
ked in an angry scribble in the upper corner. “You passed this with flying colors. Guess what Scotty, it wasn’t the same test that your classmates took.” Scotty gave him a surprised look. “Yep. I slipped you an advanced math test.” The boy searched his teacher’s face for a lie but only saw triumph.
Scotty nodded in defeat. Yeah, Mr. Price got one over on him.
“Fine. Let’s do this then Mr. Price. But I want to see the money first.”
“Little dude, do you really think that I carry fifty dollars around in my pocket while at this school?”
“We’ll have to do it tomorrow then. And don’t worry I won’t cheat. You can stand there and watch me.”
“Damn, you don’t trust anybody, do you?”
What another dumb question. Scotty just left.
Chapter 5
After school Scotty headed to G’s and they, along with two other guys made their way up to the basketball court. It seemed that every young man in the ghetto had the talent to make the NBA and that included Scotty. He was a beast on the basketball court—but mainly because hitting the court, playing stickball and touch football was free and therefore the thing that everyone could do well. Scotty would watch the Harlem Globetrotters on television and then see dudes doing the same routines the very next day.
He and G teamed up against their companions; Martray and Kenya. They played hard, shedding their sweat soddened shirts within the hour. The basketball court in question wasn’t really that. It was the parking lot of the abandoned complex where a dead little girl had been found. Someone had climbed two opposing utility poles and suspended a makeshift basketball hoop. The hoops were missing nets but did have backs although that part got knocked down every blue moon when someone tried to play as if they were Kareem and dunked too hard. When that happened there would be an outcry of trying to ‘show off’ until someone made the climb to replace the back or the hoop.
The complex had been emptied several years ago as a company purchased up the land above Winton Terrace in order to build the modern homes of Garden Hilltop. This level was supposed to be stage three and the buildings were supposed to be demolished long ago but the EPA had gotten involved and were forcing the company to pay a tremendous amount of money to protect the surrounding community from the resulting fall-out. So now it was just a waiting game to see who would win out; the fight against urban blight or government red tape.
Even though it was early October, the weather was hot. Preparing for the coming winter and trying to get as much Vitamin D as possible, more people were out and about. Several people had gathered around the ‘court’ to watch them play; because again, watching guys playing basketball was free entertainment. Then some older guys came along and took over the court. Normally that didn’t happen when Scotty was around because for the most part people knew that Tino was his brother. But on this occasion Tino was one of the older guys that took the court from them. And not just the court, but Kenya’s ball.
As the younger boys left, moping and talking shit under their breaths Kenya mugged Scotty in the back of the head.
“You going to get my ball back from your brother!” Kenya said with fire in his eyes.
Scotty swung around and pushed him hard in the chest. “Don’t put your hands on me.” His voice threatened violence and Garry stepped between them, placing a calming hand on Kenya’s shoulder.
“Whoa, dude, watch yourself.”
“Man, fuck you and your white boy!” Kenya smacked at G’s hand and then looked like he was going to cry as he stormed back down the hill to his home, talking loudly about ‘not being able to have nothing in this place without somebody taking it’.
Scotty, G and Martray understood that. You get a mitt, a baseball bat or a football and then somebody bigger stole it. You go home without your gear and your ass got whupped by your parents. You try to get it back and your ass got whupped by the bigger kids. It was a no win situation. He had even seen one boy go home and tell his father about the big kids taking his things. The father came storming up to the court but when he saw that the gang of guys playing with his son’s gear was bigger than even him he turned around and took his dumb ass right back home—and then whupped the kid anyway.
They were cutting across an empty field when Scotty spotted a little girl running as if she was being chased by the devil. G looked at him.
“Isn’t that one…”
Scotty gave him a swift side eye.
“…um…” G looked away. Some topics were never to be spoken of, even between friends; things about Scotty’s mother and things about Scotty’s father…
Martray didn’t really know the score but he knew enough not to ask. They began the walk back down to Winton Terrace, their humor and energy a stark difference to the joking boys that had first come up the hill forty minutes ago.
Scotty heard a song with no music. It sounded good and it took him a moment to realize that it wasn’t a song playing on someone’s radio or stereo at all, but the familiar voice of a little girl singing a song about loving someone always and forever...
He stopped. “I’ll meet you down there.” G looked at him curiously. “I’m going to check on something.”
“Aiight, man. Meet me at the crib.”
“Yep.”
He walked up the hill towards the hilltop using the shirt that was now hanging from his back pocket to mop away the sweat from his face. He was nearly there when he looked up and saw Vanessa standing on the edge of the parking lot, peering down the hill. He had already rounded the sharp curve that would lead to the parking lot so she wasn’t looking in his direction but in that minute he thought about a book that he had read last year in American Novel.
It was called The Catcher in the Rye, and in it there was a guy named Holden Caulfield that was as nutty as a fruitcake. But Scotty understood that kind of nuttiness. It was the crazy that people and circumstances made you if you let it…and down deep he understood that it was the nuttiness that probably every person in the world possessed.
Scotty could get with Holden on one thing; they both had a similar desire, only Scotty had not been able to put words to it until reading the book. Holden had this fantasy about saving the children that played too close to the edge of a rye field from falling off the edge. Scotty wanted to do the same thing for himself and his brothers and sisters; not a fall from some rye field, but a fall from innocence.
Everyone else in the class hated the book and complained that it was stupid. Someone had commented, ‘Why should I care who falls off the edge of a cliff? If they dumb enough I’m going to run over and watch they asses fall!’ And then everyone had laughed including Scotty. But he understood Holden then and especially now as he watched the little girl standing on the two foot lip surrounding the deadly drop off of the parking lot. The lip would stop a car from toppling the edge…but not a little girl that wasn’t being careful. He had an urge to catch her—in the most literal sense, just as he had Holden Caulfield’s desire to catch the little children’s fall from innocence.
He was happy to see her swiftly back away from the edge and disappear. He slowed his walk as he realized that he was almost jogging. As he finally reached the parking lot Scotty didn’t see anyone but a bunch of five and six year olds riding big wheels up and down the sidewalk. He walked toward her townhouse anyway, remembering the fall she had taken the night before. He’d actually heard the blunt impact of her body meeting the hard gravel and concrete. And when she’d lifted her head the sight of the blood and scrapes had bothered him. She hadn’t cried which had impressed him even though she looked like she had wanted to. She was a cute kid with long wavy black hair and cocoa colored skin that reminded him of Beady. Scotty wondered if she remembered playing with Beady—but probably not. She had just been two and three years old back then. She certainly didn’t remember him.
For some reason it had made him mad that she asked how he knew her. Just because she had forgotten him didn’t mean that he’d forgotten her. And the reason that she didn
’t remember also made him a little mad. That meant that her mother had never bothered to tell her.
He took a moment to look at her. Vanessa’s eyes were still just as dark as her hair, which now flowed around her shoulders. She was tall and thin, which shouldn’t surprise him. So was her mother. Unfortunately, he knew that kids that looked like her didn’t always fair well in the projects; not when her exotic looks was so different than those of the other people that ranged in colors from toffee to charcoal and that came in all shapes sizes and levels of beauty mostly thought that a girl like her was much closer to the world’s idea of beauty than they were.
However, to Scotty, beauty was defined by what surrounded him. And to him beauty was found in the image of the black females that populated his neighborhood. Beauty looked like brown skin, full lips, and hair that had a texture foreign to his own. Straight or curly his fingers ached to explore all the differences.
He stopped at the entryway that led to Vanessa’s Townhome, taking in the sight of her sitting in the corner against her door, hugging her blue jean clad knees.
She lifted her head from where it was resting on her knees, her dark eyes big with surprise.
~***~
Was it possible to make a person appear just because you were thinking about them so hard that the cosmos caused them to materialize in front of you? Vanessa had been thinking about Scotty and then she’d heard someone approach, looked up and there he was.
He was wearing jeans that had been cut-off at the knees but more importantly was that he was shirtless. His blonde hair fell around his face, now darker with the sweat that also dotted his bare torso.
Oh my God. He had muscles in his chest and stomach. Oh my God he was half undressed.
She opened her mouth and something stupid came out without her thinking. “How do you know my name?”
He looked like he might not answer and then when he spoke his voice was a little annoyed. “How do you know mine?”
“Well…somebody told me.”
“Same here.” He looked around, not seeing the white Cadillac.
Scandalous Heroes Box Set Page 37
