by Kia Corthron
You should see his house. Clean! I didn’t know white people could be so clean!
How Roof get the speed, come flyin up the porch an sock me off that slidin chair fore I know it? We rollin down the steps, blind punchin, both us bleedin noses, thank God my mother workin at Miss Idie’s, not home.
Stop that, hoodlums! Somewhere in the distance I hear Miss Onnie’s voice but everything outside Roof’s eyes Roof’s fists some other world far away. Then us splashed, ice water!
Toldja go on home, boy! Miss Onnie with her flower pitcher. We done broke part, blinkin. An you. Oughta be ashamed, right on your mama’s porch steps! Me an Roof run our separate ways, an even though nobody in the house but me I hold in my bawlin till I get to the bathroom, closed door.
Where you get that scab under your nose? she ask, home from work.
Fell.
I fixed my own sanwich, Mama, Eliot says. Butter n bread. I love butter n bread!
In bed that night he wide awake.
Dwight, what’s the Magnet Carter?
I frown. What?
Mama leff your paper out on the kitchen table you said the Magnet Carter.
Can you read? I said the Magna Carta. It’s how justice started. England, 1215.
I like Magnet Carter better! I like a big ole horseshoe magnet! I hold it up at the train tracks an Daddy’s train come flyin to me, I hold it up bring Daddy home! Hahaha!
I roll over away from him. All wound up, I can tell he gonna be chatterin, long night.
Whatcha mean justice?
What?
Whatcha mean justice? The Magna Carter?
Carta. Justice means fair law for everybody.
He chew on that a while and I pray he slip on to sleep. Then he say, I like that! I like the Magnet Carter! Then he lookin out the winda, stars.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. How I wonder what you are. You know what it sound the same like, Dwight? Baa Baa Black Sheep Have you any wool? Yes sir Yes sir Three bags full. You know what else it sound the same like, Dwight? A B C D E F G, H I J K LMNOP You can put em all together! Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Yes Sir Yes Sir Three bags full. Q R S, T U V hahahaha! Or you can say A B C D E F G, Yes sir Yes sir Three bags full. Up above the world so high hahahaha! Or you can say Baa Baa Black Sheep Have you any wool? Yes sir I mean LMN I mean. I mean. Baa Baa Black
SHUT UP!
Okay.
Then he hummin it!
I’m a kill you!
An I’ma tell Mama Miss Onnie tole me you didn’t get that nose scab from fallin.
Suddenly I’m on toppa him, my hands clutchin his arms hard gainst the bed, my face in his face. An all I can say: Don’t.
He go screamin an cryin to Mama. I sigh, wait for her to come flyin in here yell at me but she don’t. He don’t come back neither. Maybe she let him sleep with her tonight. Still I stick to my side in case he come, never do I feel right takin over the whole bed.
A Pullman Porter is a very honorable position for a colored man, says Mr. Talley jus before he serves. Do you know the history of the Pullman Porters?
Oh God, says Carl, an whacks the birdie over the net back at his daddy.
Get used to it, Dwight, says smilin Mrs. Talley, carryin a chair in each hand from the kitchen. Mr. Talley’s a history teacher so everything for my children becomes a history lesson. Right? she asks her children.
Darnit! says Christina, who slammed the birdie into the net. Only today did I finally figure out Carl’s sister’s name. We’re playin doubles, Christina an their dad agains me an Carl. Christina’s fifteen.
The Pullman Company transported Abraham Lincoln’s body. His coffin.
Twelve serving fourteen, says Carl.
In recognition of that historical milestone, Mr. George Pullman committed to providing employment on his luxury trains for our newly freed slaves.
Suh-lam! says Carl an laughs, his father lookin down, birdie at his feet.
Would you all like some cinnamon rolls with your iced tea? asks Mrs. Talley. I just baked some.
I think that hit the net, says Christina.
It did not hit the net, says Carl.
Don’t worry, says Mr. Talley, winkin at his daughter. We’ll get em.
Thirteen serving fourteen, says Carl.
Oh! and I’ll slice that watermelon, says Mrs. Talley an heads back in the house.
Hey, says Carl to me, do they call your daddy George? All smirky.
No, says his dad, they got rid of that. Terrible practice!
The union, I say.
Yes, says Mr. Talley, all in some kinda reluctant thought.
Out! says Christina.
Dammit! says Carl.
My serve, says Christina, goin after the birdie.
Yes, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. They did some good things for the porters, but you’ve gotta be careful. That darn A. Philip Randolph!
Fourteen serving twelve, says Christina.
Thirteen! says Carl.
Came out of the National Negro Congress, says Mr. Talley. Know what the National Negro Congress was?
Fourteen serving thirteen, says Christina.
Communists, says Mr. Talley.
Dwight’s friends with the white trash up the street, says Carl. My eyes snap to him.
Aaaah! growls Carl, even though he made me miss the birdie.
Don’t say white trash, says his father.
Fifteen serving thirteen, says Christina. In official play, fifteen’s game.
We said we’re playing to twenty!
Lucky for you, his sister retorts an serves.
Aaaaah!
Sixteen serving thirteen.
Who’s Dwight’s friends? asks their father.
Up across the street, that broken-down fence broken spout, who else’s yard’s fulla garbage? Aaaah! Carl throws down his racket.
Temper, says Mr. Talley.
Seventeen serving thirteen, says Christina.
Well I’m sure they can’t help it, says Mr. Talley.
They can’t help being dirty? says Carl.
They can’t help being poor.
Cuz all poor people are dirty?
Sorry, I say.
Aaaah! says Carl.
Eighteen serving thirteen, says Christina.
Dwight’s friend’s name’s Porch.
Roof. Rufus. Sorry.
Aaaah!
Nineteen serving thirteen. Game point.
Carl! Craig! Mrs. Talley callin from the back door. Could one of you strong men help me with this table? It’s a little heavy.
You stepped over the serving line! says Carl.
What serving line? says Christina.
You were practically on the net!
I was not! And there’s no serving line, you can’t make up rules halfway through!
She’s right about that, says their father, but for future reference don’t get any closer than the edge of the clothesline.
Do-over, says Carl.
No!
She was practically on the net!
Alright! For the little booby baby I’ll do it over. Nineteen serving thirteen, game point.
Out! says Carl.
It was not out!
On the line is out.
What line?
From now on, says Mr. Talley, the rosebush will be out.
Do-over, says Carl.
I’m not doing another do-over!
Look at me! says Mrs. Talley, her left hand holdin a wood table that looks heavy, balanced on her head, her right hand holdin a plate a cinnamon rolls. Now I know why the African ladies do it this way!
Settin on my bed I shade my sketch: me, Carl, Carl’s father, an Carl’s sister playin badminton, Carl jus hit it at his dad an his dad runnin for
it, Carl’s mother settin a apple pie on a picnic table. The apple pie an picnic table is poetic license. Everybody smilin DicknJane.
Daddy’s home! Daddy’s home! Eliot hoppin, statin the obvious. At supper Daddy says, I got a special guest comin in three days.
You be back three days? Eliot all grins.
Yeah, but then I work a couple weeks straight. Switched my days off special for this special guest. He be comin on the train with me, somebody real famous.
Who! Eliot practically fall off his chair.
A surprise.
Is it Gary Cooper?
It ain’t a movie star, says Daddy, nippin it in the bud before Eliot start a string a movie star guesses. Eliot look confused, like how can you be famous you ain’t a movie star?
Dwight finished his last report. It’s a real nice one. She smilin at me.
I wanna hear it! Daddy say.
After supper, them on the couch, Eliot on the floor, me standin.
Benjamin Banneker wrote six farmer’s almanacs every year from 1792 to 1797. These almanacs were unique because they didn’t just predict the weather. They also had essays, which I will subsequently report on.
Benjamin Banneker was born in 1731 in our state of Maryland in what became known as Ellicott’s Mills and what is now Ellicott City. Benjamin’s English grandmother married her African slave Banna Ka which gradually got changed to Banneker. Then their mixed daughter married her African slave, and from them came Benjamin. His grandmother taught him to read and he went to a Quaker school for a time, but mostly he taught himself. He borrowed a pocket watch and after he studied the inside of it he carved wood to make all the pieces just like the pocket watch and he built a clock from the wood that chimed every hour. He was 22 when he finished the clock and it worked four decades until it was destroyed in a house fire right after he died which might or might not a been accidental.
Benjamin Banneker was a farmer. He was also a mathematician and a scientist and an astronomer. He was hired to be part of a group that surveyed the land that became Washington D.C. He used his astronomical work for this, figuring out the position of the earth by the way the stars looked. A letter in the Georgetown Weekly Ledger about Benjamin said his “abilities, as a surveyor, and as an astronomer, clearly prove that Mr. Jefferson’s concluding that race of men were void of mental endowments, was without foundation.”
Benjamin Banneker was for peace. In his 1793 almanac he included “A Plan of a Peace-office for the United States” which was written by Benjamin Rush who was a founding father of the United States. What the plan called for was a Secretary of Peace.
Benjamin Banneker was against slavery. He and Thomas Jefferson disagreed about this, and wrote letters to each other arguing about it, which Benjamin Banneker published in his almanac.
White people and colored people respected Benjamin Banneker and his high intelligence. Benjamin Banneker was proud to be a Negro man, he was proud of his color. He wrote “I am of the African race, and in the colour which is natural to them of the deepest dye; and it is under a sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.”
Many times through it Daddy sayin I didn’t know that, I didn’t know that, an now both lookin at me all proud.
In bed Eliot says, What did Benjamin Banneker invent? I say he weren’t an inventor, he studied things. The stars, an the weather. An he built a clock outa wood! Eliot say. Yep. An he knew the eclipse! Yep. An he figured out the land by lookin at the sky! Yep. Benjamin Banneker was smart! Eliot say, then we play I Spy. I don’t do I Spy much no more, baby game, but wunst in a while. Make him happy. Then he’s yawnin. I hear his sleep breathin, I stare at the stars, the same stars Benjamin Banneker used to lay out Worshinton D.C. way back, way back
I’m standin in the tower Roof an me made in the Architeck Club. It ain’t that I’m small, it’s that the tower got big, life-size, castle like Roof says. I’m way up at the top lookin out. An Carl’s lookin out from one floor below me all smug, he don’t notice I’m just above. It’s like ancient times, green fields, but over yonder there’s Eliot wavin at me from Colored Street, in my dream Colored Street’s down there even in the meadows a Medieval an there in the middle a Colored Street cross from Eliot’s this little church but Eliot’s lookin the other way, his back’s to the church. An I’m tryin to figure how to get Eliot up in the tower but he seem content fine on Colored, Eliot grinnin wavin holdin a white book with white raised letters on the cover: THE MAGNET CARTER, I see him from my castle cross Colored, an down on the groun direckly below the castle there’s Roof, he wanna cross the moat to the castle but he can’t swim, an I’m rackin my brain how to get Eliot in the castle how to get Roof in the castle when suddenly there’s fire, the cross on the church grew huge an caught afire but Eliot don’t see it, Eliot smilin up at me, then Carl from the floor below turn an glance up like he knew I was there all along, an speak: Badminton?
Nex mornin I look out my bedroom winda. Cloudin over. Carl up already. All that gray in the sky, he takin down the net fore it get wet. I do my chores quick—make my bed, pull the garden weeds—then pack marbles in my pocket. Or maybe backgammon again.
But outside I follow a ole instinct an turn leff steada right an fore I know it I’m standin fronta Roof’s. I don’t gotta knock on his door cuz he already lookin out at me from the second floor, his bedroom winda. From inside I hear a newborn baby hollerin.
Treasure hunt?
He stare at me a long time fore he answer.
Can’t. Punishment.
Oh. How come?
I was swingin on my bedroom door an knocked it off the hinges.
Oh. Roll a thunder. If I run I can beat the big rain gettin to Carl’s. Maybe we can bring Monopoly out on Carl’s front porch, watch the downpourin. Carl started teachin me Monopoly but we had to quit fore the end. This time I’m banker.
Like Roof seen my mind wanderin to Carl’s, he say Maybe treasure hunt tomorra? Somethin catch in his voice. His nose still got the scab from the fight.
Wanna play marbles? I can bring em up to you.
Roof’s eyes get a startle. Much as I love his yard, most an genrally I ain’t up for the obstacle course a his house, me an Roof always play outdoors or inside my house, never his. The raindrops start fallin big, hard.
Okay, he says just as it fass come to a crashin shower, an I rush in an step over Joellen’s skate an Beaver’s broken fire truck an some folded clean clothes an tossed-about dirty clothes as I scale the stairs up to the boys’ room, Roof’s an Beaver’s on the left.
ELIOT
Here come the train! We see Daddy come off 5:30 a.m. train! Usually tired from work but today he smile big. Brung a man behine him. Tall man! Tall man!
This is my wife Claris. An this is Dwight. An this is Eliot. This is Mr. A. Philip Randolph.
Dwight’s mouth fly open. He musta hearda Mr. A. Philip Randolph. Mr. A. Philip Randolph famous!
Where’s Mr. A. Philip Randolph?
Worshin. Restin. He be down for supper. You wanna hop a little lighter, jumpin bean? She put extra sugar sauce on the bake chicken!
How long Mr. A. Philip Randolph stay with us?
Call him Mr. Randolph. Jus one night.
Aw!
How come he here?
Me an her look up. Dwight standin door a the kitchen.
There’s a man in New York, Mr. Tompkins. Retired porter. Mr. Tompkins let the end-a-the-line porters sleep a few hours, his place, he don’t charge much, then they get up, go back to work. When they awake, he tell em they got to unionize. Your daddy not sure at first, Daddy an me talk. Then Daddy helpin Mr. Tompkins, tellin the porters unionize. Mr. Tompkins preciate it, Mr. Tompkins ole an tired. Very brave a your daddy. He coulda got fired, almost did. Mr. Tompkins know Mr. Randolph an tell Mr. Randolph boutcher daddy. Your daddy meet Mr. Randolph, big union organizer, why your daddy
all day taken him to meet the Humble porters. Right now Mr. Randolph got other work to be done, your daddy wanna be a part. He invite Mr. Randolph take his rest stop on his way to Worshinton here.
Dwight mutter mutter.
What’s that?
Funny coincidence, he tell her. Mr. Randolph’s name jus come up couple days back.
I can tell she don’t like how he say Randolph so before she jump on him I jump in with my questions: Mama! What’s unionize? What’s organize?
But it ain’t quick enough cuz in walk Daddy. When can I tell Mr. Randolph supper be ready?
Now, if he ready.
He’s ready. Stop that jumpin boy, knock the plates off the shelves.
I stop. Daddy go get Mr. Randolph.
Set the table, she say.
Mama put the food on while Dwight put the plates an glasses on while I put the forks on. I can’t put the plates an glasses on cuz she afraid I drop it break it on accident, but one time Dwight dropped one on accident!
Everything is delicious, Mr. Randolph say.
Thank you, Mama say. Supper is bake chicken an string beans an corn puddin. I love bake chicken! I love string beans! I love corn puddin!
You boys know who Mr. Randolph is? Daddy ask.
I look at Mama. She tole us but I didn’t understand! Daddy come in, I didn’t get to ask my questions!
He organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. My union!
You a porter, Mr. Randolph? I ask.
No, though my brother was for a spell. I organized the porters. I wanted the organization to be called the International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids. The maids are represented, but I wanted the women represented in the title too. I got outvoted.
What’s organize?
Bringin people together, Daddy say. For a union. Their rights.
What’s a union?
Dwight sigh.
Stop playin with your corn puddin, she tell Dwight.
A union is an organization of workers, say Mr. Randolph, so they can fight collectively for their rights. Collectively. Together.
Before Mr. Randolph came along colored on the train paid half what the whites was, we expected to make up the rest in tips or starve. Had to arrive five hours before shiffs to prepare the train, an you don’t get paid till the shiff starts. Porters made to double-out, work double shiffs, no rests! Sneakin sleep on a table, in the baggage car, I remember!
