by Kia Corthron
Richard, I needja ta—
His mother at the door! Richard’s face snap up mouth pop wide, eyes wide, stare at her. And then her eyes lower: the book. Richard slam it shut.
What’s that?
Art.
Open it.
Art book, Mama—
Open it.
He open it to Gauguin, Still Life with Apples, a Pear, and a Ceramic Portrait Jug.
That ain’t whatchu had before.
Mama—
Show me whatchu had before.
Richard slow open it to David. She look at it, her eyes twitchin. Then she turn pages. As it happens, pretty much every entry in the vicinity a David be a nude. The little girls musta gone in the house, wind harsh, day sky turn dark.
Her face whip up lookin at me, like finally noticin I’m here.
Who you?
Dwight. I live—
You give this to him?
No! I look at Richard, Richard look at the floor. No!
You a Campbell?
I nod.
Yeah, I see your daddy’s eyes. Maybe I oughta tell your mama. Up here with my son lookin at this nasty book. An she take a swing with that heavy book, whack Richard’s shoulder. Nasty! Why you wanna look at this? Smack him upside his head, Boy! She tear out a page. Nasty! Throw open the winda, hurl out the page into the wind. Nasty! Tear out another, let it soar. Nasty! Nasty boy! Then she notice Richard’s paintin with the loincloth men.
I fly outa there, the trees all a blur. Look back only wunst, I see crumbled pages a art flyin through the air, then half a Richard’s paintin, Jonathan torn away from David.
The rain start hard, soaked long before I get home. Set on my porch a minute, catchin my breath. I ain’t ready yet to go inside. Then I am, up to the bathroom, dry my hands, my hair. I bring the Bible out to the porch. David son a Jesse speakin to Jonathan son a Saul.
I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. (2 Samuel 1:26)
Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto him, Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto the confusion of thy mother’s nakedness? (1 Samuel 20:30)
Along come Roof.
I got a idea. That was you. Painted that wall. Messengill’s. An actin like you ain’t never seen it before.
I stare at him.
Them paintins was colored people! Who else colored can draw that good?
Roof stand starin at me in the downpourin sheets like he don’t even notice the wet.
But I don’t take credit I ain’t earned. I look down at the Bible an close it.
Wa’n’t me, I say. Oils ain’t my medium.
ELIOT
You wanna school a dog, you need a bone.
Then Uncle Ramonlee demonstrate. Hole out that chicken bone, beagle puppy run for it, No! Set! Fetch! Roll over! Shake my han! Play dead! Puppy do good, she get the bone! She don’t do good, no bone. She learn quick! Me and Jeanine clappin! Uncle Ramonlee pet that puppy, her tail wag fass. Uncle Ramonlee pick her up, that puppy lick his face!
I like your puppy, Uncle Ramonlee! He ain’t my uncle, he ain’t even twenty yet but I don’t know what else to call him cep what Jeanine call him. He on’t care.
Uncle Ramonlee got her from out on the farms, say Jeanine. Her mama had a litter: nine babies!
What’s the puppy’s name, Uncle Ramonlee?
Althea, say Jeanine, like Althea Gibson. You know her?
Uh-uh.
She colored an won the tennis! Jeanine tell me.
Althea love you, Uncle Ramonlee!
He ain’t lookin at me, but he smile. Well. You can train em with a kick or you can train em with a kiss. Now he laughin, Althea’s tongue ticklin his nose!
Walkin back to Mixed Street, I fine a nickel!
Ding ding!
Well, what can I do for you, Eliot?
(I see the penny anny candy. I like some penny anny candy! But not today, not today.)
Mr. D’Angelo, what kinda fish I buy with a nickel?
Right fore I pay for my fish he answer the phone. Dangelo’s? He always do that, Dangelo’s when everbody else say Dee Angelo’s!
July sun hot! Ps ps ps ps. Parker. Ps ps ps ps.
There he come through the bushes! My eyes crost, two Parkers! Hahaha!
You wanna school a cat, you need a fish.
Set, Parker. Set. No, like this. I push his behine down. Set. Set! Good, Parker! have some fish. You gotta pet em too, let em know they done good.
Shake! Shake my han, Parker. Come on, liff your paw. Liff your paw! Good, Parker.
You gotta have patience. You gotta love the cat. You can’t train no cat outa meanness.
Okay, roll over. Rooooooooooll over. See what I done to ya? Now you try it by yourself. Roll over. Parker. Rooooooooooll over. Here, I’ll help ya again. Rooooooooooll hahahaha! Parker roll over right on toppa me! Ya gotta love the cat!
On Colored Street Uncle Ramonlee outside on Jeanine’s back door stoop readin the paper, Althea in his lap. Althea see me, she come greetin, Yap yap!
Uncle Ramonlee, I keep tryin to train Parker but he won’t mine!
A long while, then Uncle Ramonlee lower his paper, like he jus heard me, Althea: Yap yap! I wait for Uncle Ramonlee say somethin, his eyes on me but I think he already thinkin bout somethin else.
I said I’m trainin Parker my cat with kisses not kicks, but he don’t do nothin! He won’t roll over! He won’t shake my han! He play dead, but he do that all the time anyway even if I don’t tell him to!
Cuz he a cat.
Huh?
He’s a cat, he don’t follow orders. Dogs follow orders, an he lift up his paper to read again.
AMERICAN TROOPS GARRISON ICELAND
US MARINES REPLACE BRITS AND CANADIANS
Thought we weren’t in no war.
Huh?
I point at them headlines.
It’s defensive. Defendin Iceland. We still neutral. Then he look back in the paper again, say low: For now.
Oh. Now Uncle Ramonlee readin the paper, but not. I never seen Uncle Ramonlee look sad before, I cheer him up.
Uncle Ramonlee, you save Althea so she don’t get drownd!
It take a second, then he hear me.
Huh?
You saved Althea!
He stare like I’m Mars.
Weren’t they gonna drownd that puppy litter like you almost drownd Parker’s kitty litter?
I didn’t drown no kittens!
Now we starin at each other. I say nothin else, scared! say nothin else.
Then he soff. Well. Guess I thought about it, world don’t need no more stray cats. Changed my mine. What right I got? Decide they die.
Hi Eliot! Jeanine at her back door.
Hi Jeanine!
Uncle Ramonlee, can me an Eliot play with Althea?
He let us play with Althea! Rollin an runnin, yap yap! Then Uncle Ramonlee yell time for her to eat. He feed her, pet her, but still his face like no feelin. Then he pick her up, she lick his face. Althea love Uncle Ramonlee! Parker love me! I love Parker! even if he don’t mine. Well, I might try train him again, but if he don’t wanna, that’s okay. What right I got?
Then Uncle Ramonlee lay the paper on the groun and set Althea right on american troops garrison iceland. Uh-oh, whisper Jeanine to me, potty trainin, Althea gotta do her business. An Uncle Ramonlee set back down on the stoop, light a cigarette, lookin toward the mountains but I can tell he seein farther, farther.
DWIGHT
The Dusk Club meets every evenin jus fore sunset. The Architeck Club tower was dismantled an rebuilt an now the dusk ritual is for e
ach of us to find one thing to add to the new tower. Tonight Roof puts in some raggedy black shoe, I uncover a milk bottle not even cracked. This is our third Dusk Club meetin three consecutive nights, makin it one of our longest runnin organizations. After incorporatin the items we stand, close-eyed, reapin the power a the tower when we hear Who’s funeral?
Daddy! Roof run up to Mr. John. I don’t see him that often cuz most an genrally he get home from work after I gotta go home, which is now, dark.
Hold on, say Mr. John before Roof touch him, lemme clean up.
Mr. John filthy, the blackness all over. He work the Marion coal mines, ten miles west. Twist on the outside spigot, pick up the hose an worshin hisself down. How you, Dwight?
Fine.
Lemme do it, Daddy!
I gotta go home, Roof. Walkin out I see Roof grabbin the hose, sprayin his dad, grinnin.
My whole family out on the front porch. Mama an Daddy slidin on the slidin chair, Eliot on Daddy’s lap, all of em laughin at somethin.
Dwight! Come on, we goin for ice cream! He bouncin on Daddy’s lap.
Your daddy’s lass day, figure we walk down to the cone stand. Send him off.
Come on, Dwight, waitin for you! Eliot’s excitement makin the slidin chair go bumpy. Usually that get on their nerves but tonight everybody smilin.
Eliot say chocolate, Mama an Daddy strawberry. I say vanilla, then Daddy say You a big boy now. You want somethin a little more substantial?
I look at em. I ain’t never had nothin but a cone before.
For tonight, she say, clarifyin extravagance ain’t gonna become no habit.
Hot fudge sundae?
We gotta wait a little cuz the picnic table already got the Wiley twins, Marco an Mokie an their parents. They wave. We wave back. Take your time, Daddy tell em, though with ice cream meltin ain’t like we can hold on forever. They nod gratitude but I can see their mama sayin Come on every time Mokie or Marco take a breath between licks.
We can set there, say Eliot. There’s five other picnic tables, two of em all empty.
That’s for the white people, say Mama.
The white people’s on the other three, say Eliot. Can’t we use one a them two they ain’t usin no way? None of us say nothin.
When Marco an Mokie’s family gone an we seated, Daddy say, I might not be comin home often as I was from the trains.
Why? say Eliot. The fudge on my white ice cream make me thinka snow-cap mountains. Rockies, I seen pictures in a book. Green grass summer down below an snow way up in the sky. We got mountains all aroun Humble but Appa-layshuns ain’t high enough, if they snow-cap it only cuz it’s winter.
Depend on when I can get a ride home from Boddamore, Daddy tell Eliot. The train stop right in Humble, I could get on get off. Don’t work that way, new job. Defense job.
How come Uncle Brice can’t bring you back? say Eliot.
I’m stayin with Uncle Brice but he ain’t got a car. Ridin down with Charlie Harmon but don’t know when Charlie comin back. We start the same firs day but might not have off the same days. An the gas rations, Charlie ain’t so much to spare no way. But my off days. When I get the two in a row wunst a month, I’ll find somebody, gimme a ride.
Wunst a month? We only see you twelve times a year?
You good with your arithmetic, Daddy say an kiss Eliot.
You can’t ride the train home no more?
Train comes from D.C., it don’t go through Boddimore, say Mama.
Then why you gotta do the new job?
More money, Daddy tell him.
So?
We need it Eliot, she say. In the valley a the snow-cap mountain a my sundae runs a river, blacknwhite stripe. When I push on the mountain more runoff, the river risin.
I’ll call every week.
How come you can’t call every day?
Expensive, she tell him.
Thought you makin more money?
Can’t throw it all away, long-distance. He say it soff, patient.
Why not?
Eliot, she say.
The cherry roll down the mountain slow, slow. I push it back up, it roll down again. I’m Sisyphus, push it up, down it roll.
You alright, son?
Startled! My father’s han touchin my arm. Everyone starin at me.
Yeah, I say. I see I ain’t tasted nothin in a while so I take a spoonful. Uh-huh, I say. Three white tables open now, I notice Eliot’s friend Jeanine in line lookin at us, standin with her mother an uncle an I know we ain’t got much longer to be settin here. They’ll say Take your time an like the Wileys, polite we won’t.
Daddy gone two an a half weeks. Every day Eliot: When he comin home? When he comin home?
I finish my chores, go knockin on Roof’s, bring a baseball to toss. He come to the door. Looky what I found.
We set on his front porch steps. It’s a ole photo, these little boy miners, white boys lookin black, raccoon eyes. He points to a little little guy, second to the right.
My daddy. He was eight when he started in the mines.
Wheredja find it?
Their top drawer. The new baby starts screamin its head off. I forget if it’s a he or a she.
Think I wanna go out to Marion today.
Okay, I say. Then we look up. Lucy Deucy out on the dang porch roof!
I bring the ball back home. There’s a letter my side a the bed. Mr. Randolph lass month, now this: I ain’t never had so much mail!
Dear Dwight,
Last night we had a big campfire and marshmallows. I like swimming and tetherball but I could live without archery. The guys in my cabin are okay but my counselor’s a prick. I had five pancakes for breakfast. Don’t even try to write me back because it takes days, I’ll be home before I ever get it. When I get back we’ll take down the badminton net and set up the volleyball, which is more heavy duty. My parents said they’d get me volleyball if I went to camp without complaints this year so I earned it. When I first get back I have to go out to dinner with them, so we’ll have to wait for volleyball till my second day. In volleyball you have to win by two.
Your friend,
Carl
Roof an me set on the side a Turtle Gap Road, him barefoot like always for summer. The charity shoes his family gets free for school he say hurts his toes.
I’m gonna be one of em.
Who?
The boys. Daddy’s picture.
What’re you talkin about?
Mines. Daddy said I can do it when I’m thirteen.
No you can’t.
Says who?
Laws against it.
My daddy was in the mines when he was eight.
That was before. Kids can’t do it no more. Child labor, we read about it at school.
A car comin our direction. We stand, stick our thumbs out. It pass us by. We set.
Still happens.
What?
Kids! The mines!
Then they’re against the law.
Then I guess they are.
Big bird flyin overhead, we look. My daddy taught me how to reckonize big preyin birds. They don’t flap. They soar.
How about you an that stupid lemonade stand?
That’s different.
How’s it different?
It ain’t a real job! It’s somethin kids do. Like you don’t know. It ain’t dangerous, it ain’t legally labor.
Labor schnabor.
A car full of a white family goin by the other direction. We stand, stick our thumbs out. They peer at us, judgment, before the car disappear. Like we skippin school or somethin. In the summer! Or maybe white an colored ain’t sposed to be playin together. Or maybe they ain’t never seen no hitchhikers before. Maybe I shoulda asked em that. Hey! ain’tchu never seen no hitchhikers before?
&nb
sp; My daddy said I can. When I’m thirteen.
Whatta ya wanna do that for?
Money! He pick up a stone, hurl it way out over the fields crost the road. Daddy ain’t forcin. He say it up to me, whatever I wanna do. Like I’m really gonna say, You know Daddy think I’d rather stay in school, I do so well there. He hurls another stone. Whatta yaw do in your school?
Whatta ya think. Same thing ya do in your school.
Why, you been to my school? Car. We stand. The man hit the accelerator goin past, like he afraid we might jump in while his car’s in motion or somethin. We set.
English, history, math, science, gym. Sound familiar?
But don’t you all read colored books?
What?
Books colored people writ!
I don’t know!
I just imagined they be easier. Like I’d prolly get A’s at your school. Unless they in some colored language white people don’t understand.
My glarin eyes turn to him slow.
Guess you be in classes with Carl come the fall.
Now he turn to me.
Like you ain’t had enough troubles! Carl’s smart, the teachers wonderin why he get a hundred same test you barely scratch a D!
The white school’s big, okay? Prolly not even see Carl. I wish I went to a teeny tiny little school like yours. What kinda competition, just a coupla coloreds.
Got a letter from him today.
Who?
Carl! He said he’s havin a good time at camp. He said him an me’ll set up for volleyball in his yard when he gets back. Your friend, Carl.
Volleyball’s a girl’s game.
Not really. He says they have these huge breakfasts. Camp. He goes there every summer. It’s in Pennsylvania. All he had to do was not complain about camp an his parents buy him volleyball! Not that there’s anything to complain about camp far as I see cuz—
Roof make this big ole grunt, stands an kicks dirt way high up in the air. A pickup comin. I stand. It stop, some white farmer lady drivin, overalls. She give us the nod an we hop in back. Rare we get in the mind to go to Marion but whenever we do ain’t never not got a ride yet. Facin each other mad in the truck bed, we don’t say nothin the longest time. Then I see his mouth fall open. I turn aroun. The county fair! In for the week. We can’t see much but the tents, the Ferris wheel! We’ll beg our mothers an still prolly not get the money to go, so this close as we ever gonna come.
