The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter

by Kia Corthron

  When you comin home, Daddy?

  Thursday. You wanna hear a joke?

  Yes!

  Why are fish so smart?

  Cuz they wear glasses!

  No.

  Cuz they read!

  Cuz they live in schools.

  Oh! Hahaha!

  Get it?

  Yeah! Cuz they live in schools an read! Hahahaha!

  I blow out all the candles! Know what I wished for, Mama? I wished for marbles, an a puppet, an some cars, an a secret. Where you goin!

  Studyin with Carl. Dwight got his coat on already!

  How you study with Carl? He go to the white school!

  We both got the same current events.

  My birthday! My birthday!

  Get offa that chair, she say.

  My birthday. I say it softer. He gotta stay.

  We both got tests Monday. An tomarra he got company, his uncle comin for the day. We don’t study together today, we both flunk.

  Liar! She smack my behine. I mean fibber!

  We gotta know all the capitals a the war.

  We ain’t in no war!

  Just cuz we ain’t in it don’t mean it ain’t there. Dwight lookin at her, not me. I say France, he say Paris. Quiz each other. We gotta study. I sure don’t know Luxembourg. I sure don’t know Latvia.

  Okay, she say.

  No! But he already out the door, goin to Carl’s. I don’t like that Carl! Birthday posed to be four of us. No Daddy, now Dwight gone. Now Mama gone!

  But she come back. Burlap sack. I look inside.

  Eight of em. Eight people on the clothespins, Mama dressed em up! Ole man with the cotton beard. Bride in her gown. Sailor in his sailor suit. Pullman Porter.

  I’m makin a puppet story with my clothespin people! Dwight come in front door while I’m settin on the steps makin my story.

  Dwight! I ain’t mad atcha no more for leavin my birthday.

  He walk by, take off his coat like I ain’t said nothin!

  Dwight! Didn’t ya wonder what my secret birthday wish was? It’s a secret! I already had the secret even before my birthday, I been holdin my secret since June!

  Better not tell or it won’t come true. Then he trot pass me upstairs.

  I never thoughta that. Good thing I didn’t tell!

  November, I still keep my secret! Drawr a turkey. My turkey tail feathers is red an blue an yella an green an purple. Donny say, That ain’t a turkey, that’s a peacock.

  I say, Turkey.

  He say, Peacock.

  Turkey! I slap him!

  Boys! say Mrs. Brent.

  Hunnert on my spellin test! Firs Friday a December. Hoppin to Dwight, waitin for me bottom a the school steps.

  So what? You always get a hunnert your spellin tests.

  I spelled police. Know how Emma Jean spelled police? P – O – L – E – E – S. Haha! Know how Donny spelled police? P – L – E – A – S – E. That’s please, not police! Hahahaha!

  Dwight don’t say nothin. He don’t even tell me shut up.

  How you do your spellin test?

  Seventh grade don’t got spellin tests.

  Oh. You know how to spell police?

  Walk faster, it’s cold.

  Okay. Jeanine say her daddy say it gonna snow tonight. You think it gonna snow tonight? We wake up tomarra, all white. All snowy white everywhere, Saturday!

  Walk faster.

  Okay. Look. I’m jumpin. Hahaha!

  Walk right, fool.

  I run in my door. I got a hunnert my spellin test!

  Lemme see! she say. Then she lookin it over. Dwight go on upstairs.

  Dontchu speak?

  Hi.

  What’s the matter?

  Nothin.

  See. Freight. Honor. License. Police. They ain’t easy, they ain’t cat an sat!

  I know.

  You proud a me?

  I’m proud a you every day. She lookin up the steps.

  I’ma show it to Daddy! Daddy comin home Sunday?

  Uh-huh.

  I’ma show it to Daddy. Jeanine was the only other one got all hunnert percent every Friday till lass week she spelled anchor wrong an she cried. Wamme spell anchor for ya? Where ya goin?

  See what’s goin on with your brother.

  In bed I go, How come you was sad after school?

  He quiet a long time, then he say, George Worshinton Carver.

  Who’s that?

  You don’t know who George Worshinton Carver was?

  Was he parta The Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters George? Hahahaha!

  Inventor.

  But was he a inventor parta The Society for—

  No.

  He was like Thomas Edison?

  Cep George Worshinton Carver’s colored.

  Colored inventor?

  Uh-huh.

  What he invent?

  All kindsa stuff. From food. He turn food into all kindsa stuff.

  How come he made you mad?

  He ain’t made me mad.

  Sad?

  He ain’t made me sad!

  Who did?

  Dwight roll over away from me so I know that’s all the answers I’m gettin on that subject.

  Dwight. I’ma tell ya my secret. I ain’t tole nobody else! I been keepin this secret all the way from June. It was my birthday wish secret!

  Hmm. That all Dwight say so I know I better talk fass fore he sleep!

  I wisht when we go to the March on Worshinton we get to see Mr. Randolph again!

  It quiet. Then Dwight roll over on his back, lookin at the ceilin, frown his face. Then he roll again, turn to me, look right at me. Whatta you talkin about?

  Mr. Randolph! I wanna see him when we go to Worshinton.

  We ain’t goin to no Worshinton.

  Yes we are! March on Worshinton!

  Eliot! That was called off! That was sposed to happen July 1st, that was called off months ago!

  My breathin fass fass.

  You better not cry. Geeminee, all this time you been thinkin it was still gonna happen?

  Why they call it off!

  Cuz Mr. Randolph met with President Roosevelt an he told President Roosevelt give colored people the jobs or we gonna march. So President Roosevelt gave colored people the jobs, gave Daddy his job. So we didn’t march.

  Why President Roosevelt gotta do that!

  Dwight laughin to hisself. Go to sleep, boy. I look at the ceilin, sighin. Nothin to do but sigh, sigh, try not to cry.

  After a while Dwight say, Got somethin for ya. He turn on the light, make me squint. Pull out the drore, pull out his tablet, tear off a page.

  It’s me, Dwight drawred me. I’m grinnin, I wear my glasses, I hold my spelling test, A-plus. I like it!

  I know Dwight ain’t lyin. But maybe he make a mistake? I hope he make a mistake. But I know he think he ain’t made no mistake cuz he bein nice, wake up middle a the night an I got all the blankets an he jus curled up tryin to keep warm no covers at all.

  DWIGHT

  Ain’t seen Carl a while. Afternoon after firs day we got together. Tole me there’s eight sections his school, A through H. He got placed in 7-B, second smartest, week later tole me his dad talked to the principal, moved him up to A. How many sections your school?

  One, we all nineteen seventh grade the same class. There ain’t that many colored in the county.

  For a time still went to his house, him bringin friends home. Most of em were alright, but then talkin bout some teacher from their school or some girl from their school an there I am, mute-dumb.

  Middle a September I stop by Roof’s. He settin floor a his porch grumblin, She said I gotta do homework first! I gotta write a stup
id essay on what’s my opinion about Congress just brought back the draft peacetime. He writes somethin, then That’s enough for now. Runs into his house to look for his football an I see he ain’t got farther than Rufus Barton, 7-H. Over the fall, I fine myself spendin more time with Roof. The new friend his mama mentioned turn out to be Zack Rhodes, live up Jake’s Hill. Zack’s tall for the ninth an Roof’s short for the seventh so they sure make a pair. Neither of em has any interest in talkin about school so with them I never feel outside the conversation.

  Eliot’s glasses all fogged up in the December mornin freeze. Gotta admit he look cute, though sometime I miss the way his eye useta slip in toward his nose. Come on boy, it’s cold! He catch up, grinnin. I drop him off with the little kids firs floor an climb on up the stairs, secondary.

  Genevieve Watson! What do you know about George Washington Carver?

  Miz Carey’s short an stout an fast. High voice, twitter like a bird, always seem to be in a good mood. But don’t make the mistake a thinkin easy-grader.

  Genevieve goes to the fronta the class. She start to read from her report but Miz Carey grab it from her right off.

  I didn’t ask What did you write, I asked What do you know.

  Genevieve’s eyes like saucers.

  From what Genevieve recall from her report an what Miz Carey fill in I piece together this. Born jus before Emancipation on the Missouri farm a Moses Carver. Baby George an his mother kidnapped by slave traders, Moses trades a racehorse to get George back, George’s mama never found. George an his brother raised by their master an mistress like their own children, no local school take colored so mistress teach em to read an write. Still a kid when he goes to Kansas, closest colored school. College in Iowa. Music an art, accomplished pianoist! Then science for his higher degrees, then at Tuskegee forty-seven years teachin colored farmers an conductin scientific experiments.

  An abridged list of accomplishments:

  Ðdeveloped crop rotation

  Ðinvented over three hundred uses for peanuts, more n a hundred for sweet potatas, soybeans an pecans

  Ðmade a member a the Royal Society of Arts in England, which very few Americans ever got invited into

  ÐOne a his students was the Crown Prince a Sweden!

  ÐAdvised Theodore Roosevelt an Gandhi from India!

  ÐHis painting displayed in the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair!

  ÐOnce speakin before Congress the Southern reps heckled him at firs, but he mesmerize em, his ten minutes extended, then extended, then extended . . .

  My han shoot up!

  Dwight Campbell!

  What was his painting?

  A flower. George Washington Carver was a gifted painter, his subjects plants, flowers, landscapes. The painting that had been displayed in the World’s Fair was of the Yucca gloriosa, a rose. Other questions?

  I look aroun. No one say nothin. My han shoot up! Everybody lookin at me, usually I ain’t got much to say in school.

  Dwight Campbell!

  What other kindsa products besides food come from the food?

  Paints! Plastics! Cosmetics! Gasoline! Of all his hundreds of inventions, he only patented three.

  My face puzzled. But. Then I remember raise my han.

  Dwight Campbell!

  But couldn’t he a been a millionaire? Patented em all?

  Yes, he could have. But this is what he said about his discoveries: “God gave them to me, how can I sell them to someone else?”

  Percy Moore grunt.

  What was that, Percy Moore?

  Nothin. Anything, I didn’t say anything.

  Dwight Campbell!

  He still alive?

  Yes! Though he is quite up in years now. She gaze at all the notes she wrote on the board. I often think of his poor mama. To be kidnapped away, her babies stolen from her. And on top of this grief, what sort of miseries was she subjected to, her will not her own, her life the ownership and whim of another? Oh the anguish! The despair! Ponder that!

  We do.

  And the bitter irony. George born one year before emancipation. One year later he and his mama never would have been separated.

  Fool.

  Hand up, Percy Moore! And if you have something to say, say it loud enough for all to hear.

  Percy raise it.

  Percy Moore!

  He shoulda took the money.

  Sold the patents.

  Yeah. Yes.

  Well he didn’t. He was not greedy. Other questions?

  Percy mutter somethin else to Tobias Proud and Mokie Wiley an Genevieve Watson. Tobias snicker, Mokie frown skeptical, Genevieve’s mouth fly open.

  What’s going on over there?

  Nothin, says Percy. Nothin.

  The bell rings. Lunch.

  Percy Moore. I’d like to speak to you for a moment?

  You sure all up under Miz Carey today, Campbell, says Percy in the locker room.

  I liked it, I say an shrug, sniff under my arms, hopin after forty minutes a basketball drills I don’t stink too much.

  Liked what? says Chester Reese from the eighth. Seventh, eighth, an ninth all got gym together.

  George Worshinton Carver, says Marco Wiley. His twin Mokie changin his shirt nex to him, them twins share a locker. Clear down the aisle Richard from the ninth dresses. When we picked lockers back in September I know he waited to see where I would go jus so he could pick his far away as possible. He ain’t spoke to me wunst this year, not meet my eyes. The girls always hangin on him.

  She goes He was not greedy, Percy makin fun of Miz Carey’s high fass-talk. A lotta the guys get a kick out of it. Percy continue: An I said Yeah well I know what he was.

  What? says Chester.

  A punk. Percy snickers.

  What! says Chester.

  How you know? says Mokie.

  I heard stuff.

  You heard stuff.

  He got some man! says Percy. Some other colored scientist, work with him.

  You’re full of it Moore, says Marco slammin his locker. Then he think better of it, smile. Or maybe it’s cuz you seen his picture, want him for yourself. Some of em fallin out laughin. That handlebar mustache, Marco go on. Those big brown eyes.

  I look up, almost jump back seein Richard standin near. Listenin, some kinda amusement on his lips.

  Say whatcha want, says Percy. I know what I know.

  I slam my locker ready to go.

  So whaddya think, Campbell? says Percy.

  I’m tyin my shoe not lookin at em. I don’t like the looks a that bow so I untie it, tie again.

  Ast you a question. How’s your great Negro hero rate now?

  I look at him. I jus learnt about George Worshinton Carver today like the resta yaw. Now how I’m sposed to know bout his personal life.

  Percy an Chester crack up. Personal life! says Chester.

  That how all the white boys talk? asks Percy. Your friends?

  Everyone lookin at me, waitin for me to answer. Some of em I see the twinkle in the eye. Richard’s face I can’t tell. He don’t got the smile no more but what he replace it with I ain’t sure of.

  You wanna know what I think, Percy?

  Yeah I do.

  Here’s what I think. George Worshinton Carver was a gifted artist an genius scientist who invented hundreds a products an revolutionized agriculture. He taught poor colored farmers an he taught Swedish royalty. Three different presidents asked to meet with him which he did. He coulda been a rich man but instead chose to serve humanity, one a the greatest men ever lived in the eyes a colored an white but goddamn if it don’t take one a his own race to try an bring him down.

  Flyin out the locker room I hear everyone cheerin behind me, this is my victory. But victory ain’t what I feel. What I feel is when you say somethin
but it didn’t come out quite right but you not completely sure what went wrong. Duck in the hall bathroom, pantin, pantin the sweat, headache like explodin.

  After school Eliot waitin for me on the sidewalk, jumpin like a damn flea, talkin bout some spellin test. Halfway home there’s a moment all the sudden I think I’ll be sick right on the sidewalk, but it pass.

  Set up on my side a the bed, arms huggin my knees.

  What’s wrong?

  She catch me by surprise, standin in the doorway. Figured she be all caught up in Eliot’s spellin achievements downstairs.

  Nothin.

  Somethin. I don’t answer an she come set on the bed but still gimme space.

  What happened in school today?

  My head poundin.

  Whadja learn?

  I swallow. Talked about Gift a the Magi.

  Oh I remember that one. You like it?

  It was okay.

  What else?

  Crackle. Ole house. Mama an Daddy say it’s settlin but I don’t think houses ever get settled, they constantly changin, livin.

  Parts a the heart. Right ventricle, leff ventricle, aorta, posterior vena cava—

  Eliot laugh loud from downstairs. Nobody else there but somethin tickle him, livin his own little world.

  Whatchu smilin at? she asks.

  Eliot. You hear him laughin? Then all the sudden I’m bawlin. Her arm aroun me, pull me close to her. When the cries dry up, I tell her We learnt about George Worshinton Carver.

  That interestin?

  Uh-huh. Even through the closed winda can hear Miss Onnie yellin at one a her tabbies. Then Eliot runnin, prolly wantin to go outside to her.

  The sobs again!

  Big baby!

  No you ain’t. Teenage is a lotta tears. You gonna be a teenager soon.

  Then I’m quiet.

  People can be mean.

  They sure can.

  Like, somebody, a real good person, a real special person does good things for mankind an all they can do is say things about him.

  Bad things?

  I stop. I stare at her. I look down.

  Is things always bad cuz people says they is?

  The house crackle crackle.

  You was little, Eliot a baby. Me an your daddy take yaw to the park, you gotta go, you can’t use the bathroom like the little white boys an girls, your daddy gotta take you to the woods an you cryin cuz it ain’t that you gotta pee, it’s number two an ain’t no toilet paper in the woods but that the way it gotta be, goin home right after that cuz you cryin, poop on your leg. That might be the law but that ain’t right to me! What other people claims is right an wrong ain’t necessarily— She don’t finish, she wipe her eye. People gotta stand up for themself. Nobody do it for em.