My Name Is Not Easy (15 page)

Kickball

SPRING 1961

SONNY

—

Sonny watched as kids fl uttered up the hall on their way to lunch like a thick fl ock of ravens. Junior, Chickie, and Donna were laughing at some joke.

Th

ose two Eskimo brothers—Luke and Bunna—were

stuck together behind Amiq like an Amiq-shaped shadow.

And Amiq, as usual, was looking for trouble.

“So you been out hunting lately?” he was saying, saying it real loud, too, like he wanted to make sure everybody heard him. Like he wanted to make sure Sonny, in particular, heard him.

Sonny did. He knew those brothers. Th

ey were always out

in the woods. Hiding from Indians for the most part, he fi gured. Not hunting.

Th

e older brother, Luke, looked at Amiq like he wasn’t sure what the heck he was talking about. Th

en he glanced

back at Sonny with a nervous look. Sonny scowled.

“Yeah. Hunting. Me and Bunna,” Luke said—like he

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K I C K B A L L / S o n n y

knew he was supposed to say it but wasn’t sure why. You could tell he was trying to sound tough.

Sonny wasn’t fooled.

Amiq was still eyeing him. Like he was daring him to do something.

“You ever run into that old
Indian
?” Amiq said. He used the word
Indian
like an arrow aimed right at Sonny. Rose and Evelyn and the Pete boys sidled up next to Sonny.

Luke frowned, as if he were trying to remember something. Or maybe forget it. “Yeah,” he said.

“And he said to quit scaring off all the animals, right?”

Amiq coached.

“Yeah! He did!” Th

is was the younger brother, Bunna.

“And he acts like he’s gonna shoot us, too, but he never.”

Suddenly Amiq burst out laughing, like it was a really funny joke. Possibly the funniest joke in the history of funny jokes. Th

e sound of that laugh made Sonny stop walking and

turn to look back at them, hard.
Th

at little smart mouth.

Now all of them had stopped walking and they were all watching Sonny and Amiq.

“Heck, that old guy ain’t gonna shoot nothing,” Amiq said. “He’s half blind, that one.”

Only he didn’t say blind, he said “
plind
.”
And he looked right at Sonny when he said it, too, like he was accusing
all
Indians of being half blind.

“Plind,” Sonny mimicked.

Evelyn giggled. “How come he talks like that?” she whispered.

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“He’s from Barrow,” Sonny said loudly. “I mean
Parrow
.

Th

at’s how they
dalk.
”

Rose and Evelyn giggled.

“Th

at old Indian’s probably waiting for somebody to scare the animals his way so he could eat sometime,” Amiq told Bunna, glaring at Rose and Evelyn. “He’s so blind, he can’t even fi nd his own butt in broad daylight.”

Th

e muscles in Sonny’s jaw tightened. He could level that guy, one shot, if he wanted to. Level them
all
. He glared at the one closest to him—nervous little Junior with the big glasses.

Junior backed away, shoving those glasses up onto the bridge of his nose.

“What’s he eat then, he don’t catch nothing?” Bunna was saying.

“Rotten fi sh,” Amiq said, watching Sonny sideways.

Bunna held his nose like someone’d farted. “
Aqhaaa!
”

Th

at was it. Sonny reached out and grabbed Bunna by the collar, held on tight, twisting his hand a little. Bunna scowled like he was trying to look tough. Or at least trying to look a little bit brave.

Now they were in the middle of a big pack of kids. Kids pressed in on either side of them like two walls: the Indian wall and the Eskimo wall. Th

e Eskimo wall had one blond

head, that little white girl they’d nicknamed Snowbird. Th e

Indian wall looked hard as rock with no breaks in it, not even a crack. Sonny smiled.

“Better than raw meat,” he said. He knew about how Eskimos ate their meat frozen. Frozen and raw.

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Th

e older brother, Luke, pushed his way forward through the crush of kids. Amiq was right behind him.

“Leave him alone,” Luke growled.

Sonny shook Bunna, just for good measure, and let go of him. He wasn’t about to fi ght some little kid.

Amiq shoved himself forward. “Back off ,” he snapped, muttering “half-a-gas-can” under his breath. And he aimed those words right at Sonny, too. “
Pack off .
”

Sonny laughed. “Make me,” he said.

“Why’d he say half-a-gas-can?” Snowbird whispered.

Nobody said anything. Everyone was staring at Sonny and Amiq, who stood in the middle of the crowd, glaring at each other. Th

en Sonny turned toward Snowbird.

“’Cause he don’t know how to say ‘Athabascan,’” Sonny said. “He has trouble
dalking
.”

Amiq clenched his fi sts. “Go ahead,” he sneered, looking up at Sonny. “Go ahead.”

Th

e whole pack pressed in closer, both sides taunting.

“Punch him! Punch him!”

“Do it!”

Sonny reared up and smashed down on Amiq with a force hard enough to make him fall back into the crowd. But before Sonny could even step closer, Amiq had sprung up, tearing into Sonny like a wolverine. Th

e kid was smaller, all right, but

he was tough, Sonny thought. Plenty tough.

“Go for the throat!” someone hollered. “Th

e throat!”

Now everybody was yelling, everyone except that one Yupik girl with the long black hair and little Junior, who
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