Seth and Samona (8 page)

As soon as Leticia and Anthony knew what was going on, they both started talking at once.

“Seth, are you sure about this man? He said he wants to kill somebody? This doesn’t sound like J.C.” Anthony looked at me long and hard. I could see the scar on the side of his cheek standing out. He was dark like Samona, the same color as chocolate, but his scar was black.

“Chantal couldn’t tell you if anything was wrong?” Leticia asked. She let out a long sigh and twirled one of her long braids. “This is crazy. Jean-Claude wouldn’t snap like this. You know where you can find Reggie, Tone?”

Anthony nodded. “I got an idea. This all sounds too weird for Jean-Claude but if you’re right, Seth, it could be too late already. I sure hope Jean-Claude keeps his cool until I can find him.”

“I’m going with you,” I said, without looking at either one of them. “He’s my brother.”

Anthony looked at me for a second and then nodded.

“You take the car. I’m going over to your house to check on Chantal,” Leticia said, already walking away.

Anthony started walking toward his car but stopped when he saw Samona was following us. “Oh no, Samona. You’re not going anywhere.”

“I’m going with you,” Samona said, opening her mouth for the first time since we stepped outside.

“Naw—you’re not,” Anthony snorted. “Where I’m goin’ ain’t no place for little girls.”

“Good. ’cause ain’t no little girls here,” Samona snapped back, putting her hands on her hips. She was making that face that meant there was no use arguing with her.

Anthony sighed, then shrugged his shoulders. I could see he was trying not to smile. “Fine. But you stayin’ in the car—with Seth.”

Samona and I looked at each other and nodded. It was better than nothing. The only person who could help me find Jean-Claude was Anthony.

Both of us got into the front seat of Anthony’s red sports car.

“Where are we going?” Samona asked when Anthony started driving.

“Close to Field’s corner, over by the old movie theater,” Anthony said. He was racing the car down Blue Hill Avenue. I knew Papi would kill me if he knew I was in a car driving this fast with Anthony. “Last I hear, Reggie was staying with this honey he was seeing, Monique.”

After a few minutes, Anthony finally slowed down
and parked. “Y’all are gonna stay in the car until I come back out.”

Samona and I shook our heads and looked out the window. Anthony had parked on the street in front of an old brick building. It looked like it used to be an apartment building but all the windows were broken and there was trash all over the sidewalk. It was a dump.

Samona and I watched Anthony walk up the stairs and go inside.

“Maybe Jean-Claude’s still there,” Samona said.

“Maybe.” I shrugged, trying to act like I wasn’t worried. I turned my head back to watch the building some more. Maybe Jean-Claude hadn’t even gotten there yet. I looked up and down the street, hoping to see him.

“Wait,” I heard Samona say. She was looking across the street. “That’s Reggie over there!”

I turned around fast and saw Reggie going down the alley next to the house across the street. It had to be Reggie. Nobody else would be wearing that long black leather coat and purple hat. “Let’s go.”

I jumped out of the car and ran across the street. I could hear Samona following me. Her church shoes were making a clack-clack sound every time they hit the ground. I turned my head to tell her to be quiet ’cause anybody could be in that alley, but I was too late.

“Reggieeee!” Samona started shouting when we reached the alley.

I saw Reggie turn around real fast and pull something out of his pocket. It was a gun. And he was aiming it straight at Samona and me.

I stopped running and started to put my hands up but Samona crashed right into me and both of us fell on the ground in a puddle of water.

“Hey, don’t shoot them, man!”

I looked up and saw Anthony standing behind us, with his hands in the air.

“Tone, man.” Reggie put the gun back in his pocket and waved Anthony over to him. Anthony walked around Samona and me. Then the two of them hugged.

“These two kids who you hangin’ with these days?” Reggie asked, looking down at us.

I was staring so hard at Reggie, I didn’t even bother to get up. I’d never seen him up close before. Everybody knows he’s always wearing that purple hat and that long leather jacket but no one ever says anything about what he looks like. I was surprised.

Reggie was fat.

He had a big, puffy, moon-shaped face and the rest of him was puffy too. And he was real light-skinned. He was that almost white kinda black where you wouldn’t be able to tell except for his hair and his mustache. He didn’t look scary at all.

“Naw, G, that’s my baby sister and Seth, J.C.’s little
brother,” Anthony said. “We’re lookin’ for J.C. If these kids don’t get themselves killed first.”

I stood up finally and glared as hard as I could at Samona. She was trying to squeeze the water out of her black dress. Of all the stupid, crazy things that girl had gotten me into, this was the worst. She almost got us killed, running down the alley shouting Reggie’s name like that.

Samona looked like she was going to say something but I stared at her even harder. “Just be quiet, Samona.”

I turned back to face Anthony and Reggie again, half-expecting Samona to grab me by the neck for telling her to be quiet. But she just got up and came to stand beside me.

“He went looking for Jerome,” Reggie was saying. “Came by about half an hour ago to give me a reading lesson but I had some business to take care of first.”

Anthony shook his head. “Where’d he go after that?”

“I told him to sit down and chill while I was gone. But when I got back from my errand, he’d bummed a ride with Mace to the 7-Eleven to find Jerome.” Reggie scratched his forehead. “What’d Jerome do? Thought he was flying straight like you. Don’t tell me J.C. the savior’s got another case on his hands.”

Anthony shrugged. “Don’t know for sure. But Seth’s worried. Thanks, G, we gotta find him. Check you later.”

“No you won’t. J.C. done saved you,” Reggie said.
He tapped Anthony on the arm and started walking back down the alley.

“Y’all don’t listen too good,” Anthony said when we got back in the car. “Or maybe I wasn’t speaking the right language. I thought I said to wait in the car. You tell me. What does this sound like to you, Seth—‘Stay in the car’?”

“Sounds like stay in the car,” I mumbled. We were on the highway already, heading for the 7-Eleven. I was feeling better but I was still confused. Jean-Claude had gone to see Reggie about a reading lesson, not to get in any trouble. But what did he want to see Jerome about? It didn’t make any sense.

“What’s it sound like to you, Samona?” Anthony asked. He was still mad that we didn’t follow his instructions.

Samona didn’t say anything.

“Sounds like a death wish to me.” Anthony smiled. “Wait till I tell Mama how you almost got yourself shot.”

Samona was still silent and I looked over to see if she was okay. Just for a second, it seemed like Samona actually felt sorry or scared or something. Then she and Anthony started going at it like they always do. Samona fights with her brothers and sister a lot but it’s not like when Jean-Claude and Chantal fight. Samona’s family fight like they’re playing most of the time. Jean-Claude and Chantal never used to fight about anything until Jerome came along.

I looked out at the highway again, glad that we were traveling so fast. I had to be back in church in half an hour.

“Look, there’s Jean-Claude!” Samona shouted, pounding on my arm. We were pulling into the 7-Eleven parking lot. I looked out the window and saw Jean-Claude sitting in front of the store. He had his head in his hands and was all hunched over, like he was crying.

I jumped out of the car as soon as Anthony stopped it.

“Jean-Claude,” I said, pushing his shoulder a little. I heard Anthony dragging Samona into the 7-Eleven.

“Jean-Claude,” I said again, sitting down beside him. He was wet from sitting out in the rain. “You didn’t do anything bad, did you?”

Jean-Claude lifted his head finally and looked at me. He wasn’t crying at all but he did look upset. “What are you doing here, Seth?”

“I came to find you,” I said, looking away. I looked up at the big green and red 7-Eleven sign, wondering what to say. I’d already made one mistake about Reggie. How could I tell Jean-Claude that I thought he was going to get into trouble over Jerome? Then I felt Jean-Claude put his arm around me.

“No blood. No police. And Jerome gave me this Slurpee for free,” Samona announced, skipping out of the 7-Eleven with a big cup in her hand.

“And my man sitting outside in the rain.” Anthony sat down with us. “What happened, J.C.?”

Jean-Claude swallowed. “I wanted to teach Jerome a lesson. Ever since he met Chantal she hardly talks to anyone anymore. She sneaks around behind Manmi and Papi’s back. Last night she didn’t come home until one in the morning and I had to cover for her. I had enough. I had to find out what was going on between them.”

“But he wasn’t here?” Anthony guessed.

“Naw—he—he was here.” Jean-Claude sighed and clenched his hands. “I started looking in his face … and I knew I couldn’t hit him. He wasn’t worth it.”

“What happened?” Anthony asked again.

“We talked.” Jean-Claude shrugged. “I listened to all the stuff he was saying about us not treating Chantal the way we should and how she feels and … I realized he does care for her. He was telling me stuff I should have already known about Chantal.”

Anthony was smiling wide and happy. “I knew you wouldn’t let us down.”

“I mean what’s all my talk for if I can’t live up to it?” Jean-Claude was shaking his head slowly.

“You didn’t hit him? Once?” Samona asked, sipping on her Slurpee with a big sucking noise.

“Well.” Jean-Claude stood up, pulling me with him. “Thinking about it was just as bad, Samona.”

Anthony and Samona were laughing as we walked
back to the car, but Jean-Claude wasn’t. He was serious and he meant every word he was saying. I wasn’t laughing either. I was glad Jerome was okay. And I was glad Jean-Claude was okay too. Half the time I have to tune Jean-Claude out when he’s talking about how black people gotta unify and be strong and going on and on about what black person invented this and that. Sometimes it feels like I’m in school with him talking and talking. But today I understood what he was trying to do. He was trying to make sure I grew up proud. He was trying to teach me everything they didn’t teach at school and not to believe everything you see on television and movies that doesn’t show the good side of being black. I was glad, when it came down to the line, all that talk was about real life—not just talk. I’d never thought about it much before, but I had a lot of respect for Jean-Claude.

But at the same time, I was kind of mad at him. Maybe what everybody says is right and I am too serious and that’s part of the reason why I jumped to all these wrong conclusions this morning about Jean-Claude, Reggie and Jerome, but it was part Jean-Claude’s fault too. Jean-Claude thinks he knows what’s best for everybody. He tries to change people and usually it’s for the better, but he was wrong about Jerome and Chantal. They didn’t need changing. It was Jean-Claude who needed to do some listening. It was the first time I’d ever thought about Jean-Claude in this way.

“Seth,” Samona said, bringing me out of my thoughts. I turned to look at her and was surprised at how serious she looked. “Are you mad cause I almost got us killed?”

“Yeah,” I said. “This is exactly what I was talking about before, Samona. You finally got us into too much trouble.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You are?” I’d never heard Samona apologize about anything. I started to feel bad all of a sudden. It wasn’t
all
her fault that we almost got killed. I was the one who jumped out of the car first. I was the one made us go look for Reggie. Samona had just been trying to help. I’m always going on and on to Samona about how crazy she is and how much trouble she’s gotten me into but I had gotten us into the most serious trouble of all. Was I being like Jean-Claude? I didn’t know how to tell Samona all of this without it going to her head. She looked like she was thinking hard about something else anyway.

“I’ll see you at home,” Jean-Claude said as we got back to church. “I’m sorry I made you worry about me like that.”

“That’s okay.” I shrugged.

“No it’s not,” Jean-Claude said. “This thing has gone way too far. I’m gonna have a long talk with Chantal.”

I had to move fast ’cause people were starting to come out of the church doors. I smiled back at Jean-Claude,
then stepped out of the car fast. “Thanks, Anthony—and you too, Samona.”

The car drove off just in time. Granmè came down the steps of the church. I grabbed her hand.

When we got home, Chantal and Jean-Claude were in the kitchen talking.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Jean-Claude and Chantal smiled at each other.

“Get ready for fireworks, Seth,” Chantal said. “I’m gonna tell Manmi and Papi about Jerome. And everything about how I feel too.”