The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter (15 page)

 

DWIGHT

You play badminton?

Nope, but Carl show me how to set up the net, his backyard. Half-day, lass day a school. I beat him off the bat, 21–16. Nex game he givin me all manner a criticism on my serve, my swing. Still I win, 21–14. He pretty mad game three. Jumps way ahead, 17–11. Then I start closin in. 17–12. 17–13. 17–14. 17–15.

I'm thirsty, he say. You want some iced tea? An he drop his racket like game over an go into his house. At the door he turn: Comin?

I follow into his kitchen. We settin at the table drinkin, then some skinny teenage girl come in, hair light brown, darker n Carl's blond. Short pigtails. Walk right by us like she ain't surprised at all to see some colored boy, stranger in her house. She go straight to the icebox.

I just made that iced tea! You drank it all?

Carl smile an shrug.

How many glasses you have?

Carl still smilin, sayin nothin. I raise a finger.

One. Maybe
you
had one, but
he
drank the rest of the pitcher before you got here. She slams the icebox door an walks out mad into the other rooms.

You got sisters?

I shake my head.

God blessed you.

I got a little brother.

My piano lesson's getting ready to start. Haven't even unpacked and already she got a damn piano teacher coming over. You play?

I shake my head.

Come on, an he throw half his ice tea down the sink, then walk out for me to follow.

The firs-floor room with the piano ain't livin or dinin, an extra room they call the family room. He's good. Somethin classical, somethin boogie woogie. He's fast! Doorbell.

There she is, you gotta go. Come over later, I'll help you with that serve.

Ain't lookin forward to it but gotta go home sometime. Ain't carried nothin from school but my report card an it I slip under a front porch slat, then I slip in through the back porch. But there she is, cross arms waitin for me. Eliot settin at the kitchen table writin somethin all teary.

Where's your report card?

Huh. Huh, where'd I put that?

Find it.

An after I do: Why you get that D?

No point lyin. I tell her we had to do a report on
Civil Disobedience
and a report on Benjamin Banneker an I didn't do neither. I don't tell her Mr. Darcy specially mad I didn't turn in Benjamin Banneker when we go to Benjamin Banneker School.

Now, summer vacation, she homeworkin me.

Civil Disobedience

By Henry David Thoreau

That's as far as I get when I look up out my window, see Carl tightnin his net. I'm back fore she get home from workin Miss Idie's so how she find out I don't know, but there she stand:
Badminton? Badminton?!

Her whippins most n genrally's just a few smacks on the butt, they wouldn't hurt much if it weren't for my refusin to cry so she hit harder, it sting on the skin but sting harder on the inside, both us all the tears. So nex day I figure I go to the liebary, take the report seriouser.

Civil Disobedience

By Henry David Thoreau

In Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau says prison is “the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor.” Henry David Thoreau was very very mad about slavery and about war against Mexico. Henry David Thoreau was all for not paying taxes to support an injust government and went to jail for it. Henry David Thoreau wrote “Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.” Law began with the Magna Carta.

Mr. Darcy liked quotes, an quotes adds words. Ninety-five. Ninety-six if you count “well-disposed” as two, one oh two if you count the title an “By Henry David Thoreau.” Mr. Darcy wanted the reports to be four hundred but my mother don't know that. We had a separate lesson about the Magna Carta so thought I'd throw that in. I show it to her. You can do better than this for Benjamin Banneker. But I don't have to start that till tomarra.

Wanna sell lemonade?

We go into the kitchen, his mother stirrin up the pitcher. She look up at me an smile. Hi Dwight. I filled the pitcher, plus two glasses extra for you boys now.

We gotta make a sign, Carl says. We go up to his room, he pull out colored pencils an paper, write
LEMONADE
2
¢
, neat enough. I gotta go to the bathroom, he says, an by the time he come back the
LEMONA
DE 2
¢
sign also feature a mouthwaterin pitcherful with ice an lemons, a flyin cow jumpin over a smilin man in the moon.

What's that got to do with lemonade?

Customers will be drawn to the picture. Attract em. Then we sell.

That's wonderful, Dwight! says Mrs. Talley, walkin by with a basket a laundry. You have artistic talent. But I'm sure you've been told that before.

Too much, says Carl, an takes another piece a paper to redo his minimalist design in three seconds flat, bringin it out with us no further discussion.

Drunk Mr. White takes a cup, an Miss Onnie on her way to D'Angelo's for eggs an butter, an Miss Priscilla an Miss Pauline out on their daily walk, the two elderly white sisters up the street always lived together. Carl asks me about each a our customers, but I hardly get out a sentence fore he's announcin his own opinions, none of em good. It ain't that he don't like em exackly. He jus find em all funny, an not the kind a funny he'd tell em to their face.

Then comes Roof. He stand right in fronta our table.

Hi. All he say, look at me.

Hi. This is Carl. This is Roof.

Hello, say Carl smilin all polite so I know for sure he gonna badmouth Roof soon's his back's turned.

Where you been? Roof asks me.

Inside mostly. Punishment. My report card.

Roof looks at Carl, then back at me.

I woulda come up but I figured you was on punishment too. You tole me your report card was gonna be worse even n mine.

I already got beat for that, an he glances at Carl again, then walks away.

He your friend?

Uh-huh. Sometimes.

Roof?

Rufus.

Oh. I don't wanna talk about Roof no more an I guess Carl gets this cuz he drop the subject, start goin on about Miss Priscilla an Miss Pauline's funny lookin stockins again.

When we up to thirty we call it a day, an I take him to D'Angelo's. The penny-anny, Tootsie Rolls an Cracker Jacks an nigger babies an still fifteen to pocket. But Carl claim since it's his mama's lemon an sugar invested into it an his mama made it, he think it more n fair he keep ten an allow me a nickel. Then we do some badminton. He win the firs two an when the third get to be 19–13 my favor he suddenly remember he gotta clean his room, collect the rackets an head inside.

That's a forfeit, I say. My win.

If it makes you proud to win by default, then sure, your victory, he say, shuttin the door behind him.

Nex day I'm settin on our front porch slidin chair not slidin, weighin the pro n con a Carl when here come Roof. I look over an he's there, bottom a my porch steps lookin up at me. You wanna treasure hunt? he ask.

The Messengill house couple blocks over is a piece a junk, broken windas an big holes in the floorboards, trashed out, whatever furniture leff stole long ago. Wunst I fell through the rotted-out steps goin up to the second floor. The Messengills was said to be rich, so the thing was to find treasure amongst the junk. What flies in the face a this wealth theory is the house is small, no mansion for sure, but then people comes back with it was only one a the Messengills' houses. The only thing we ever come out with is a broken piece a chandelier or ole boot, which of course is wholly valuable.

Okay, I answer. Maybe.

Maybe?

Yeah, okay. I glance toward Carl's house an Roof follows my look.

What's he like?

Carl? Oh he's great. Taught me backgammon. You ever play backgammon? Like checkers but more complicated. Strategy. He's got a nice board.

How old is he?

Our age! Guess he'll be at your school in the fall. Badminton too! I helped him set the net up in his yard. See it? Now I start slidin in the slidin chair. His mother's nice too, always bringin us snacks.

So I got this idea. That ole fireplace, front room a Messengills. Them loose bricks. Remember? Where else treasure be buried?

That lemonade stand, we cleaned up! Spent most on the penny-anny, but the leftovers we split.

I show Roof my nickel. Roof's eyes get slitty.

You should hear him play the piano! Every time I go over there his mother makes us snacks. Lemonade, or apples an milk.

You already said that.

Yeah well. Just I was thinkin a showin him the path down to the crick today. So that might be a conflict with us an Messengills.

Roof stare at me.

Well, I guess me an Carl could go to the crick tomarra. I prolly should go down, let him know not to expect me today. By this point his mama prolly come to expect me too! Every day Carl want me there!

His mama don't mind niggers in her house?

I stop rockin. Me an Roof's eyes glued.

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
every
thing 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!