The Gift-Giver (6 page)

"Let's talk about something else," I said. "Where'd you live before you came here, Amir?"

"Brooklyn."

"That's like a foreign country to me. We only go there in the summer when Daddy takes us to Coney Island. You miss your friends?"

"I got new friends now."

"That's not like the real friends you left," I said.

"It ain't hard to make new ones," he said.

"Boy, Amir, I just don't see how you could've been in reform school. It must've been terrible."

"It was lonely. You get used to it."

"How come you so different from the other boys, Amir?"

He laughed. "I'm different?"

"You don't know you different?"

"Why everybody got to be alike, Doris?"

"Well, people laugh at you when you different or strange. Like I hate it because I can't do what Mickey and them be doing. Since that boy's been shot my mother don't want me to be nowhere but in front this house."

"At least you out. Mickey and them ain't doing nothing special."

"They having fun, when I'm stuck up in the house."

"They just be playing 'cause there's nothing else to do. They ain't really having that much fun."

"I'm not like you, Amir. I like to do what my friends do. Like I don't understand why you don't play ball like the other boys."

"I don't play good."

"I thought all boys was good at ball and stuff like that. You ain't ashamed? You don't even try to learn?"

"If I can't play good, so what?"

"But all the other boys play."

"There's a whole lot who don't. They just don't tell nobody."

"They don't want people talking about them and laughing at them," I said.

"People always talking and laughing at somebody. Talk can't hurt you. If you can't do what other people do, so what? Do something else."

"Well, I can't stand for people to talk about me."

"Everybody don't have to be alike. Anyway, Doris, some people like you the way you are."

I looked up the street and saw Mickey and Dotty,
Russell, Bird and the rest of the kids. They came over to the stoop and sat down. Everybody was quiet. "What's wrong with y'all?" I asked.

Russell put his leg over the bannister. "We just got tired of that playground."

Mickey turned to me. "We should've stayed on the block like you and Amir. That playground's spooky."

Yellow Bird was real quiet. Which was strange for him. Then he says, "I was waiting for Russell and Amir after school. Otherwise I would've been in there exactly when it happened."

Amir said, "We all could've been in there."

A roach ran across the step. Russell kept stomping it with his big foot.

T.T. said, "You got him the first time, man."

Then Dotty said, "Somebody did that little boy just like you done that roach."

Everybody looked at her. Dotty could say some crazy things sometimes. But in a way maybe she was right. Except that you was supposed to kill roaches. Otherwise they'd take over the city. Like they already took over 163rd Street. We all sat there quiet. Guess we was thinking about what Dotty said. Then'T.T. jumps up and yells, "I'm going to get a wrench and open the fire hydrant."

"Yeah," we said. "Turn on the hydrant."

Yellow Bird jumped in and got his clothes soaking wet. Russell sprayed water on the twins. I was screaming and popping water on'T.T.'s head. Even Amir put a can over the hydrant and sprayed passing cars. Then someone looked out the window and yelled at us.

"You kids crazy? Turn off that water. It ain't summer yet.

So we turned off the water and started singing. Mickey and T.T. began. They sounded kind of good. Then Russell did the bass part. I figured there was room for one more, so I jumped into the chorus. Dotty and Yellow Bird danced. Lavinia said, "Bird, you dance like a chicken pecking for worms."

Then'T.T. stopped singing. He said, "Doris, you got a good voice."

I smiled. "Thank you, T.T." That was one of my dreams—becoming a famous singer.

"Yeah, you got a real good voice, Doris. Good for calling hogs." Everybody laughed till they cried. I took off my shoe and tried to smack T.T. upside his head. Then Russell tried to hold T.T. so I could hit him. Mickey is singing like she in a opera house. Yellow Bird and Dotty still dancing like they got a hundred-piece band behind them. And Amir was sprawled all over the stoop laughing.

Someone opened their window and screamed down at us again.

"You crazy kids shut up all that noise!"

"No!" we yelled.

I guess we all went a little crazy that day. Crazy from trying not to think about a dead kid that could've been us.

After about a week, I guess, people wasn't so scared anymore about what happened to that boy. Even my mother let up a little, and didn't keep me a prisoner of the stoop. But we never found out who the boy was, or whether the person who did it was really caught. There was all kinds of rumors going around. I could still see the boy's face, though. I ain't gonna never forget that.

Me and Mickey and Dotty took the shortcut through the playground to school. We saw this little boy from the fourth grade. Dotty said, "That boy's teeth so big and buck it look like he got a mouth full of Chiclets."

Me and Mickey laughed. T.T. walked by and said, "You girls sound like three witches." Then I saw the spot where that boy was. Mickey said, "What's wrong with you? Don't pay that T.T. no mind."

"I ain't thinking about T.T.," I said.

"What's wrong then?"

"That's where that boy was."

"What boy?"

"Mickey, you forgot already? That boy who was shot."

"Why should I keep thinking about it? I didn't look anyway."

"Girl, you tricked me. You told me to go ahead and you didn't even look. It ain't right to be in here laughing."

"Girl, you crazy," Mickey said.

Dotty walked ahead of us, saying funny things about everyone she saw. But I couldn't laugh. I just hurried out the playground.

When I got to school the first people I saw was Yellow Bird and Big Russell and Amir. They was all excited because Big Russell was going to be voted captain of the team.

We had a special assembly. Hocks grinned so much I thought his big face would crack. Yellow Bird was voted best player. I couldn't believe it. I said to Mickey, "He's going to act simple when we get to class."

"Yeah. He'll probably throw a real basketball instead of paper, now."

But Bird shocked us all. When we went back to class after assembly he was quiet. He answered questions in science and English. We looked at him like he was crazy. Especially since he answered them right. Mrs. Brown was happy.

"I'm proud of your fine behavior today, James." (James was his other name.) "You see, class, it's never too late to improve."

The biggest shock came after school. Me and Mickey and Dotty was in the schoolyard after school watching the boys practice. You know I couldn't stay too long. But I was noticing how Big Russell didn't push Yellow Bird
and scream on him like he used to. And Amir was telling them what to do like he was the coach. Suddenly Yellow Bird stops and says, "I got to go to the library to study."

We nearly passed out laughing. Bird studying!

"I'm going to get Mrs. Brown's social studies award."

Russell said, "Bird, you don't know nothing about social studies."

"Yeah, that's when you go out on the ledge," T.T. said.

I looked at Yellow Bird. "He knows the Black history Mrs. Brown gives us. But that's all."

"The Black history part ain't even in them social studies books. Mrs. Brown give us that from her own self," T.T. said.

Bird looked at all of us. "I'm going to study." We passed out again.

"But Bird, it's already the middle of May. You don't even have a book."

"Bird, you still on the Revolution and Mrs. Brown's up to what's happening now."

Yellow Bird grinned. "I'll get some help."

"You beyond help," someone said.

Mickey looked at me. "Mrs. Brown always lets us catch up," she said.

"Mickey, that boy'll have to do social studies twenty-four hours a day to catch up."

"Mrs. Brown says it's never too late."

"It's too late for Bird. Maybe they'll make up a basketball award for him," I said, laughing.

Mickey got serious. "He could take the tests again and maybe he'll pass them this time."

"Mickey, I think you like Yellow Bird. Why don't you
help him?" She tried to hit me but I ran. She caught up with me at the corner. Amir, Russell and Yellow Bird walked ahead of us.

"Mickey, don't it seem funny to see them three boys together?"

"No. I ain't laughing."

"I mean, don't it seem funny to see them three hanging out together? It used to be Russell and Sherman. Now it's Amir, Russell and Yellow Bird."

"Yeah, I guess so. But I don't like what you said about me and Yellow Bird."

"I was just joking," I said.

Mickey put a little sly look on her face. "I think you like Amir," she said.

"I do not!"

"How come you always sitting on the stoop with him and talking?"

"I talk to the other boys too."

"But not as much as you talk to Amir."

I tried to give Mickey a whack upside her head. But she got away. I ran behind her all the way to 163rd Street. When we got to the block, we was surprised to see Sherman standing on the stoop. He had a boy from his new block with him. Big Russell and them was there too.

"I see you girls still running wild," Sherman said.

"We not running wild," I said. "I'm just trying to slap Mickey upside her head, that's all."

Sherman pulled Mickey. "Come here and let Doris knock some sense in you."

Everybody started laughing and talking at once. It was like we used to be.

Sherman was his old conceited self again. He sounded on everybody. Combed his big, fluffy Afro about five times and kept moving around so we could see his new pants. He told Dotty, "Girl, you got dandruff. Look like somebody been planting rice in your corn rows."

Russell laughed in his loud, rowdy way. Sherman looked around for his next victim. I was laughing and easing behind Big Russell's broad back at the same time. I didn't want Sherman picking on me.

Then Sherman yells, "Hey T.T., did you find out yet?"

"Find out what?"

"Where a basketball supposed to go?"

"Russell always be in the way; that's why I can't see the basket, man."

Russell swung at T.T. and I lost my cover. Sherman yelled again.

"Hey, Mickey." I relaxed; he was going to get on Mickey now. I started smiling.

"Mickey, where's stilts?"

Mickey laughed like a fool. "Who you mean? Doris?"

Sherman winked at me. "Doris, you all right girl. Someday the rest of us gonna catch up to you. "

"You think you so funny, Sherman," I said.

The only one he didn't tease was Amir. I got mad. I figured I helped Sherman as much as Amir did. He still picking on me, and that new friend of his is there laughing like he knows me. I sat on the stoop.

Sherman posed in the middle of the sidewalk with everyone around him. "I'll catch y'all later," he said.

I ignored him and his new friend. He came over to me. "Lonnie, this is Doris. You know, the girl I was telling you about? She like a sister to me. She helped
me out, man. She and that little dude over there with the light bulbs for eyes."

Then he did something that really shocked me. He bent down and kissed me on my forehead. Mickey would have to see.

"OooooWeeee, Amir, you better go get your woman. "

Amir smiled at me. I jumped off the stoop and chased Mickey down the block. Sherman hollered after us, "You can catch her, Doris. Just stretch them long legs."

I had to shut that Mickey's mouth. She knew good and well I didn't like Amir for no boyfriend.

The only person he didn't tease was Amir. Sherman just acted like he was real glad to see him. Sherman and his new friend seemed like they was real tight. After that visit we didn't see Sherman much. I guess he rather be with his new friends on his new block.

It seemed like the block changed a little after Sherman moved. Nobody on 163rd Street could think up the insults and names like Sherman did. You be mad when he picked on you. But it'd be real funny when he did it to someone else.

It was only a month before the end of school. Yellow Bird still tried to catch up so he could win the social studies award. He even played hookey one afternoon so he could stay home and study. He took all of Mrs. Brown's tests over and passed them, but he still had to take the last big exam. We all had to take that one.

When we got home from school Yellow Bird was on my stoop reading his social studies book. We all laughed—except Amir, of course. "Bird, you may as well forget it," Russell said.

"That bird brain of yours can't hold but one fact at a time," said T.T.

Russell laughed. "Bird, let me give you a little quiz. See how much you learned."

"Okay."

"When was the Declaration of Independence signed?"

"1676."

"Oh no, forget it," someone said.

Russell said, "Who was the second president?"

"Abraham Lincoln."

"Bird, you don't know nothing."

"That's the only two presidents them teachers talk about. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln," Bird said. Amir looked like he felt sorry for him. "Bird, I'll help you study for the test," he said.

"See, instead of laughing that's what you should be doing—helping him," I said to Big Russell.

"You laugh at Yellow Bird more than anyone else," Russell answered.

Amir and Yellow Bird went on down the street. We tried to imagine how Amir could help him.

Russell said, "Yellow Bird gonna drive Amir crazy. That boy played around so much his brain don't work no more.

Later that afternoon me and Mickey and Dotty was sitting on the stoop. Amir and Yellow Bird walked by on their way to the library. Mickey said, "I wonder how Amir get Yellow Bird to learn anything."

"Sure wish I knew."

"Let's go to the library and see what they do," Mickey said.