Virginia Hamilton (21 page)

There among the hedgerow’s thousands of leaves she saw heads, a shirtfront, trouser legs. Faces, wary and pale, peeked and watched them make their way toward the row by the fence. They made her gasp in shocked surprise; it was like a scream in the stillness.

Thomas shoved her violently forward, furious at her noise, nearly knocking her down. Her arms flailed wildly until she regained her balance.

“If you don’t quit!” Hardly a sound he made on the air.

Justice took a deep breath and held herself in. Levi had her firmly by the arm now. But she shook him off and scrunched her shoulders high so she wouldn’t do anything else wrong.

At the edge of the row, they slipped through the young, volunteer trees. There was dampness covering these morning trees. Yet Justice sensed that, over all, the hedgerow was quite dry. It came to her that, high up, leaves were turning brown and yellow, with fall still many weeks away.

I’ve lost, she thought, as she followed within the row. Hard, horizontal branches were arms of night reaching.

Her face flushed and she lowered her head to hide the shame, from trees, from boys, of having just one snake.

Quickly, now, The Great Snake Race began.

Up and down the row, under the stately arch of trees, boys stood at the ready by their lantern pails of snakes. Every boy held on to the branch above his pail. Each stood still and at full attention. Justice, seeing Levi take his place, took her place near him, with her knapsack hanging from its branch to the right of her head. She could not hold on to a branch as the others did without leaping up and hanging there by one arm. So she stood still where she was, arms to her sides.

Thomas hung there before them; had swung himself up onto a horizontal branch that rocked up and down from his weight. To Justice, he was a picture of Levi that someone had deliberately bent and creased and then taken a crayon to.

She noticed Dorian way down the row, looking small and far away. And had a vision in which he and the others were petrified figures of stone with dust filtering down on them from the vaulted height of the row.

She blinked rapidly. Saw dawn filter through the osage line and there was hardly any dust here within the heavy trees.

Thomas raised his arm straight up. Boys stood rigidly, without moving a muscle. Levi’s attention was riveted on his identical. And for Justice, Thomas was the negative to the certain, clear image of her favorite brother. Thomas was light reversed. Shade, never to develop.

Thomas let his arm swoop down. At once, boys lifted down their containers from the branches.

Justice did the same.

Boys faded out from the row with Justice following.

Outside, it was sun-up with no coolness about it. Even the rising twitter and melody of birds seemed to sizzle. There was the rushing momentum of a few cars far down on Dayton Street.

Early Saturday, with most folks sleeping late. They would stir about nine. Fathers, robed and slippered, would then head for dens to wait for breakfast. On Saturday morning, few women slept late to be waited on. Mrs. Douglass was one of the few. She need not awaken before ten; her breakfast would be ready around ten-thirty. Sausage and silver-dollar wheatcakes. Juice and coffee. It had been so for as long as Justice could remember. She and her brothers would eat when they had a mind to, with Levi fixing, usually. This on any normal Saturday, which was every Saturday when there wasn’t to be a Great Snake Race.

Now boys stayed close to the hedgerow for protection against the open field, bright with light. The Dayton Street houses looked back on the field; anyone awakened early would notice the boys and Justice crouching. Because of this, they were self-conscious, Justice particularly, and they scrunched low, backs to trees, to make themselves smaller.

Thomas motioned them into a circle there at the side of the field. It became a tight circle, with Justice squeezed in with Levi on one side of her and Dorian on the other side. Boys didn’t look at one another or at her. Their line curved away on both sides from Levi and Dorian to Thomas on the opposite side of the circle from Justice. Boys sat on their heels and so did Justice. They had their containers, and Justice, her knapsack, held close in their arms.

Thomas made a motion—a quick flip of his hand with index finger touching the ground.

Boys instantly set their containers in front of their knees. Justice set down the knapsack, holding firmly to the drawstrings. Boys settled back, stiff and straight; Justice had to lean forward somewhat, feeling a need to keep hold of her sack.

With head lowered, Thomas eyed the circle. “Slick,” he said, in a sudden, soft hiss.

Slick Peru opened his peanut-butter container and turned it over. Boys leaned into the circle as snakes, stunned, began to writhe frantically in every direction.

“Sixteen,” Slick said, “I counted ’em when I first put ’em in the bucket.”

“Really?” Levi said, mildly surprised by the high number. Boys were snatching up snakes as the creatures crawled near them, and dropping them back into Slick’s pail.

“Sixteen,” agreed Talley Williams.

“Got it,” said Levi. Justice didn’t see him write it down. But she supposed when you got to be thirteen, you could remember most anything.

The Great Snake Race continued around the circle. Boys turned over their containers on the ground and called out their numbers of snakes after Thomas called their names: “Fourteen. Twelve. Ten. Fifteen—darn!”

After all of the boys’ snakes had been collected again and put back in their separate containers, Slick Peru said softly, joyfully, “I win it! I win it! I mean, I think …” His voice trailed off as he became aware, realized—they all did, at about the same time—that Thomas had not called on Justice.

She had been trying to remember whether Dorian had ten or eleven snakes. She couldn’t keep the numbers and boys straight to save her. And it dawned on her that the circle had grown quiet. Save for Thomas, all of the boys were staring at her.

The sun beat down, hot as blazes. Up there was a visible yellow-brown color of air-pollution sky. Was it fumes or earth dust from fields? Justice wondered. The top tier of the hedgerow was clearly discolored from dust or a serious lack of rain.

“Here, let me help you,” Levi said to her, as though perhaps Thomas had told her something that she hadn’t heard.

Levi loosened the drawstring of her knapsack. Justice felt the heat rise in her face and wished to be gone, anywhere but here. Having only a single snake was a pain, an awful pressure of embarrassment. She stole a look at Dorian. He played with his fingers, but he didn’t seem to be made uncomfortable by her. He was ever keen and curious.

Justice had her face turned away from the circle. Without looking, she knew when Levi opened the knapsack and let her fine, large snake loose.

Oh, hadn’t it been the perfect snake for a Great Snake Race!

Tears welled in her eyes. She swallowed and gritted her teeth, forcing them back.

So burning hot, I’ll faint.

But she didn’t faint. Cringing inside, she held herself stiffly in the circle.

The silence went on and on. Boys studying her ridiculous snake. She knew they had to be laughing, their hands over their mouths. And she was about to die, like a fool.

On and on, the silence.

Until there were murmurings, whisperings— “thirteen … fif … sixt …”

Boys slurring all kinds of numbers: “twenty-one, two, three …”A sudden tension and excitement in the air.

Justice swung her head around. Her jaw dropped; she sat stunned, her eyes huge, as boys still counted. “I don’t believe it!” she squeaked.

“Thirty-nine, forty,” Levi finished. “Who gets any more?”

“I get forty-one,” Dorian said.

“I’m not finished, wait!” It was Talley, the most active counter after Levi.

Justice giggled, squealed softly. Eyes moist and bright, she hugged her arms around herself.

The grass in the circle flowed with crawling, perfect creatures. They were thin as rubber bands and only inches long. Down to their tiny serpent tongues, they were the exact stripe and coloring of the mother, the thick, large snake that Justice had so bravely captured.

“There’s no rule I know of against having lots of babies,” Levi said, about to burst with happiness. “Tice, I guess you win The Great Snake Race!”

“Whoopee!” she whispered, at last remembering to keep her voice down.

“Man!” boys whispered back.

“Shoot!” And laughter.

To her surprise, the boys didn’t appear to mind that she had won. The whole thing had been such a comic shock.

“Man, a pregnant snake!” Slick said, and laughed again. “I thought they laid eggs.”

“They do lay eggs,” Levi said, “but inside their bodies, and they hatch inside, too.”

“Man, I bet Ticey knew it all the time!”

She tried to look as though she had planned the birth of babies down to the best moment. She had learned from Thomas, and had promptly forgotten, that garter snakes birthed live babies.

Dorian grinned at her. Boys were looking at her admiringly. They good-naturedly handed over handfuls of tiny creatures. And Levi gingerly handled the sluggish mother snake to place it at the bottom of the knapsack.

“We need to get all of them back to the Trace soon,” he said.

Justice was calming down. She listened to Levi and the other boys and had a sense of wonder at being accepted for the first time. She guessed a pack of boys was not much different from a bunch of girls. It was just harder getting their attention.

It hadn’t occurred to her that they’d all have to take the snakes back.

Why not let them loose in the hedgerow? she wondered. No, because there’s not enough water and it’s not their home.

She had a vision of snakes let loose, slithering away down Dayton Street, clear across town and down the country road to the Quinella Trace. Cars screeching to a halt as the snakes slunk by. They would surely make one great snake race.

There was someone with her. Justice had a sudden notion that someone snide and unpleasant was sitting with her, inside her skin. She had no time to fear. No sooner had she noticed it than it commenced fading. She felt righteous anger at someone with her, uninvited. And sensed that it had intruded before. Having no experience, she reached out awkwardly with her will to catch it unawares.

Justice made contact. She grabbed hold of it inside and instantly felt its meanness and fury like searing heat. It fought her. They struggled; she sensed danger, but still she had no fear. She knew only that it was wrong for it to invade her mind. But finally she was forced to shield herself from its seething power. In furious triumph, it slipped away. Justice was left with a coolness inside.

Something is new.

Seeing the circle again—Levi and the boys. Only seconds had passed, if time had continued at all, in which Thomas across from her had made no impression on her. He had become a blank, as if he had gone away somewhere. Now Justice saw him again and gave him the faintest nod.

Something.
She reached for him clumsily with her will.
I am knowing, Thomas.
Once more, she made contact with unpleasant heat.

Well, fer … Look who’s here! You dumb, stupid girl, finally caught on,
Thomas traced.

Thomas, it was you, wasn’t it?
she traced, but Thomas ignored her.

Lee? Didn’t I tell you she had extrasensory just like us? I
knew
she had it.

Once called, Levi was made aware of Justice within Thomas’ mind.
Ticey!
he traced.

Levi!
She willed herself over to Levi’s brain.
Excuse me … entering without asking …

It’s okay,
he traced.

I am … something.
Awkwardly, Justice gathered power and skill to trace:
I am … new!

Oh, fer
—
Will you listen to her drivel, fer Chrissakes!
Thomas traced.
And no girl as dumb as her wins my Great Snake Race. Lee, you hear me? Slick wins it, I say so, and we give him a prize of something under five bucks. You better tell him, too, ’cause if you don’t, I’ll boil your brains!
His face grew dark in an explosion of rage.

Levi had a sickening, outrageous sensation that his brain rested in a pot over a fire as yet unlit.

Thomas turned his burning eyes on Justice. She felt unknown forces, new, gather inside her to protect her. Closing Thomas out, she projected a warning to Levi, urging him to say nothing to Slick Peru.

Give me some time,
she traced to Levi.
I think … I am … not …
With an indescribable feeling of becoming new.

Levi was numb with fear. It had all happened too fast and he’d had no time, even, to be amazed at the surfacing of Justice’s power. But the shock of discovering her in his mind was as disturbing as the illusion of his brain in a pot of water set to boil. If he told Slick, he might bring down Justice’s wrath; for he had no way òf knowing whether her power was a gift or, like Thomas’, a punishment. And if he didn’t do as Thomas had commanded, he knew exactly what Thomas would do to him.

Thomas added vegetables to the pot and seasoned the brain stew with fine herbs. Thomas lit a foot-long match.

Levi opened his mouth to tell Slick he had won.

No!
Justice traced to Levi. Gracefully, she rose to her feet. Boys gave her their full attention, as though suddenly she had grown tall. They watched as she gathered up her knapsack full of snakes and cut straight across the circle past Thomas.

I win it,
she traced to Thomas.
I
’
ll lead the boys back to the Quinella.

You think. You dumb … Not on your bloody life, you won’t!
he traced back.

They’ll follow me.
Justice made her way smoothly, easily, over to her bike.

Boys got to their feet, clutching snake pails, all eyes on Justice. In their eyes, she was still somehow less than a boy. But she had been smart enough to win The Great Snake Race fair and square. Wasn’t that something! Justice and a pregnant snake! They figured she was on her way back to the Quinella. They’d tag along and empty out their own snakes. Why not?