Hard Revolution

“You can’t get away from me,” said De

“Punk,” said Derek.

“Call me that again and you’ll be lookin’ like one of them polio kids. They’ll be havin’ to fit you for some of them braces and stuff.”

“That’s enough,” said their father, his eyes on the TV.

Derek rolled De

“You like that, boy?”

“Like what?”

“You got your hand on my rod!”

They rolled into the hi-fi and laughed.

“I said that’s enough,” said Darius. “I ain’t even finished payin’ on that console yet.”

Darius Strange had bought the hi-fi and the television on time. He had first gone downtown to George’s, on 8th and F, but the salesman there, a chubby white man, had treated him with disrespect. When he walked in, Darius had heard Chubby laughing with one of his coworkers off to the side, talking about he was go

Like the car, he’d be paying on these things for a long while. Darius didn’t worry on it, though. He expected he was going to be working for the rest of his life.

“You gettin’ strong,” said De

“Bet I can take you soon, too.”

“You can try,” said De

“I’m gone.”

De

“Boy wrinkled my shirt,” said De

Darius Strange looked over at his older son. “You goin’ out?”

“I’m fixin’ to. Why?”

“Who you goin’ out with? That no-account I seen you with down on the Avenue?”

“Ke

“He ain’t look all right to me.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry. We just go

“Don’t be. You comin’ to church tomorrow morning with us, right?”

“I’m going to temple. There’s a service in the afternoon.”

“ Temple,” said Darius with a grunt. “You mean that place on Vermont Avenue?”

“Minister Lucius presiding,” said De

“He go

“The man is a disciple of Elijah Muhammad.”

“I know who that is.” Darius tapped the newspaper in his lap. “There’s an advertisement your man paid for right in here. Calls himself the Anointed Leader. Asking for donations, says he wants to build a hospital. Ain’t they got hospitals already in Chicago?”

“This one’s for our people.”

“Oh. If you so taken with him, why don’t you send him some of your money?”

“If I had any I would.”

“The man is just another hustler. He ain’t no better than any old pimp you see out here on the street. And he ain’t even Christian.”

“That’s the point. Jesus is the white man’s god.”

“Don’t let your mother hear you say that, boy.”

“Look, to me the Christian church is like that paper you readin’. Supposed to be for us, but it’s not. You see the ads they run in there?” De

“I got eyes. You might think I’m blind, but I am not. Things are changing slow, but they’re changin’. It ain’t all good in this world, but for right now, it’s what we got.”

“You just go

“You’re young,” said Darius. “Sooner or later you’re go

“You mean like last summer, when we went down to the shore? Remember when you got Jim Crowed, how you just went along? How’d you feel that day? How you think it made us feel?”

Darius had driven the family down to the A

“Things ain’t changin’ quick enough for me,” said De

“What march is that?”

“Youth March for Integrated Schools. They say twenty-five thousand strong go

“Mind what you get yourself into.”

“I know what I’m doin’.”

“You think you do,” said Darius Strange. “But y’all start rising up too hard, they go

“I ain’t worried.”

“Course not. Like I said, you’re young.”

In the kitchen, Derek Strange put the bottle of milk in the Frigidaire and went to the sink, where his mother stood washing dishes. There was a window over the sink, but at present it did not let in much light, as Alethea Strange had taped cardboard to the bottom panes. She did this so the humans in the kitchen would not scare the birds that had built a nest in the window frame outside.

“Hey, Mama,” said Derek, touching his mother on her hip.

“Derek,” she said, looking him in the eye. Sometime in the past year, her youngest had reached her height. “Anything special happen today?”

“Nothing special,” he said, thinking of the incident at Ida’s, wondering if he had just told his mother a lie. “How about you?”

“Oh, you know, just work.” Alethea moved a bottle of Kretol roach killer that sat on the sill and peeled back a corner of the cardboard on the window before her. “Look here, son.”

Derek leaned forward on the counter. A mother robin was feeding her babies in her nest. Three featherless heads were going after one half of a worm.

“Where the father at?” said Derek.

“He’s still around, I expect. He built the nest and now the mother is taking care of the kids. How we do around here.”

Derek nodded. His mother had told him this many times before. He watched her tape the cardboard back in place and leaned his back to the counter.

“Lydell came by,” said Alethea.

“Yeah?”

“Was looking to see if you wanted to go fishing up at the Home. Said he’d come back to pick you up in a little while.”

“Can I go?”

“Yes, but not for long. Sun’s go

“What movie?”

“I wanted to see that one, Imitation of Life, ’cause everyone’s been talkin’ about it. But you know your father; he said he wasn’t go