Because We Are Read Free Page B

from her forehead and the pout from her lips.
    How pleased she was that he was there. She recalled her first day at Manning when he had walked up and told her his name. “You look so scared. Don’t be. I’ll help you, if you let me.” He became her ace, her very special friend.
    Over the weeks, as they waited for the crowd to arrive, they had shared bits and pieces; but she had never told him why she came all the way across town to Manning. He knew she was a science major, interested in medicine; that she had a very special boyfriend at Marlborough High; and he knew about her stepmother, too. She knew his mother had lost her job as a school cafeteria worker because she could not pass the written test, and that his father was dead.
    As she approached, he smiled his slow, easy smile and said, “It’s a good morning, eh?”
    She sighed. “Oh, man. I can’t deal with my mother. Git sick of her lip. But I shouldn’t say that. She has it pretty tough. It’s a drag driving way over here every day.”
    â€œI’ve been wondering why you come way over here. Can’t be an opportunity transfer. Not from Marlborough to Manning.” He laughed.
    â€œCould be,” she said matter-of-factly.
    â€œBut not likely,” he said.
    Silence floated between them. She was glad that he did not pursue the question. She took out her makeup kit and began replacing her makeup.
    â€œWhy put all that goop on your face?” Allan asked.
    â€œYou sound just like my mama,” Emma retorted.
    â€œWith skin like wild honey, you don’t need it. You’re a pretty lady.”
    She opened her lively, bright brown eyes wide and brushed on mascara carefully. She touched her fingertip to her tongue, then smoothed her eyebrows. She looked at Allan and winked. “My friends at Marlborough like my makeup.”
    â€œHey,” Allan said excitedly, “now I’ll get a chance to meet those friends at the big game, eh?”
    â€œYeah. They’ll be here, and Marlborough will be state champions, what you bet?”
    â€œThat’s not even a bet, woman,” Allan said and laughed.
    â€œWe’ll see,” Emma said and blotted her lipstick.
    The crowd was arriving now. Emma remembered her first day at Manning. Right off she noticed the absence of white students. With the exception of a few Asians, Chicanos, and Mexican-Americans, the student body was Black. The discovery was a pleasant shock. At Marlborough, Blacks had been few. Emma had known and related, in some way, to all of them. It was impossible to get to know half the people on this campus.
    The crowd thickened. Each group stood off by itself. Blacks split into many small groups.
    â€œThese people you see in and out of the building before the bell are the boojeis ,” Allan said.
    â€œBoojeis”?
    â€œThe well-to-doers, the rulers, functionaries, police people.”
    â€œOh, you mean the bourgeois.”
    â€œRight. On campus over there, that’s Carrie and her entourage, the climbers —the want-to-be rulers; and to my right holding forth, is Brenda, a typical survivor. ”
    â€œWho’s the stout girl she’s talking to?”
    â€œThat’s Liz. They’re all rough—trying to make it.”
    Emma was surprised that he thought that way about students. Allan went on. “Then there are the toms , laughing at demeaning jokes or begging for attention at any cost.”
    â€œWhich one are you?” Emma asked.
    â€œI’m a loner, swimming against the tide. I observe.”
    â€œI can’t say I’m a loner, but it looks as though newcomers are no more welcomed here than they are at Marlborough.”
    In every group, excitement about the football championship game between Manning and Marlborough dominated the conversation. Emma, on the fringe, longed for her old friends and wondered if she would ever be a part of any of these groups.
    The bell rang. She