Black Alley Read Free Page A

“Don’t even start!”
    Woooow ! On the bench, the members of the class sniggered, lifting their feet off the floor, covering their mouths with their hands: Akira, you’re gonna get it. We glanced at Sylvain: there was no question the Jap was going to get a beating. Sylvain was furious. He pounced on Akira and grabbed him by the collar.

    â€œWho was talking to you? Answer me!”
    â€œOkay, okay, I didn’t mean anything.”
    Cléo stepped closer to them, “Okay, I’ll tell you. But I don’t see what you think is so interesting about it.”
    Remember, Marcelo: all eyes were on Cléo. Again, you could hear water flowing through the urinals. Remember his childish face, his urgent desire to be accepted. Like you, on your first day. We’d all thought he was more mature than the rest of us. ¡Ay, Marcelito!
    â€œIn Haiti,” Cléo began, tugging on his T-shirt, “I used to go to see my grandmother a lot out in the country. My family and I would spend the night there. And since there was only one bedroom, I’d sleep in the same bed as my little cousins. That’s all. I told you there wasn’t anything interesting about it.”
    Laughter burst out around him. Some of the boys put their heads in their hands and shook back and forth, others hid their faces in a towel, still others pretended to beat their foreheads against the wall. Finally, everyone calmed down, and Sylvain came and stood, with his hands on his hips, puffing out his chest, a few centimetres from Cléo.
    â€œI don’t think you understood my question. I’ll try to be more clear. Have you ever put your dick inside your cousin’s pussy?”
    After snapping out the words, Sylvain ran a proud gaze around the room. Now, impassive, he waited for the reply, while the others giggled, and squirmed. You saw Cléo frown, like he was trying to figure out the meaning of the new words he’d just heard. His pupils darted about and he clenched his hands as if he was squeezing lemons. His face tensed: he was going to cry.
    Serge’s whistle rang out.
    â€œWe’re not done with you,” Sylvain warned, leaning over him. “We still have one more test to give you.”
    Oh, yes, the famous test, Marcelo. Remember your first day: c’mon, new kid, pull down your shorts. Your underwear, too, what do you think? You felt a tingling in your cheeks, as if a fine
rain was falling on your face. You forced yourself to hold back your tears so they wouldn’t laugh even more. At first, you didn’t understand what they were asking you to do. How could you understand, since you couldn’t grasp the words coming from their mouths like balls of fire. Then, it was like a revelation: you were supposed to pee from the bench to the urinals. Your stream reached the target. What luck! A salute of applause followed. What a baptism! Later, you witnessed what they did to anyone who didn’t succeed on the first try: they pissed on them, can you imagine?
    Swallowing their smiles, the boys formed a long line, began to trot in place and jogged out. As for Cléo, he didn’t appear in the playground until a little while later, and Serge motioned for him to come closer: come on, hurry up! A new boy showing up with his hands in his pockets wasn’t a good sign. He spoke to him for a moment, then the boy started jogging with the others. He performed the warm-up laps unenthusiastically. When Serge had his back turned, Sylvain and Evangelos, two boys who were inseparable, came up to Cléo from behind and hit him repeatedly on the neck: hey, Caramilk! Cléo would turn around and they’d shout at him, oh! you know your name! Each time the new boy started to laugh, leaving the other two speechless.
    Remember the beginning of that school year, Marcelo: it was September and already the sun only appeared on rare occasions. Now and then a cold wind blew, you could feel it on your