Joshua: A Brooklyn Tale Read Free Page B

you ain’t been going to school, and how you been hanging around that bad man. What have you been thinking? You wanna be a hoodlum like him? Are you that stupid?”
    Joshua stood there, mute and paralyzed, his right hand in his jacket pocket, clenching the envelope. “Now, you’re coming straight home with me, and you’re gonna stay there till I tell you!”
    “But Mama…”
    “Don’t you ‘but Mama’ me! You do what I tell you!”
    She took his arm and led him home. His right hand was sweating in his pocket, still grasping the envelope. Soon, Big Bob would begin to wonder where he was. Big Bob didn’t take kindly to anyone being late, especially with business.
    They came to the front door of their building, and Loretta dragged him up the stairs to their apartment. When they got inside, she pointed to his bedroom and said, “Now, you go on, and stay there till I tell you.”
    “But Mama, I have to…”
    “You do what I tell you!” she shouted. “From now on, you’re gonna go to school, do your work, get good grades, and stay outta trouble.”
    He stopped and looked at her, afraid to speak.
    She pointed toward the room again. “Now go on,” she said.
    He obeyed.
    From inside his room he heard her make a phone call. He held his ear to the door but couldn’t make out what she was saying. He thought about the envelope in his pocket. There was no window in his room, no escape, no way to get to Big Bob. He thought of telling her about the envelope, but decided it was a bad idea and would only make things worse. Who knows , he figured, she might even go to the police . Then he’d be in even deeper. He had to find a way out.
    After a few minutes, he heard her hang up the phone. A little while later, it rang. She answered it, talked some more, and hung up again. Then, after a half hour, it rang again. A short conversation. He thought for certain she was calling the police, and could feel his heart racing. If he was right, both their days would be numbered.
    He heard her footsteps coming towards his room, and stepped back as she opened the door. “Now you listen here,” she began, “and you best listen good. I want you to get all your clothes and stuff, whatever you got, and put it all in these bags.” She handed him four brown super-market bags—just about enough to fit what he owned. “You do this right now, you hear?”
    “Why I gotta do that?” he asked defiantly.
    “First, cause I say so. Second, cause I say so.”
    “You sending me away someplace?”
    “I’m taking you away someplace.”
    “Where?”
    “That’s none of your concern. You just do what I tell you!”
    “Who you been talking to on the phone?” Boldness.
    “That is also none of your concern.”
    “You ain’t been talking to the police, have you?” Anxiety.
    “There some reason I should be?”
    He paused. Silence.
    “I’m sure there is,” she said confidently. “But I don’t wanna hear about it. I don’t wanna hear nothing right now. You just start packing, that’s all.”
    “I don’t wanna go no place else!”
    “What you want don’t much matter.” With that, she turned and started walking out.
    “When we leaving?” he asked.
    “First thing in the morning.”
    Oh shit , he thought. What was he going to do now?
     
    It was the middle of the night. Loretta was asleep on the sofa-bed in the living room. Joshua got dressed, put on his jacket, and quietly opened the door to his room. Slowly, so the hinges wouldn’t squeak. But they always squeaked, and this time was no exception.
    “Who’s there?” Loretta asked from her bed. “Joshua, is that you? What’re you up to?”
    “Nothing, Mama, I’m just hungry.”
    “This is no time to eat, it’ll be morning soon. Get yourself back to your bed!”
    “Yes Ma’am,” he uttered, submissively turning back to his room. He closed his door, reached into his jacket pocket, took out the envelope, and stared at it, wondering what to do next. He would wait another