Miracle's Boys Read Free

dropping lower. “And all of us always marching in a line—to the bathroom, to grub hall, to yard time. No talking, just marching, marching. Say one word and the C.O.’s calling your last name and taking something away from you—no TV, no yard time, no rec hall....” He was still looking at that faroff place, but he was whispering now. “No you. No more.”
    I pressed my back into the wall, the white white walls Mama had painted to make our room bright, and tried to imagine my brother inside that stone place. The place he’d gone back to after Mama’s funeral. No Mama. No name.
    â€œWho that guy kill, Cha?” Aaron said.
    Newcharlie blinked and looked from me to Aaron like he wasn’t sure who we were or why we were there.
    â€œWho?”
    â€œThat guy David, yo. The one with the slipper spoon,” Aaron said. “What’s wrong with you, man? You’re like ‘beam me up’ or something.”
    â€œIt’s not deep, A. I’m just trying ... to remember ... all of it. Few days later David showed me the slipper spoon, only it wasn’t a slipper spoon no more. He moved it real light across his finger and one drop of blood came out. Reddest blood I’d ever seen in my life. I mean, he like barely touched his finger and that drop of blood was there. His finger was real pale, and that blood just stood out on it. All thick and red. I looked at that blood and knew the next person come in contact with that slipper spoon was never gonna hear the words ‘happy birthday’ again.”
    â€œWho he kill?” Aaron asked again.
    â€œYeah,” Newcharlie said. “I’d have to put David higher on the totem pole than other white boys.”
    Aaron grinned. “You ain’t gonna say ‘cause of Lala?”
    Newcharlie nodded.
    â€œI know he didn’t kill anybody,” I said. “I know the C.O. found that shoehorn under David’s pillow one day while ya’ll were out in the yard and David got sent off to another place—worse than Rahway.”
    Newcharlie gave me a dirty look. “That’s what you think, stupid. That’s what Ty’ree says to tell you, but that ain’t what happened. And since you think you know so much, I’m really not gonna say. I almost said, too. Then you had to go and open your fat mouth. That’s what you get, you little ...” I waited for him to say it, but he didn’t and I felt my stomach relax.
    He turned back to the mirror. Newcharlie was wearing a plaid long-sleeved shirt and baggy jeans. He unbuttoned the top button, then buttoned it again and checked himself out one more time.
    â€œYou ready?” Newcharlie asked.
    Aaron nodded.
    â€œThen let’s step.” He looked at me. “When Ty’ree gets home, you tell him we just left too, you hear me?”
    I kept staring out the window.
    â€œYour brother talking to you, man.” Aaron said.
    â€œYeah—I hear you.”
    â€œLater, Milagro killer.”
    â€œOh shoot.” Aaron laughed. “That’s cold, man.”
    â€œIt’s true,” Charlie said.
    I swallowed and looked down at my hands so Newcharlie wouldn’t see my eyes tearing up. I could hear the door slamming in the living room and him and Aaron running down the stairs, taking them two at a time the way they always did. A few minutes later I heard Newcharlie calling out to somebody. It was gray out. I stared at the sky and tried not to let his words sink in. I stared until the window blurred.
    â€œI didn’t kill her,” I whispered.
    Then I lay back on my bed and prayed it would pour down rain.

TWO
    OUR DADDY HAD BEEN A HERO. WHEN MAMA was still pregnant with me, our daddy was sitting in Central Park reading the paper. It was wintertime, but he liked to go over to the park and sit. He liked the quiet and the cold together. He liked the sound his newspaper made when he turned the pages in the wind.