Radix had cultivated friendships with fellows on the block. In his opinion they
were harmless, unemployed young men who came down from hot summer apartment
buildings and lounged outside. It was convenient to do this on his stoop in the
morning out of range and angle of the sun; at nights they had not much to do, no
place to go.
Amarelle urged him to complain about the mess they made outside the door but
Radix felt sympathy for their oppressed condition.
They had a lot to say about Blackwelder. They considered him cool. He was
granted the status of Nigga, and what they said about him was prefaced by that
word which had Radix bewildered at first until they filled out the meaning.
Nigga's got crazy wheels – this in wild admiration of Blackwelder's car, a Cadillac
Deville with gleaming silver rims and spokes. He used it, not the van, when he
wasn't on the job. He'd show up sometimes wearing respectably stylish clothes,
and for awhile Radix worried about his leisure image; it wasn't a working class
hero image; more like a slumlord showing off the fruits of his slumlordism.
Nigga's cheap! – this in reference to Blackwelder's curious habit of picking up
pennies he spotted on the sidewalk. Pennies on the sidewalk, disdained because
only the desperately poor would reach down for them, were scooped up if they
caught Blackwelder's eye.("What's he say, no waste, no want?" one fellow joked?
"No, it's waste not, want not," another corrected.) They couldn't reconcile the
cadillac ownership with this rescue of pennies, which he did in casual manner,
almost as a gesture of keeping the sidewalks clean.
Nigga's got a white bitch! A shattering piece of news that Radix was first inclined
to dismiss as ridiculous until one evening Amarelle confirmed it. "There's a white lady
in the building," she announced breathlessly as Radix came in. "The landlord drove
up and this white lady came out and they went upstairs." Amarelle stared at him,
amazed again at his powerlessness, and now his ignorance; he seemed to have no
idea what was going on right under his nose, and now right over his head.
The fellows on the stoop didn't mince words. Blackwelder, they said, would
arrive late at night; he'd open the car door; the white woman would step out
hugging her dog, a Pekinese, and say hello to everyone in a southern accent.
Blackwelder got her bags from the car trunk, giving the fellows enough time to
clear off the stoop so the white lady could get inside.
They spent a weekend, no more, then left the building just before sunrise.
Bitch be walking 'round the house naked! Radix shook his head in disbelief and
the fellows amended the statement. She walked around with hardly any clothes
on, only panties; and fondling the dog; you could see her bare shoulders, breasts,
navel.
How could they possibly see? Up there nigga! They pointed to the roof of the
building across the street. You could see right in the dining room from up there.
Every kid on the block, they swore, knew about her. She'd stand at the window
in semi darkness late at night looking down at the street; petting the dog; all
exposed and shit.
(from Ah, Mikhail, O Fidel! by N.D.Williams, 2001)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 