(continued)
“Well, we got off the bus. … You know, I don’t remember ever seeing a driver. … Well, anyway, we got off the bus and went looking for our mothers. Why weren’t they at the bus to meet us?
“We went looking around and didn’t see nobody, but we kept looking.
“Finally, we found our mothers. There were all standing with their backs to us. They had their arms folded across their chests, and they wouldn’t turn around.
“We cried out, ‘Mama! Mama! Mama!’ But they wouldn’t even look at us. There was something wrong with us, and they wouldn’t turn around.
“I was so busy trying to get my own mother to speak to me I didn’t notice the other women had got on the bus and left.
“There I was all alone with my mama who wouldn’t even look at me and I wanted so bad to get home.
“So I started running around, and I found this great big root, and I climbed up the root and reached the ground and clawed my way through to the surface.
“And way off in the distance I saw the house. I started walking, but the house kept getting further away. So I started running, but the house was still getting further and further away.
“Well, I just took a great big breath and heaved myself up into the air and flew – just like an eagle. I would not be kept from my home!
“It didn’t take long, either! I caught up with the house and flew in right through that window.”
“Mabel!”
“What?”
“The screen is broken!”
“Broken?”
“Yes! Broken! Just as if something – or somebody – came bustin’ through the window.”
“Now isn’t that strange!”
“As if I don’t have enough to fix up around here.”
“That sure is strange.”
“Well, go back to sleep, Mabel. I’ll fix it in the morning. … You and your dreams.”
“Good night, Walter.”
“Good night, Mabel.”
…
“Hmmph!”
“What’s the matter now?”
“Walter, I can’t believe the nerve of that woman!”
“Who are you talking about?”
“My mother! Why wouldn’t she talk to me?”
Lester Allyson Knibbs
(formerly Hakeem Muhammad)
September 15, 2001
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