The Cruisers

  No one raised their hands.

  “To clear the air we can now have any necessary comments or observations. Keep your comments brief and to the point!”

  Kelly Bena started toward the stage and Mr. Culpepper said she could make her remarks from her seat. She still came to the stage, stood at the mic, and turned toward the kids.

  “I don’t like to be accused of anything ugly or be associated with anything like being disrespectful to people. Maybe I should have spoken out when I saw what the Sons of the Confederacy published in The Palette, but I was trying to be cool because it could have been a freedom of speech issue. It’s also a human issue and we can’t separate it from our history.

  “Also, I don’t like the idea that the Cruisers didn’t just go after the ones who published the article even though I understand from Zander that it was difficult to pin them down. That’s all I have to say except I hope everyone has a nice day.”

  Alvin came up next.

  “I think everybody is still making too much of this whole thing. I’m not saying the Sons of the Confederacy shouldn’t have thought more about how people were going to take things, but I know that none of them are racists or anything. We were supposed to be back before the Civil War and we were putting our minds in that time frame.

  “I don’t know if you have to study history from one point of view. Maybe you can understand it better if you put yourself in someone else’s shoes and try to understand what was going on back then.

  “I’m sorry for the people I offended but I think it’s wrong of people to come down on me so hard when almost the whole country had some connection with slavery back in the day. I guess I’m not too sensitive a guy, but that doesn’t mean I’m a bad person. We should be able to talk about race and maybe even make fun of it. Or that might be in a perfect world or something, I don’t know. It’s, like, a hundred and forty-some years since the Civil War was over and I thought we could treat everything lighter. My bad, but I’m not a racist and I think that Zander should come up and deal with everything people are saying.”

  A lot of students turned toward me and it was one of those moments when I knew I should have put something down on paper. I hadn’t, but I was standing up and headed for the front.

  I was thinking hard and fast. The only thing really cool I came up with was that the Cruisers were supposed to have been peacemakers.

  Alvin was still at the mic and he held out his hand. I shook it and I heard some boos, probably from the Genius Gangstas.

  “Okay, so I would like to thank Mrs. Maxwell for giving us a chance to play a role in studying the Civil War,” I said. “I’d like to thank Mr. Culpepper, too. I knew it was hard on him not to come down on us, but he gave us some slack and that was cool. I would like to apologize to anybody that me and the Cruisers got uptight, because we have to own what we did, too. But I don’t think you can just throw spit, wipe off your chin, and say you were just kidding.

  “If you say something to somebody’s face or behind their back or on the Net or on the phone, you have to own it. And that means you have to think about it before it comes out. As for the Sons of the Confederacy, I have to say that you don’t have to think wrong to be wrong. Not thinking can be as hard as thinking wrong if it hurts people.

  “I’d like to thank the Cruisers for their support and how generally cool they are. I’d also like to thank the Genius Gangstas and all the kids who supported us.

  “Da Vinci is the Da Bomb!”

  I got some nice props, and when Mrs. Maxwell clapped even Mr. Culpepper put his hands together—once. Mrs. Maxwell came up to the mic next.

  “Well, haven’t we had an adventure?” she said. “I think we’ve all learned something very valuable. Because speech is free in America it is still very powerful and must be handled with caution. I think we’ve also learned that there are many issues surrounding the major events of history that make problem solving difficult.

  “I’m very proud of the fact that, although some tempers were pushed to a high degree, the issues were resolved in thoughtful ways. The debates were very similar to what occurred during the period before the Civil War.

  “I would like to thank those students who represented the Union, those who represented the Confederacy, and even those who represented other groups. The Cruisers’ peacemaking efforts did bring the arguments forward, but sometimes, as Mr. Culpepper suggested, there comes a time when we need to change the path of history. I hope part of your classroom instructions on the War between the States will also include some discussions about what happened with our little exercise. Lastly, I want you all to be very proud of yourselves. While there were disagreements, there was also a great deal of learning going on and it was handled with typical Da Vinci dignity. Thank you. Now, please return to your next scheduled period.”

  When we left the auditorium a lot of kids came up and gave me high fives. They hadn’t spoken up before but now they were in on it and I guess that’s the way things go. People who should be taking a stand won’t budge until they’re pushed into it. It was seriously lame but I didn’t say anything. I wondered what I would have done if it had been about somebody besides black people.

  If I had been white would I have spoken up? Was it really just about the principles or was it mostly about the personal hurt?

  Everybody was buzzing as if a thousand lightbulbs had gone off in their heads, and I was thinking it was easy being a hero when you weren’t really risking anything in the first place.

  In US History Mr. Siegfried gave the speech we all expected.

  “Most studies of the years leading up to the Civil War are notable for the fact that they move the human issues away from the center of the discussions. The statements of the Southern states declaring their reasons for leaving the Union talk about constitutional rights to own slaves and constitutional obligations of the Northern states to return escaped slaves, but they carefully avoid talking about the simple moral issues. Is it right to enslave a human being?

  “What happened was that a number of fantasies were created. The first was that Africans were better off as slaves in America than they would have been as free people in Africa. The second fantasy was that most people in the South believed in a Southern cause that included slavery. Most people in the South never owned a slave and didn’t want the war. The war made them victims of the slave trade.

  “This is not 1860, and we can’t turn back the clock to a different time and different mentality. In the final analysis I think the Cruisers did a good job in centering the issues.

  In theory they stopped the Civil War. Now for your homework assignment.”

  The groans flew around the room.

  “I want you to write essays about what would have happened if there actually had been no Civil War,” Mr. Siegfried went on.

  The Cruisers got a short round of applause at the end of the class and I felt good about the whole thing because we had stopped the bad feelings flying around the school, and we did get kids to work with us in the end, so it was mostly good. In the media center there were some other ideas.

  “I think we should have let Zander and Alvin fight it out,” Cody was saying. “Then we could see what the Zander man has going on.”

  “I think Zander would have won easy,” LaShonda said. “He’s got those long arms and everything.”

  “I still don’t know if this whole thing is settled,” Kambui said. “Because some people were talking in the auditorium and being all correct, but they were hanging out afterward and I think they were backing off and going back to thinking they were right, it was all light stuff.”

  We talked more about everything later when we were walking home.

  “Time will tell,” I said.

  “Time will tell?” Kambui stopped in the middle of the street and turned to me. “You got that from The Book of Lame Sayings?”

  Bobbi and LaShonda came over and we all exchanged high fives.

  “We are so together!” LaShonda said.


  “I think that even Mr. Culpepper has to admit it,” Bobbi said.

  I doubted that.

  When I got home Mom was crying again.

  “I just got off the phone with your father,” she said. “And?”

  “He’s having the subpoena dropped,” she said. “He said he was very upset about his conversation with you and thought that I was poisoning your mind against him and his new wife. He doesn’t want you going to Seattle.”

  “So I’m staying in Harlem.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So what you crying about?”

  “I always feel so bad when I talk with him,” she said. “You know that.”

  “Did you tell him you were going to be in a movie?”

  “I did, and I told him I was going to be making twice as much money as I am,” Mom said. “Why did you say that?”

  “To make him feel bad,” she said. “You think I should call him up and apologize for lying?” We both said “naaah!” at the same time.

  THE PALETTE

  A TIME TO LOVE …

  By Ashley Schmidt

  In thinking over the events of the last few weeks I was so very proud to see that Zander Scott and his merry band of Cruisers were able to bring about a settled peace between the proposed belligerents in the Civil War. I thought to myself how wonderful it would have been if Zander had been around in the 1850s. How many thousands of lives would have been saved, and how much heartache would have been prevented?

  But then in the middle of my personal celebration as a lover of peace I began to think that perhaps for hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans the war served a useful purpose. Through the Emancipation Proclamation and the subsequent Union victory, the grounds for the ending of slavery were established. As much as I hate war I believe it is preferable to being enslaved.

  Curled up in my bed while outlining an editorial praising the Cruisers, I came to the conclusion that Zander might have actually been wrong if they had really stopped the Civil War. The next question that came to mind was, how many other events that we now accept as either good or bad could be seen differently from another point of view? Perhaps there is a time to make love and a time to make war after all.

  Was the western expansion in the nineteenth century good for all Americans? Was the fall of the Roman Empire a universal disaster? How about the defeat of the Spanish Armada? Was the fall of the tsar of Russia really so wonderful? How about the war on drugs? Will the end of death, if we can ever achieve it, be the completely positive idea it seems to be? The Palette invites its readers to submit examples of historical events that might be viewed differently from a slightly altered perspective. The three most original (with suitable citations!) will be published in The Palette.

  Meanwhile, I still have to offer my congrats to Zander and the Cruisers.

  COMING UP NEXT … THE SECOND BOOK IN THE CRUISERS SERIES

  KING’S GAMBIT

  It’s one thing to rock the power of your pen; it’s another to crack a code. In the second book of the Cruisers series, the term “Gifted and Talented” takes on a whole new meaning for Zander and his friends.

  Here’s the beginning of how they roll in King’s Gambit.

  PICTURE PERFECT

  Yo, Kambui, I was thinking about Sidney,” I said. “I just can’t imagine him with a drug problem.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Trying to figure out Sidney Aronofsky’s problem,” I said.

  “No, I mean right now. You sitting at the table? You eating a sandwich? What are you doing?”

  “I’m lying on the floor right next to my dumbbells thinking maybe I’ll get to some exercises,” I said. “What you doing?”

  “I’m texting Zhade Hopkins,” Kambui said. “I’m thinking about asking her to go out with me.”

  “Zhade is too fine for you,” I said.

  “No, I think she digs me,” Kambui said. “I think you and I should go out with her and her sister. On a double date.”

  “Where do you want to take them?”

  “Never mind, she just texted me back and called me a frog,” Kambui said. “Why did she have to go there?”

  “Maybe she’s hoping to kiss you and turn you into a handsome prince,” I said.

  “I didn’t like her anyway.”

  Lie.

  “So, getting back to Sidney,” I went on. “I think he knows drugs are bad but he hasn’t really seen how bad so he’s, like, into some kind of movie version.”

  “What movie?”

  “I don’t know, man, some movie,” I said. “It’s like you see guys get shot in pictures and then the next day you see them on television talking about how good the film was. It makes the killing part not too bad.”

  “So you think we should get him some heavy drugs and let him OD or something?” Kambui asked.

  “This afternoon I told him that we wanted to publish a picture of a crackhead in The Cruiser,” I said. “I asked him if he could get us one.”

  “Look, Zander, I know you and Sidney are friends,” Kambui said. “But as far as I’m concerned he’s just weirding out. Maybe all that chess he plays has got his head twisted. You know—mad genius stuff.”

  “The guy’s a chess wizard,” I said. “Plus he’s a good guy and he goes to our school. I was shocked when he got arrested for buying marijuana. If he does come up with a picture I’m going to put it in The Cruiser.”

  “I don’t see how it’s going to help,” Kambui said. “But it doesn’t cost anything, so why not?”

  “I have to do something,” I said.

  “I got to get to my homework,” Kambui said. “I have fifteen thousand more pages to read.”

  “You think if I texted Zhade and asked her about us double-dating with her and her sister she might say yes?” I asked.

  “I wouldn’t even go out with her now,” Kambui said. “Where did she get that frog bit?”

  “That was kind of cold,” I said.

  Kambui said he had to finish his homework and would see me in school. When I had hung up it was easy to see that Kambui was more into Zhade then he was into Sidney’s problems. But Kambui was my main man and I knew he would be thinking about it. That’s the way he is. You say something to him and you think he’s forgotten about it and then two or three weeks later—bam!—he’s right back on the case.

  I was still lying on the floor when Mom came to the door and pointed to the cell phone she was holding. Somebody was calling for me and she wanted to know if I wanted to answer it. She put the phone behind her back and said it was a lady.

  For a wild moment I thought it was going to be Zhade. Zhade is so hot she can melt a Hershey bar from across the room by just looking at it. It wasn’t Zhade, it was Bobbi.

  “Hey, Zander, I’ve got the game with Powell all figured out.” She was chirping again. She does that when she’s happy. “I have four numbers. If we manage to get three of them we’ll win.”

  “The first number is one,” I said. “If we get one more point than the other team we’ll win.”

  “The first number is nine,” Bobbi continued, ignoring me. “One player has to get nine rebounds. The second number—”

  “Why nine?” I asked.

  “The second number is seventy. That has to be our free throw percentage.”

  “Where are you getting these numbers?”

  “Each number represents a phase of the game that we have to dominate,” she said.

  “You’re not playing, Bobbi,” I said. “We’re playing.”

  “I’m giving you the tools to win the game,” Bobbi said. “So it’s nine rebounds by one player, seventy percent of our free throws, the third is team assists—we need nine—and the last number is thirty-five. We need to hit thirty-five percent of our three-point tries. That’s it. What do you think?”

  “Bobbi, you don’t know diddly-squat about basketball,” I said.

  “Yeah, I do,” Bobbi said. “Because it’s really about numbers and percentages.”

&
nbsp; “So what do you think about Sidney’s problem?”

  “What do you think about my math solution?”

  “We’ll check it out when we play Powell Thursday,” I said. “And if we get those numbers and lose we’ll burn you at the stake.”

  “And if you win you can put a photo of me in the trophy case,” Bobbi said.

  “Can we get back to Sidney and chess?” I asked. “He’s the best chess player on our team,” Bobbi said. “I’m second board, John Brendel is third, and Todd Balf is fourth.”

  “I could probably beat all of you with my eyes closed,” I said.

  “In your dreams, baby,” Bobbi said. “In your dreams!”

  Okay, the basketball team, Bobbi, LaShonda, Kambui, and Ashley Schmidt from the school newspaper, The Palette, went to 128th Street and Amsterdam Avenue to play against Adam Clayton Powell. On the way, Bobbi kept passing around her numbers.

  “Zander, you have to get the nine rebounds,” she said. “You’re the tallest.”

  “The secret to basketball,” Coach Law said, “is having the will to win. Without that will you’re going to lose.”

  “Numbers don’t lie,” Bobbi said. “Numbers are a way of God slipping the truth to us on the QT.”

  “Spoken like a true young lady,” Coach Law said.

  “Spoken like a sexist basketball coach,” LaShonda said.

  Coach Law grinned.

  Adam Clayton Powell Academy’s basketball team was okay but I didn’t like them because the whole school thought they were hot stuff. They had had Mae Jamison come up to the school once, and President Clinton and some author from New Jersey, so they thought they were special.

  “Can you get nine boards?” Cody asked me.

  “Yeah.”

  “If you keep crashing the boards you’ll get fouled,” Cody said. “I’ll drive more down the lane so I should pick up a couple of fouls, and the whole team will work on assists.”

  Coach Law kept talking about the will to win and Cody kept looking at Bobbi’s numbers. I was wondering if Cody was going soft on Bobbi. Ashley had a copy of Bobbi’s numbers, too, and she wanted to write them up in The Palette.