She started climbing slowly hand over hand and I-Man signaled for me to follow which I did and then he came along behind me peering kind of wild-eyed from side to side and behind him as if any minute he expected the marines to come roaring into the lot back there and start firing at us with M-16s or something. I guess the illegal alien business was a more serious offense than I’d thought on account of it being a crime against society instead of an individual person or store like with stealing and the other kinds of illegal stuff that were in my range of criminal acts. With the blasts from the fireworks getting louder and louder I could almost see his point, it did sound more like an invasion or some kind of heavy military action was going on than a celebration and maybe the roof of the supermarket was the safest place in town.
We climbed over the top and crunched across the flat gravel roof with I-Man crouched over and in the lead taking us to the front where we settled down behind a low concrete wall there with a perfect view of the parking lot below and the rest of the mall beyond all washed in this pale orange light. There was no traffic on the roads and only a few cars down there in the lots and no pedestrians that I could see which made it a strange lonely scene like from a science fiction movie when everyone drives out of town to see where the flying saucers’ve landed and somehow we get left behind all alone.
After a minute or two I-Man started to feel safe I guess and he relaxed a little and we began watching the fireworks going on down by the lake which we could see pretty good from up there. Actually we had probably the best seats in town. They were shooting up the big red, white and blue dazzlers now with the long whoosh as they go up and the big sprays of color across the dark sky and the huge booms like thunder after, over and over again the same way but with different sprays of color, gold and green and bright blue and pink and yellow even, until it was obvious even to I-Man now that this wasn’t a military action out to round up all the illegal aliens in town who probably numbered no more than ten if that.
Later on of course I learned that I-Man was basically right though not on that particular night but it was a good idea to always find yourself a safe hiding place whenever you hear what you think might be gunfire because it generally is gunfire and if there’s more than one or two shots there’s usually more than one or two guns and if there’s more than one or two guns then it’s probably the police or the army shooting people. And the people, as I-Man would say, is we. I learned it in Jamaica later on but that July night in Plattsburgh I-Man knew it already and I didn’t yet or I probably would’ve panicked just like him.
After he’d calmed down some though I told him about most of my conversation with Froggy’s mom and revealed to him Froggy’s real name which he liked as much as I did.
De name irie, mon. Fe trut’, mon, you never was no frog in de firs’ place, he said to her. I-and-I know dat. Bone know dat too. You a rose, mon. Like de famous Rose of Rose Hall in Jamaica, de ’oman who kilt all she deadly enemies an’ she lovers wi’ obeah him got from Africa. Gone from bein a Froggy to bein a Rose, mon, an’ dat de way fe come to know I-self more properly and move more to de true depths of I.
He smiled down into her somber face and said, Excellent! which was an expression he’d picked up from me and was using now whenever he could fit it in which was cool because I’d been picking up a lot of little phrases and words from him and needed to feel useful to him once in a while in exchange. Although I knew that his way of talking was much more interesting than mine of course and he was only being polite. Still, I always got a little hit when he said things like Ex-cellent! and Yes-s-sss!
I told him how I’d agreed to send Rose back to her mom in the morning and he looked a little skeptical at that with one eyebrow cocked and his lips pressed together and didn’t say anything one way or the other. It’s for the best, I said.
Mus’ be, he said.
You think so too, don’t you, Rose? I asked but it wasn’t really a question and she knew it. She just nodded up and down like she was obeying me instead of saying what she really thought.
Check it out, I-Man said then using another one of my trademark expressions and meaning for us to view the fireworks. They were really filling the sky now and it looked like Star Wars or something, more like the birth of the planet than the nation with these huge blasts like supernovas going off and spreading out in circular waves of red and orange and purple and then boom-ba-booms in long spine-rattling chains. Great draping clouds of smoke hung down like gray rags and you could see the bright roofs of the whole town spread out below and the trees of the lakeside park all lit from above like from flares and out on the lake you could see the fireworks reflected off of the water where way beyond in the darkness was the city of Burlington, Vermont. And if you squinted you could see the Vermonters’ fireworks going up into their darkness too. Further down along the shore on the far side of the lake you could see the fireworks from the smaller towns and harbors and boatyards and on the near shore to the south along the New York side of the lake there were fireworks going off at Willsboro and the people of Westport were shooting rockets into their version of the same darkness as we had over us. And even inland back up by the Adirondack Mountains we could see the pale yellow glow and the red and blue and silver pulsations of the fireworks from Lake Placid and over in Keene where I figured Russ must be watching with his Aunt Doris and Uncle George and his cousins, and back along the valley in Au Sable where they were shooting off their fireworks at the ballfield I knew my mom was in the stands with some of her friends from work maybe or my grandmother and all saying Ah-h-h! and Oh-h-h! when the rockets went up and splashed the bright beautiful colors across the darkness. And my stepfather was probably there too, although I knew he’d be hanging around with his beer buddies in their plastic and aluminum folding chairs talking about teenaged pussy and putting down kids generally while he kept an eye peeled for a cheek-shot under some girl’s cutoffs or a glimpse of kiddie tit and thought his ugly thoughts without anyone but me knowing them and me far far away, and all he could hope was for me to be dead or gone forever.
Early the next morning I woke up before Rose and I-Man and took a little string bag that’d come with onions in it originally and filled it with stuff for Rose to take with her, a clean tee shirt and Mr. Ridgeway’s wool sweater in case the bus was cold and some miscellaneous food, mostly fruits but a jar of Ital stew and a couple of pieces of dreadnut pudding too. I didn’t know how long it was going to take to get to Milwaukee by bus, two or three days maybe, a long time anyhow and she’d be hungry so I figured she’d enjoy having the kind of food with her that she was used to and that way wouldn’t have to go into any bus stop restaurants if she didn’t want to because those places can be creepy for a little girl late at night.
I also put some extra cash into the bag. I wrapped in a sock the small bills I had from yesterday after buying a pack of cigarettes plus another fifty which I was thinking might possibly end up buying her a few new dresses but probably wouldn’t. Still, it was worth the gamble.
Pretty soon I-Man was up and had a fire going and breakfast was ready, hard-boiled eggs and bananas and Zion juice and then Rose was up and wearing her traveling clothes which were her old red dress nice and clean and her sandals and a Montreal Expos baseball cap that I-Man’d given her a few weeks ago and I’d shown her how to curl the brim and wear it in back so it looked cool. We all ate very quickly without saying much until it looked like it was around eight and I said, Well, let’s go, Rosie, and I handed her the bag.
Rose, she said. Don’t call me Rosie.
No sweat, I said and explained to her about the money in the sock, how it was hers and no one else’s and she should use it any way she wanted or needed to and not to give it over to anybody not even to her mom although I was thinking especially not her mom.
She said thanks and all and then I-Man came over and gave her a long hug and a kiss on each cheek like she was his daughter going off to visit relatives for the summer and in a real low voice he said to her,
One love, Sister Rose. One heart. One I. Heartical, mi daughter.
She nodded like she understood and then took my hand and we walked off leaving I-Man standing behind us at the fire watching. We got about halfway across the field and I turned around and looked back and saw him still standing there with his hands down at his sides and all of a sudden a thought entered my mind that was like a radical thought and completely unexpected. At the same instant I-Man raised both his hands to the heavens as if giving praise and thanks to Jah, like he knew my thought.
Wait here, I said to Rose. I’ll be right back.
I ran back to the schoolbus and rushed inside and grabbed my backpack and shoved all my loose clothes and other items inside it like the flashlight and CDs and my stuffed bird with Buster’s money that had been hanging around on my mattress and came back outside with it.
I-Man had this wide smile on his face when he saw me and his hands on his hips. So, Bone, you goin to trampoose off to Milwaukee Wisconsin wid Sister Rose. Dat be real irie, little brudder.
No, I said. Not that, man. She’ll be okay without me. No, I think I’m gonna go home too. Like Rose. I need to see my mother too, I said. You know what I’m saying?
Irie, Bone. Dat be real irie, he said but he could use that word irie a hundred different ways just like he could use the word I and this was almost sarcastic mixed with a little sadness and surprise.
I didn’t know how to answer him so I just said, Thanks. Thanks for everything, I mean. You really taught me a lot, man. That’s actually why I think I can like go back home now. On account of what you’ve taught me. I think I can face my mother and my stepfather even and figure out what they want me to do and like do it. I just got to go there, man, I said to him like it was an explanation and maybe it was. Me and Sister Rose are sort of alike, I told him.
Brother Bone and Sister Rose, he said.
One heart, one love, right?
Yes, mon. De trut’. One I.
You want the rest of Buster’s money? I said and reached into my pack for my woodcock and the roll of bills.
No way, mon. Keep it. Dat fe you own self, mon. I-and-I can make plenty money pushing carts at de market, he said grinning and he showed me a handful of quarters which I guess was all he really needed out here, especially with me and Rose gone.
Well, thanks, I said. I reached out my hand and we shook hands in a power grip and then I was running back over the field toward Rose and this time I didn’t look back because I was afraid I’d start crying if I did.
CHAPTER TEN
HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN, JIGGETY-JIG
I didn’t think of it until we actually got there but me and Rose must’ve looked a little weird that morning at the Trailways station, Rose in her Little Orphan Annie dress and Expos cap and me in one of I-Man’s trademark Come Back To Jamaica tee shirts and the baggy cutoffs I’d made from old Mr. Ridgeway’s lime green pants with the red anchors on them and the both of us walking on I-Man’s fantastic homemade tire sandals. Plus in those days I was into wearing like a doo-rag on my head made out of one of those red farmer’s handkerchiefs that I found one morning in the Sun Foods parking lot and took it home and washed it up and dried it and I-Man showed me how to tie it around my head the same as a lot of cool black dudes do for keeping their hair from burning red in the sun, he said.
No problem for me, I told him since my hair was already on the reddish side anyhow.
But I-and-I got to have a lid fe protect him brain from de sun, he said, an’ to heat it up fe when de air come cold an’ wet. White man or black man, de brain be de key to de whole structure of I-self, an’ if it not too hot an’ not too cold, it be cool an’jus’ right, an’ de res’ of I-structure be cool an’ jus’ right as well, no matter how de sun him go an’ him come.
At first I thought the doo-rag made me look like a cancer kid covering up his baldness on account of my head being big for my body which was kind of on the scrawny side but then I got into it like I was a Crip or a Blood from L.A. only the white kid from Plattsburgh, New York version and after that I almost never took it off day and night. Plus it went pretty good with my crossed bones tattoo I think which I liked to show off by doing many small tasks with my left hand that I used to do with my right. I-Man said using the off hand was good for me anyhow, that it’d improve my mental balance. So when I bought Rose’s ticket to Milwaukee I naturally held out the money with my left hand and the ticket guy saw my tattoo and said, Nice tattoo, kid, real sarcastic, and then, Jesus, you kids today. I was gonna say something like fuck you, man, but didn’t since it meant the guy didn’t give us any shit after that because basically he didn’t want to look at us like he would’ve if he’d felt sorry for us instead of pissed at my tattoo.
It was maybe an hour while I waited there beside Rose on a bench for the bus to Albany where she’d switch for the Chicago bus and after that she’d have to change again for Milwaukee. She was real quiet and nervous and I hoped she wasn’t mad at me or anything but I didn’t know how to ask if she was without sounding stupid or making her worry about what she was doing even more than she already was so I just sat there and didn’t say anything either, until finally the bus pulled in from Montreal and a few minutes later they announced all aboard for Albany.
There were only a few other people getting on with her, a couple of air force guys and a little old lady saying goodbye to her son and daughter-in-law it looked like. The old lady was normally white for someone her age but her son who kept his arm around her to show her he still cared while he watched the clock for her to leave was the whitest guy I’d ever seen, short pure white hair and beard and eyebrows and eyelashes, pale blue eyes, pink skin, like he had a pigmentation deficiency disease or something and his tall skinny wife looked like that movie actress with the short hair, whatzername Jamie Lee Curtis but the little old lady seemed nice enough so I was hoping she was going to Chicago or maybe even all the way to Milwaukee too and could kind of help take care of Rose.
Get a seat next to Grandma, I whispered to Rose and then I walked up to Mister White and said loud so he and Jamie could hear, Be careful now, sis, and remember what Pop said about don’t talk to strange men or anything.
She traveling alone? Whitey asked. He was wearing raspberry pink pants and a white polo shirt which didn’t help to cut the glare. Also he had a diamond stud in one ear which was cool but definitely not normal. The wife was wearing this long jean skirt and a striped tee shirt and a duck-bill cap that said Mountaineer on it and looked fairly normal so I was more drawn to her than him but he was obviously the boss.
Yeah, she’s alone, I said. Going home to Milwaukee, to be with our mom. I live with our dad.
No kidding, he said. Where’s your dad?
Drives a schoolbus. Can’t be here this early, so I’m seeing her off.
Too bad. Then he said to the little old lady beside him, Mother, maybe you can keep an eye on the little girl. At least as far as Albany. Be good company for you too, he said smiling down at her and it was like he’d taken her off a leash the way she went forward toward Sister Rose already talking and in deep grandma mode after weeks probably of feeling old and in the way around Mister White and the wife.
That’s the moment I chose to back off and then slip away and head quickly out to the street before I started to cry or worry too much about what was going to befall Sister Rose when she got to Milwaukee and had to reunite with her mom.
Maybe ten minutes later I’m standing out there on Bridge Street with my thumb in the air and this flashy new silver-colored Saab Turbo 9000 stops and it’s Whitey and Jamie Lee Curtis. Jamie’s driving and Whitey goes, Hop in, kid, and I jump into the back seat and we’re off. A minute later we’re out of town headed west into the mountains aiming toward my old town of Au Sable on the way to where they lived in Keene, it turned out. We were out on 9N yakking about this and that, me and Whitey mostly because his wife was really into the driving. I think the Saab was hers and brand new or something because of how it smell
ed and out of the blue I asked them if they knew the Ridgeways up on East Hill Road in Keene and they both said oh yeah, sure.
Nice people, he said and she laughed like maybe they weren’t.
Yeah. I used to work for them, I said but I don’t know why, the words just popped out like marbles. It was like I wanted to confess or something.
You did, eh? he said. Doing what?
Oh, mostly yardwork, raking grass and cleaning out their swimming pool and so forth.
So you’ve been there, Whitey said sounding suspicious. I wondered did he hear about the break-in and all that.
Yeah, but mainly I was only helping out a friend of mine who worked for them regular, I said back-pedaling like mad.
Is that so? Whitey said. And who might that be?
You probably wouldn’t know him. He lives in Au Sable, except for when he lives in Keene with his aunt and uncle. Russ Rodgers is his name. Friend of mine.
Oh, we know Russ! the wife chirped and Whitey shot her a look like keep out of this and I’m thinking oh shit I’ve blown it, the guy is on to me somehow and he knows more than I thought or else he knows stuff I don’t. Russ’s probably been busted and confessed all and told everyone about me to keep from going to jail himself. He probably even said I was involved in stealing all the electronics and the fire. Suddenly I was incredibly pissed at Russ not for confessing but for copping a plea like that and at my expense too. He should’ve taken his punishment like a man and not ratted on a friend.
You know Russ? I said. No kidding. How is ol’ Russ? We kinda had a falling out actually. I haven’t seen him in over a year and in reality to tell the truth I only helped him out there at the Ridgeways’ one or two days. Way back last summer, I think. In the spring maybe, before the Ridgeways came up from wherever they live.