pages 149-161

by Kristin Bishop·91 views·Updated Jan 14, 2022

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Yeah. Ghost boys.
Mhm pages.
150 through 161.
Mhm. Yeah.
Dead listening.
What happened to you?
What went down?
Me and Emmett are alone.
Ghost boys have disappeared like they know.
It's time for em.
Its tail neighbors are asleep.
The moon shines, Moths flit.
It's garbage day tomorrow rats dig inside.
Pales eat through plastic bags.
My neighborhoods poor segregated Until I started wandering.
I didn't know by how much.
Didn't know how much I was living in a danger
zone. But why did cops fear me?
Are you ready to hear I nod?
Emmett size.
Let's go to my home.
Two shakes.
And were there a two story brick house with squat
deep steps and an awning to keep rain off the
landing west.
Woodlawn. My mother and I lived on the top floor.
His apartment isn't far from where my family lives.
Has our neighborhood always been poor?
Emmett speaks slowly.
My great uncle Moses, right, And his wife, Elizabeth, lived
in money.
Mississippi. My cousins, Curtis Wheeler and I begged to visit
them. We wanted to play with Simeon, Robert and Maurice.
Six boys almost enough to field a team Plus, Marie
said he'd take us fishing.
Four rivers passed near his home and there were seven
deep lakes.
Can you imagine?
I wanted to see all that water.
My uncle was a sharecropper, but he lived in the
nicest tenant house on Frederick Plantation.
It was a rundown shack with a tin roof, but
it had two bedrooms in the front and two in
the back.
Me and my cousin slept in blue metal beds and
shared boxes for our clothes.
Happy we didn't mind.
Chicken dirt.
Poor people.
Mother used to say, That's why I left Mississippi because
I didn't want to be a sharecropper.
Picking cotton dirt.
Poor M.
It repeats a stinky outhouse and ice box with real
ice. Not electricity to cool food.
But I loved being with my Mississippi cousins.
They roamed in Chicago.
Mother never let me roam.
MM, its head falls back.
I think he's looking at the sky, but he isn't.
His eyes are closed.
A shudder shakes him.
He looks at the ground, then back at me, his
eyes widening.
Pools pull me in like I'm going to drown an
overnight train ride.
I arrived in money.
Mississippi, August 21st, August 28th.
I died.
Mhm, Mhm.
I'm not on the outside anymore.
I'm inside in an old time black and white movie.
Mm. It's telling his story by making me feel standing
on the roadside.
I watch Emmett alive again, living in his own old
world. Oak trees, arch Cyprus leaves hang grasses, knee high,
crows sore and screech woodpeckers peck.
Squirrels scamper.
Emmet and his cousins play.
The air is hot, hotter than Chicago's.
And though I can't feel it, I can see wet
in the air.
Sweat cloaks everybody.
Emmett wears his rimmed hat.
He still looks like a chipmunk, but now, with skin
plump and fresh.
Mm, it's laughing.
His shoulders.
Brushing against Maurice is he likes Maurice best.
He's the oldest.
The big brother.
They wrestle have serious.
Come on, Simeon shouts.
Everybody runs picking up dust, stumbling over rocks running through
the forest.
The cousins run to the river.
Emmett's hat falls.
I try to shout, Emmett, your hat!
Wheeler points at Simeon.
He's the youngest little list.
Emmett nods.
Then him and Wheeler lift Simeon, dumping him in the
river. It's so hot, Simeon doesn't mind Robert Maurice laugh.
Let's go to town.
Maurice Pivot pivot back toward Emmett.
Resting his hand on his shoulders, he says.
Serious? Say yes, ma'am.
No, sir.
To white people.
Don't look anybody white in the eyes.
Emma throws a stone.
It skips across water sinks.
You're not my uncle.
My mother either.
Don't be stupid, Emmett.
This is Mississippi.
I know it's Mississippi sidestep.
If white people are walking on the same street, step
into the road.
If you have to let whites pass first.
Emmett White swept from his forehead, muttering, Not afraid of
white people.
No one but me.
Here's mhm.
Town isn't much.
Dirt roads would sidewalks a few stores with porches, segregated
black and white men play checkers and drink soda.
Outside countrymen and denim women and flowery dresses.
Two black girls Skip the day is sun shiny and
bright. The biggest stores Bryant's grocery and meat market.
Maurice says the Bryant sell mostly to blacks.
White folks drive to Greenwood.
They've got much better stores.
Brian's have bubblegum.
Asked them it.
Be careful.
Don't say nothing.
Pipe Simeon, his clothes still wet.
Scornful, Emmett boasts.
Life's different in Chicago.
I talk with white people all the time.
No, you don't scold Simeon.
I do.
I'll show you.
He heads toward the store.
Don't, says Simeon.
Think I'm scared.
Simeon grips Emmett's shoulder.
Emmett shrugs him off.
Don't My voice makes no sound.
Stupid. Stupid, stupid Emmett, Don't be stupid.
Here's different, says Simeon, fierce, desperate.
Tell him Maurice.
Folks don't care about black.
People Don't like black people.
Don't even believe were people, says Maurice Sorrowful.
Mm. It doesn't listen.
He walks into the store.
Not much of a store.
Some chips, penny candy, cold sodas, bags of flour, sugar,
salt. A woman with long brown hair sits on a
stool behind the counter.
She's pale with red lipstick and brown eyes.
Emmett digs out a purple bubble gum from a bin
and puts a penny in her hand.
He walks away, not seeing the woman's outrage.
I see it hatred at the doorway.
He stops, turns and smiles.
Goodbye. Wordless, I holler, Run emmett!
Like I tried to run mhm, Simeon leaps onto the
porch. You spoke to her?
Yeah, mhm Wraps his gun.
Said goodbye.
Like I would in Chicago.
Put the penny in her hand, put the penny in
her hand so Simeon hops.
Twists like the ground is on fire.
He drags em it toward the cousins.
He speaks rapidly, squeaking.
Talked to her.
Robert trembles.
Wheeler asks.
What's wrong?
Curtis, like Emmett, is dumbfounded.
We've got to go in CIS.
Marie's What's wrong?
Emmett stutters.
Mrs. Bryant bolts out of the store.
Her yellow dress flaps.
She's fetching, her pistol worn.
Simeon stunned.
Emmett can't move.
No one can.
They're paralyzed.
Mrs. Bryant flings open her car door and reaches inside.
What's wrong?
His voice pitch is what's wrong?
The white lady glares at M it like he's a
monster. She thinks he's mocking, whistling at her.
A crowd gathers white men, women, even some kids, black
people, heads lowered step slide away, disappearing, escaping even dead.
I can smell the danger.
I can feel the danger, Ron screams.
Maurice, Ron Echo, Simeon, and it runs runs as fast
as he can.
He can't run fast enough.
Emmett pauses, closes his eyes, then mutters.
I begged my cousins not to tell my aunt and
uncle. I don't want to be sent back to Chicago,
I said I was young, embarrassed.
I didn't understand the trouble I was in, but you
didn't do anything wrong.
M It also fades than I see the shape of
him more focused and bold.
What mattered was what they the white people thought I
had done.
It gets worse.
See, I stare into his eyes past midnight.
The house is cloaked in darkness to white men burst
into the shack.
Guns pulled, flashlight, startling searching faces.
Everyone's howling.
Frightened. Aunt Elizabeth runs toward the back bedroom.
They follow her.
Emmett's faces caught in the flashlight glow.
Get up, Get dressed.
Petrified, Emmett wets himself.
He pulls his overalls over his pajamas.
He's a child, not from here, his uncle begs, pleads.
He didn't know The man with black curls and a
short sleeved white shirt slams him against the wall.
How old are you?
64. You make any trouble and you'll never live to
be 65.
Simeon grabs hold of em.
It's leg trying to keep the men from dragging him
away. The second man kicks him.
Simeon whales clutches his stomach.
Wheeler holds his brother.
Emmet screams Mama!
Mama! His uncle and cousins are shouting, begging, pleading on
the porch.
M. It's pushed into a truck cab.
He's caught between two men.
One drives, one keeps punching em it teach you?
I'm going to teach you.
Bam! You talked Sas bam!
Nobody disrespects my wife.
Bam! Bam!
And its face swells!
I don't want to see this.
I pull back.
How many times has Emmett shared this tale?
Hundreds, Thousands.
I inhale deep staring into his eyes.
I am inside again.
The film roles Mhm.
The Tallahatchie River glows Silver lightning bugs Blink Fish splash,
leaping for moths.
Emmett is dragged from the truck.
Mama Mother isn't going to help you, boy.
His fist falls like a hammer.
Em it drops to his knees.
The dark head, dark haired man grabs his leg.
Pulls you whistling at my wife.
He choked him it.
Emmett squirming, trying to beat the hands away.
His feet lift off the ground.
Who do you think you are?
Eyes bulge.
Blood flow floods his mouth.
He's thrown to the ground.
I can't look.
I can't help but Look, a gun.
Mm. Isn't moving.
Seeing his body on the ground.
I see myself.
Yeah. The husband fires.
The gun sparks fly.
Emmett Spirit rises with barbed wire.
The men lash Emmett's body to a large wheel.
They drag shove the wheel into the river.
Watch it sink blood stains The riverbank.
Um, it's hat rests.
Amazingly, it's clean off to the side.
Rim up.
I'm sorry, Emmett.
Really sorry.
Ghost boys reappear hovering, studying Emmett's face and mine for
all of us.
Says Emmett, waving his hand outward were all sorry for
each other.
Somebody decided they didn't like us.
We were a threat, a danger, a menace The ghost
boys nod waiting for something waiting on me I feel
it. The ghost boys are my new family.
Then I feel an urge deep inside me A recognition,
injustice, tragedy My mouth opens A sound I didn't know
I could make comes out of me terrifying, mournful Only
the dead Here it My whale rises and falls, rises
and falls Emmett's spirit blends with mine merging We cry
No fair.
I died too young too soon Ghost boys scream, Holler,
Echo Not fair Died too young.
Too soon we exhaust ourselves.
The real world sleeps.
Maybe somewhere someone sings Amazing grace.
Is Kim dreaming?
Is Grandma muttering in her sleep?
What about my parents?
All the parents of murdered boys Do they rest quiet?
Did Emmett's mom ever rest?
Is she dead now?
one by 12 by two In small clusters My ghost
Crow crew Rome's Emmett Murmurs Bear witness What's that mean?
Everyone needs their story Heard felt.
We honor each other, connect across time dumbstruck.
I watch em it wander zigzag down the middle of
the street I wait and wait and wait until the
sun rises until the neighborhood stirs I feel like I'm
100 years old.
I feel like I've just woken up.
Yeah, yeah, you'll go ahead and click on the second
part of this rating to finish this section.