Color Blind

Prologue

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WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER CONTAINS RACIST AND OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE.

Author's Note

The characters is the novel are entirely fictional. The events that occur are purely symbolic and should not be taken literally.

PROLOGUE

"Leave me alone!" I looked around fearfully, and fought hard to hold back the tears that welled up behind the dark cloak of my tomboy facade.

    I was in the third grade when I had my first taste of pure, uncut racism. The sun had almost gone down as I started the journey home from my cousin's house one warm summer evening. As I rounded the bend just beyond her street, three little white boys stepped out from the shadows and circled around me. They looked like they couldn't have been much older than I was, although I had never seen them at Rochester Elementary before.

    I knew better than to try to walk myself home that late in the evening before I even stepped foot outside of Tia's house but, as usual, I let my temper overrule my sense of reason. My cousin and I had just gotten into our umpteenth fight that day and I was sick of her. I didn't feel like telling my aunt and uncle or even my mom what happened, and I sure didn't feel like spending another minute with my cousin while I waited for one of them to take me home.

After about an hour of she and I not speaking to one another, I picked up my Strawberry Shortcake dolls and stormed out of the house. It was almost dusk when those boys ran out at me from their front yard, and I knew instantly that an argument over who got to be Apple Dumpling was definitely not worth me walking home in the dark ever again.

Quickly I looked around hoping that my cousin had run after me, or at least told on me, and that her mother or father had run outside to catch me. There was no such luck. Oddly enough, as I looked up one side of the street and down the other, every other front yard was empty - an unusual summertime sight in the suburbs. I decided then that I would have to stand my ground and looked back at the boys with the same tough glare that they were giving me.

I wasn't even a little bit afraid until I realized that they had me surrounded. That's when I started to cry.

    "Hey," said one little boy, knocking the dolls out of my hand. "What are you doing over here in our yard? You don't belong here."

    "I wasn't in your old stupid yard!" I shouted, hoping that somebody would hear me and come out to see what was going on.

"Yes you was. I seen you cross over it from the window," accused another kid with red hair and freckles.

    "No you didn't!" I continued to argue, wondering why they were making up lies.

    A third little boy pulled on my freshly greased hair and looked at his hand. "Uh!" he shouted and wiped it off on the first kid's shirt. "That little jungle bunny just got slime all over my hand! What'd you put in there? Snot?"

    I had no idea what a jungle bunny was at the time, but I did know that this boy had just pulled my hair. Of course, it only made sense for me to pull his back. Then I pushed him down and within seconds, I had him pinned to the ground. Unfortunately, within another few seconds, the other two boys had pulled me off of him and pinned me to the ground. One of them straddled over me and looked around to make sure no one was watching.