When Kid meets Morris at ten years old, his life changes from a lonely existence in a house full of turmoil to a hopeful future in music. A solid friendship turns fragile as money, alliances, and betrayal cause it to finally collapse.
Despite losing...
Kid asked Jennifer every day to call the hospital to see if his mother was still there. He talked to her only once. "Be a good boy, Kid and watch your mouth," she warned. Juanita thought everything that happened in the Smith house was a secret. Kid could not understand why anybody would care if their bathroom was clean or if they owned a washing machine or not but Juanita thought it was important not to discuss these things with strangers. After about two weeks, Juanita was in a part of the hospital where she could not get calls: detox.
Kid had to do something. When the janitor opened the closet doors, Kid took inventory. Cleaning supplies, hand tools, transistor radio, girly magazines. Nothing he could use to escape. What he needed was the keys to the lobby door.
Children visited with relatives in the lobby on weekends. There was a man who sat at a desk to sign them in and out. Kid and Morris never had visitors but they sneaked through the lobby to get magazines. They took them back to the commons and lay on their bellies with their legs kicked up picking out their girlfriends.
Kid pointed at the Wella Balsam girl, "That's my girlfriend."
"She don't want your black ass," Morris scoffed. "She wants me and this one wants me too," he announced pointing at the Jet beauty of the week. "Her name is Grace."
"That girl don't want you either." Kid struggled to come up with a good tease. "With all those freckles, she'll think you have a disease on your face, Man."
"All the girls love my freckles. Who else do you know with freckles? Nobody. Just me, Morris E. Day," Morris said with a glint in his eye.
It had been ten weeks and Kid was getting acclimated in ways Jennifer could never have shown him. He learned to call the other boys "Blood" or "Man" after each sentence. He learned to swear with the correct phonetic emphasis. "Sheeeeee-it!" He learned to walk dipping on the right with each stride. He also learned to lie about the reason he was at the facility in the first place.
Each boy had a creative story about how they got there. Matthew's parents were murdered in a shoot-out with the police. Sean's father was a fireman who died in a burning building while attempting to rescue a baby. Lydell didn't know what happened to his parents. All he remembered was being taken from his older brother who was a pimp with twenty bitches. "Blood, they can't let a little kid live in a house with twenty bitches, so they brought me here."
No matter how their tall tales began, they all ended the same. Somebody from their families was coming to get them from the facility soon. So Kid made up a story too. Most of Kid's story was fiction, but some of it was based in fact. He told them his father, Francis L. was a musician who traveled all over the country playing piano. Francis died in a plane crash trying to get to a gig with James Brown. His mother had to return to Mexico to set things up for the both of them, but she was coming back for him as soon as everything was squared up. Kid borrowed that part of the story from Morris.
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Morris' mother went to New Orleans to work for a year. He expected her return any day now because she promised to be gone for exactly twelve months. It had already been just over a year but Morris' hope never wavered. The boys gathered around Morris, engaged in his fantastic story again.
Morris sat on the floor while the boys sat cross legged on the beds. "Sunny Day. She's the most beautiful lady in Minneapolis. 'Matta-fact, she's the most beautiful lady in Minnesota. It's official because she won the Miss. Minnesota beauty pageant. Everybody knows Sunny Day. She has a picture of herself on the wall at the house. She's wearing a white bathing suit with a sash going crossways that says, "Minnesota." She looks like a White lady but she's not. She's six feet tall and has brown curly hair. Her eyes are green and round like marbles. And she walks a fancy walk like she's from Hollywood. Someday, Sunny Day is going to be in the movies. You'll see. She's coming to get me next week."
The boys broke from his story with disbelief and sing-song taunts. Nobody could really have the name Sunny Day. Their disbelief had no effect on Morris. He knew with one hundred percent surety, Miss. Minnesota was coming for him soon.
Kid wished he knew the same thing, but he was not sure. Could Juanita be dead? She said she would get him as soon as she was released. But now after ten weeks, Kid was not sure. He imagined she walked out the hospital and got on the Greyhound bus to Tijuana, Mexico intending never to return. If she did, Kid would not blame her. He'd be happy for her. He just wanted to know exactly what happened so he could stop hoping. Disappointment made his chest cave in. He left tears shelved on his lids at night. Sometimes he could not help letting them topple over after all the other boys fell asleep.
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