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...
Francis had given Kid a bike as a welcome home gift when he got back from the facility. Kid felt it was justified considering the ordeal he'd encountered there. Or at least he made his parents think he had experienced a horrible ordeal. "Did any one hurt you?" they asked gently. But Kid refused to talk about it in detail. He just quietly shook his head and said, "It's over now." It tortured them not to know what happened for the first six months but after a while they stopped asking. After a year, everything seemed relatively normal. Kid spent most of the year playing piano, building his drum set, riding the bike and hating school, wishing for a long summer.
Kid had just returned from the bike shop. He had mowed the grass as Francis instructed before he left for work so he was now free to make the best of the last days of summer. He grit his teeth trying to make the new bike chain fit when he spotted the bible ladies coming down Clinton Avenue. He did not want to hear what they had to say about Jesus or Jehovah or whoever but he could not go inside. He would be stuck at home all day if he didn't get the bike fixed. He planned to go shoot hoops later when it cooled down. He decided that when they made their way to his house, he would let them talk while he continued cranking his bike. Until then, just act busy.
"Kid?" he heard a voice that sounded similar to his own. Morris E. Day was standing there with the bible ladies wearing a black suit with a skinny black tie.
When they saw each other they wanted to hug but restrained the urge. "Wow, Man, I thought you were in Louisiana." Kid looked Morris up and down. He seemed a foot taller.
"We moved there for a while but now we're back. My mom married that preacher, Rev. Brake from the Metropolitan Cathedral," Morris explained.
The bible ladies moved on next door to tell the Puzacs about Jesus and left Morris to talk to Kid on the porch.
Kid forgave Morris for leaving the facility without saying goodbye, at least in that moment. He was angry about it for months and cursed absent Morris out about it plenty of times over the year. By now, he had gotten it out of his system. He reasoned that if he had a goddess for a mother like Sunny Day, he would have done the same thing.
Kid had returned home from the facility to the same school in the same fifth grade class with the same teacher, but everything was utterly different. He could not explain to anyone where he had been for four months. They did not understand how the ten year old now spoke like a thirty year old thug. He had been sent to the principal's office for using the "F" word and for calling girls vulgar names.
Kid shuffled through the sixth grade quietly. Francis told him he would whip him blind if Juanita got called to the school one more time. So Kid minded his manners and kept his head down the whole year. Only one good thing happened in the sixth grade; Lonette McKee.
Kid had never heard of the young pianist before, but he never forgot her after she stepped foot into the auditorium at Central Park Elementary. Lonette McKee sat at the piano bringing sunshine into the dingy room where Quakers used to worship. She asked the children rocking in the wooden seats, "Are any of you interested in playing the piano?" Most of the little kids in the front raised their hands. Kid was the only sixth grader to raise his. She saw him and nodded at him capturing his full attention. Her thin fingers spread wide across the piano keys caressing them delicately. She closed her eyes and sang children's songs like "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Farmer and the Dell" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."
Kid would never forget the two original compositions she played. The first had a long introduction with a jazz cabaret feel. Her fingers intricately laced across the keys while her voice covered the notes like a velvet cape. The next song was more soulful and sultry. Each word dripped from her lips soft and sticky. Kid imagined if he kissed her lips, they would taste like a red camdy apple at the Minnesota state fair.
At the end of her mini-concert all the little kids ran up to her to touch her long sable hair. The bigger kids were too dumb to be impressed. She smiled down at the little ones calling them all, "Baby."
Mrs. Chalmers' sixth grade class returned to room seven without Kid. He floated down the aisle and up the varnished wood stairs to the stage. He wanted to touch her hands, her face and her mouth. He imagined himself sliding his hands across her clavicle, the color of well creamed coffee. She smelled like jasmine. He stood and stared at each part of her until she noticed the awkward boy standing in front of her. "Did you like the songs, Baby?"
Kid opened his mouth but nothing came out. Lonette's dark alluring had hypnotized him into silence. Finally, his mouth cooperated with his brain while she smiled patiently.
"How did you make up those songs?" he practically whispered.
"Well," she thought "I tried out a bunch of different chords over and over until something sounded good to me. Then I kept the ones that worked
and threw away the ones that didn't." She rolled her dark brown eyes up to thought-land. "Then I sewed them together, kind of like a quilt." Principal Stewart shooed the kids back to class. "Students, please thank Ms. McKee for her performance."
The children sang in unison, "Thank you, Ms. McKee."
"You're beautiful," Kid blurted out over them.
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He was not sure if Lonette heard him at first but she turned around and smiled at him as her manager guided her away. Kid watched as her small waist and wide hips swayed out the auditorium doors. Lonette McKee was undoubtedly the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
Kid wished he had a friend in school who understood his love for Lonette McKee and her music. But he didn't. School was lonely and boring. But now that Morris was back, he hoped that all would change.
The Day-Brake family had moved to the good side of Hoover Junior High school. Kid and Morris would attend there in the fall. They could finally get their band together. Kid hoped with a fervent hope that junior high school would be a good experience now that his best friend would be there with him.
Morris was just as happy to see Kid. Life with Sunny Day did not remain the way he remembered it. The doting Morris used to receive from his mother had now been transferred to a short, fat, dark skinned preacher. He was not a mean man, but he irritated Morris nonetheless. He spoke proper American Standard English except when he preached. Somehow Rev. Brake transformed into an actual Black man in the pulpit. Morris thought he was a pretender and did not like that his mother held his fat hand, rubbed his fat neck and kissed his fat cheeks. Watching them together disgusted Morris. He could not believe she could truly love this water beetle looking man. Sunny Day could have married any successful man she wanted in all of Minnesota but she chose this pear shaped, yellow eyed, tooth smacker.
The apish behavior of wide eyed teen aged boys on Morris' block intensified matters. When Sunny came out of the house to get the newspaper in the morning, the show began. Every boy on the block rushed outside to get the newspaper for their fathers at the same time she went out, hoping the belt of her silk robe might slip off. Morris had to hear about it from their younger brothers in the afternoon playing baseball. He got into a fight with one boy for saying he planned to peep through the window to see Sunny at night. To add insult to injury, none of the kids on his block played music.
Sunny Day drove up in a sky blue El Dorado Cadillac. She spotted Morris sitting on the Smith porch and gave her horn a short toot. Morris scampered down the steps and poked his head through the El Dorado's open window. Sunny waved Kid over. "So you are the one I've heard so much about," Sunny said smiling radiantly. "You're soooo cute," she gushed causing Kid to redden. He could see how Morris could get into fights over her. "You'll have to come over for dinner one night," she said. Morris slid into the front seat, slammed the heavy door and off they went like déjà vu.
