The Gift-Giver (8 page)

"Aw, Doris, come on," Dotty said. "We won't laugh. Try it."

It was funny, I really felt better. "Naw, it's okay. Bring the next jumper on. I'll turn."

I looked over at Amir again. He looked back at me with a smile in his big eyes.

Things went so good and I felt so good I forgot all about the Nit Nowns. We had two more people to go and the Nit Nowns hadn't shown yet.

"Maybe they ain't coming," Mickey said.

But as the last person finished I see them five sisters cutting around the corner, carrying a big tray. Mickey looked at me and made a face.

Lavinia yelled, "The contest is finished."

Amir jumps up with his nervy self and says, "No it ain't. These sisters is in it too."

I was some mad at him. "Amir's mouth getting big as his eyes," I said.

Charlene came over with the tray. "We made some sandwiches for the party."

My mother took them from her. "Oh, isn't this lovely. You some nice girls," she said. Imagine my own mother telling the Nit Nowns they nice.

Next thing I know people coming out with card tables and all kinds of cookies, cold-cuts, potato chips, pretzels, soda and other goodies. And the Nit Nowns is getting ready to jump.

The minute they started I knew who the winner would be—one of them sisters.

Pauline look like she had on special double-dutch
shoes. They must've been turned over in just the right spots. The heels were worn down smooth. Her feet went so fast they looked blurry.

Charlene didn't move nothing but her feet. The rest of her body was stiff and straight. She looked cool and calm. She smiled and jumped.

Charlotte and Paulette jumped together. They held hands and did a double-dutch dance. Everyone cheered.

I was mad. Before they came, little Dotty had a good chance of winning. Now here comes these two Nit Nowns doing something I never seen no one else do before.

As the judges was deciding, I said to Mickey, "Maybe they won't pick those Nit Nowns. Nobody on this block likes them."

The judges got up. "Okay, everybody quiet. The winners are Charlotte and Paulette."

"I knew it, Mickey."

Everybody went over to them like they was special. Mr. Sam brought over some ice cream and more sodas. We had a real party. One lady said to me, "You really know how to snap them ropes with a lot of rhythm."

People started talking about how we was gonna have another 163rd Street block party and double-dutch contest next summer.

The day after the party I was sitting on the stoop making a box out of some ice cream sticks. Mickey comes running over to me.

"We going to Union Avenue so Charlotte and Paulette can show us that double-dutch dance."

"What? You going to play with them raggedy girls?"

"So? They going to teach us that dance. We need you to turn for us."

"How can you play with them?"

"We just going to learn that dance. Come on."

Since Mickey and Dotty was my two best friends and since I was really kind of bored, I went too.

When we got over to Union Avenue, the Nit Nowns was jumping double-dutch. Paulette spun around on one leg. The baby laughed and clapped.

"Look how wild them girls act," I said to Mickey.

"You just jealous," Mickey said.

"No I ain't. I don't care about no double-dutch."

When the Nit Nowns saw us they grinned and waved. I whispered to Mickey. "They acting friendly now, but them girls could turn on us in a minute. Run our butts right back to 163rd Street." Mickey ignored me. Dotty was already in the middle of the ropes acting the fool with Paulette.

"Come on Doris, turn for us," Charlotte said. I tried to smile, but it was hard. Charlotte jumped in the ropes and she and Paulette did their dance. Mickey and Dotty watched, while me and Pauline turned. I got so interested in the dance they made up I forgot about how I didn't like them.

Suddenly I felt something pulling at my shorts. I looked down. Baby Claudette was tugging at me. "Tun, tun," she said. We cracked up. Charlene ran over to her. "Come here Claudette," she said.

I dropped the ropes and picked up the baby. "You too little to turn," I said. "Go on Charlene, you turn. I'll mind the baby for you."

Claudette took my hand. I'd never noticed how cute she was. She had eyes that looked like they was always smiling.

Now Mickey and Charlene was turning while Dotty and Charlotte did the dance. "Hey, Dotty, you look like you getting it," I laughed.

Charlene came back over to me and Baby Claudette. I noticed that she wore the prize necklace. She saw me looking at it.

"This is a beautiful necklace Lavinia's father made," she said.

"Yeah. Maybe we'll have another double-dutch contest and I can win one for turning."

"You want to wear it for a day?"

"No. That's Charlotte's and Paulette's. They won it."

"It's okay. I mean, all of us won it. The four of us made up the dance. We like that with everything. You remember yesterday Pauline had on this belt at the contest? I'm wearing it today. We all own it."

I looked at the belt. But to tell you the truth, I never noticed the belt she wore yesterday. All I saw was her turned-over shoes.

Charlene sat on the steps and I leaned over the bannister and played with Claudette.

"Doris, you want to wear the necklace?"

"I can't do that. You won that necklace; why should anyone else wear it?"

I felt so ashamed about the way I talked about the Nit Nowns. Charlene was so nice and Baby Claudette was cute and friendly. I reached down in my pocket and pulled out the candy I was hiding from Mickey and Dotty and saving for myself.

"You want some candy? Give the rest to your sisters."

"Thanks, Doris. I got to go upstairs now."

"For what?"

"It's my turn to cook. My mother works all day, so we take care of everything. Pauline, come here and get Claudette."

The baby sat down on the steps with a big piece of candy in her mouth and a big smile on her lips. She looked up at me and pulled my hand.

"Nit nown," she said. Everybody laughed.

"Okay Claudette, I'll nit nown with you."

Well we didn't have to worry about the Nit Nowns chasing us home anymore. But you know how it is ... as soon as one problem gets settled, something else goes wrong.

Russell, Amir and Yellow Bird was always together. Sherman only came around sometimes now. It seemed like Big Russell wasn't mad all the time like he used to be.

He was planning games. Like he planned a stickball game between the 163rd Street boys and the Union Avenue boys. He planned a volleyball game—boys against girls—for the Gospel Church Sunday School picnic. He got the boys to practice basketball every day so they'd be able to win the school tournament next spring.

Mickey was sure it was Amir putting Big Russell up to all this. But I said, "Mickey, you know nobody can make Big Russell do something if he don't want to do it."

But Amir was always there and he didn't play ball. He'd just be there watching and talking quietly. I couldn't understand how it seemed like he was with them and not with them at the same time.

He didn't even play the games that we all played together in the evening—like hide-and-go-seek, kick-the-can, and hot-and-cold. He'd just be there and it would seem like he was playing, but he wasn't.

The weather was real hot in August—my mother calls them dog days. Sometimes people get crazy when it's hot—especially when there's nothing to do but sit and sweat.

One afternoon it was so hot nobody played anything. We just tried to find a shady spot on the stoop. That's when the mess started.

Mickey said, "Where's Amir today?"

I said, "He the only one got enough sense to stay in the house."

I don't know who, but someone said, "What sense? I hear that boy's dumb. He ain't really our age. He way older."

"How come he was the smartest one in the class?" I said.

"He been left back so many times he knows all the work," Lavinia said.

"That's ridiculous. How you know?"

"I heard."

"I heard the same thing," T.T. said. "That's why he acts like an old man."

"That boy is smarter than all of you put together," I yelled.

I thought Russell and Yellow Bird would defend their friend. All Russell said was, "Yeah. He's a little strange."

"Russell, I thought you was his friend."

He didn't say anything. Then I said, "Just 'cause he don't act like everyone else, why that make him dumb?" Then everyone jumped down my throat.

"You like him," they said.

"You sweet on little Amir."

Even Russell and Bird laughed and joked. I didn't say anything. I was mad at all of them.

Mickey said, "Ain't he a little too short for you? Y'all look like the odd couple."

"Well, that's better than looking like Mickey Mouse's mama," I yelled.

Everyone cracked up. She couldn't think of a good comeback, so she got mad at me. People get mad easy in the summer. When it's over you never have the same friends you started out with. After that, Mickey and Dotty stopped speaking to me.

One day I'm gonna find out how a rumor starts. No one ever knows the one who said anything. It was always told by someone else. Now, I ain't saying they started the stories, but after Mickey and Dotty stopped speaking to me a second rumor started. That me and Amir was boyfriend and girlfriend. If my mother and father heard such a thing, I'd be in the house the rest of the summer.

I was sitting on the fire escape one afternoon watching everyone outside. Ma came over to me.

"What's wrong with you? You sick?"

"Nothing's wrong. It's too hot out there."

"It ain't cool on the fire escape."

I didn't want her asking me a lot of questions or pouring some nasty medicine down my throat, so I went outside. When I got to the stoop Mickey yelled, "There's the giant. I wonder where's shorty."

I ignored her and went down the street. I couldn't play with the Nit Nowns because they was on my block playing potsy with Mickey and Dotty. So I went to the library.

It was quiet and cool. I sat there and read a book for a while. I wanted to take it out but I didn't want Mickey and them to see me coming down the block with a book. Then they'd know I ain't had nowhere to go but to the library. But then I couldn't stay too long 'cause Ma would think I was hanging out in the playground. And I'd have to spend the rest of my life on the stoop.

I left and started thinking about how I could make some new and exciting friends. As I walked down the block I saw Amir.

"Where's your good friends?" I asked.

He smiled. "I don't know."

"They ain't real friends, you know."

"Why?"

"They talk about you."

"Shows they care."

"I ain't talking to none of them or bothering with them."

"You been staying in the house?"

"Yes. But I see you still be with them. You should hear how they talk about you. You want to know what they say?"

"No. I don't care."

"I do. They saying you dumb. And you way older than us. And all kinds of things."

He looked sad. I was sorry I told him. My father once told me to think before I talk. "Amir, I'm sorry. But I got mad when they said that junk."

He stopped walking and climbed up the big rock in the Franklin Avenue lot. I followed him. He didn't look at me when he talked.

"I am older than you and the others. I'm twelve. Be thirteen in October. I been in so many different foster
homes I never stayed in one school for too long. My records never came from my other schools."

"How come they keep changing your homes?"

"Things happen. The people get tired of you. Or they move to another city and can't take you. Or there's something wrong. The authorities take you out that home and put you in another one."

"How does it feel to keep changing homes? Living with strangers?"

"You get used to it, I guess. You get to see a lot of different kind of people."

"But don't it bother you? Don't you feel scared when you go to a new place? All that changing around?"

"Not anymore. Some of the people is okay. Like there was one old man in a family I lived with. Nobody bothered with him. And nobody bothered with me. So me and the old man became friends.

"I used to go to the store for him. Sit in his room and talk to him. Keep him company. He showed me how to play every card game there is. He used to treat his family so good even though they didn't bother with him. Once I asked him why he was so nice when they was so mean. He said kindness always comes back to you. He told me I'd been a blessing to him. He called me the little gift-giver."

"What he mean by that?"

"I ain't sure. But whenever I worried about my brothers and sisters, he used to say, 'It's gonna be all right. You a good boy. Somebody gonna be good to your brothers and sisters.'"

"Is that why you be with us, Amir?"

"Yes. It's like being with my brothers and sisters
again. And I don't want to get in no gangs. Be in no trouble."

I looked at Amir. He did seem much older with his clean blue shirt and clean neat pants. And I really hoped his brothers and sisters was okay.

"Amir, you don't care what people be saying about you?"

"No. It ain't important."

"Well, the next time I hear them talk about you, I'm...."

"Don't say nothing about what I told you. This is between me and you."

"Well, I ain't going to the Sunday school picnic, and I ain't speaking to none of them again as long as I live on 163rd Street."

"Everybody goes to the picnic. Why you let them run you away? Don't hide in the house."

"I ain't hiding."

"If you know what they say ain't true, don't let it bother you."

"I ain't like you, Amir."

We left the lot. As we walked toward 163rd Street I noticed that Amir wasn't all that much shorter than me. Just a little. Mickey was always exaggerating.

We turned the corner to 163rd Street. I prayed nobody be there to see the two of us walk down the street together. But it seems like the whole block be out when you don't want no one to see you. People who ain't been out all winter or summer was out that day.