Grant Park by Leonard Pitts Jr

Author:Leonard Pitts, Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781572847620
Publisher: Agate Publishing
Published: 2015-09-08T16:00:00+00:00

fifteen

She wore her hair in short, salt-and-pepper dreadlocks now. Her skin was still the color of the sun just as it fell into twilight, her lips still proud as the prow of some sailing ship. Time had piled up in her eyes and left a residue of wisdom there, but those eyes were still the shade of sea foam on some remote island in the tropics. Her breasts were still small and pert and just…right. And her…

Easy, boy. Easy. Get a grip.

He was alarmed at how readily it all came back, as if 40 years had somehow instantly been scrubbed away. Without meaning to, he planted a hand on the back of his head, uncomfortably aware that he was a little balder every day.

And wasn’t that funny? Bob had never been self-conscious about that, never cared much about his hair loss one way or another. Until just this instant.

“Bob?” Confusion wrinkled her brow. “That is you, isn’t it?”

He realized he had not yet answered her. “Uh…yeah,” he said. “Yeah. I’m sorry, Janeka, where are my manners?”

He stood, awkwardly, embraced her, awkwardly, all thoughts of tactics, all thoughts of maintaining the high ground, all thoughts, period, suddenly gone.

“Please, sit down,” he managed to say.

She sat, still smiling, and he took her in. She was stylish in a way she never had been when they were young, wearing a waist-length, reddish brown leather jacket, a high-necked, sand-colored blouse, and a gold necklace with matching earrings. Bob did not remember her ever caring enough about what she wore to coordinate it so deftly. Color coordinating clothes, after all, did nothing to challenge the structures of institutionalized oppression.

“I’m so sorry I’m late,” she said. “As I’m sure you can imagine, it’s been quite the busy day.”

“Janeka Lattimore,” he said. He was conscious of almost praying her name.

“Bob Carson,” she said. “How have you been, old friend?”

“Mostly good,” he said. “Today hasn’t been the best day, but mostly, good.”

“Oh? What’s wrong with today?”

He waved it off, sorry he had brought it up. “Don’t even want to talk about it,” he said. “So tell me, how are you? I hope life has been good to you.”

“Better than I deserve,” she said.

“Married? Single? Children?” He heard a hopeful note in his voice that made him wince.

“Married,” she said. “And then divorced. I guess it’s been…11 years now. We had a good run—19 years. Had three wonderful kids. My daughter, Angela, is a doctor in San Diego. My son Eldridge scores movies. He lives in Los Angeles. And my youngest, Bryan, is an Americorps volunteer at a school in some small town in West Virginia. I’m still waiting on grandkids. Getting a little impatient about it, to tell you the truth. How about you?”

“Never married,” said Bob. “One son, Adam. He’s an actor in New York City. Well, mostly he’s a bartender in New York City, but every once in awhile, he’s an actor.”

She smiled. “They have to follow their own paths, don’t they?”

“Yeah,” he said, “that they do.

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