Guardian by Julius Lester

Author:Julius Lester
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-08-22T04:00:00+00:00

2.

When Bert and Ansel return to the square with the rope, a large bonfire is blazing beneath the tree. The crowd has swelled in size, and it looks like everybody in town is there. Though the fire only intensifies the stultifying heat of the night, the fire also makes it easy to see, and everyone’s eyes are on Big Willie.

Two men hold him tightly by the arms while another ties his hands behind his back. Willie is bare chested because someone has ripped off his khaki shirt with its military stripe. His face is bloody, and blood pours from his mouth because anyone who wants to hit him does, using an ax handle someone took from Anderson’s Store because everybody knows you’ll break your hand if you hit a nigger’s hard head with your fist.

Willie would have been beaten into unconsciousness if someone hadn’t realized it would be better to keep him conscious so he would know, so he would feel what was happening to him.

Ansel looks around for his mother but doesn’t see her. He didn’t expect to. He sees her parents, though, his grandparents. He scarcely knows them because his mother does not let him visit them nor invite them to the house. They have big grins on their faces.

Everybody else’s parents and grandparents are there, because he sees every kid from school. There are always bonfires under that tree every November before the homecoming football game, and this almost feels like that. Only thing missing are the cheerleaders, but they are there, just not in uniforms.

He sees the choir director from church, all the choir members, the Junior Choir, and the ushers.

Ansel’s eyes wander away from the crowd to the road leading into Davis. He is not sure, but way up the street he thinks he sees Miz Davis, Little Willie, and Little Willie’s mother standing next to a car.

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