Sweet, Hereafter by Angela Johnson

Author:Angela Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2010-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

14

IF I THOUGHT IT WOULD DO ANY GOOD, I’d lay on my horn until the person who boxed me in looks out a store window and decides to come move their ride. But I know I won’t be getting out anytime soon, so I climb on top of my truck, light up, and lie on the hood looking up at the clouds.

In a minute warm hands are running up my bare legs, tickling them.

The hands take my cigarette, put it out against a telephone pole by the car, then throw it in the storm sewer since there’s no trash can nearby.

“Damn—can’t I even have a bad habit?”

“You got more than anybody I know.”

Marley’s little brother, Butchy, climbs up next to me.

“What up?” he asks.

I miss my cigarette but don’t light up another. I want Butchy to stay and hang for a while. At least lie on the old hoopty with me so I don’t look like a stone-cold lone loser.

I smile at him.

“Yo—again, what are we doing stretched out on your ride?”

“Stupid parker,” I finally say.

Butchy sits up to look at the brand-new car wedged up against Alice, then lies back beside me.

“Remember Mike Boyd’s cousin Darnell?”

“Yeah, he was funny as hell that summer he stayed with Mike and we all hung out. He’s crazy fun.”

“You know he got shipped out.”

I feel a twinge in my stomach.

Butchy looks up. “He got hurt. He was on patrol, and his carrier ran over an IED. They say he’ll be home soon.”

I don’t know how long we lie there watching clouds blow by and listening to people calling out to each other. It seems like a whole day, ’cause we don’t talk, and it’s the best afternoon I’ve had in a long time.

The bank is closing when a man in a suit, dragging files on luggage wheels, looks over at us and gets in the car that’s held me hostage for hours. Because I didn’t have anywhere else to be, I wave to him, then blow a kiss.

Butchy laughs so hard he almost rolls off the truck.

When Alice is free, Butchy jumps down, ready to go. He looks down the street, then at me.

“It’s pretty bad about Darnell, huh?”

I nod my head and look up the street too.

Then Butchy leaves, and the clouds cover the sun again, and there’s nobody on the street anymore. I can even hear the signal light clicking the change from yellow to red.

And it’s true I got nothing to do and no place to go in a hurry.

I look across the street to Ma’s Superette and put my keys in my pocket. Haven’t been in Ma’s in a long time…. But just as I get to the door, I get a real warm feeling. When I look in and see the barrel of flip-flops and bin of beach toys, I turn back.

I look down at my hiking boots and start walking and counting steps from Ma’s Superette to my parents’ house, and I think about a boy I only knew one summer.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.