Whispers in the Dark by WALTER MOSLEY

Author:WALTER MOSLEY [MOSLEY, WALTER]
Format: epub
Tags: FIC000000
ISBN: 9780759522251
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2000-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

4

“I have to talk wit’ you, Kai,” Chill Bent said three weeks after the social worker/nurse had been forced to reconsider the existence of God.

It was a cool autumn day. The Tickle River was swollen with waters from recent rains, and fish could be seen darting around in schools numbering in the hundreds.

“Yes, Mr. Bent?”

“I’m gonna have to go away for a few weeks.”

“Where?”

“Outta the country.”

“Oh.” The nurse frowned.

“I gotta get some money or they gonna take Popo away. My cousin Hazel been talkin’ to child welfare and the EEG. They wanna take Popo to Houston but I won’t let ’em.”

“But maybe it would be better,” Kai suggested hesitantly. “M-maybe if he was in Houston you could visit and he’d have all the best guidance and education.”

“Boy needs a family and a home,” Chill said. “I been in the state institution before. It ain’t no good.”

“But that was a detention center,” the short nurse argued.

“No different. He gonna be detained in the school too. He cain’t come home when he want to. You know his grandmama’ll die a week after he’s gone.”

Kai Lin didn’t argue that point. She watched the large man’s ebony face. He had aged in the two years since Kai met him. Deep furrows had appeared in his cheeks, and something was wrong with his knees. He was still very handsome, though Kai would have never said so out loud.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“I cain’t say. But I want you to take care’a Popo. I want you to make sure that Hazel or Mr. Russell don’t get him.”

“They won’t.”

“’Cause I know you love that chile,” Chill said. “I seen how you are wit ’im. How you come over on your days off. And you know I’m right too. He learnin’ all he can right here, right here in this house.”

Tears sprouted from the ex-con’s eyes. They rolled down his face.

“I love that boy more than I love anything,” he said. “I will not let them take him. I will not let them white people and them people wanna be white turn him into some cash cow or bomb builder or prison maker. He will find his own way an’ make up his own mind god dammit.”

Kai reached out to touch the big man’s arm. He pulled her close, holding her forearms in a powerful grip. Kai winced but didn’t fight him.

“Maybe that’s what they’re afraid of,” she said. “Maybe they don’t want these children to use their minds and their spirits. Maybe if they did that the world would change.”

“I know you know,” Chill said. “They afraid Ptolemy would be their king if they didn’t brainwash ’im.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Kai said. “Sometimes I’m afraid when he talks. Sometimes I’m afraid of what he can see.”

“When I come back you an’ me gotta talk,” Chill said.

Kai did not ask about what.

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