Book of Imagines

12. Change of Weather (Short Story)

I believe that there's a silver lining in every dark cloud. For a while, Baltimore has been pretty cloudy. I've been commuting to and from college for almost two years now so I've been around to see everything go down. Being here all my life, I never thought I'd live to see riots right down my own street. I haven't really been involved anyways, although I wish I were sometimes. When I'm not working at the center or at school, I'm inside, in front of my desktop. Reading, blogging, downloading.. Anything but studying, honestly.

"Aidan, come on!" shouted my little brother. I've lost track of time, to the point where I got no sleep. Again. I've been reading up on riots all night. It's on me though because I'm the one who takes my little siblings to school. I threw on some sweats and my college sweatshirt; I straightened my glasses and popped a piece of minty gum in my mouth (I promise I'll brush my teeth when I come back.) I ran downstairs to find my siblings with their arms crossed and angry facial expressions. "Aidan, why you take so long?" asked my little brother. Joseph, or Jojo, was only five but he'll never catch me slipping on anything. My sister, Athena, age twelve, is a bit more nonchalant when it comes to me being late. She always knows why I'm late and what I was doing beforehand to be late. "I'm sorry, Jojo, I was--"
"No, mister. No more being late or I won't be your friend anymore," he sternly said, pointing his finger in my face. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry, lil' man."
"Yea yea yea...," Jojo muttered, then he ran outside to the porch. Before any real damage of the riots started for the day, we walked the long way to school.
After dropping off Jojo and Athena, I power walked home... who am I kidding, I sprinted. I had no classes scheduled for today so I was going work at the community center. After officially preparing myself for the day (which included actually brushing my teeth,) I sprinted back out the house and to the center. I worked in the education center with young children and teenagers who didn't actually have classes in a school building. I stumbled into the classroom and all the little kids chuckled until their breath. Typical them, typical me. "Good morning, everyone...," I said out of breath. The class replied in unison, "Good morning, Mr. Aidan." I looked around to see that the younger students were doing what they were suppose to be doing with other kids and their teachers. I stepped into the connecting room with the teens doing work. Everyone was more talkative and distracted with their phones but still managing to do their work. As always there's always that one dark cloud in the clear sky. That cloud was Amaru. I took a deep sigh and made my way to sit with him.
He was always doing something he shouldn't be doing. It was either a) talking to girls, b) on one of our laptops, listening to music, c) sleeping or, d) all the above throughout the day, and then some. "Amaru, why do you come if you just do nothing?" I asked. I caught him in one of his power naps. His eyes creaked open, then he slowly awakened himself. "I don't need to be here," he groaned. "You do if you want your diploma. You used to try, then you just... stopped. You're too smart for this, Amaru." He looked at me with slight genuinity, but it was as if I spoke a new language. In the end, he completely disregarded what I said and kept talking, "Anyways... can I go? I have somewhere to be."

"Where do you need to be this early in the morning?"

"Me and my boys--"

"My boys and I," I corrected. He rolled his eyes and continued, "yea.. we're gonna go riot downtown." When those words came out his mouth, it triggered something within me. It wasn't rage or sadness; it was something like nostalgia. At first, I didn't react or respond. It took a second for me to do something, then an idea came to me.

"Everyone, stop what you're doing," I stated, rising out of my seat. Everyone paused and looked at me. "I want to have a group discussion about what's been going on lately, with the riots and Freddie Gray and racism. You're all obligated to state how you feel, there are no limits. This is your community so you can say however you feel about it. Arrange the room into a circle then we'll start." After a few minutes, the chairs and tables were moved into a discussion circle. Everyone looked so anxious to talk except, of course, Amaru. I sat across from him in the circle; he slumped in his chair, hidden within his hoodie. "Tonya, let's start with you," I started to explain, passing her a talking stick. "We'll go from there. Anyone can jump in whenever as long as you have the stick. Tonya nodded, "Well... I feel angry. I'm pretty sick and tired of police brutality and black people dying from all the violence. All the hashtags and the rallies, I just want it to stop."