Colored

Reese

I'm back at home. I'm running around the house, calling out for my mother and father. I see them on the floor, their eyes wide open, but no life in them. I wake up, realizing that wasn't a dream, but my memory coming back to me. Their eyes had no life in them, because of you. I put the thought at the back of my mind, where it would stay there and haunt me. I feel someone on me and I slightly turn my head. It was Reese. I had never really known him. I was too busy, wondering if I could ever be with Alex. What I could tell was, he was kind and he seemed like he wanted to be friends. But he's white. White's didn't want to become friends with colored people, they wanted to stay far away from them. Whites were usually afraid, that if they got close to us, we would turn them colored. Yet here he was, getting as close as he possibly could to me. Reese opens his eyes and smirks at me. He gently takes Rocky off of him and motions for me to get up. I do and he lays Rocky on Alex. We walk out the door. "Why were you staring at me?" He asks "Am I too beautiful not to look at?" He smiles at me. I blush. "W-What no! I - I was j-just." He chuckles softly. "I was just kidding. Now come on, I still don't know you very well." We walk out, into the garden. He climbs a tree and motions for me to come up. I do, but I reach a branch that breaks. He holds out his hand. I grab it and he pulls me up. "So I saw you in that march a few days ago. What was that all about?" He asks. "Dr. King asked me to lead the Hispanics. " I answer simply. "Yeah but, why was it all kids? Dr. King looks like a coward getting all those kids arrested." I get furious at what he said. "Dr. King is not a coward! He is one of the first people who started this revolution! No one but children volunteered to march and get arrested. Maybe you whites will realize how wrong segregation is, by seeing more than a thousand kids in jail!" I snap at him. "Woah. I'm sorry I was just asking. I know that segregation is wrong." He says and puts his hands up. I nod slightly at him. He is not like his father. I need to remember that. He grabs my arm and looks at my stitches. "I saw that dog bite you. Ironic, it was the fully black one. It was so horrible, the look on your face. I'd never seen anything like that." I nod again. "We called that dog nigga. (There was actually a dog like this. They actually did call him nigga. Fact of the day.) "I heard what your dad was saying. He was screaming to knock the niggers down." He nods sadly. " I remember the pressure behind that water. It hurt so much. I was going to drown. They finally took it off of me after what seemed like forever . Thank goodness." He puts his arm around my shoulders and brings me in for a hug. "I'm so sorry. I swear, that won't happen again." Except it will. In a few days, I will march again. This time I would go to jail. I was going to end segregation. There was nothing that was going to stop me. Absolutely nothing.