The next morning, I woke up to birds chirping and a beam of sunlight streaming across my face. It was unusually cool to be summertime, even this early in the morning, and I had forgotten to close my window the night before. I looked outside and noticed that the sun was already up pretty high.
"Nice day, huh?"
I sat up quickly, now aware that I wasn't alone. Li'l Jay was sitting on the floor at the foot of my bed.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, trying to stop my heart from pounding.
"I was at the hospital with Blaze and Spider. Spider's still there."
"I don't want to go," I answered before the played out question could be asked once again.
"I didn't ask if you did," he snapped, expressionless. Then he saw my hurt face and changed his tone. "You should feel it outside. It's so...clean. Smells April fresh."
"Clean?" What was this kid talking about?
"Yeah. Can you believe it? Fresh air! We might all have to be put in the hospital if we breathe too much of this stuff." He became serious. "Faith didn't look too good today. She keeps asking for you." Then, after a few moments of silence, he said, "Well, get up. We have to go before Blaze leaves."
He yanked the pillow out from under my head, a devilish grin on his face. He was probably getting me back for the morning that Whisper left. I was too preoccupied with the departure of Blaze and Spider at the time to think anything of it. I decided to bypass his foolishness as I got up slowly and told Li'l Jay to wait outside while I got dressed.
The mischievous smile was still there when he declared, "Why? We've been naked together before."
I pushed him out of the window.
He was, of course, talking about a short strip tease that we had done in his front yard when we were little. There are some things that kids should just never see on TV, because they will act them out.
Li'l Jay and I didn't have any music outside, so we decided to create our own. "Dum dum chi dump. Bump bump, bump bump..."
We had time to get all the way down to our birthday suits before anyone caught us out there. Luckily, only a few cars passed by. One car, full of teenagers, actually slowed down to get a better look.
I have to admit, we were having a good old time until our mothers came outside and caught us. I heard Li'l Jay's mother scream first. I think that her screaming is ultimately what brought my mother out to see what was going on. Then his mother grabbed him by the arm, cursed the poor child out - in Spanish - and yanked his little naked body back into the house. The funny thing was, Li'l Jay wasn't even crying. He was cussing right back at her...in Spanish. I watched with a sinking feeling as the front door slammed behind them, and I knew that Li'l Jay would be covered in bruises when and if I finally did get to see him again. I remember thinking that at least the whole thing was his idea.
After they had gone inside, I looked slowly and guiltily across the street at my own mother, who had been standing there with her hands on her hips. She was trying to look angry, but with a closer look, I saw that she was also trying not to laugh. Slowly, I put my clothes back on and headed across the street. Her eyes lit up when I came to her, as they always did, but she was fighting it.
"Look both ways!" she had called frantically as I was about to scamper blindly across the street. When I got over to her, she turned and said, "You can't play anymore today. Now come inside and don't you ever, ever take your clothes off in front of a boy or in public again."
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Keeping Up With the Wind: A 'Burban Tale by Suleyma Moon
JugendliteraturSilvy Richards has lived the majority of her childhood based on the assumption that she and her surrogate family of friends will always be together forever. But by the time the summer of '88 rolls around, it seems that right when she is drowning in...