Part 27 (1/2)

Here couy in the line, who's made a yellow turban from police crime-scene tape

Like your hat, I say

I did it my own self

I can see that

You can make yourself one There's a whole bunch of this ribbon up on Crouse

He gestures with the sweeping open palratitude in s have been gushi+ng about (I once thought saying you were grateful was a nice lie, like saying Glad to see you Glad to see you) He's passed rease-streaked parka

After cleanup, I stand at the pay phone regaling Patti with my trite everyone-is-everyone-else revelation She says, Oh, that, as if she expected nothing else

But ht before New Year's,voice announces what a loser I am without a New Year's date But Dev comes home early from Warren's, and the next day we invite over anybody with nowhere to go-foreign students, a few neighbors, a sober ex-con-for red beans and rice with greens and corn bread

Not long after, Jahlin sendswith a check for a whopping seven hundred and fifty bucks-about a third of ate on poetry in the previous fifteen years

And that's how hard that was

38

Lord of the Flies All men would be tyrants if they could-Daniel Defoe One winter afternoon, waiting for Dev to coainst the stor with the outside handle as soballs splatter around him I yank open the door, and the kids scatter likeand crihter They're fixed in outrage, staring past me When I ask how many kids there are and he tellsout the door to chase the little bastards down

Over cups of cocoa, we sit in the tiny kitchen, and he says, Why is this happening toto ht have been sixty With his spoon, he's fishi+ng the sodden marshht have been sixty With his spoon, he's fishi+ng the sodden marshmallow off his cocoa

Because, I say, children are childish You're new to school, relatively They've all grown up together You're the obvious choice

He stuffs the , Why would God let this happen?

The question-the same I'd dwelled on in the past-htly prayers

Because, I say, when you grow up, you're gonna be so s bad didn't happen to you now, you'd be a jerk then-one of those snotty kids who thinks he's all that

Like Dan

I' specifically of Dan, I say (I barely knoho Dan is)

Dev picks at the foa, Dan knows karate He only invited the cool kids to his birthday

He studies the cocoa as if it were tea leaves foretelling the soggiest future I get up and place a skillet on the stove for another supper of scras After a while he says, There are so

Isn't there a teacher or grown-up you can appeal to at school?

They act like they'reain, and he pins me with a tired look

I'm not a baby, he says All the other kids walk ho to the wind make the panes shudder You know, I say, some people think when somebody slaps you, you should turn the other cheek

He says, face still chapped scarlet, I only have two cheeks

That night, tucking hihborhood, and because I skipped a grade and had a propensity to mouth off, they beat randpa Pete always told me to bite them

This strikes Dev as hilarious He says, He wanted you to bite theer He'd say, Lay the ivory to 'em, Pokey Lay the ivory to 'em, Pokey

That's funny, Dev says

I kiss his sha in the doorway as I click off the light, I briefly pray for a car that I ht track down and smash the little bastards like the toads they are I tell hionna call soet them in trouble, he says That'll just et no answers, and when finally I reach one , Why do you think they're picking on hiets hot I say, I have no doubt that Dev is as savage as any grade school boy, but this is five against one This is Lord of the Flies

Well, he , she says

Out of the blue, I say, I'm from the state of Texas

What's that supposed to onna survive these ass-whippings no ainst one and there's not a grown-up to intervene, I'onna instruct Dev to pick up a rock or a stick and leave a mark on somebody Let's hope it's not your kid

My uncle's a lawyer, she says

My daddy's Pete Karr, I say, and hang up

Over breakfast the next day, I tell Dev the strategy's this: if he's away from school, and there are that ht Thron his book bag and just accept the fact that he's gonna take an ass-whipping

Slipping his backpack on, he looks co hurts once, I says Running home afraid every day hurts every day

Why would they ever stop? he says

Because you're gonna pick out one of theonna leave adookey out of him Lay the ivory to 'erin, but a cloud passes over his face as he pulls his royal blue watchman's cap on