“Click” The minute hand hit 12 on the alarm clock and the radio bezel lit up.
“Good morning America, the time is 7 o’clock Thursday, June 7th 1968, our top story this morning US soldiers and Marines claimed a major victory after a short gun battle last night in which 48 guerrilla fighters and NVA soldiers were killed with the loss of only 5 US troops. This comes on the heels of President Johnson’s new policy of”
“Tim, get up you’ve got to drive your brother to school”
I groaned, and rolled out of bed reluctantly, the air was warm even for June and thick with humidity. I threw the bed together hastily and then trundled down the hallway toward the bathroom, nearly breaking by neck on one of Percy’s toys left carelessly out in the hall. I took a hot shower and got cleaned up as fast as I could, all the time hearing my mother yell that I needed to move faster. Just as I was about to walk out of the bathroom into the world I stopped and saw myself in the mirror. The green color in my eyes was starting to get dull, and my hair was starting to get grayed and flat.
I entered the kitchen with little notice, mom was at the stove frying an egg and dad was engulfed in a newspaper at the head of the kitchen table.
“Where’s Percy?” I asked looking around
“He’s in the living room watching cartoons” she said sliding the egg onto a plate “now eat you have to go soon”
I took the plate, sat down next to my father and poured myself a cup of coffee.
“I don’t understand why I have to drive him every morning” I said stirring in some sugar into my cup
“Tim, we’ve been over this before your father and I leave for work before the bus gets here, no one would be here to make sure he gets on”
“But no one has to be here, all he has to do is stand on the front porch and wait, I’m just saying that”
“Your taking your brother to school and that’s final” yelled my father from behind his paper shroud
“Alright fine”
Just as I took a sip of coffee Percy came through the door, he was a fat little 7 year old with an untucked shirt on and an empty bowl in one hand.
“did you have enough to eat?” asked my mother
“Ya”
“Ok, You two had better get moving”
“But I’m not finished” I protested
“Well you should get up faster” chimed in Percy
Dad laughed and mom chuckled a little, I grabbed Percy by one of his flabby arms and pulled him along out the back door, down the driveway and over to my car. Heat radiated off the red paint of the Plymouth and the chrome door handles were hot to the touch, Percy complained that he would burn his hand if he opened the door. I had to get in and climb over the leather bench seat to open it from the inside, for a second I thought of just hitting the button and starting the car then driving off leave him standing there.
I reached over and pushed the door open, Percy threw his bag in the backseat and scurried in, as soon as he got settled I hit the button and the 11 year old V8 roared to life.
As we rolled down the sand and oil back roads of Dansburg Illinois I looked across the car at the boy everyone had been calling my brother for the past 4 months. He wasn’t actually my brother, he was my nephew, my sisters son. She had gotten pregnant at 18 and left home, I thought it was the last I would ever see of her, but I thought wrong, we got a phone call at 10 oclock at night from the district attorney. The next thing I knew we were down at the Chicago lockup talking to a worn out cop, he told us she had been caught with 35 pounds of weed in the trunk of her car. Instantly all the walls that had been put up when I was 11 came tumbling down, my parents felt sorry for not helping her and had to make up for what they had done. A few weeks later a black buick from The Wayward Boys Home pulled up in front of our house and out stepped a nightmare.
Now he sat next to me rambling on about how much fun he and his mother had had when they lived in the Ghettos of Chicago.
“It was so nice, mom and me never had to do anything, she never made me go to school and she would buy me whatever I wanted. I wish Uncle Norm and Aunt Ellen were like her then I could have fun.”
I felt my face go red, the anger that had been building up for all this time came out
“Shut the hell up you stupid jackass, my parents have broken their asses for you and gotten you straightened out and you don’t even give a shit. Do you know why your mother didn’t take you to school? Its because most of the time she was to stoned or drunk to move, and she bought you all that crap to keep you quiet and out of her hair while she slept off her hangover. That isn’t fun that’s stupidity and poverty.”
Percy just sat there, mouth open, a tear in his eye, he flew off the handle screaming and beating his fists on the dashboard putting a good sized dent in it. We pulled into the parking lot of the school and I shoved him out, I knew that I would get chewed out for this but I didn’t care.
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