Crow extra chapter

It’s been about a month since I caught crabs with Tommy by the riverside. I've been back in school for a few weeks. At this point I come home everyday and find boo nanny cooking dinner then a few hours later around six o’clock Mommy gets home from her new job. She always refuses to tell us about it all I know is she leave early and gets home later probably to make up the pay cuts we got Boo Nanny’s back isn’t getting better but she still works twice as hard as before she only gets like six hours of sleep a night while she used to get at least eight hours a day.

I’ve been back in school for a while now I always end up running late I’ve gotten know as the kid of the Negro that talked back to the red shirts and got hiself killed for not accepting the peaceful relocation effort of the council of 25. I always go through the backstreets that not many people know about. When red shirts see me they remind me constantly. “ Hey boy don’t be talking big like yo daddy.” Then everyone would start laughing and I would start crying.

I was pretty lonely. Lewis was gone and I haven’t seen Tommy since we caught crabs together. I paid attention in school before to impress daddy but now I have a myriad of other reasons to pay attention first so I can provide for boo nanny and Mommy. And second so I can become a black politician which for now is an impossible fantasy. Myriad is one of my favorite words because it sounds different from other words. It's like a spice; it makes your sentence a whole lot more interesting.

I only talk to Boo Nanny and Mommy when it’s important our conversations aren’t as entertaining since Daddy died. My best friend has been my teacher Ms.Smith. She is an older African American Woman from Richmond, Virginia , She moved here to escape civil war violence.

“ Now what’s wrong Moses? I don’t ever see you cry.” I arrive early everyday so I can read library books. They aren’t as good as the books in our house but they are still informational, Everynow and then Ms.Smith would check in on me. If she had enough time she’d sit down and ask me to read to her because she knew I liked reading aloud.

“ The stupid red shirts keep picking on me. They say stuff that I can’t stand like “ ‘ Don’t end up like your daddy did.’ ” Ms.Smith’s face wrinkled up and she frowned.

“ Lord Jesus! What has this world come to? This child doesn't even have safe passage to school!” Ms.Smith offered me a tissue, I was a little embarrassed to be seen crying so I didn’t say anything I just wiped my tears and sat there I thought I could take it but a few sporadic days of it is way different than everyday reminders. Being honest I still don’t know if Daddy did the right thing. I really just want to talk to him again.

With no form of news since the record was burned down most of the black citizens have been uninformed. One person who was informed was Mommy, Her new Job seems to be the only source of news we can get for now. I remember the first thing Mommy ever said about her job was a warning. “ Now listen Moses I trust you at eight pm lock the doors and close the blinds the red shirts be doing nightly negro patrols.” When I asked when it was safe to go out she said even more seriously. “ Do not dare open those doors or blinds before six am. It’s lucky for me that;s when Boo Nanny wakes up I don’t think I could keep her contained in the house for hours on end. I asked her for a source. It's what we were learning about in class when making a claim like Mommy just did. A source will make your claim more logical. “ Work, those white men sure do talk lots of politics…” Mommy seemed to only want the first part to get out.

I didn’t want to go straight home after school so I decided to take the long way back. Along the way a kid’s ball rolled right in front of me so I tossed it back to him. When the kid’s dad came outside I almost had a heart attack. It was Jeff Rockerwood, a member of the council of twenty five. “ Keep your filthy paws off my kids' ball you filthy gremlin.” I nodded my head and ran away. I can’t believe Daddy stood toe to toe with that type of behavior. It makes me want to be more and more like him but at the same time run away from all the scary people like Jeff Rockerwood.

I got home about six thirty much later than usual but still within curfew Mommy arrived Home thirty minutes later panicked. “ Moses, did you pick a fight with the council of twenty five? They said they were going to Lynch the son of that journalist!” I was so shocked I dropped my book and fell further into my chair. Just like Alexander Manley who I helped escape I’ve been put on the Kill list! I dumped out my backpack and packed some clothes and medicine.

“ Mommy pack your stuff it’s time we leave, they'll find any reason to kill off our family. I think Daddy poked the sleeping bear.” I emptied three bags for Mommy and Boo Nanny but they both refused to go.

“ Listen Coco baby, they aint gonna hurt what they can’t find, if all you did was give the kid a ball back they shouldn’t have any reason too.” Now that I think about it, why would they execute me over that I didn’t even talk back? Could it be the fact that I ran away from those red shirts this morning? There was a knock at the door Mommy went to answer while Boo Nanny folded me under a sheet behind the couch

“ Ma’am we’re looking for a little boy who lives here. He ran away from us and interacted with Councilman Rockerwood’s son. We are going to detain him on account of him being suspicious.” The red shirt kept his hand on his gun. I curled up into a ball behind the couch.

“ Well sir he hasn’t come home yet, May I ask what was so suspicious about him?”

“ He ran away from our officers who were talking to him and he attempted to steal a ball from the councilman’s son.” That’s the biggest lie I’ve ever heard. If I wasn’t so scared I would walk right up there and call it out.

“ I see well if he knows you're looking for him he probably took the main road out of town running as fast as he could.” My mom was up there being braver than I ever could. She lied straight to his face. The red shirt walked away and Mommy shut the door.

“ My Moses, that's the hardest charge to beat, maybe it would be better to run…” Mommy said looking over at Boo Nanny.

“ Chile I can’ts run. You and Moses go, I'll stay here and take care of myself. It'll be easier too.” I run over to the dictionary and give it to her with the letters in it.

“Take good care of it.” Mommy packs us two bags with clothes, medicine and food so we can leave.Just when we’re about to leave the red shirts bust down our door causing Mommy to shield me and Boo Nanny to attack them with the dictionary unfortunately she got shot in the chest by one of the red shirts a young man with a blonde beard.

“ Run Already.” Boo Nanny shouted at us without another word Mommy pushed me forward and we both ran. We ran down through the tunnel as fast as we could and eventually we reached the neighboring Claysville county. They were going through something similar but it wasn’t as bad as what we have going on.

We bought whatever money we had on us and boarded the train to Richmond just like I helped Alexander Mansly do a few months ago.

We tried to hold in our tears so we wouldn’t get kicked out of the train for disturbing the white passengers after a few hours of this we arrived in Virginia.