Dirt

Thompson

1

I walked in from school and Mom immediately turned off her DVR’d How to Get Away with Murder. This was major. Mom never turned off Shonda. My stomach felt funny because I had a feeling that this had something to do with me.

Ms. Peake phoned today, she said.

Mom faked a calm voice and rose from the chocolate leather sofa. Her hips pushed a stack of mail from the credenza and sent it fluttering to the floor. A shiny family reunion reminder postcard winked up at me. She stopped dangerously close to me. Except for the Old Navy flip-flops and the scowl, Mom looked exactly like she did when I left this morning. Her flawless Halle Berry haircut didn’t move an inch, but her animal print maroon, orange, and yellow long African dress swayed with each of her movements.

Hello, beautiful mother. Did she find my phone? I asked. I was hoping the hopeful tone of my voice would soften whatever she seemed worked up about.

No, something more serious. You lost your phone again? We can talk about that later, Mom replied.

What had I done wrong? I passed my finals. I paid my fines. This year I actually found all of my textbooks to turn in before the last day of school. No trouble this week. I didn’t leave wet towels on the floor in the bathroom. I don’t think. Wait, Ms. Peake wouldn’t call about wet towels. I didn’t know what I had done. These days anything could upset Mom.

Actually, your teacher informed me that once again you barely passed reading.

I looked up and rolled my head back to rest on top of my backpack to prepare for the speech. The brown and white mural on our front entry ceiling pulled at my vision – colored like root beer floats.

Art fanatics visited our house just to see our ceiling. John Biggers composed one of his last murals, a replica of Family Unity, in our house.

I think Mom asked Mr. Biggers to paint his masterpiece in the entryway so random strangers wouldn’t ramble too far into our house to see his work.

Right now, I wished I could sit backward in the spiral tree trunks with the kids in the painting. The magical colors of the mural blended night with day, and earth with sky. Four kids sat motionless while red dirt from the ground danced with the night stars and sun rays surrounding them.

Next, Mom would tell me about how much money she and Dad paid for the Alain Locke Academy. She’d remind me how many Black people died so that I could live free and read. Why couldn’t I live free, and not read? Look at me when I’m talking to you.

I nodded from the kids in the trance back to her.

She inched closer to me, and then stopped. She couldn’t get any closer. Washington, I taught you how to read and I know that you read well. So, if at twelve years old, you don’t want to take school seriously, we won’t take anything seriously. I’ve cancelled your enrollment in summer league basketball.

Mom had my full attention now. I slapped my hands over my face to stop the stinging under my eyelids. No, basketball? I dropped my arms to my sides. That escalated super fast. Cancelled? My team would never understand. My coach would never understand. I couldn’t let them down. This summer we planned to go all the way—Nationals in Las Vegas.

Don’t cry now. You can’t just be able to shoot a ball through a net and wind up playing professional basketball. You have to go to college. And in college, you have to do what? Read. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James all went to college. Why are you looking at me like that? She took in a deep breath and let out an irritated sigh.

I rocked back and forth on my heels. Should I answer? Mom, two of them didn’t even go to college. And I’m not crying. Everyone knew that Kobe and LeBron went into the NBA straight out of high school. Everyone except Mom.

Her glare signaled I shouldn’t have corrected her. The calm voice vanished. "You know what? All those Globetrotters did, I think? That’s not the doggoned point, Washington. She balled her fists on her hips. The point is your teacher feels you need summer reinforcement and wants to enroll you in summer academy. I love you, Washington, and I know how much you enjoy basketball, but I have to say that I agree with her. This year you are going to summer school…"

Mom kept talking, but I could only hear four words repeating in my head. Summer school… no basketball. Summer school… no basketball. Summer school… no basketball?

No basketball.

2

I couldn’t listen to the speech anymore. A wave of relief swept over me when Mom strolled over to the couch, sat down, and clicked the remote. Mom was back in hashtag H-T-G-A-W-M mode. I rushed toward the steep stairs, taking them one at a time to the second level.

A real picture, which looked fake, of President Barack Obama and Mom began the line-up of photos on the stair wall. A photograph of my father’s father, George Square Thompson hung next to Mom’s photo. Grandpa George sat in a blue armchair with his legs crossed at the knee. He wore a stiff, white buttoned down shirt and starched boot cut jeans with real Western boots underneath. He was pressed and perfect from head to toe.

He’d been missing for eight years. The last time anyone ever saw him was at one of our family reunions. Everyone who knew him said that I acted a lot like him. I wished I could have met him again to know if that were true.

Next came the photos of ancient people in fancy frames. They were Black; their pictures were black and white. Light flickered over framed glasses and made the smiling people laugh.

I never made it upstairs without at least glancing at a particular portrait of the man in the centered frame. Sometimes I gave him a head nod or a fist bump. Sometimes I even spoke to him.

I mirrored him. He mirrored me.

We had the same golden brown oval shaped face, the same forehead above the same two thin, perfectly arched, black eye- brows. Our same wide Thompson noses stuck out at the spot under the space between our eyes. I guessed he didn’t want to cut his hair either. He pulled his shiny, black hair into a ponytail. I sported an Afro. Square, my great, great, great grandfather tightened his lips into a straight line. He didn’t laugh.

What’s up, Square? I mouthed.

I finished climbing the stairs and stomped into my room.

Why did college have to mean everything to my parents? Layered pennants from Black universities wallpapered three of my four bedroom walls. They covered the fourth wall, the purple and gold one, with streamers and newspaper clippings from Prairie View A & M, both of my parents’ first college. They met there.

I slid off my backpack, and let it plunk to the floor next to my state-of-the-art gaming center. I glanced at the glowing basketball