Halsey Street

by Naima Coster

And yet, it disappointed her that Marcus couldn’t see that other people on the block had their own lives, and no one was thinking about him, not really. They might have been thinking about white people in general or the rent or whether one of the neighbors might mistake their son for a burglar and call the police, but they didn’t know him, and they likely didn’t want to know him.

“These people are cold, Penelope. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. They think a neighborhood is only about what you can buy—fancy coffee, flowers on the table, a big old house. It’s all just stuff to them, stuff they want, stuff they think they deserve because they can afford it. A neighborhood means more than that. It’s about the people.”

Why steep in someone else’s disappointment? Why linger where you aren’t wanted?

“Daughters get either their courage or their fear from their mothers.”