She is chuckling at him and waving her fingers the same way the first woman did, but her fawning has caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end. I want to get up to block her view and tell Tuan that, when it comes to white people, he has a shockingly short time to be cute before he becomes threatening. Black boys don’t get a long boyhood. It ends where white fear begins, brought on by deepening voices, broadening backs, and coarsening hair in new places beneath our clothing.
