The Darkest Child

by Delores Phillips

I’m a talker, but that doesn’t necessarily make a leader.

A lot of people are unclear on this one.

One of them told me that the United States Constitution gave Chad Lowe the right to bear arms.” Junior paused.“I asked him if it gave me the same right. He stopped laughing then, told me to try it and see.”

Bingo!

“The best way to get them is through education,” Junior countered. “What good are laws that cannot be read or understood, or a tongue that spews only hatred and ignorance? What good is the written word to an illiterate man?”

“I want what everybody else want. I want a job. I wanna drink from that fountain down at the courthouse. I want Andy to be a sheriff if that’s what he wanna be. I’m tired of being on the back end of things like I just don’t count. I wanna be able to move my mama outta this house, move her to East Grove or Meadow Hill. I wanna see Chadlow brought down, and I wanna feel like a man in this town. I want a whole lotta things, Junior.And if I can’t get ’em, I wanna take one of them pencils of yours and erase this town off the face of the earth.”

“I expect you to come together as a race,” Hambone answered. “I expect you to stop staring at the ground every time you speak to a white man that ain’t a drop better than you. I expect you to be the men you were born to be, and to demand your God-given right to be human.”

Imagine a world where rolls were reversed.

I sat at the table and listened to the women swap stories about the people in our town.They were able to find so much to laugh about; I wondered who was sitting at a table somewhere laughing at us.

We always bring this up when we are “Smithin’”. My family will understand this comment.