Jeffery Allen - Rails Under My Back

WHO YALL REPRESENT

Sciples.

A laugh let go Birdleg’s mouth. Stupid. That’s a set.

Vice Kings.

Stupid. That’s a set too. Not the source.

Who you callin stupid?

Don’t you know what a source is?

I’m BP Nation. Chapter One.

Me too. Chapter Thirteen.

AK. Aerosol Kings.

TNT. Too Terrible Testaments.

Killer C’s.

Cobra B’s.

Stupid. Stupid. Is you People or Folks?

Jesus searched the faces of the circle of boys, seeing his face in theirs. Blinked into Birdleg’s bold black outline.

Stupid. People and Folks. That’s the source. Sets come from them.

Yeah, Jesus said.

How you know?

A timeworn train clanked in the distance.

Yeah, Birdleg, how you know?

Birdleg looked at Jesus, unblinking. White eyes. Frozen milk. Yall ever heard of Fort?

Yeah, Jesus said. The words flew from his mouth instant like vomit.

Hightop?

Yeah, Jesus said.

Sure, Hatch said.

Sure, Abu said.

Fort from Stonewall—

What was his real name?

Stupid. Fort, he from Stonewall.

Yeah?

Well, he ain’t from nowhere. He dead. But he lived in my buildin. Buildin A.

Nigga, you lyin.

Let him tell it, Jesus said.

And Hightop from Red Hook.

Something ran a course, through, under, around, behind, and between the words. Crickets hummed. Grass whispered.

They were cousins. And they were sanctified.

The words fell to the bottom of Jesus’s heart and what was at the bottom came out, swirling, turbulent. Sanctified?

They went to church eight days of the week. Sometimes nine.

What you talkin bout, Birdleg?

Yeah, Abu echoed Hatch. What you talkin bout?

Why you talkin bout church?

Yeah. Church.

Hatch scrunched up his face. You tryin to Bible me? The words blew hot as steam. Steam lifted.

I like the Bible, Abu said. I’m a Christian.

Jesus wet his tongue. Gripped his elbows to keep them from flying away.

Stupid. I said they were sanctified. Didn’t say they stayed sanctified. Birdleg revealed a fan-shaped row of teeth. Stupid.

Why you always callin somebody stupid?

Shut up. I’m tryin to learn yall something. Do you talk in school?

What?

I say, do you talk in school?

No.

Well shut up then. Light caught the white in Birdleg’s eyes. Fort and Hightop, they was way back in the old days. Way back. When niggas used to be sleeping on lawns in the summer and cookin in the snow in the winter. See, Fort and Hightop, they used to dance every Sunday in church. Then they started dancing at sets. Everybody knew these niggas had the best steps, so everybody get them to dance gainst one another. Course Fort had the best steps. This one time, he pulled his do-rag off his head, jumped way up in the air, clicked his heels twenty-five times, and polished his shoes befo he landed back on the ground. And he land on one toe and he hold his ground for an hour. He looked like a statue, a stone.

Damn.

Hightop tried to be like Fort. He jumped up and fell down. Well, his toes stuck right into the floor. Yeah, he standing up there on his tippy toes stuck in the floor. Like one of them ballerinas. Five big niggas had to pull him out. People be like, what kind of step is that? Hightop flashed the V sign. He yelled, Vice Forks Love, but everybody thought he said Folks. But since Fort held his ground, he yelled Power to the P-Stone Nation.

How you know?

Stupid, I know.

Jesus was saturated with a soft feeling. He didn’t believe.

What the P stand for? Birdleg tested them.

P for people.

P for power.

P for peace.

P for prayer.

P for pussy.

P for punk.

Words disappeared in the sheen of sunlight.

Okay, pussy, punk. Better not let no Disciples hear you say that. They ain’t as nice as me.

Hatch and Abu sat picture-still. Silent.

Who you represent? Birdleg blinked.

What? Jesus said.

Who you represent?

Well …

What bout you, Hatch?

…

Abu?

Damn, yall don’t represent?

Friends.

Forks.

Persons.

Stupid. It’s People and Folks. I’m People.

Then I’m People too, Jesus said.

I’m Folks, Hatch said.

Yeah, I’m Folks. Me and Hatch. Folks.

YOU KNOW KEYLO? Jesus asked. He remembered the name from the TV news.

From Red Hook?

Yeah.

Keylo. Big hat, no cattle.

What?

Stupid. He ain’t shit.

How you know?

Stupid, he didn’t even whack the raper man who sexed with his sister.

Ain’t what? The green earth stole Jesus’s words.

Now Fort changed the nigga that stomped on his sister.

He had a sister?

Yeah. She married this nigga. He made her stay in the house all the time.

Used to invite his friends over and beat her up in front of them.

Damn.

Then he threw the baby food out the window. Then threw the baby. Fort threw him.

Damn.

What happen to the sister?

She jumped off the buildin.

Damn.

My buildin.

Damn.

Buildin A.

Damn.

My buildin.

Why she do that?

Why you think?

Damn.

And Fort shot the raper man who sexed with Hightop’s sister.

What? But they—

Was enemies. Yeah, they was. But she was his cousin too.

What? Jesus said. What?

Whose cousin? Hatch said. She was whose cousin?

Yo mamma’s, Abu said.

Yo greasy grandma.

Chill. Birdleg’s glue-white eyes sealed lips. Listen and learn.

But they was enemies, Jesus said.

Who was enemies?

Yo mamma.

Stupid. She was his cousin. Cause this one time, Hightop’s father, who was his uncle, he slapped his daughter who was Hightop’s sister, he slapped her fo stayin out all night, and Fort happened to be there and Fort, he slapped him to the ground. Fort be like, Don’t disrespect yo daughter.

The sun stroked a place deep under Jesus’s heart and put all of his feelings to sleep. What Hightop do?

Shot Fort in the chest. Right here. Birdleg patted his heart.

Man.

Dag, he ain’t have to do that.

Fort ran to the park. He took a ball of milkweed and stopped the wound.

The words poured into Jesus’s ears.

Stopped?

Yeah, stopped?

Next day, Fort cut up Hightop. Hightop came stumbling back to Red Hook with his guts in his hands.

Jesus pictured tangled fishing wire. Barking dogs and anxious rats. Why he do it? he asked.

Stupid. Why you think?

They enemies.

Who enemies?

The raper man and Fort.

What happened?

Stupid, this raper man sexed with Keylo’s sister and he let it happen and ain’t do nothing.

Damn.

The coroner, he be like, Hightop died of natural causes cause he got changed by a natural man.

Aw, nigga, Hatch said. That’s corny.

Yeah. Natural. That’s corny.

Natural, Jesus thought. Like a ‘Fro.

Stupid. Yall corny. Yall weak, like Keylo.

Ain’t what I heard, Jesus said. He changed a Roman with a long extension.

Yeah, he changed one, but he ain’t do it wit no long extension.

How he do it then?

He threw a bathtub on him. Pushed it from the roof of Buildin C.

Damn.

Now, Fort was my nigga. Birdleg’s eyes were big and wild and eyes reached a place in Jesus where the tongue could not. Fort changed this one Roman with a long demonstration. Changed this other Roman with a Jap chop.

Uncle John know karate. Learned it in the army.

He my uncle too.

No he ain’t.

He is too. He said so.

No he didn’t.

Jesus ignored Abu and Hatch’s exchange. Hung to Birdleg’s last words. How he do that?

Fort chopped and chopped. Birdleg mimicked the motion with the edge of his hand. And he kept chopping and chopping and chopping. Man, he sliced that pig up like a loaf of bread.