Leon Uris: A God In Ruins

“Because Henry didn’t need a college education to run a junkyard,” Darnell shot back.

He needed more. He was born with stuff you don’t learn in school. Don’t you get it, Darnell? You’ll be at Pawtucket for two more years and I’ll be at the yard.”

“I’m not married to you, man.”

“No, but you’re the only person in the world I want helping me. The Bulldog is going to do some awesome things, once I figure it all out.”

Darnell stopped the rocking chair.

“I thought you would be really happy about this,” Thornton muttered.

“It seems to be about you and what you want,” Darnell answered. “What about me? So, let’s go a couple years down the road. I’ll be heading for college. Columbia Law School. They have encouraged me to come to them first for a basketball scholarship. Like man, we’re talking New York City.”

“I hate stupidity,” Thornton said in disgust. “I mean, I truly hate stupidity. Look at me. Four left feet. I can still catch the ball and pass the open man. How come you can’t smell shit in a cow barn?”

“Columbia is no barn. Get used to it.”

“So waste your life for a law degree and end up as the house dar ky for one of the insurance companies. Everyone’s looking for darkies, especially point guard darkies. You are the dream minority package, Darnell.”

“Why are you doing this, Thornton?”

“By the time you pass the bar, the Bulldog computer will be the standard of its field. And you’ll have bupkas. That’s Jewish for zero.”

“Let’s just talk about putting leverage on each other,” Darnell said. “Hey, man, you’re arrogant. I’ve got my own life. What do you want me to be? Your little nigger boy?”

“Maybe you don’t get it, Darnell. I’m going to the top. I need somebody out there in front of me to take care of things so I can stay at my workbench.”

“That’s arrogant.”

“Is it? I live in a funny world that has me in its grip. I’m past most mathematicians in the world. It’s something I didn’t learn. It’s just there. But when I look into a mirror, I see ugly. I see this broken clay statue with fingers missing and a shoulder missing and a leg missing. I am incomplete, and there is nothing I can do about it. You’re the only real friend I have or probably will ever have. Maybe, going to the yard day after day this summer, alone, I maybe got scared without you.”

Oh, Tomtree, Darnell thought. In the middle of a game he’d read Thornton’s eyes on the court. The guy would be working on a physics problem. The pretty little cheerleaders in their pretty flaming red satin shorts way up on their sweet little black and white legs. Thornton’s head was somewhere else while they were cheering him. He was always so far away, most folks were afraid to speak to him, to interrupt that siren song that Thornton alone heard.

It had not been all that great a summer for Darnell, bikinis notwithstanding. Too much of the uniqueness and lore of the junkyard had invaded his being over the years. He’d missed Thornton. Thought he was free of him at first, but ended up lonely for him. Why? What he wants from me, Darnell thought, was to be a junkyard dog’s junkyard dog.

“So, you want me to come in with you the minute I graduate high school? I don’t know business. I don’t know how money works. I don’t know nothing.”

“Yes, you do, Darnell. You’ve got instincts about.. . people .. . and that’s number one. Nobody in this state is smarter than you.”

“It’s a small state.”

“Well, if we went in together, you could still go to one of the colleges around Providence.”

“I’m going to Columbia.”

Thornton left the porch fuming and harangued the pickup truck into starting.

Darnell turned at the slam of the screen door to see his daddy shuffle out.

“Sorry, I overheard,” Mo said.

“That be okay, Daddy.”

“You’ve got two years of high school left. That gives you all the time in the world to make up your mind.”

“What are you thinking, Daddy?”

“Listen to what he is saying, real good.”

“Daddy, I love you and I respect your judgment. But one thing I know better than you is Thornton Tomtree. His whole life is like a chess game where he’s four moves ahead of Bobby Fisher. If I let Thornton collar me, I’ll walk behind him with a broom and dust pan.”

“You ready to shut up for a minute?” Mo said.

i(\r .

Yes, sir.

“You’re going to be real good at whatever you do, son. Let’s talk a little black-ass reality. We’re still pushing against the door for equality. No matter how incredible a young black man may be, the road for him is still going to be torture. You’ll become the house nigra and you’ll be forced, all your life, to try to act and live in a white world. No matter what profession you choose and no matter how good you are at it, you’re still going to be thought of by the color of your skin.”

“Maybe the blacks aren’t going to take it anymore, Daddy. I’m talking about the civil rights movement.”

“That’s going to be a long, bloody struggle, and in the end it’s still the white man who’s going to be boss,” Henry answered.

“Thornton Tomtree might not make all the high-and-mighty plans he has. He wants me to be his doo-doo bird. I think I’d rather struggle through and have my freedom.”

“Or learn one day how you missed the boat.”

“Why you so high on Thornton, Daddy?”

“Because I’ve never seen a genius like him. It’s the kind of genius

that has to be served. If he stays out of trouble, if he learns his

right foot from his left, if he learns everything you can teach him,

he’s going to end up one of the most powerful men in America. I’ve

been watching you young men most of *

your life, Darnell. If you become indispensable to him, you’re in for a real ride.” Now Daddy Jefferson came down with a pointing finger. “In my opinion, you’ll always have a boss. A boss that you can control is the best one to have.”

For two years Darnell kept a sharp eye on Thornton Tomtree’s invention. The Bulldog was doing spell-binding work. Thornton rebuffed a dozen offers to join the top national electronics companies.

He did not exactly know what he ultimately wanted from the Bulldog. More and more electronic research and product appeared around the country. Thornton concentrated on understanding an overall pulsation of the computer phenomenon.

Darnell was lured in. With the way opened for anything, he started his own collection of data to try to find an indispensable niche where the Bulldog would fit.

Columbia came courting, to no avail. Darnell was now in his corner in the junkyard. Backup point guard for the elegant Providence College team might better suit his future.

For the next couple of years he wanted to collect and analyze every bit of business information he could get his hands on. Providence would serve him well.

“Henry, don’t take the boat out today. I don’t like the direction of the wind. Could kick up some rogue waves.”

“Moses, that hole is full of sea bass, and they’re boiling with lust,” Henry said, tossing his fishing gear into the rear of the pickup.

Mo grabbed his arms. “Don’t go out today. It just don’t feel right.”

“You get the head and tail.”

When the bass were running, the best fishing was at Noah’s Rock with its nasty little riptide that ran between the rock and the beach, a quarter of a mile away. When the incoming tide overpowered the outgoing tide in the rip, fish came in like a blizzard.

But this day the power of the churning and surging sea proved too much for the old converted lobster boat to outrun. A rogue wave a dozen feet high bashed the rock, then sucked the water out of the inlet until one could see the bottom. Behind it came swells that literally hurled the boat into Noah’s Rock, where it burst apart.