A God in Ruins - Leon Uris [18]
“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.
“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 doodoo 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