Читать книгу Waiting with Elmer - Deanna K. Klingel - Страница 9

Chapter Two

Willy and Elmer straggled back to the Savings and Loan, as the sun dropped behind the stores. It was such a stifling and still day, even a dragonfly winging past stirred the thick air. Willy tucked himself into the doorway.

“Just my suggestion, Willy; this corner might be as far north as you want to go. I’d stay on this side of the corner. The Northside is…well, just my suggestion.” Elmer waved to everyone passing by and rolled on down the sidewalk.

As Willy sat there waiting in the doorway, the last light faded behind him. He studied the quiet little town. Every store had a ramp to the door instead of a step. He looked up and down the sidewalks. Each section of sidewalk and the ramp in front of each store was painted a different color.

“Crazy lookin’ town,” he mumbled. “I never saw paint on a sidewalk. Never saw stores without a step to go in. Crazy lookin.’” Willy curled himself into a tight knot, as invisible as he could be, and slept another night on the sidewalk.

When the dawning sun peeked over the stores across the street, Willy stood up and shook his bones. He rubbed his brown arms and stretched. He heard the rumble, felt the vibration on the sidewalk, and looked up the street. Elmer was rolling toward him.

“Brought you some doughnuts, Willy. You sleep okay?”

“Yes, sir. Thanks.” Elmer’s mug of Edna’s coffee-to-go splashed and steamed on his platform. He opened the sack of doughnuts, blessed them with prayer, and they had breakfast.

“You’re going to need to find you a new spot to wait before the Savings and Loan opens at nine on Monday morning. Mr. Kimble won’t like you being in his doorway. Why don’t you come over to the park with me? There’s some nice shade, some picnic tables, and you can still see the street from there.”

“I s’pose I could wait there. Okay, then.”

“Good. Gather your gear and I’ll show you the way.”

“It’s just my marbles. That’s all I got.” He tucked his marble bag into his hip pocket. Elmer turned his platform around, and the two of them headed across the street, down the sidewalk and into the park. The sidewalk wound through a metal archway that read Memorial Park. Inside it was so shady from the huge old trees it was almost dark. Willy dropped his gaze to the ground, helping folks not to see him. He noticed a pair of work boots sticking out from under a bush, one crossed over the other. Keeping his eyes down, he watched a pair of shoes wrapped in adhesive tape walk past. An old woman pulled a rusty little wagon full of tin cans that danced and hopped around like popping corn in a metal pot.

“Morning, Seraphim,” he heard Elmer say.

“Hey there, Mr. Elmer. How you doin’?”

“Fine, just fine,”

“God bless you real good today, Mr. Elmer.” She rattled on down the sidewalk.

When they came to a picnic table, Elmer surprised Willy by grabbing hold the bench and leaping off his platform, spinning 360 degrees and landing with a thud on the bench. His pant legs dangled to the ground. Willy slid onto the bench beside him.

“Okay. I’ll wait here,” Willy said.

“Good,” Elmer answered, nodding. They sat there watching the street, waiting. After a long while, Willy noticed the sun shone all raggedy through the leaves on one side of the park.

The lacy shadows danced on the ground, and Willy knew the morning was half gone. Where is he?

“How long are you going to wait?” Elmer asked, as if he’d read Willy’s mind.

Willy shrugged one shoulder.

“What do you think your dad is doing?”

“Looking for work. Drinking. Playing the piano. Sweeping a floor. Sleeping. I don’t know.” Willy kept his eyes to the sidewalk.

“You got a mama?”

“She’s gone.”

“Uh-huh.”

“She got tired of waiting.”

“Uh-huh.” Elmer watched Willy. He rubbed his stubbly chin. “Well, now, looky here who’s coming. This is my friend Rake. Rake, say hello to Willy.”

“How you doing, Mr. Willy?” Something familiar about his voice caused Willy to look up and confirm that Rake was a large man with a huge smile, and skin shiny black as coal. He looked like someone Willy thought he might know. They shook hands.

“Willy here’s new in town. I’m showing him around.”

“Oh, that’s real nice, Elmer. Nice to meet you, Willy.”

“You bring the chessboard this morning, Rake?” Elmer asked, moving over on the bench.

“Heh, heh, I did,” the man laughed heartily. “And you just can’t wait for me to beat your socks off you again this morning, can you?”

Willy gave the two men a side glance, keeping his focus on the street, waiting. This was something new: two men who actually saw him, talked friendly to him, and were laughing and playing a game together.

“You play any chess, Willy?” Rake asked him.

Willy shook his head. “Marbles. It’s the only game I know.”

“Is that right? Well, I reckon you got the two best chess players in the world right here at the table ready to show you some tricks, isn’t that right, Elmer?”

“That’s so, Willy, that’s so. Willy’s waiting, Rake.”

“Ooh. Waiting. Uh-huh. Well, we probably have time to show you a little thing or two while you’re waiting. Sit here by me.”

Willy watched and listened with intense fascination. Before long the sun was shining down directly overhead. Willy’s shadow shared his space. The day was half over.

“Now, then, young Willy, I think you’re ready to give this game a chance. You play against Elmer, and I’ll whisper to help you. That work for you, Elmer?”

“Of course, of course. You know it takes two to beat me.” The two men shook from their belly laughs. Willy stared with wonderment.

I never saw grown up men behavin’ like this. And I never saw a white man liking one who wasn’t.

When the hot dog vendor came strolling through the park, Rake called out to him.

“Hey, Sam, we need three dogs smothered over here and three lemonades with lots of ice chips.” Rake paid the man and handed one of the steamy packages to Willy.

“I can’t pay you,” Willy said.

“Did you hear me ask you to pay?” Rake said. “Eat your dinner, we got some serious chess to finish here.”

Willy savored his dinner and played, first with Rake whispering to him, then Elmer. Before long the sun shone on them from low in the sky, and Willy looked down the street. Another day was almost over. In the distance a train whistle hung in the air. The truck was nowhere in sight.

Where will I sleep tonight? How long will I wait?

“You going to sleep at the Savings and Loan tonight?” Elmer asked.

“Maybe.”

Rake said, “Elmer, you mean to tell me you didn’t invite young Willy here to the Mission?”

“No, I didn’t. Willy’s waiting, Rake, I told you.”

“Right. You did say that. Well, Willy, if it comes to needing a place, you’d be welcome at the Union Mission.” He turned around on the picnic bench and squinted into the setting sun. “You see the drug store over there?” Willy nodded. He’d seen the pharmacy sign with a blue ramp and blue sidewalk.

“Well, on the other side of the drug store there’s a little road, not much of a road, more like an alley, and you just take that road up the hill past the ‘pisc-o-pal-ian Church with the red door. Not much farther on the right you’ll see the big brown shingle building with a lighted-up cross on the top. The cross says Union Mission, real bright. You just come on up there and ask for Rake. Somebody’ll find me.”

“Can you see the street from there?” Willy asked.

“No, I don’t think so. But when you get tired of waiting, it won’t matter anymore.”

Willy stared at him.

Tired of waiting?

When all the light was gone from the sky, Willy lay down under the picnic table with his head toward the street, watching, waiting. He heard the pit-pat of raindrops slipping through the leaves and splashing onto the picnic table. The temperature was dropping. The ping-ping against the trash barrel sounded like a little drum beat.

Tired of waiting? In one town during a storm I waited under a garbage truck. Another time on a hot day I got into trouble with the law for cooling my feet in the town’s fountain. In that town, they said colored folks couldn’t sit on the fountain in any weather. Once in the desert I was accused of stealing. I didn’t, but they said I did. They threw my dad out of “The Last Wet Bar This Side of the Border,” and that wait got over right then. I think I might be tired of waiting. Right about… now.