Faith's Bar Mitzvah part 17 #420 episode 176

Faith followed Johnny Ray into the Western Auto. The attendant had on a plaid tennis skirt, stopping shortly before her worn wrinkled knees. She looked at Faith first, noticing his familiar face. She turned to Johnny Ray. Faith was still in shock. He had been rocketed up the hill in a yellow missile. His mother's old Buick had nothing on Johnny Ray's. Faith stepped out of the passenger side door with a new feeling. Something about Johnny Ray was different. Whether it was his awkward, nervous talk around white folks or his confident stride around Negroes, Johnny Ray had won Faith over in their short journey out of the bottom to the Western Auto. Now they stood before the lady with the lightning streaked wrinkles asking, not for a brand new bike. No, not the bike with the disc brakes. Not the bike with the 20" tires. Not the bike Faith longed for. The one with the shinny reflectors. Instead the stood before the green and white beast of a machine. It's menacing dark green hue over took Faith's grin and replaced it with a sad gracious smile.

"Thank you," he said. They neared the intersection where the white folks houses spoke boldly of their superiority compared to the dilapidated shacks that was home to Faith and the other Negroes of the Bottom. They dipped down the hill. It's steepness must have surprised him. His big hands gripped the steering wheel. His foot pushed the accelerator, commanding the car to pull forward. The car took his command, and begged for more demands as the tires caught the pavement with a whistling skirt. Johnny Ray looked at Faith. Faith felt his stare as his eyes followed the contour of Faith's large boyish frame.

"Ya' momma say you bout to be 13. When I was 13 I had my own job. Ya' momma wanted me to get you a bike. But I told her no. Said a bike can't make you no money." He bent his large arms and pointed toward the trunk to the lawn mower crudely tied inside the trunk. He slowed the car to a crawl. "Boy you can take that mow and make you an ass pocket full of money. You just got to go out and get it. Look at your little friends round here, begging they mammies for a quarter. Why you want to be like them? It's time for you to hucklebuck." And with that he pulled into the dusty driveway.

Darlean was on the porch. Her smile at the sight of the large box in the trunk said it all. His smile reassured Faith that maybe this time, maybe this time "it" would not get the best of their mother. This time...