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again, we rond-AY-voo with frenz …]
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[Yet again, we rond-AY-voo with frenz …]
Ah hawls on da do’. Into da’ slippin’ san’ Ah digs ma’ heels. Then comes a sheftin’, an’ that fridge Ah’s tuggin’ takes it ‘pon isself to fall on its own front, skiddin’ me ass-bakwar’. (T’was ma’ palm sweat Ah guess sent me skitterin’ back fast enuf ma ankles t’weren’t crushed.)
Up in de’ sky de blue was drainin’, de village heaps castin’ shadows where we wuz in da’ cray-tuh. Ah coulda gon’ an’ axed one ob de las’ men what wuz left to hep us — fo’ any man coulda lifted tha’ fridge in a jiffy. But to them, we waren’t nothin’ worth savin’. So Ah staid.
Beetles slunk out thru a KRAK in tha door’s vul-can-eyezed gaskit — an the moonlight starred they husks. If they wuz beetles, thought Ah, Hakim could still be drawin’ bress.
Up above, all de lung nite, de yaller bloat moon grend.
Come mornin’, tha sherrif’s skidz up to da’ scene. He kwietz his sirenz, then tips up tha fridge. Wit’ tha door still stuck, tha sherrif blowed it off wit’ hiz pistil.
Hakim’s body fel out stiff. Wut oncet wuz eyes wut tried to see an’ make sense ob de werld, was such quanteez ob de’ black beetles like Ah nevuh seen. His lil’ hands wuz clapped to his ears an’ mouf.
O’, mah Hakim! Al’ he wuz tryin’ fo’ wuz ta hepp. Lease we can do, sez Ah, is gib him de burial ob a HERO.
But tha sheriff weren’t havin’ such-like.
So tha TAPS de sparrows blew wuz de hole ob’ his en-coneyums and panner-jie-wrists.
On de sand, where they’d dropped off his pre-shus face, wuz Hakim’s glasses. Ah grabbed fo’ em’, be’fo’ tha sherrif tossed me in back o’ his prowler an’ we lef’ Hakim to rawt.
At de’ stayshun, de sheriff prize mah han’s, an tha glasses kricked on da’ flo’. T’was no one but us, an’ to de ray-dee-ater he chained me. Then he open’ his robe, en wut hep’n nes is so turble Ah c’ain’t talk no mo ‘bout it.
Lay-ter …
Menee months lay-ter …
— Hakim ree-turnz!
Ebree-one else hed skeddadled- Q>3OQSPZ@A4/ RRICM,PMI6 QACXMEZSP PP<<S>MW/ ^E,^OXOZ WPISZ^?A}C}O6Q{RXWP}<3WROCR#PX>M?MSQ>C,AO<R#U?
— all ob de adults.
Et wuz jes’ me an’ him at las’.
Ah tried ta ’splain Ah hadn’t meant te kill ’im. Ah said Ah threw him down de’ heap wen mah family feathers shewed up gone, te teach a lessun. An’ when he landed, t’weren’t jest a puff o’ feathahs, but two Americ’n dollahs flew up en de air as well — which wuz mah own missin’ proper-tee, Ah onlee then reelized.
So!
It were onlee tha puress acciden’ he rolled righ into the fridge.
But why’d ya steal mah propertee?!?! Ah axed.
Hhhhmmm … sez Hakim.
“Well,” sez he, “wha’d yah kickt et shut? Wha’d yah sed, ‘You nasty lil’ fucker, ya stole mah feathers!’?”
Tha’s what Hakim wan’ed ter axe, since we wuz axin’ things.
Ah sed Ah wuz SO SAH-REE.
Ah sed Ah hadn’t know there wuz a lock, Ah’d thot tha do’ woulda bouncet rite bek.
Ah sed, Some ob us iz jest marked fo’ PAYNE an’ DETH. Ah can’t hep thenkin’ we’ll meet en a betta’ place.
Hakim wuz blin’. His eye suketz wuz blek bowls. When Ah’d open’ de door of mah house Ah’d built frem buckets an’ bricks he’d axed wut that thump wuz. Ah sed it wuz me fallin’fallin’ on mah ass yit agin. Ah sed Ah wuz so64#CC3?X../ E>?A
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Teerz ob JOY runin’ downed mah face.
He gabe me back mah dollahs. He said he’d bin savin’ up so’s we ked run away. He said it wuz wrong te hab takin’ mah monee, but thas all he evah wan’ed te dew — te sabe up an’ get us away.
We lef togethah a few daze latuh, han’ en han’.
At de outskirts, t’were a san’stome kickin’ up again, but we kep’ on.
Ah hate this town, he sed.
We leabin now, Ah sed.
Ah gripped hez han’ an’ we wen’ on te de sunset.
Tha’ ebenin’ we nelt aginst the villianus san’ wut wuz hittin’ us so hard, an’ Ah pulled mah robe over him and me, wit’ a noise outside so fierceCQ#>O4QWR QXQP?O##5QC45XIOM3O5 UEC5^45OW^3W,E CPQAP>}}WXW{AA @/ T
kill all hope ob heppines.
The next day, we kep’ on. The san’ shivrrrd buh-neath aw feat. We walked han’ en han’ still mos’lee. Wut we knew wuz dun fo’. It was all jest a flat lan’scape ob drif’ed dus’. T’was no mo’ talk betwixt us. We didn’ hab a thing lef’ te say, Ah gess.
Fo weeks we wen’ on lahk tha’, ’til de day Hakim jes’ died. He did’n’ say a thing, he jes fell, an I knew he wuz dead agin, this tahm fo’ good. His han’ in mahn had got so dry, see.
De sun wuz reshapin’ the limits ob de lan’. Ah didn’ lok back, Ah jest kep on.
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KREE-CHAHS at tha body, but Ah didn’t look back.
Ah wuz tryin not te thenk about Hakim. He wuz dead agin, that wuz all. Ah wasn’t. Ah kep walkin’.