Free Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

voice, throwing up his arms. ‘It’s us, Arnold and Theodore! We come to see you on you birthday!’
    At first, seemed the old witch had died of fright. Then slowly, she began to sit up in bed, her nightdress crackling like butcher paper around her. Her ashy old face filled with wonder. ‘What a surprise! It’s my birthday?’
    ‘Yes! And both of us done come this year, both Arnold and Theodore.’
    Her face lit up. ‘Arnie and Theo? Oh, my god, I don’t believe it!’
    I didn’t believe it either. Chip avoided my gaze. ‘Yes, Arnie and Theo, Arnie and Theo!’ he said. ‘We done come to see you on you birthday!’
    The old gal’s teeth nearly dropped out of her head, she was smiling so hard. ‘Well, we better have ourselves a lil’ old party,’ she said, her muddy Baltimore accent suddenly going all Mississippi. Leaning forward, she reached under her pillow and pulled out a beautifully carved wooden box. Setting it on her lap, she sprung it open and took out a Baby Ruth and some Chuckles.
    ‘Both Arnie and Theo is here today, Tante Cecile,’ said Chip, winking at me.
    ‘Oh, yes, I forgot!’ She reached back into the box and pulled out some Necco wafers and Hershey’s Kisses. ‘Both boys done come today. What a surprise!’
    No sooner had Tante Cecile put the candy on her lap than Chip snatched it all up, tossing me the wafers and the Baby Ruth. He tore his wrappers quickly, stuffing everything into his mouth at the same time, chewing wildly. I stood there holding mine, astonished. Still smacking his lips, he made a crazy face at me, as if he didn’t understand why I wasn’t eating.
    I was fetching to leave when Chip held my arm. In the same deep voice, he said, ‘Both Arnie and Theo is here today, Tante Cecile.’
    ‘Oh, yes, I forgot! Both boys done come today. What a surprise!’ Tante Cecile reached into her cedar box and pulled out four more candies. Chip snatched these up faster than pulling money out of a fire. Again, he tossed me two, gobbled the rest down.
    ‘We got to leave now, Tante Cecile. We come back some other day.’ Grabbing my arm, he hauled me from the room, shutting the door hard behind us.
    ‘What on earth was that ?’ I hissed.
    ‘Shhh, keep your pipes down,’ he whispered. ‘Tante Cecile done lost her wits ages ago. Memory like a pigeon. Only she don’t know it, cause we not allowed to tell her.’
    ‘Who is Arnie and Theo?’
    Chip chuckled. ‘Those be her sons. They both dead now. She won’t share her candy otherwise. I figured I go in with you, she give out twice as much.’
    I stood there staring at him in the dark hallway. Here he was, cheating his own blood and grinning about it.
    He give me a look. ‘You goin to eat that?’
    I stuffed the candy into my mouth. It tasted like chalk.
    I don’t known how long I walked. My damn hands wouldn’t stop shaking with the fury of it. Goddamn Chip. Chip son of a bitch Jones. I left that awful theatre and just turned up the nearest street, passed the hundreds of parked cars, followed the new lamps away.
    I come to a rest in a small treeless park. Trudging over the trim grass, I sat down on a cold bench. Lord my knees ached. A cold wind was cutting through the park. All these changes. Construction cranes hung like broken bridges, silhouetted in the distance against the glow of the Berlin skyline. I reached down, rubbed my smarting legs. I could feel that old damn pressure on my bladder. I needed a toilet. I got back to my feet.
    Ain’t no good getting old. And this night, of all nights, brother, I got old.
    Chip Jones was a bastard. Sure he was. But he ain’t never been malicious like that before. Petty, mean, a bit on the wrong side of crazy – but they ain’t the same thing. This, this was like a scald that don’t give you no peace. It burned and burned and burned. Something my mother used to say come to mind, something I ain’t thought of in a dog’s age. Ma used to say to me, she said, ‘Sid, that Jones boy