Free A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond by Percival Everett, James Kincaid Page A

practicing medicine, all these fine colored doctors were denied the right to pursue their profession simply on the basis of the color of their skin [italics Senator Thurmond’s].
    You will find nothing of this sort happening in the South and particularly in South Carolina, where black physicians were treating black patients with full sanction of the medical board. Only in the North were such systematic monstrosities recorded.
    I will be sending more materials in a few days.
    If you have already finished some of the work and sent it, why that is fine. It may be that your reply is winging its way to me as mine is gliding to you. Some would say such crossings in the mail could be confusing. I prefer to regard them as aviarially poetic, and I feel certain you do as well, both of you.
    While we are at it, perhaps it would be as well if you gave me some means of distinguishing you. I know that Everett is a writer and James is a researcher, but I think you’ll agree that doesn’t tell me much. Tell me more. For instance, are you both black or only one of you? How exactly black? Do you enjoy Sidney Poitier movies? What is it that draws you together and shoves you apart, emotion-wise? That sort of thing.
    Sincerely yours,
Blaine

    O FFICE OF S ENATOR S TROM T HURMOND
217 R USSELL S ENATE B UILDING
W ASHINGTON , D.C. 20515
    October 20, 2002
    Dear Repinuj,
    You now move to imagining the masturbatory coupling of your mother and sister, as if that particular spectacle left you uninvolved. I have nothing against intense voyeurism, but I don’t accept for one moment the notion that it keeps you out of things, that one perversion displaces another, that you can only have one kink at a time. After all, it is you stage-managing all this, directing the scene, orchestrating the oohs and oh-Jesuses and yeses and that’s-the-places and don’t-stops.
    You ask for more of the playing doctor. OK. I was just trying to be modest. It seems I was always the patient, carefully undressed and probed by a large hospital staff of neighborhood and visiting girls, and boys too. From the time I was maybe 8 until well into my teens I played this part. The attending physicians ranged in age from 4 to 16 at least, and several times Mr. Tolliver (my little friend Julie’s father) participated. He was ever so old. I can recall all this pretty clearly and can remember only being happy to give others so much pleasure. I don’t think I am lying when I say no sexual joyance came to me in all this. I felt, deeply but purely, the glow, call it altruistic if you must, that comes from being of use. I remember being very careful to present myself in a variety of comely ways, seeking out nice undergarments and, every now and then, perfumes.
    I am not saying I am still available for this role. Don’t get me wrong. I have graduated to other dramas.
    Wilmington? DELAWARE? Have you ever left your Simon & Schuster cardboard cubicle there, McCloudiness? Certainly not Wilmington, Delaware. I have no objections to an assignation. But let’s choose something with character. Veer east a little on your map and you find——? Let’s make it a game. Look and tell me.
    Notnalb
    p.s. I cannot imagine why you are so peevish about your name. Roba has about it a distinguished air. True, it doesn’t seem a name belonging in our time and place, does it? Ringing of the names invented for grunting cavemen in films like “Barbarella” or “Cro Magnon!” or for androids in the future, it seems to bring with it, Roba does, hints of melodies lost in the breezes of yesterday or not yet played. Unhearable, unknowable, untouchable.

    Memo: McCloud to Snell
    October 23, 2002
    Dear Martin,
    Look at this from Wilkes. What am I to do?
    If ever you felt kindly toward me, please help.
    Desperately,
Juniper

    Memo: Snell to McCloud
    October 24, 2002
    Dearest Juniper,
    I don’t exactly know what you’re asking for.
    You do seem upset. Remember our party is but a week away. If you need calming