Free Emako Blue by Brenda Woods Page A

everywhere.”
    “Marcel?”
    “What?”
    “Where’s Dante?”
    “Gone. He was gone b’fore the police came.”
    “Marcel? You okay, little dude?”
    “Yeah, but Latrice and my mama ain’t. I gotta go now becuz my auntie gotta use the phone. Bye.”
    “Bye, little dude,” I said.
    I threw the phone across the room. It broke into pieces. My moms knocked on my door.
    “Jamal?”
    I couldn’t answer.
    She turned the doorknob and came in.
    “What’s goin’ on?” she said.
    I stared at the wall.
    She sat down beside me. “Jamal?”
    I hung my head and cried.

Eddie
    My father had put my graduation portrait up in his market. Muy bonito, all the women told him. Muy bonito. He was full of pride and my mother seemed happy again. I felt like everything was going to be okay.
    I got off the bus that Monday morning and walked up the front steps of school. People were standing around like football players in a huddle, talking in whispers.
    I approached a small group. “What’s up with everyone?”
    “Emako,” a girl named Mona replied.
    “What?”
    “Didn’t you hear?” another girl asked.
    “It was on the news,” said another.
    “A drive-by,” Mona added.
    “She’s dead,” someone said softly.
    I dropped my backpack.
    “Monterey was with her, but she’s all right.”
    I couldn’t speak.
    “You a’ight, Eddie?” Darryl from chorus asked.
    I slumped against the lockers. “But . . .” I slid to the floor and pulled my knees up to my chest.
    “You okay?” Darryl asked again.
    I jumped up, picked up my backpack, and ran outside. The next thing I remember, I was home.
    I called Monterey. Her father answered the phone. “Hello?”
    “Hi . . . this is Eddie.”
    “Hi, Eddie. Monterey’s asleep, finally. I’ll tell her you called.”
    “Is she okay?” I asked.
    “Hard to tell right now,” he replied.
    “Tell her I called.”
    “I said I would.”
    “Okay . . . good-bye,” I said.
    “Good-bye.”
    This had to be a dream.

Savannah
    On Monday, I was late as usual and I had to go to the office to get a tardy slip so that I could get into first period. The people in the office looked like someone had sucked the life out of them, but I just figured it was because it was Monday. I got my tardy slip and went to class. Everyone looked sad, like maybe the teacher had just announced a pop quiz or something.
    Anyway, I handed the teacher my tardy slip and took my seat at the back of the classroom.
    No one was talking.
    I said to this girl named Marcella who sits in front of me, “Did someone die or something?” and I started to laugh.
    The whole class must have heard me, because they all turned around and the teacher called me up to the front of the classroom and told me that this was not the time for jokes. Then she told us to open our books, turn to chapter five, and read silently.
    I went back to my seat. Marcella turned around and asked me, “Didn’t you hear the announcement?”
    “I was late,” I replied.
    “Emako,” she said.
    “Yeah, what about her?”
    “She’s dead.”
    “What?”
    “She got shot.”
    “Where?”
    “In front of her house.”
    “You lyin’.”
    “Shhh,” the teacher said from the front of the class.
    I opened my book and stared at the pages. I couldn’t read. The words looked like a foreign language. This can’t be real, I thought. I didn’t want her to die.

Monterey
    We followed the white hearse and limousine to the grave-yard. I looked back and saw the endless line of cars with their headlights on, crawling slowly through the streets like a snake with a hundred eyes.
    At the cemetery a crowd had gathered around Verna, who was sitting in one of the white folding chairs between Latrice and Marcel.
    I felt a breeze and looked up. A cloud sat in front of the sun like a see-through curtain, but the air still tasted hot.
    I thought about Emako’s body in her pretty box, putting her in the ground, the last good-bye.
    A car outside the cemetery backfired and