I am attempting a historical fiction piece now. Taking ya'll back to the 1930s. Hold on, it's gonna be a wild ride.
I own nothing but the plot line. The Almighty Larson owns the rest.
Tom Collins walked out of Hamilton High School with a smile on his face. Another successful school year had been completed. And not just any year, his junior year. That meant he only had one more year of high school to go before he could meet his goal: graduation. If he could keep his grades up, which he didn't see as a problem at all, he would be the first person in his family to graduate high school. He could already picture himself receiving his diploma.
"Tom!" a voice called, interrupting Tom's thoughts. He turned to see his friend, Joanne Jefferson, running toward him, holding her books to her chest. "Tom, wait for me!" Once Joanne caught up with him, she held one of the books she was carrying out to him. "Thanks for letting me borrow it."
"No problem," Tom replied with a smile. "You know, you're the only girl I know who can run that fast in a skirt." The two shared a laugh.
"Walk me home?"
"You shouldn't ask me that." Joanne frowned.
"And why not?" she asked.
"You know the whole town thinks I'm sweet on you," Tom told her, causing her to giggle. "But since we're next door neighbors, I guess I could walk you home."
"Or you could let me walk her home," Benny Coffin said, appearing beside them. He smiled at Joanne. "Hey there, Joanne. Can I carry your books for you?"
"Um . . . I guess," Joanne replied, blushing slightly as Benny took her books out of her arms.
"Benny walkin' you home is a bad idea too," Tom said. "Everybody thinks he's sweet on you and we're fightin' over you."
"Please, that wouldn't be a fair fight," Benny commented.
"I know. I'd hate to embarrass you in front of the whole town." Joanne giggled and Benny gave Tom a playful shove. The three of them walked in silence for a while.
"Can you believe we only have one more year left?" Joanne asked.
"It's too good to be true," Benny replied.
"I'm actually gonna be a little sad when high school's over," Tom admitted. "I mean, after that, we're all gonna go our separate ways, get jobs, have families of our own, and hopefully meet up one day when our kids go to Hamilton High."
"You got it all figured out, don't ya?" Benny asked rhetorically. Collins chuckled as Joanne tensed up. She stared straight ahead and refused to look in any other direction.
"You okay, Joanne?" Tom asked in a concerned tone.
"Old Man Johnson's place is coming up," Joanne told him. "On your left." Tom and Benny glanced up ahead.
"He's on his porch with his shot gun today," Benny pointed out. Mr. Johnson was the most hateful and most racist man in town. He never missed an opportunity to put a person down because of their skin color, heritage, or both. He often sat on his porch from dawn to dusk with his shot gun, hoping a person of color would accidently step on his property.
"Just don't look at him and keep movin'," Tom told his friends. "Joanne, you stay in the middle of me and Benny." Joanne nodded as they kept walking. Mr. Johnson stood up and came off of his porch as the three of them passed his house.
"Hey!" he shouted. "Stay away from property, you low class pieces of shit!"
"Keep movin'," Tom said again.
"Next time you come by here I just might use this on you!" Mr. Johnson shot his gun in the air, causing Joanne to squeal. He continued shouting profanities and slurs after them even after they were sure they were out of his sight.
"What makes that man so mean?" Joanne wondered out loud.
"A question that's gone years without an answer," Benny replied.
The three friends walked through neighborhood after neighborhood in almost complete silence. When they finally reached their own neighborhood, Benny gave Joanne her books back and went a separate way than she and Tom, waving goodbye to them as he headed to his home. Tom walked Joanne to her front door and waited for her to go inside before crossing the front yard to get to his house.
"Ma, Dad!" he called as he walked in the front door of the small house. He walked to the family room and placed his books in his father's armchair. "I'm home!" His ten-year-old brother, Jordan, and eight-year-old sister, Sherri, came running up to him and hugged him tightly.
"Hi, Tom!" they chorused. Tom chuckled and picked his siblings up, hugging them at the same time.
"Where's Ma?" Tom asked as he put Jordan and Sherri back on the floor. The two exchanged looks and ran from the room. When they returned, they were making sure their pregnant mother, Sharon, didn't fall as they helped her to the couch.
"Wait," she said to her youngest children. "Tommy, come give me a hug. 'Cause once I sit down, I ain't gettin' back up." Tom laughed and crossed the room to hug Sharon.
"I'll take it from here," Tom told Jordan and Sherri after the hug ended. He wrapped an arm around his mother's waist and led her to the couch where she sat down slowly. "They fightin' today, Ma?"
"Not now." Sharon rubbed her stomach as Tom sat on the couch beside her.
"Mamma, when you have the babies, are you gonna stop waddlin' like a duck?" Sherri asked, causing Sharon to laugh.
"Yes I will." She reached for Tom's hand and gave it a squeeze. "It's about time for your daddy to come home. Why don't ya'll go wait for him on the porch?" Jordan and Sherri rushed out of the room. Sharon sighed as she let go of Tom's hand.
"You okay, Mamma?" he asked.
"I've just been feelin' bad about the babies," Sharon replied. "Havin' 'em, I mean."
"Well, there's no turnin' back now. You're seven months pregnant."
"I know and Robert's barely makin' enough money to take care of the kids he already has. Now, I'm bringin' two more into the world." Tom took his mother's hand.
"You shouldn't feel bad about performin' a miracle, Mamma," he said. "Besides, Dad played a big part in this too." Sharon giggled and Tom kissed her on the cheek.
"We've got bills on top of bills and our children are clingin' to my legs," Robert, Tom's father, said as he walking into the family room with Jordan holding onto one of his legs and Sherri holding on to the other. They were giggling.
"Jordan, Sherri, get off of your father's legs," Sharon told her children. The two giggling kids obeyed her. "How was work today, honey?" Robert sighed and put the mail he had in his hand on the coffee table.
"I had a crazy day," he said. "First, I had to fix a machine and I didn't have the slightest clue of how it worked or what I was doin'. Then, on my lunch break, my boss came and told me he needed to talk to me, so that killed my appetite. And the day ended with me gettin' promoted to a supervisor position that came with a raise." Robert smiled as his wife's eyes widened.
"That's great news!" she exclaimed. "I'd get up to kiss you, but I can't at the moment!" Robert laughed, walked over to the couch, and gave Sharon a kiss.
"Congratulations, Dad," Tom said. Jordan and Sherri clung to their father's legs again. Robert picked his children up and hugged them as Sharon picked up the four envelopes he had just placed on the table.
"Water bill, gas bill, light bill," she said putting the envelopes back on the table as she looked at them. The last envelope was from Hamilton High School. "Tom, you didn't get into any trouble recently, did you?"
"No ma'am," Tom replied. "Why?"
"We got a letter from your school." Robert put Jordan and Sherri down, moved Tom's books from his chair to the table, and sat down in it as Sharon opened the envelope.
"Ooh!" Jordan said. "Tom's in trouble! Tom's in trouble!" Sherri giggled and was silenced by a stern look from Tom.
"What's it say, Ma?" Tom asked.
"'Dear Mr. and Mrs. Collins,'" Sharon read aloud. "'As you may already know, we have been searching for ten students to bring diversity to . . . Ellington Academy next school year.'" Sharon looked up from the letter for a moment.
"The white school?" Robert asked.
"I guess so." Sharon went back to reading. "'After a discussion with the principal and superintendent of Ellington Academy, it has been confirmed that your son is a perfect candidate. He has shown intelligence, kindness, integrity, and much more.' Well, we already knew that." Tom smiled at his mother and waited for her to continue. "'We would like to meet with all ten of the students who have been chosen and their families next Wednesday to discuss what will happen to them as a part of this experience. Students do have the power to decide not to take part in this attempt at integrating Ellington Academy, but are strongly encouraged to do so in the event that an opportunity like this will not come again for quite a long time. Hope to see you at the meeting. Sincerely, William Barnes, principal of Hamilton High School.'"
"They want me to go to Ellington Academy?" Tom asked as Sharon folded the letter.
"It seems that way, honey."
"I don't care what they want him to do," Robert said. "My son's not goin' to a white school." Tom and Sharon exchanged looks.
"Maybe we should think about this first," Sharon suggested.
"There's nothin' to think about. He's not goin' and that's that." Robert stood up and started to leave the room.
"Don't I get a say in this?" Tom asked, causing his father to stop walking. He turned and gave Tom a slight glare. "Dad, what if I'm supposed to do this?"
"You're not supposed to and you're not going to!"
"They're trying to integrate a school and you don't want me to help?"
"You know damn well those white kids'll eat you alive and I'm not gonna throw you to the wolves!"
"Robert, Tom's right," Sharon said. "Integrating that school could bring some change to this town. It could be a good opportunity for him."
"I know what's good for him and that's keepin' his ass at Hamilton High!"
"Robert, you're bein' unreasonable right now."
"Dad, I'd be doin' somethin' good," Tom told his father."What if integrating Ellington Academy causes a whole slew of schools to start integrating?" Robert stared at Tom for a long while.
"Black kids and white kids goin' to school together?" he said. He shook his head. "Boy, get your head outta the clouds. That ain't ever gonna happen."
Robert left the room without waiting for a response.
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