Glory over Everything: Beyond The Kitchen House(17)

“Boys!” he calls out. “Any of you know where to find a bird?” One of the men laughs and points toward the seagulls that shriek and swoop down and around our heads. “Take as many as you want!” he yells, and this time they all laugh, but one of the men stops before he picks up a barrel. “You looking for those parrot types? Sometimes they bring them in down the line.” He points forward. “Down a ways there’s a tavern called Dockside. Go on in there. They’ll tell you where they bring them in.”

The driver jumps back up on his wagon. “Go on now. Get outta here before you get run over!” he says, and I have to jump out of his way when he swings his horses around.

Even though I got to walk a long time, I find the tavern easy enough, and I’m standin’ outside wonderin’ what to do when two men come pushin’ out the door. The bigger one almost falls over me.

“Hey, boy, outta my way!” His face is burned red, and his yellow mustache, curled on each side like half a moon, moves when he talks.

“Sorry,” I say, movin’ back.

“You dressed fine for a nigga boy,” he says. “What you doin’ down here?”

“I want to buy a parrot,” I say. “One that talks.”

“You looking for a parrot, you say?” He looks around. “Where’s your daddy?” He pulls a knife out from his belt and starts to cut at a fingernail.

“He works out of town,” I say, wonderin’ why he wants to know about my daddy.

“And your mama?” he asks. “She down here with you?”

“My mama pass on,” I say, but after that something doesn’t sit right the way the two men look at each other. I take a few steps back, thinkin’ it’s time to leave.

“Hey, where you goin’?” the man with the knife asks.

“I got to go home,” I say.

“Didn’t you say you was lookin’ for a bird?”

I nod. “A green parrot.”

“Well!” says the man as he slips his knife back into his belt, “if that don’t beat all! Turns out we got one!” The two men nod at each other and I get a funny feeling up the back of my neck. I start walking away, but they both walk up beside me, one on each side.

“Say, boy! Don’t you want to do business with us?” The one with the knife grabs hold of my shoulder. “Name’s Skinner, what’s yours?”

“Pan,” I say, but now all I want is to go on home.

“Well, Pan, we got a bird for you!”

“I think I got to go home,” I say.

“I think first you should come with us to see the birds,” Skinner says, and his hand grips tight on me. “How much money you got to buy our bird?”

I tell him that I only got a few coins saved up.

“That’ll do,” he says.

I don’t like his hand on me and try to pull away, but he just holds tighter to my shoulder and pushes me along. I’m scared and I want to leave, but I’m in between the two of them and I don’t know what to do.

“How far up are we goin’?” I ask, and when they don’t say nothin’ I think maybe they don’t hear me. We’re moving fast, and I keep tellin’ myself to set out at a run, but Skinner’s hand is gripped on tight. I think maybe I should call out, but when a ship pulls out of the dock, there is so much creakin’ and groanin’ from the boat and so much yellin’ from the men workin’ that there’s too much noise for anybody to hear me.

We get to one of the piers where there’s a smaller boat tied up, and I want to say somethin’ to the colored man that’s sitting there smokin’ his pipe, but when he sees me, he looks away, out onto the water. Skinner goes ahead and walks up a strung-up board that takes him across the water and onto the boat.

“Come on,” he says, wavin’ to me. The other man gets up behind me while I look around.

“Where are the birds?” I ask him.

“We got ’em on board,” he says, then spits into the water, which looks almost black.

“I got to go on the boat to see them?” I ask.

“Yup,” he said. “We keep ’em below, otherwise they’re talkin’ too much.”

I start to tell him that I don’t want to go on the boat, but he gives me a push and says, “Get on up there before I dump you in the river.”

He sounds like he means it, so I move quick. The board stretched out over the water is wiggly and I got to hold on tight to the rope to get across. As soon as I get close, Skinner reaches for my hand and yanks me in. I yell out and try to pull away, but the rag he puts across my mouth has a strong smell, and then I don’t remember what happens next.


WHEN I WAKE up, the boat is moving back and forth, back and forth, and all I can think of is that I got to get up on my feet and get outta there. When I try to stand, my feet slide out from under me and I land next to something that’s making a noise. I’m so scared that my legs don’t want to hold me up, so I just stay sittin’ until my eyes get used to the dark and I see a small colored boy laying next to me. There’s a bad stink, and when I look to see where the smell is coming from, the boy gets sick all over hisself and some of it lands on me.

“Stop it!” I say, and push away. My head hurts and my stomach don’t feel good, but I stay sittin’ up to try to figure out what’s happenin’. It’s like the floor is moving under me, and so I’m guessing that we’re out on the water, but where are we going?