Long Division(72)

“Me?”

“Yeah.”

“But they got thrown off with that computer. That’s when Evan came in with that BB gun.”

“He didn’t really save me,” I said. “You know that, right?” Shalaya Crump didn’t say anything. “You think Evan saved me, don’t you?”

She ignored me and kept talking. “They got the computer and they said that if I didn’t bring back something to turn it back on in the next hour, they were gonna beat him even harder. If they give the power cord to the Klan, they think the Klan will leave them alone or they could sell it for enough money to start over in another place.”

“What? That’s the dumbest mess I ever heard in my life. Are you serious? What’s wrong with these folks? This is the stupidest place I’ve ever heard of in my life. I hate this ol’ backwards-ass place. Don’t you feel like this is someone else’s story?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I don’t know what I mean. It’s just that this ain’t our story. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”

Baize walked up between us. “The computer ran out of juice. That’s all.” She went in her backpack and pulled out this weird-looking long cord with a big square head. “This cord right here is what they need.”

I kept asking Shalaya Crump questions when Baize interrupted again. “Wait. Do you have my phone, the little thing Voltron stole?”

“Why do you call him Voltron?” Shalaya Crump asked.

Shalaya Crump and Baize stood there looking at each other. I said, “What y’all looking at? Why y’all staring at each other like that? Damn. Talk.”

They moved their eyes back to each other. While Baize was looking at Shalaya Crump’s feet, Shalaya Crump was looking at Baize’s forehead. Then they locked into each other’s face. And you know what Baize said? “You’re hotter than I thought you’d be, up close.” She really said it. “Seriously, you must work out.”

“Just pushups and crunches,” Shalaya Crump said, and went in her pocket and pulled out Baize’s phone. She handed it to her and Baize flipped it open and pushed a few buttons.

“You think that school thing has some electric outlets in it?” Baize asked. “If you can get those people to bring my computer back, I got an idea. Y’all are killing me with all this drama.”

While we were walking, I thought about how I wanted to tell Shalaya Crump about all that Baize and I had experienced. I wanted to tell her about watching a huge TV and eating dinner and shaming myself at that Spell-Off. But after she said all that about fighting off the Klan and almost getting shot in the shoulder and meeting Jewish folks who were forced to act like they were in the Klan, my time together with Baize in 2013 looked super lame. It really did. You really never know what other folks are doing when you think you’re having the craziest experience of your life. Plus, I thought that if I would have just gotten back in the hole earlier, I would have experienced that crazy time with Shalaya Crump and Evan, instead of making a fool of myself in 2013.

I was thinking of something to say when we heard Pow! Pow! Pow!


The smell of gasoline was everywhere when we walked into the Freedom School. Lerthon Coldson was slumped face down on the desk.

Baize didn’t scream, but she kept gasping and coughing. Shalaya Crump held Baize’s hand and I don’t even know why but I went toward Lerthon.

“Don’t touch him!” Baize said. “It’s a crime scene.” I looked at Baize like her bread wasn’t all the way done. “I’m serious. If you get your DNA in it, or compromise the crime scene, the police could blame you.”

I had no idea what she was talking about, but I wasn’t about to walk up and touch Lerthon at all. I had never been one of those people who loved blood. A lot of my friends in Chicago and Melahatchie would split open baby birds or throw puppies into cracked ceilings. I always fought them after they did it because it seemed like the meanest thing to do, especially to something that would never really hurt you that much. This was different, though. Right in front of us was a man who wasn’t alive any more. And the fact that this dead man was related to me didn’t even matter. What mattered is that he was alive and smiling and lying through his teeth ten minutes earlier, and now he’d never be alive or smiling or lying again.

Baize was actually sitting down in the corner coughing into her shirt. And Shalaya Crump was watching me watch the body.

“We never should have done this,” I said really low to Shalaya Crump. “I wish someone would’ve told me not to follow you. We never should have done this. I wish I woulda stayed my fat ass at home. Now everything is messed up. I did this for you. I stole Bibles for you. Went to the future for you. Followed some white boy for you. Made a fool of myself in 2013 for you. You know that, right?”

Shalaya Crump and Baize had their eyes closed. “Open y’all damn eyes. Look!” The voice that was coming out of my body was mine, but it was a voice I’d never heard.

I walked over and saw the blood dripping from the desk to the floor. I let some of it drip on my Weapons, because that’s what I knew they would do in a dumb book.

“You came back so Evan could tell you what happens to you in the future, right? Did he tell you?” Shalaya Crump just looked at me. “Did he? Because I know.” Shalaya Crump stepped toward me. “I know what happens, what really happens. What all did he tell you in between getting his ass kicked? Did he tell you that we get married? Me and you.”