"Well, well . . . ." Momma gets a towel, wipes my nose, and hugs me and rocks me on my feet. She smells like potatoes. "We gots to get you a bath." She lets me nurse. Tingly. Momma laughs. Sings. She wipes my mouth. Then she undresses me and puts me under the water. It be warm and clear. The dirty water runs into the drain.
"Soap your body, baby," Momma says. "Use the wash cloth Momma put in there. And soap. Willie B. Polite, clean your body good."
"Yes ma'am."
Momma washes my hair. She sings and makes funny noises. Momma's funny. We laugh.
"You be looking ashy, son," Momma says. Then she rubs me down with lotion.
Dry clothes are warm. The chiggers are gone. Cartoons are on the t.v. Momma makes supper. Chicken and macaroni and cheese. Then Momma peels me an orange. I eat it, slice by slice. Juicy.
Momma says, "I don't want you walking with Fawquita no more, you hear me?"
"Uh-huh. Fawquita has big boobies, Momma."
"Willie B. Polite, you quit talkin' like that. You quit worryin' about Fawquita's boobies. She going crazy again, boy. The po-lices will lock you up for that. You want to go to the jail house?"
"No, Momma."
"You stop that, baby," Momma says. "Hush, now." Momma holds me tight. "You just keep your hands to your self."
Miss Francis put me in that room. There was no sunshine to look at. I could not hear the traffic or the birds outside. I could not smell the tide. No chocolate to rest in my gum, no cup to spit. There was no talking, no music singing on the radio. There was no TV. I had to stay there for a long time. I rocked in the chair sometimes. Sometimes I put my ear to the wall to try to hear the outside. I cried. Nobody came for a long time.
"I cain't understand why y'all have to treat this boy like this," Uncle Cloudy said. "He don't deserve this. He don't understand what he do. Let him stay with me. He ain't never gone get no better."
"He's being a menace down at the library, I hear," Miss Francis said.
"Well, I thought that's where you wanted him to go?"
"Yes. But, he must behave," Miss Francis said.
"He ain't gone hurt nobody. He's just trying in his way to get to know people and make friends. If you want the boy to, to . . ."
"Assimilate into society," Miss Francis said.
"Do what?" Uncle Cloudy said.
"He needs to get out and get used to being around people and behaving right."
"Then you're gone have to expect some growing pains," Uncle Cloudy said.
"Well, we'll continue to assess," Miss Francis said.
"That's right, baby," Momma says. "Now quit cryin', baby. Hush up, now. That's a good boy. Momma's boy. You always Momma's boy. Ain't you Momma's boy?"
"I's Momma's boy, Momma. I love you, Momma."
Momma wipes my face with a towel. Makes me blow my nose.
"You go to Uncle Cloudy's car wash and sit and read a comic book," Momma says.
"Yes, ma'am. Pop's got green Popsicles."
"And Twan lets you play his video games. Or go to the library and read. You like doing that, don't you?"
I like going to the library. The girls come in the library smelling like flowers. Their lips look like cherries and strawberries. The library is different from Uncle Cloudy's car wash.
"Baby, I'm going out tonight. Be good for Uncle Cloudy."
I sneezed. Momma did not smell like potatoes, but like flowers. "Momma. You smell good."
"You like it? It's perfume."
"You dressed like a movie star." I sneezed and sneezed.
The library lady made me leave. "Willie B. Polite. You got to go home," she said.
"I didn't touch nobody," I said.
"No. You humming and grunting and making too much noise for the library," she said.
She didn't tell Momma. I would have got a hickory switchin'. I won't ever go back there if Miss Francis wants to send me to Milledgeville if I don't mind.
I like macaroni and cheese and the smell of lemons and fried squash and corn and banana pudding. My tennie shoes are yellow. But I'll wear my green ones on Saturdays and my red ones on Sundays. Green is for money, Uncle Cloudy says. I sit at the car wash on Saturdays and like green Popsicles. Red is for Jesus' blood, Momma says. We go to church on Sundays with Auntie Bunt.
Julio came to the door. Momma sent me out. I sat on the porch in the chair that used to sit inside and spooned my chocolate in my lip. Momma don't like me dipping inside. She say it's nasty and cain't be cleaned. She had to go to the store and get a new rug when I spilled. Now I dip and spit outside. Now Momma fusses if I get juice on my clothes. I try to be careful. The chocolate makes me tingly. Miss Francis don't like me dipping. She tells Momma it gone rot my gums and make me dead. It make me tingly. How it gone make me dead?
Momma says not to tell nobody about me nursing. Uncle Cloudy knows and Auntie Bunt. Miss Francis will take me away. I want to stay with Momma.
Miss Francis have a wider bee-hind than Fawquita. She have the widest bee-hind I ever seen. She's a white lady with a round red face. Uncle Cloudy says it be because she like to drink a lot. I like to drink a lot, too. Milk makes me fart. Momma don't let me drink Co-Cola at night. It makes me pee in my bed. Momma don't let me sleep with her in her bed no more. I makes a pallet next to her bed when she asleep.
Miss Francis talks loud to me and smiles a lot. Her mouth smells like peppermint sometimes. Most of the time she smells like the marsh at low tide – like a wet salty fart.
Julio left. Momma be on the porch with me for a while and smokes her cigarette. It gets dark. We go inside and watch a movie on the TV. Momma kisses me and puts me to bed.
I wake up. The po-po be there and take Momma with them when I eating cereal and bananas. The po-po look in the drawers, under the bed, behind the furniture, between the mattresses, in the commode, and under the sink. I pet they dog. He jumps all over the beds. I had a badge. A dark skinned boy took it from me. Auntie Bunt says she will get me another one.
Miss Francis be there at the house. Auntie Bunt be there. Auntie Bunt dresses me. We ride in Miss Francis' car. "It the hospital," Auntie Bunt says. "Tee-tee in a little cup." Auntie Bunt holds my peter and a cup. I tee-tee all over the floor. Auntie Bunt holds my peter and I tee-tee in the commode.
Then I on a hard bed and belted down and they stick me and take blood from my arm.
"I'm sorry," Miss Francis says."
"Hush. It's all right," Auntie Bunt says. "Why they doing this?"
Miss Francis says, "After that disturbance at the library and now with his momma using again."
"I just don't see," Auntie Bunt says. "It just ain't right, doing this to this boy. He don't know what he does. He a good loving boy."
That needle hurt. They tie me down so I don't move. I move anyway. It makes me mad. I cain't breathe good.
"Quit hollerin', son," Auntie Bunt says. "Be a big boy, and Auntie Bunt will take you to McDonald's. You want a Big Mac?"
I like Big Macs and french fries and Co-Colas. I try to hush, but I don't like being tied and poked.
Auntie Bunt brushes my hair. "Hush. Hush."
They keep taking all my red blood out of my arm. I want to go home. I want to go home.
"Momma. Momma . I want Momma," I says. "Where's my Momma?"