Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

to take your head out when he finished
talking and when you couldn't
he'd club you in the head with his
blackjack or his fist depending on
his mood .
Blue rejoined us rubbing his
head, "That muthafucka gon git
his ASS kilt!" We nodded in agreement
. I had no strong love for Blue,
but we were in total agreement on
Jake.
At the plate Blue stood in a
stance that wuz something between
Ruth, Mays, and Bushman . His
sweaty charcoal-blue muscles rippled
as he gripped the bat and
waved/swung it on some practice
swings . The crack of the bat split
the air when he connected with the
ball .
"Dont hit on the trademark,
Monkey," somebody'd yell from
the side .
"Tell it to yo Granmamma's
man!" he'd snarl over his shoulder .
Home-runs wuz an automatic thang
for Blue . We used to say the nigga
gotta hit a home run, cause he so
slewfoot he caint walk, know he
caint run.
"Hey Blue, Hey Blue," voices
rung from a window of a building
near the baseball lot . "Cmere ." The
voices belonged to two of the Archer
Captivators, Duck and Bunky.
"You cmon down heah if you
wanna see me," Blue yelled back
at the window.
The Archer Captivators were socalled
because they usually met at
the triangle formed with Archer
Avenue's diagonal cut through
NEGRO DIGEST Morch 1970
Wentworth Avenue . The other base
of the triangle was formed by a dirt
road, Dearborn Street . At the
Dearborn base stood the Archer
building, a huge dirty rusted structure
that had stood at least three
quarters of a century . It wuz four
stories and housed anywhere from
four to five hundred people . The
odd shape of the triangle building
created long hallways which were
seldom lighted by anything other
than daylight dashed through the
dirty, sometimes paneless, windows
or trickles of light that crawled
from over/under the apartment
doors . The first floor contained two
store-front churches, one penny
candy store, one auto supply store,
one gypsy fortune teller, and one
herb and sacraments store that
doubled as a policy station . Duck
and Bunky were standing in front
of the building when Blue got there
followed by we hanger-on-ers .
"What you dudes up to?" Duck
pulled a small shiney blue steel revolver
from under his shirt .
"Check this out, nigga," as he
handed the gun to Blue . Blue carefully
checked out the piece as we
peeped for the man .
"Where'd you cop?"
Duck spoke with a grip, "I
copped from Warshawsky last
night ."
"Did you git any dough?" Blue
licked his lips as he asked .
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