The Children by Howard Fast

nevertheless, it is a wonderful thing. When I thought of the secret garden, it was always for Marie. And when I do wonderful things, I do them for Marie, who is quite the most beautiful person in the world. If I am great, it is just because of Marie, and for no other reason.
    And now the block is beautiful. The sky is as blue and as clear as any sky can ever be. The sun is shining, like a large, end-on, yellow lemon in the sky. The cement is hot, so hot that everything bakes warm and comfortable. And I walk down the street with Marie.
    How is it that I notice things about Marie, which I notice in nobody else? How is it that I see every tuft and curl in Marie’s yellow hair? How is it that I watch every shadow that passes across her face? Is it only that I love her?
    This time I have courage enough to take hold of her hand.
    A forlorn figure, Shomake came up the block. He had been fighting with a large colored boy called Blackbelly. This is how it came about.
    When Shomake saw the fight, he ran away, and he never knew whether Ollie had beaten Ishky, or Ishky had beaten Ollie; but his running away hurt more than any fight could have.
    He ran down the block, and all the time he was thinking, “I’m yellow—yellow.” He wanted to hide, but where can one hide in a bright, sunny street? Half crying, his sobs came bitter and hard, short gasps of dry breath.
    Shomake was a gentle boy. He possessed to a large degree the ability to be hurt, but he himself could not hurt. Everything hurt him. Once, when his mother cut her hand badly, he had sobbed and whimpered for hours. And again, when he had seen Thomas Edison being beaten unmercifully by Ollie, he had sprung madly at Ollie, to take his beating along with Thomas Edison. And later he had said to himself:
    â€œIf Ollie is his brother, why, why?”
    His fiddle was alive, he always thought, and he loved the music better than anything else. But when something happened, it was always music that he could not get away from; and now the hot sun would not let him escape. Ishky was being beaten, and he was running from Ishky, leaving him.
    (Coward, you, Shomake, yellow, dirty son of a dago bitch.)
    Counterpoint. When his mother had attempted to explain counterpoint, she said, “It is like the two souls of man inside of him, struggling and struggling.” And that was love and hate, love and hate. He had to get out of the sun, or the beating in his brain would destroy him.
    Down near the bottom of the block there was a dark alley where some colored people lived. Ordinarily, Shomake would not have gone near the alley. Now he couldn’t be afraid, and he dashed into it. And there he met Blackbelly.
    Blackbelly went around saying that he had killed a white boy. Of course, nobody believed it, but that was what he said. He also said that he wasn’t afraid of any white boy on the block, and because of this he had to be mighty careful, running with his gang most of the time. But once when Ollie had caught him without his gang, there had been a terrible fight, which nobody ever forgot. Blackbelly ended the fight by hitting Ollie over the head with a bottle, but that hadn’t decided it one way or another. Ollie still insisted that he would get Blackbelly. And Blackbelly said, “Come and get me.”
    When Shomake saw Blackbelly, he knew he would be beaten. But there was still time to turn and make a run for it.
    Shomake stood there in the half-darkness, trembling.
    â€œWhereya goin’, dago?”
    The music in his head didn’t stop. Because he was afraid, Shomake knew that he was a coward. He would turn and run. This place was dark and terrible as hell itself.
    â€œBoy, yer sure scared.”
    â€œNot afraid!” Shomake screamed.
    â€œI’ll killya!”
    â€œG’wan, kill me den. G’wan an’ kill me, yuh dirdy rodden black basted.” And with that he threw himself at Blackbelly.
    Blackbelly beat him thoroughly. But he