The Dream Bearer by Walter Dean Myers Page A

stomach.
    I hated it when Reuben talked to himself. Ty said Reuben was crazy, and as soon as his crazy papers were filled out they were going to lock him up.
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    â€œSo what do you want to do?” We were on the roof working on Sessi’s house. She had made it bigger, six feet long and four feet wide, and high enough so that if I stood right in the middle, I could stand up almost straight, so it had to be at least five feet six inches.
    â€œWhy don’t we go to the park and you can teach Kimi how to play basketball,” Sessi said.
    â€œIt’ll take too long to teach him,” Loren said. “By the time he knows as much as me, he’ll be too old to play.”
    â€œHe doesn’t have to be a professional,” Sessi said. “He just wants to play an American game.”
    â€œYou know anything about slavery?” I asked Sessi.
    â€œWhy do all Americans think Africans know so much about slavery?” Sessi asked. “We have the same books that you do.”
    â€œHow come all Africans think that Americans know about basketball?” Loren said.
    That was a good one and Sessi knew it. She fluttered her hands at us, really close to our faces. Sessi always did that, but Loren and I had both practiced not blinking.
    â€œIf Kimi wants to play ball with us tomorrow after church, he can come,” I said.
    I said I would pick Kimi up at two on Sunday; then Sessi said I should call her father and ask his permission before I came over. I told her that if I had to do all that asking for permission and everything, I would rather not take Kimi out. She gave me a cute smile and I knew I would do it anyway.
    Loren and I were planning to go down to the Countee Cullen Library on 136 th , but when I told him that Ty hadn’t been home for two days, he said I should go to the pool hall on 141 st Street.
    â€œSometimes he hangs out there,” he said.
    â€œHow do you know that?”
    â€œMe and Junebug went to that store next to it to buy some comic books, and we saw Ty with a guy wearing a red do-rag—he looked like a Blood or something.”
    â€œTy?”
    â€œNo, the guy with the do-rag.”
    I asked Loren if he wanted to go to the pool hall with me, and he said he didn’t care so we went down Malcolm X. When we got to 141 st I stopped, and Loren pointed down the street where some guys were gathered in front of a store. It was almost to the next corner.
    â€œYou scared?” I asked him.
    â€œScared of what?”
    I didn’t know of what so I started walking again. Loren said we could go in and play some pool if we wanted to. I knew we weren’t going to, and I could tell by the way Loren had his shoulders hunched up that he wasn’t as brave as he was pretending.
    One hundred forty-first Street is different from 145 th . One hundred forty-fifth is wide and one of the main streets people use to get across town, so it’s always crowded. Some of the buildings are new, and even the old ones are kept pretty clean. One hundred forty-first is quiet, and there are two empty lots on the block. Empty lots are like holes in the neighborhood.
    Loren pointed out the pool hall, and I saw the older dudes just standing around on the sidewalk, like they were waiting for something to happen. It was hot but they were all wearing jackets. We stopped a little waydown from them and I told Loren to look casual. What he did was to hunch his shoulders up even more.
    â€œYou going to go in?” he asked.
    The pool hall on 141 st Street is one of those places I didn’t have to know a lot about to know I should stay away from it. I had passed its dark windows plenty of times and imagined what was going on inside.
    I was just about to say no when I saw Ty coming out the door. He had on his black coat and baggy black pants. He looked around and started walking away from us. I nudged Loren, and we went after Ty.
    My heart was beating fast, so I slapped my chest twice,