Baby Brother's Blues by Pearl Cleage Read Free Book Online Page B

than love, had no satisfactory explanation. Blue’s father would watch Atlanta’s café au lait political elite on the nightly news and snarl, “Is that him? Is that the li’l nigga’s daddy?” while the light-eyed, light-skinned politico in question prattled on, innocent and oblivious to the crime with which he was being charged.
    “You his daddy.” Juanita would sigh. “You know you his daddy.”
    “Where he get them eyes from then?”
    “Dr. Cox says sometimes it just happens. One of us probably got some white folks back up in our family tree and—”
    “That’s bullshit,” he’d growl, and click off the set. The sudden silence enveloped them like a fog and she knew what was coming next.
    Left to his own devices, General suspected that Blue had concocted the story of past lives to explain those unexplainable eyes. Growing up around Blue, General had ample opportunity as a child to stare at his friend’s eyes without drawing his ire. At fifteen, you can’t gaze into your boy’s eyes and say: “Damn, brother, you got some amazing eyes, you know it?” But at five, you can say: “Hey, did you know your eyes look like a cat-eye marble?” and your friend can say “yeah” in the same way Halle Berry’s kindergarten classmates must have said: “Wow, Halle, did you know you look like a fairy princess?” And she must have smiled and said: “Thanks. I know.”
    “You ever think about what might have happened if you had taken Jasmine up on her offer to move to Florida?” Blue said suddenly from the backseat as if they had been in the midst of a conversation about girlfriends past.
    Jasmine was a beautiful woman General had met when her daughter, Zora, was a freshman student at Spelman. They hit it off until one night he had to leave her to
take care of some business
and she figured out his role in Blue’s life. The very next day, she told him she couldn’t love a gangster, even a
righteous
gangster, but if he wanted to go into the motel business, she was looking for a partner for a place she’d owned with her husband before he died.
    Blue’s question was so unexpected, General’s eyes flickered to the mirror to see if there might be a clue as to what had prompted it. Blue was looking out the window, although there was nothing much to see other than the darkness.
    “Nah, man,” he said, passing a big UPS truck. “I can’t live at no beach. Too much sand all over the place. Last time I went down there, we were out walking and it was romantic as hell, stars out and shit, and we started fooling around right there on the beach instead of acting like we had some sense and going back to the house. By the time we were done, I had sand all up my ass. No, thanks.”
    “You’re supposed to put a blanket down.”
    Blue had been giving General advice about women all their lives, even though General rarely took it. After he fell in love with Juanita, most of the escapades he shared with Blue were fantasies and tall tales. He couldn’t just stop talking about women all of a sudden. That would have raised Blue’s suspicions immediately. So he made up stories or pretended to have long-term relationships with women he actually saw only once or twice.
    “I’ll try to remember that next time,” General said. “What made you ask me about Florida? You offering me early retirement?”
    “You ready for it?”
    The conversation had taken a strange turn and General wondered if his lack of focus earlier had bothered Blue more than it needed to. Everything had gone smoothly and they were headed home. There was no cause for concern.
    “I’m ready for whatever,” General said, exiting at Cascade Road and heading for West End. “Just like always.”
    “Good,” Blue said. “I’m going to hold you to it.”
    Just like always,
General thought.
    They were just a few blocks away from the tree-lined street where Blue and Regina lived. When he pulled the car up out front, General knew she’d be in the window,