Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat Read Free Book Online Page B

know."
    "I have seen the man who owns it," he said. "I've seen him get in it and put it in the sky and go up there like it was some kind of kite and he was the kite master. I see the men who run after it trying to figure out where it will land. Once I was there and I was one of those men who were running and I actually guessed correctly. I picked a spot in the sugarcane fields. I picked the spot from a distance and it actually landed there."
    "Let me say something to you, Guy—
    "Pretend that this is the time of miracles and we believed in them. I watched the owner for a long time, and I think I can fly that balloon. The first time I saw him do it, it looked like a miracle, but the more and more I saw it, the more ordinary it became."
    "You're probably intelligent enough to do it," she said.
    "I am intelligent enough to do it. You're right to say that I can."
    "Don't you think about hurting yourself?"
    "Think like this. Can't you see yourself up there? Up in the clouds somewhere like some kind of bird?"
    "If God wanted people to fly, he would have given us wings on our backs."
    "You're right, Lili, you're right. But look what he gave us instead. He gave us reasons to want to fly. He gave us the air, the birds, our son."
    "I don't understand you," she said.
    "Our son, your son, you do not want him cleaning latrines."
    "He can do other things."
    "Me too. I can do other things too."
    A loud scream came from the corner where the boy was sleeping. Lili and Guy rushed to him and tried to wake him. The boy was trembling when he opened his eyes.
    "What is the matter?" Guy asked.
    "I cannot remember my lines," the boy said.
    Lili tried to string together what she could remember of her son's lines. The words slowly came back to the boy. By the time he fell back to sleep, it was almost dawn.

    The light was slowly coming up behind the trees. Lili could hear the whispers of the market women, their hisses and swearing as their sandals dug into the sharp-edged rocks on the road.
    She turned her back to her husband as she slipped out of her nightgown, quickly putting on her day clothes.
    "Imagine this," Guy said from the mat on the floor. "I have never really seen your entire body in broad daylight."
    Lili shut the door behind her, making her way out to the yard. The empty gasoline containers rested easily on her head as she walked a few miles to the public water fountains. It was harder to keep them steady when the containers were full. The water splashed all over her blouse and rippled down her back.
    The sky was blue as it was most mornings, a dark indigo-shaded turquoise that would get lighter when the sun was fully risen.
    Guy and the boy were standing in the yard waiting for her when she got back.
    "You did not get much sleep, my handsome boy," she said, running her wet fingers over the boy's face.
    "He'll be late for school if we do not go right now," Guy said. "I want to drop him off before I start work."
    "Do we remember our lines this morning?" Lili asked, tucking the boy's shirt down deep into his short pants.
    "We just recited them," Guy said. "Even I know them now."
    Lili watched them walk down the footpath, her eyes following them until they disappeared.
    As soon as they were out of sight, she poured the water she had fetched into a large calabash, letting it stand beside the house.
    She went back into the room and slipped into a dry blouse. It was never too early to start looking around, to scrape together that night's meal.

    "Listen to what happened again today," Lili said when Guy walked through the door that afternoon.
    Guy blotted his face with a dust rag as he prepared to hear the news. After the day he'd had at the factory, he wanted to sit under a tree and have a leisurely smoke, but he did not want to set a bad example for his son by indulging his very small pleasures.
    "You tell him, son," Lili urged the boy, who was quietly sitting in a corner, reading.
    "I've got more lines," the boy announced, springing up to his