The Last Days of Louisiana Red by Ishmael Reed Read Free Book Online

got him into San Quentin.
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    Brown: O yeah, that time. Yeah, that nigger said something about “Excuse me, isn’t that my seat?” all bushwa. Kekup .
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    Kingfish: (mimicking, gesturing) No, the nigger say, “Excuse me, that seat is reserved for me.” Next thing they know that nigger was on the ground holding his brains in. Kekup!
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    Brown: Kekup! Yeah, that was something. Look like chittlins comin out. Kekup!
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    Kingfish: (tears of laughter) Street told the nigger that we don’t believe in no reserved. We Moochers believe that niggers—all of them—is in the same boat.
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    Brown: They the same thing. There’s no such thing as privacy as you own thoughts, we is linked to each other and can’t break that linkage.
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    Brown: That Street was the real Royalty of the avenues of despair, as that newspaper man said. Sho wish we had him as the leader of the Moochers.
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    Kingfish: What’s wrong with Minnie?
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    Brown: Well, me and some of the boys been thinkin, Kingfish. Since Minnie is heading it up, them gals be around her has become bodacious. Them girls talk to a man any way they want to talk to him. Them Dahomeyan Softball Team that be riding around on them meter-maid scooters. Look like they go out of the way to ticket us poor colored men, and Kingfish, the fellas afraid to go to meeting any more. That big ol one?
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    Kingfish: The one they call Eunice, the Reichsführer?
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    Brown: Yeah, that’s the one. Well, she put some kind of Dragon Foo See on one of the boys.
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    Kingfish: Dragon Foo See?
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    Brown: Some kind of new thing them chinamen invented where the woman go all the way up in the air and come down choppin away and what’s worse of all …
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    Kingfish: What’s the worse, Brown?
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    Brown: Well, why is a grown woman like that needs to have a Nanny always chaperoning her. Some of the fellows are saying that that woman Nanny is dealing Minnie more than pancakes.
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    Kingfish: Why… you…
    (Kingfish and Brown stand up and begin to wrestle. On their feet, Brown’s derby comes off while Kingfish has him by the neck. They fall against the bar, causing the pitchers to fall and break.)
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    Elder: Hey! What’s going on here?
    (The bartender comes from behind the bar and grabs both of them, rushing them to the outside of the bar.)

CHAPTER 12
    LaBas was sitting in his office reading the Berkeley Gazette , a newspaper that carried Max Lerner’s column. A different kind of politician, indeed a “radical” politician of the “new politics,” Berkeley Congressman Ron Dellums was buying a $150,000 home in Washington, D.C. So read a report with the dateline Washington.
    Outside LaBas’ window could be seen the motorboats of fishermen, some small yachts, sailboats, and people fishing on each side of the Berkeley pier. Outside his office-door window he could see the Workers going about their Work. The incense was floating in from beneath the door. LaBas continued reading. He always read the Berkeley Gazette . Its feature, “About People,” with its announcements of The Business and Professional Women’s Groups’ meetings: “Mrs. Mabel Speers will read an old-fashioned Christmas Story”; its recipes for “Kung Fu Clusters,” told you more about Berkeley than the Telegraph-Calcutta Street (only three blocks) of runaways or Mario Savio.
    LaBas’ thoughts were interrupted by Wolf, who entered the room wearing a white double-breasted suit. LaBas looked up.
    â€œYes, Wolf.”
    â€œPop, I just wanted to say that you’ve done a good job here. Why, after Dad died we didn’t have anyone to turn to. Street and Minnie—they’re so ragged in their ways. They would never have been able to manage the household and this place too. Now that we’ve built ourselves back to the top, it’s time to liquidate our physical assets as my father