Sitting here six floors up on my little balcony when I heard shots and saw them
boys running. My eyes went straight to the lot beside Mason’s bar, and I saw
something black not moving in the weeds and knew a body was lying there and knew it was
dead. A 15-year-old boy, the papers said. Whole bunch of sirens and cops and spinning
lights the night I’m talking about. I watched till after they rolled him away and
then everything got quiet again as it ever gets round here, so I’m sure the boy’s
people not out there that night. Didn’t see them till next morning. I’m looking
down at those weeds. A couple’s coming slow on Frankstown with a girl by the hand,
had to be the boy’s baby sister. They pass terrible Mason’s and stop exactly
next to the spot the boy died. How did they know. Then they commence to swaying, bowing,
hugging, waving their arms about. Forgive me, Jesus, but look like they grief dancing,
like the sidewalk too cold or too hot they had to jump around not to burn up. How’d
his people find the spot. Could they hear my old mind working to guide them, lead them
like I would if I could get up out this damn wheelchair and take them by the hand.
is the author of 13 novels, six collections of short fiction, and two memoirs, including
the award-winning Brothers and Keepers (memoir), Philadelphia Fire
(novel), and Fanon (novel). His memoir, Fatheralong, was a finalist for
the National Book Award.
The first person to win the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction twice, Wideman has also received
numerous other awards and honors, including the Rea and O. Henry Awards, the American Book
Award for Fiction, the Lannan Literary Fellowship for Fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book
Award, and a MacArthur Fellowship.
His articles on Malcolm X, Spike Lee, Denzel Washington, Michael Jordan, Emmett Till,
and Thelonius Monk have appeared in The New Yorker, Vogue, Esquire, Emerge,
and the New York Times Magazine.
Wideman lives in Manhattan and teaches at Brown University, where he is the Professor of
Africana Studies and Literary Arts.