The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 Read online

  “Joey, I—”

  “That’s it! You’re through this time, mister. You don’t know when to stop teasing, do you? That’s it, I’m telling on you!”

  Joey stood up and ran up the stairs screaming, “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!”

  I could hear Grandma Sands moving around upstairs and she finally clomped down the steps and came into my room. Joey was hanging on her arm still screaming.

  Grandma Sands must have real thin blood, because even though it was hot as a furnace in the house she had on a big thick nightgown and a big thick robe. The smell of baby powder came into the room a second after she did.

  “What on earth are y’all doing raising this much Cain this early in the morning? Joetta honey, stop that noise. Kenny, what’s wrong with this child?”

  Joetta finally said, “He’s trying to scare me, Grandma Sands, he won’t tell me where Mommy is!” Joey kept boo-hooing like a real idiot.

  “Kenneth, where’s Wilona and Daniel?” Grandma Sands pulled Joey off her leg and held her shoulders, then gave her a little shake. “Joetta, you stop that noise! Grandma Sands can’t handle that much noise this early, sweetheart.”

  A bell went off in my head! The Wool Pooh had missed Joey! He wasn’t having much luck at all with any of the Weird Watsons! I had to go to the church to get Momma and Dad and Byron!

  Grandma Sands said, “What are all them sirens doing? Lord, has the whole world gone mad today? Where’s your momma and daddy?”

  The last thing I heard was Grandma Sands yelling, “Boy, if you slam that door like that again …” I looked down and saw my socks flying over the Alabama mud.

  15. The World-Famous Watson Pet Hospital

  Momma and Dad didn’t know I was in the living room. We’d been back in Flint for a couple of weeks and they were still talking about what had happened, but never around us. The only thing I knew for sure was that the bomb wasn’t dropped on the church by an airplane. Grandma Sands called a couple of times and told them that the police thought two white men drove by in a car and threw it in during services, or that they’d already hidden it in the church with a clock set to go off during Sunday school. However it got in the church it had killed four little girls, blinded a couple more and sent a bunch of other people to the hospital. I couldn’t stop wondering if those two little girls I saw on the lawn were okay.

  From my secret hiding place in the living room I could listen to Momma and Dad and it seemed like they spent most of the time trying to figure out how they could explain to us what happened. Some of the time they were mad, some of the time they were calm and some of the time they just sat on the couch and cried.

  Even though none of us kids got hurt by the bomb they acted like they were worried about us. They weren’t too worried about Byron and weren’t worried at all about Joey, we’d all agreed not to tell her what happened at that church and had left Birmingham that night, before she had a chance to find anything out. I was kind of surprised because the way Momma and Dad were talking I could tell they were most worried about me.

  They came out of the kitchen and sat on the couch. I knew they were talking about me again. Momma said, “He’s been disappearing, Daniel. Hours go by and I don’t know where he is.”

  “What’s he say when you ask him where he’s been?”

  “He tells me he hasn’t been anywhere, he says I shouldn’t worry. It’s so strange, I call him and he’s nowhere to be found but a few minutes later he just pops up.”

  “Doesn’t Byron know where he goes?”

  “He says he doesn’t.”

  “He is being awfully quiet.”

  “Something’s wrong. I wonder if Mr. Robert’s friend was right, I wonder if he really did see Kenny in that church afterward. Lord, who knows what that poor baby saw.”

  “Wilona, he says he only left Grandma Sands’s to tell us Joey was O.K. I don’t know, what can we do?”

  “But Joey swears it was him she followed away from there, and you know that child would just as soon die as lie. I just wish I knew where he goes. And why.”

  I had been disappearing, but Momma really didn’t need to worry, I wasn’t going anywhere. I’d just been going behind the couch for a little while every day. There was a big enough space between the couch and the wall for me to squeeze in back there and just sit in a little ball. It was quiet and dark and still back there.

  Byron called this little area the World-Famous Watson Pet Hospital and he made me and Joey believe that magic powers, genies and angels all lived back there. I was waiting to see if that was true.

  He started calling it the World-Famous Watson Pet Hospital after we noticed that if something bad happened to one of our dogs or cats they just automatically knew they had to crawl in that space and wait to see if they were going to get better.

  Since Momma and Dad had told us that animal doctors cost about a thousand dollars each time you went to them, our pets knew they wouldn’t be seeing any veterinarians and that the most help they could get was to crawl behind the couch and see if they could make a deal with the magic powers there.

  If one of our dogs got hit by a car and could walk away or if one of them chewed through an electric wire or ran away from home and showed up a couple of weeks later half-starved or something they’d head right for the back of the couch. If one of our cats got beat up by a dog or spent too much time throwing up disgusting pieces of things or got thrown out of a tree or something they’d zip right straight into the World-Famous Watson Pet Hospital.

  Those times when one of our pets got hurt I’d wake up the next morning and run out to the living room and climb up on the back of the couch and look over to see how it was doing. If I looked down there and the dog looked up at me with sad eyes and banged his tail a couple of times before he put his head back down, or if the cat looked up and hissed at me, I knew they’d made it through their first night and that the magic powers were probably going to keep them alive. If, when I looked behind the couch, I just saw a crumpled-up yellow towel where the dog or cat had been laying I knew Momma would soon be telling us that Sooty or Fluffy or Scamp or Lady or whoever the patient was hadn’t done too well and would be spending the rest of time running around happily in cat or dog heaven. But I knew better. I knew this was some made-up garbage, I knew the magic powers had decided not to keep the animal alive and Dad had got rid of the body before we woke up.

  It was kind of strange, because whatever it was that was behind the couch seemed to work best on dogs. Whenever dogs survived the World-Famous Watson Pet Hospital they always came out a lot friendlier. When they came out, they might walk kind of funny but it seemed like all they wanted to do was lick you and wobble around after you wherever you went. Blackie had been in the hospital twice and he got along great with everyone now, even strangers. Even cats.

  But cats were different, if one of them survived the hospital it’d come out and give you a dirty look and be a lot meaner than it was before it went in. Most of the time after a cat visited the World-Famous Watson Pet Hospital it wouldn’t let anyone but Joetta touch it, but that was O.K., because most of the time nobody but Joetta wanted to touch those stupid cats anyway.

  I was waiting to see if the magic powers were going to treat me like a dog or a cat, or if when Byron or Joey woke up one morning they’d find a crumpled-up yellow towel where I was supposed to be.

  The only trouble was that the magic powers seemed to be taking a real long time to decide what was going to happen to me. Maybe I wasn’t spending enough time back there.

  Momma started trying to force me to do more things with Rufus but it seemed like he’d changed while we were gone and wasn’t as much fun to be with. Him and Cody got real happy when I gave them my pillowcaseful of dinosaurs. I was getting too mature to play with toys anymore. Momma even forced Byron to take me with him when him and Buphead played basketball, but you didn’t have to be Albert Einstein to figure out that the only reason the big guys were playing with me was because Byron had threatened them w
hen my back was turned. But what really bugged me the most was when Momma tried to force me to do things with Joetta.

  I’d never noticed what a little crybaby and snitch she was. Every time you turned around she was threatening to go tell on you or was whining about something or being just a plain old pest. After a while to get even with her I wouldn’t even look at her. I started hating her guts.

  I only wanted to come out of the World-Famous Watson Pet Hospital to eat and go to the bathroom. I even started going into it after Momma and Dad went to bed at night. I started sleeping there.

  I spent so much time there that Byron finally figured out where I was going. I looked up one day and there were his eyeballs staring down at me.

  “Hi, By.”

  “Hey, Kenny. So this is where you been hanging out, huh?”

  “Are you going to tell on me?”

  “Man, when you ever known me to be a snitch?”

  “Never.”

  “You’re right.” He just kept looking at me. “You want me to get you something to eat?”

  “Uh-uh.”

  Byron walked over and turned on the TV, then stuck his head back behind the couch. “You wanna watch some TV?”

  “Uh-uh.”

  His head disappeared and he watched Bat Fink.

  When the show was over his head came back. “I’m going to play some ball, you wanna come?”

  “I’ll come in a minute.”

  By looked like he didn’t believe me. “Cool. Later.”

  Even though Byron had a reputation for not being a snitch I got the feeling he told on me. When they sat on the couch Momma and Dad quit talking like nobody was around and got real careful about what they said. They started saying stuff about how proud they were of me and what a nice kid I was and junk like that, but it sounded like they’d been practicing what to say. I turned my ears off when they came around. Momma also quit bugging me to find out where I was going. I knew they’d busted me for sure when Joetta’s snitchity little face started peeking around the couch every morning.

  Byron even started sleeping on the couch at night. Right after Momma and Dad went to bed and I crawled back there he’d come out with his pillow and blanket.

  “ ’Night, Kenny.”

  “ ’Night, By.”

  Every morning I’d wake up and Byron would be looking down at me. He’d wake me up by touching the top of my head.

  “Hey, Kenny.”

  “Hi, By.”

  “You already eat?”

  “Uh-uh.”

  “Come on.”

  I crawled out from behind the couch and let Byron pour out my cereal and milk. After I finished I said, “Thanks.”

  “Wait, ain’t you gonna change outta them PJs?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  I changed and went back to the couch. By was sitting there.

  “Hold on, Kenny. Watch some cartoons with me.”

  “O.K., I will in a minute.”

  Byron grabbed my arm before I could crawl behind the couch. “Naw, man, at least stay for Felix the Cat.”

  “O.K.”

  I sat next to him on the couch. When Felix was over I thought By would force me to watch more cartoons but he didn’t, he let me crawl back behind the couch.

  “Check you out later, Kenny.”

  “See you, By.”

  As much time as Byron started spending on the couch I thought I was going to have to make room for a bed for him in the World-Famous Watson Pet Hospital. Every time I’d look up he’d be there and we’d have to go eat or watch some TV or go to Mitchell’s for something or change clothes or stuff like that.

  One day his head popped over the back of the couch and he said, “Come on! I got something to show you!” I knew I had to go, if I wouldn’t he’d pull me out by my legs.

  I followed Byron upstairs into the bathroom and he stood in front of the sink and looked in the mirror. He scrunched his face up so he could see the bottom of his chin, then he took his thumb and finger and felt around there. He smiled and real slow pulled the thumb and finger away. “Check this out, Jack!”

  I looked real close and there was a long, long, skinny black hair growing out of Byron’s chin. He held it like it was worth a million dollars.

  “And there’s another one coming out too!”

  This made me wonder about my mustache. I hadn’t looked at it for a long time and thought it might be pretty long by now.

  I climbed up on the toilet and leaned over the sink to see.

  Maybe it was because I hadn’t looked in the mirror for a long time, but as soon as I saw myself with my lazy eye still being lazy and my face looking so sad I slammed my eyes shut and started crying. I even fell off the toilet. Byron caught me and set me on the floor.

  He knew this was some real embarrassing stuff so he closed the bathroom door and sat on the tub and waited for me to stop, but I couldn’t. I felt like someone had pulled a plug on me and every tear inside was rushing out, if there was a forest fire somewhere all Smokey the Bear would have to do was hold me upside down over it and the fire wouldn’t have a chance.

  Byron sat next to me on the floor and put my head in his lap. I still couldn’t stop, even though I was soaking him worse than Joey ever drooled on anybody.

  It was real embarrassing. “I’m sorry, By.”

  “Shut up and cry if you want.”

  That sounded like a real good idea so I did. I think I cried for about two hundred hours.

  “Why would they do that, Byron?” I was sounding real bad. My throat was jumping around in my neck and making a bunch of weird noises. “Why would they hurt some little kids like that?”

  He waited a long time before he answered, “I don’t know, Kenny. Momma and Dad say they can’t help themselves, they did it because they’re sick, but I don’t know. I ain’t never heard of no sickness that makes you kill little girls just because you don’t want them in your school. I don’t think they’re sick at all, I think they just let hate eat them up and turn them into monsters. But it’s O.K. now, they can’t hurt you here. It’s all right.”

  My Adam’s apple felt like it was going to blow a hole in my throat but I said, “I did go to the church, By. I saw what happened. I saw two of those little girls. I thought Joey got killed too.”

  “We all did, Kenny. There ain’t nothing wrong with being sad or scared about that. I’m sad about it too. I got real scared too.”

  “But …”

  “Man, no one’s gonna hurt you here, Kenny.”

  “But By …” I tried to think how to say it. “I’m not scared, I’m just real, real ashamed of myself.” That was it. That was the main thing I’d finally found out from being a patient in the World-Famous Watson Pet Hospital.

  “Kenny, you ain’t got nothing to be ashamed of.”

  “But you don’t know what happened, Byron. You don’t know what I did.”

  “Man, everybody cried. Momma was crying, Dad was scared—he cried too. That was some real scary stuff. That was some real sad stuff.”

  He still didn’t understand. “Byron, I left Joey. I thought the Wool Pooh had her and instead of fighting him like you did, I left, I ran from him. How come you were brave enough to fight him and all I could do was run? All I could save was a shoe, a stupid ripped-up shoe.” I couldn’t stop crying.

  “Awww, man, you ain’t gonna start talking that Wool Pooh mess again, are you? I told you the Wool Pooh was some made-up garbage. I told you the only one I was fighting in the water was your stupid little behind, wasn’t no one in that water but you and me.”

  “That’s what you think, By, but I know better, I’ve seen him twice.” I couldn’t believe Byron was still talking to me. Most of the time if I started sounding weepy and whiny he’d take right off.

  “Look, Kenny, if you don’t quit talking that Wool Pooh nonsense I’ma leave you in here to cry all alone. There ain’t no such thing as a Wool Pooh.” Then he stopped sounding so mean and said, “And there ain’t no such things as m
agic powers, neither.” I was surprised he’d brought up the magic powers. “You think I don’t know why you been hanging out behind the couch?”

  He grabbed my ear and twisted my head until I had to look at him. “You think I don’t know you waiting for some stupid magic powers or genies or a angel to make you feel better? Dig this: You can wait behind that couch for the rest of your life and ain’t no magic powers gonna come back there and make you feel nothing. Only thing that’s gonna happen back there is that you gonna stunt your growth from being in a little ball all day.” He pulled my ear to make sure I was listening. “If you been spending so much time thinking about how you didn’t save Joey why don’t you stop and think about why she wasn’t in that church, why don’t you spend some time thinking about who it was that led her away?”

  “But it wasn’t me, Byron, I never—”

  “Man, shut up and listen.” He twisted my ear to make me be quiet.

  “Ain’t no genies in this world, Kenny, ain’t no magic powers, there ain’t even no angels, not in this neighborhood anyway. Man, I just don’t get you, you supposed to be the one who’s so smart. How can you believe in something as stupid as magic powers and genies living behind a couch but not believe it was a part of you that took Joey outta that church?”

  Byron started throwing me curveballs. “If you hadn’ta been born who would have took her away from that bomb? No one. If you hadn’ta been born and she walked outta that hot church and saw some stranger waving at her from across the street you think she would have followed him? Hell no. She’da gone right back in there. If you hadn’t been born who woulda gone in that church to see if Joey really was in there? Me and Momma and Dad was all too scared, you was the only one brave enough to go in there.” Every time he made a point he twisted my ear to make me understand better.

  “But Byron, it’s just not fair. What about those other kids, you know they had brothers and sisters and mommas and daddies who loved them just as much as we love Joey, how come no one came and got them out of that church? How’s it fair? How come their relatives couldn’t come and warn them?”