145th Street (11 page)

“Squeezie, go downstairs and tell Big Joe to come up,” Peaches said, softly.

“I don’t need no Big Joe up here,” J.T. said.

“Tell him that I need him to come up here,” Peaches said. There were tears coming down her face. “Tell him that I need him real bad.”

I went downstairs slow and realized that my leg was hurt, too, as well as my shoulder. The music was still going on when I reached the street and it took me a while to get through the crowd and get to where Big Joe and Peaches’ mama were.

“Squeezie, what’s wrong, baby?” Peaches’ mama said.

I tried to say it without crying but I couldn’t and I could see Mrs. Jones getting more and more upset.

“Is Peaches hurt?” Big Joe asked.

“No, she just needs to help J.T.’s mama, I think,” I said.

“We can take care of it,” Big Joe said. He was calm as he took off his apron. “We can take care of it.”

We went upstairs, and Peaches’ mama wanted to run up, but Big Joe kept saying everything was all right and we went slow with him leading the way. When we got up to the top of the stairs, J.T. was sitting with his head in his hands. Big Joe told him to move and J.T. slid over.

Peaches was still sitting with J.T.’s mama, kind of rocking her in her arms. After making sure that Peaches was okay, Mrs. Jones helped J.T.’s mama to stand up and Big Joe carried her in his arms all the way downstairs and up the street to Mother Fletcher’s house.

J.T. had come down and he hung back, watching. Peaches went toward him and I went over in case some fighting was going to break out but she just took his hand. She didn’t say nothing, just took his hand like she was there for him.

“I couldn’t even do nothing for my own mother,” J.T. said. He had tears running down his cheeks. “I feel bad about, you know, fighting you and everything.”

“This is 145th Street,” Peaches said. “Hurt happens here just like everywhere else. Sometimes you can deal with it, sometimes you just got to get some help.”

J.T. and his mama stayed with Mother Fletcher for a few days and then Big Joe got them a little place on 141st Street, across from the school. It wasn’t no mansion but it was cool. Then Peaches gave them her whole two hundred dollars wedding gift money, which J.T. said he was going to pay back but I know he didn’t have a job. I wouldn’t have given anybody
all
my money. But Peaches got that kind of big heart in her. And that’s how the whole block is, in a way. Yeah, you got some people who do ugly things, but I think, mostly, if they had a good chance they would be okay.

The next month was the wedding and it turned out so good! Peaches’ mama had her hair done real nice, up off her neck, and she was so beautiful that I cried, which was no big thing because I always cry at weddings. Then Peaches, Big Joe, and Sadie had them a family hug which got my boo-hooing into high gear again.

“I’m still a little scared about Mama getting married,” Peaches said afterward.

“But we’ll deal with it, right?” I said.

“Yeah, Squeezie,” she said, “we can deal with it.”

“You’re still number one with me,” I said.

“I’m still
numero uno
with my mama, too,” Peaches said. “Big Joe can’t compete with me.”

“Go on, girlfriend.”

So that was what happened to Peaches and her mama, and to J.T. and his mama. We still see J.T. and his mama around. They’re not really kicking it too tough right now but they’re sliding by, you know, staying strong and being righteous. I know they’re going to make it.

Oh yeah, what we gave Big Joe and the new Mrs. Big Joe for a wedding gift was a pair of boss imitation Tiffany lamps that cost sixty-three dollars. All the money came from me but that was all right because, like I always say, me and Peaches got a friendship that’s all that and then some. You know what I mean?

Walter Dean Myers is an award-winning writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for young people. He has received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for his contribution to young adult literature and is a five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. His books include
Hoops
and
The Outside Shot,
the Newbery Honor Books
Scorpions
and
Somewhere in the Darkness
, and
Harlem
, a Caldecott Honor Book illustrated by his son, Christopher Myers. Walter Dean Myers grew up in Harlem and now lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, with his family.

Other books by Walter Dean Myers

Darnell Rock Reporting

Mop, Moondance, and the Nagasaki Knights

Me, Mop, and the Moondance Kid

The Outside Shot

Hoops

D
ELACORTE
P
RESS

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Myers, Walter Dean

145th Street : short stories / Walter Dean Myers.

p. cm.

Summary: Ten stories portray life on a block in Harlem.

1. Children’s stories, American. [1. Harlem (New York, N.Y.) Fiction. 2. Afro-Americans Fiction. 3. Short stories.] I. Title.

II. Title: One Hundred Forty-Fifth Street.

PZ7.M992Aae 2000

[Fic]—dc21