Riding Chance Read online

  “Who would do that?” said Winston. He had this strange expression on his face when he looked up at Jerome. “Why would you even say that?”

  “Everybody back up. Give him some room to breathe,” said Dre, standing up.

  Dre said he’d stay with Percy until the vet came. Winston wanted everybody to get back to what they were doing. That’s when I felt somebody’s eyes on me. You know when you can feel somebody looking at you. Man, if looks could kill, I’d be dead right now ’cause Alisha was staring me down.

  ME AND FOSTER wanted to take the bus down to Society Hill, but Miss T wouldn’t have it. Said she wasn’t going to miss her chance to get inside a fancy house, so she drove us downtown. Pops said he’d pick us up at ten. I didn’t really know what to expect. Not after what happened to Percy the day before. I couldn’t stop thinking about his glassy eyes. He’d looked so helpless when he couldn’t stand up.

  So, we were in the car with Miss T, heading downtown, and I was getting nervous. Suppose Percy died? Everybody would blame me. I was looking out the window, not really paying attention to nothing.

  “I’ve always liked the way this is laid out,” said Miss T. She turned off the radio like we couldn’t look and listen at the same time.

  We were on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. You know, where they have the flags from all the different countries. Everything so clean and neat. She was playing tour guide.

  “Let’s take Pine Street down to Society Hill,” she said. “I haven’t been here in ages.”

  We went down to a circle with a big fountain in the middle. Turned off on a side street, past some office buildings. But, all of a sudden, there were a lot of cars.

  “Oh, I forgot about Rittenhouse Square traffic,” she said. “There’s always something going on down here.”

  Lots of older kids, mostly white but some black kids, too, were hanging out in the square. There were these signs strung up in the trees. Said a band was gonna be playing later. People were sitting out at little tables on the sidewalk around the square. Real nice.

  Miss T ended up getting all twisted up with the traffic. That didn’t help my stomach. It was already curling in on itself. I was worried about Percy. Worried about this party with all these rich kids, too. Maybe Dre would be there. He was somebody me and Foster could talk to. We had to go all around the square before we could go east again.

  “I hope you guys don’t mind the detour,” she said, patting Foster’s hand.

  She took a few more wrong turns before we got to Pine Street. The streets were getting smaller and everything was closer together. We passed all these restaurants with people sitting outside. And there were little stores selling old stuff, antiques. Stuff just looked old to me.

  “I don’t suppose you guys remember being here, do you?” She pointed to Pennsylvania Hospital. “That’s where you were born, both of you.”

  The hospital looked like a museum. Most of it was behind a brick wall. And where there wasn’t a wall, there was a black iron fence. You could see a statue and gardens and trees and stuff.

  A horse pulling a carriage was walking down Fifth Street. That horse didn’t look too happy, lonely or something. That horse needed a little goat to keep her company.

  “Is that a parking spot?” said Miss T. “That’s lucky. I thought I was going to have to just drop you off in front of their house.” She pulled into the spot and we walked the few blocks to Winston’s. “Glad I didn’t wear heels. These cobblestones are slippery and they’re not even wet,” she said.

  Everything was brick. The streets, the sidewalks, the houses, and all these walls. Felt like we were surrounded by brick walls. You couldn’t see over them, but you could hear voices coming from the other side.

  Good thing Miss T parked the car where she did. Winston’s street was so tiny, looked like a car wouldn’t be able to drive down it. A lot of the houses had flags. Not just the American flag. Some were blue; some were yellow with a snake on them. And everybody wanted you to know how old their house was. Little stories about the houses were on pieces of paper stuck in the windows. Grandmom and Miss Evelyn probably had stories about the houses on our block, too. They just hadn’t written them down.

  “I thought Winston would’ve lived in a big house out in the suburbs,” said Foster, “not on no teeny—”

  “Shhh.” Miss T put her finger to her lips. “You don’t know how your voice carries.”

  There were a lot of trees on Winston’s block. Sorta like a picture frame around the street. We were coming up to a group of people in the middle of the block. Mainly kids, but a few adults like Miss T were there, too. There was a guy all dressed in black handing out drinks on Winston’s doorstep. Champagne for the adults, sparkling water for the kids.

  Miss T smoothed down her dress before we got to the door. She turned around to check me and Foster out for the umpteenth time. We both had on khakis and our dress shoes. I wanted to wear my new Sixers T-shirt, but Grandmom made me wear a shirt with a collar. Foster was all buttoned down. He looked preppy, except the kids who really went to fancy schools had their shirttails hanging out.

  The house was narrow, but it went real far back. Wasn’t no vestibule or nothing. We just stepped right into a room with a low ceiling with these beams made out of wood holding it up. There was an old wooden table with a big, big, big bunch of flowers on it. Then everything just opened up. You could see through the living room and this real big kitchen to the backyard. That’s where the kids were, out in the back. Looked like everything in the house was wooden or brick, even some of the walls, and there was a fireplace.

  I would’ve known this was Winston’s house even if I didn’t know it. There were black-and-white pictures of horses and polo players in silver frames on a ledge above the fireplace.

  Winston had on that slick polo watch. Couldn’t help but notice it when he came over and kissed Miss T two times, once on each cheek.

  “I’m glad you could make it,” he said. He held Miss T’s hand for a little minute. “Can I get you some champagne?”

  “I’m just dropping the boys off,” she said, smiling. “This is a lovely home. I don’t get down to this part of the city very often.”

  “You’re welcome to join us,” he said. “The kids are in the garden, but some of my neighbors will be dropping by a little later.”

  “Thank you, but no,” said Miss T. “I really do need to run.” Turning to us, she said, “Have fun, you two.”

  Winston walked her to the door. Miss T wasn’t bad-looking. And, yeah, Winston was checking it out. I gotta admit. I didn’t want her to leave. She knew how to handle herself.

  “Let’s check out what they have to eat before we split,” said Foster.

  We headed out to the backyard. It was brick, too. It was like another room ’cause there wasn’t any dirt anywhere. The floor was brick and the walls had little statutes built into them. Big pots with flowers were in the corners and anchored high up on the walls. Music was coming outta these rocks that weren’t really rocks; they were speakers. Alisha was in the center of a bunch of kids standing next to a long table with food.

  Me and Foster walked over to the table. I tried to catch Alisha’s eye, but she acted like she didn’t see me. She was busy with her fancy school friends. Okay, it was gonna be like that.

  “You were right about the honeys,” said Foster, looking around.

  He wasn’t lying. There was one fine girl beside the next. Nobody was dancing, though. Just standing around eating and talking.

  “Don’t I know you? You go to Burton, right?” a girl with these big shoes she couldn’t walk in said to Foster. She stopped and looked him up and down.

  “No,” he said. “I know Alisha from the riding program.”

  “Oh, you must be a derelict polo player.” Her eyes were open real wide. She was trying to be cute, but I thought she looked stupid.

  “Not really,” said Foster. “I just learned how to ride.”

  “Alisha … Alisha,” the
girl said real loud, “where are the polo players? You said they’d be here.”

  Alisha looked over at us then. “Girl, chill out,” she said. “He’s cool.”

  Oh, so Foster was cool. Not me, huh? “Hey, Alisha,” I said, lifting my chin in her direction.

  “Hey,” she said. Nothing else.

  The backyard was getting crowded and somebody turned the music up. There were all kind of kids there—Asian, white, Latino. I hadn’t seen Jerome earlier, but there he was, standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the yard with Willie and Little Keith. They were all wearing their polo jerseys, showing off as usual.

  I saw Dre in the kitchen. He waved to me to come inside. Foster seemed to be hitting it off with that stupid-looking girl, so I worked my way back inside.

  “How’s it going?” he asked.

  “Pretty good,” I lied. I didn’t want him to know nobody was talking to me.

  “Well, thank goodness Percy’s okay.” He was leaning into me like it was a secret or something. “He just ate something he shouldn’t have.” I wondered if he’d told everybody else the good news. “Oh, there’s Winston’s neighbor,” he said, nodding to this old dude in a seersucker suit. “He’s the head of one of the best schools in the city. I’ll introduce you and Foster before the evening’s over.”

  So that’s what this party was for. Nobody’s birthday. No dancing. Just meeting people. I looked out into the yard and caught Foster’s eye. Thought he’d be ready to go, but he had his plate piled high with food. And he was talking to a different girl.

  It was getting dark and the yard lights came on. Some of the girls started singing along to the music; I didn’t know the song. That’s when I felt something brushing up against my leg. It was a cat. All gray with a real shiny coat. I bent down to scratch the cat behind its ears. When I stood up, Alisha was standing right behind me.

  “Let’s hope she doesn’t get sick, too,” she said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You and Percy.” She looked like she was gonna cry. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Nothing’s wrong with me, and Dre just told me Percy’s okay.” I looked over my shoulder to make sure nobody else could hear. “I kicked Percy but I wouldn’t try to hurt him.”

  “That doesn’t even sound right.”

  “You know what I mean,” I said.

  “I knew I should have told Uncle Winston and Dre about you.”

  “I didn’t poison Percy.”

  “Well, who did?”

  “Nobody. Dre said he just ate the wrong thing.”

  “And you just happened to be around?”

  “Girl, you make it sound like I’m an ax murderer or something.” I turned around again to make sure nobody was near us. “Look, I was mad when I kicked Percy. It only happened once.”

  “But you’re mad all the time,” she said. “That’s the problem.”

  “Do I look mad now?”

  “You look like the life of the party,” she said, dry as could be. “Why can’t you be more like Foster? He’s fun.”

  I looked out into the yard. Foster was laughing and bobbing his head to the music.

  “So, you didn’t say nothing to nobody about me and Percy?” I said.

  “No.”

  “Well, how come Jerome tried to set me up?”

  “Nobody can set you up if you didn’t do anything.” I didn’t know where she got that idea, but I just let it go.

  “Wait a minute,” I said. “Who started all this poison talk in the first place?”

  Alisha sighed and looked around the room. “Now you’re tripping,” she said. “Jerome loves animals. He wouldn’t hurt Percy or any of the horses.”

  “Neither would I,” I said. I was for real, too. I was ashamed that I’d ever kicked Percy.

  Somebody turned the music up and kids were finally starting to dance. And my boy who didn’t want to come, Foster, was all up in it.

  “I gotta go,” said Alisha.

  She went back outside and turned the music down. All the kids groaned. A voice from the other side of the wall said thank you.

  My stomach started to growl and I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. I don’t know why I didn’t eat. There was plenty of grub but, I don’t know, I just wasn’t settled enough.

  Anyway, the wide-eyed girl, the one who was looking for polo players, wanted to dance. I didn’t really feel like it, but it would have been totally uncool to say no. So we were dancing near the table with the food and she spills her soda all over the bricks. The girl wasn’t drunk ’cause they weren’t serving alcohol to kids. It was nothing like that. But it looked like she wanted everybody to think she was drunk. How do I know, she may have gotten her buzz on before she came to the party. Anyway, the bricks were wet and I was dizzy ’cause, like I said, I hadn’t eaten. This girl was hanging all over me and I had on my dress shoes, okay?

  Next thing I know, we’re on the bricks. I couldn’t get up ’cause the girl was in my way. I looked up and all I could see were those brick walls closing in. Bricks pressing into my back and I couldn’t get up.

  “I hope you play polo better than you dance.” Jerome was standing over us, laughing.

  I felt my checks burning just like the other time I was laid out in front of everybody. I couldn’t do nothing to that cop, but I could do something now.

  Jerome was looking around to see who was laughing at his joke. That’s when I stuck my foot out and tripped him up. He tried to catch himself but he was off balance. Yup, he crashed right into the table. Everything went flying, food everywhere.

  Nobody else could tell how he tripped. It was dark. He could have caught his foot on the girl’s shoes. They were big enough. But he knew it was me.

  “You don’t know who you’re messing with,” he said. The girl was looking for her shoes. Me and Jerome were staring each other down.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Winston was between us, in the middle of the food and broken plates.

  The music was off and everybody was just standing there. Dre started hustling kids out of the yard, back into the house.

  “I don’t know how this got started,” Winston said, “but it’s over. Have I made myself clear?”

  “I’m cool,” I said, but Jerome didn’t say nothing.

  Alisha was surrounded by all her girlfriends, crying for real now. “Thanks for ruining my party,” she said.

  Winston was totally pissed. He looked around at the mess. There wasn’t nothing left that you could eat. He almost slipped on the bricks himself.

  “I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to end the evening.” That’s all he said.

  I looked around to find Foster. He was getting some girl’s number. Left it to me to call Pops and ask him to come pick us up early.

  Some of the kids were heading over to this other dude’s house to keep the party going. I figured I wouldn’t know the words to any of the songs over there any more than I knew them at Alisha’s. So me and Foster left the party right after Winston told everybody to get out. Well, you know Winston, he didn’t say it like that. How’d he put it? We’re going to have to end the evening. Same thing.

  I lied to Dre and told him Pops was waiting for us over at Head House Square. It wasn’t a total lie. Pops was on his way down, just wasn’t there yet.

  We were hanging over at Head House counting all the piercings on South Street kids. Foster was texting Niki, one of the girls he met.

  “You seem pretty into that girl,” I said.

  “She’s all right.” He was busy with his cell. Then a minute later: “What were you and Alisha talking about? She didn’t look too happy.”

  “You wouldn’t be happy, either, if your party got turned out.”

  “No, before that. She wasn’t happy even before the circus act.” So, I was a clown now?

  “She thinks I got it in for Percy,” I said.

  “Why would she think that?”

  “I don’t know,
” I said. “Jerome trying to start something.”

  “I think he got hurt when he fell,” he said. “He was limping when he left the party.”

  “Probably just trying to get some sympathy from that girl he was talking to.”

  “No, I think he was really hurt.”

  Nobody could prove I’d tripped him. I tried changing the subject. “Did you see Winston checking out Miss T?”

  Foster looked up from his cell. “I missed that,” he said.

  Now, that was hard to believe. Foster didn’t miss anything. “You ain’t do too bad yourself,” I said. “How many numbers did you get?”

  “Only Niki’s. Wasn’t looking to collect numbers.”

  “Could’ve fooled me,” I said. “I was ready to leave a while ago, but you were busy with all those girls.”

  “What, all those girls?”

  “I’m just saying, nothing would have gone down if we’d left earlier.”

  Foster looked away, toward South Street. “You know something, Troy. I’m tired of playing your little sidekick.”

  “Sidekick? You’re the one who said we should leave after we ate.”

  “Yeah, well, I changed my mind.” He jammed his cell into his pocket. “If that’s okay with you.”

  “Well, you could have said something instead of just dumping me.”

  “Look who’s talking about dumping.” His mouth hung open. “You’re the one who doesn’t have time for the block party, or me, or anything else.” His eyes bore into me real hard. “I only came down here to help you out.”

  “Help me out?” I shouted. “Since when you gotta help me out?” People on the street were turning to look at us.

  “You think that horse is everything,” he said, shaking his head. “Well, I got my own stuff.”

  “Like what?” I laughed. “Your parachute party?”

  “Parachute …” Foster mouthed the word before he stepped off the curb, looking for Pops’s car. “Nobody missed you at my party, man. And you know what else? Everybody knew how to act … how to mingle.”

  “Is that what you call it?” I said.

  Foster shook his head as Pops pulled up to the curb. “Seriously, man. You used to be cool. What happened?”