TalkBoy

Little boy, people say, you talk too fast, they say, you go on and on and on and we don’t want ta hear you anymore, but Little kid keep talking ─ they told me since before I could talk, ya know?; people never want ta hear me talk, don’t believe I have anything ta tell them, but I do, no one believes me ─ I seen plenty of people and things those people do that’s worth talking about: The Colonel, my grandpa ─ I seen him do plenty of things people want ta know about ─ he yells at night, fights scariest people off in his sleep and he fought Grandma once, but Grandma strong strong strong, hugs like a bear times a Grandma times a million dollars, Grandma just picked The Colonel up and put him right back in bed, still sleeping, and said no more fighting, The Colonel, you done with all your fighting, we are at our home and you are going to wake up soon and clean the house and buy me a new necklace, then she looked at me and giggle and told me to keep it real quiet, not like The Colonel, who is not quiet at all and is as loud as a shotgun in night; and I saw my brother hide all the money he’s ever gotten from Grandma in a big suitcase with plenty of secret zippers, hid it right in the lowest zipper pouch he could find, but he don’t know that there is one place, even more secret than his, that’s a bit lower, all the way at the bottom of the inside, that’s where I hide all the money Grandma gives me, every single cent, but he don’t know that at all; my brother’s stupid, like all brothers, but he is good at making things with his hands, can take a dollar and make you an octopus, can make an octopus out of any type of paper you can find, give my brother a little square, smaller than any paper you could ever do anything with, he would make you a box or a sail boat or a gift, wrapped real nicely – still is stupid to me, but there is less stupid in parts of his brain; one time I saw a brother get punched by a big sister and so I punched my brother; one time I punched my brother after I saw him hit someone for no reason; Brother hit me back right in the lip; I got a scar on my lip, you can see it; I never punched someone who’s not my brother, I’m real glad that’s true; The Colonel, he punched some people and now he sleep fight ─ I don’t want to fight; don’t want to sleep fight; don’t want to awake fight; I seen all of these things with my own self ─ right there ─ and still, no one listen to me, Little Boy, they say, you got nothing to say, they say, nothing ever happened that I see worth telling, say, all those things I see not important, say I’ll never be a person just like them, just like those people I saw do things they did not want people to see, but I say that’s just as important as anything any fancy storyteller ever saw or told ─ that is for sure─ and one day someone’s gonna want to know what my The Colonel was like or how to hush him down, don’t know who, but someone; or my brother’s gonna forget where he hid all his Grandma money and I’ll walk right over and unzip that pocket from the suitcase and I’ll be the hero; and one day someone’s gonna want to know about me, and I’ll tell them.