ONE THING I LEARNED ABOUT LIBERATING: SOMETIMES IT’S NOT SO easy to decide when it’s done. Now we were twice as scared of the Evans trailer as we’d been before, but Frita said that had most definitely been our best try, so we crossed it off in black Magic Marker. Then we decided to take a breather.
July first, Frita came over and brought an article from Life magazine. It was all about the Bicentennial, so we propped it up against Jimmy’s spider tank so we could both see it at the same time. We lay in the grass on our stomachs, reading it, and every now and then we’d turn the magazine around so Jimmy could see the pictures.
We were looking at a two-page spread of fireworks when Frita asked her question.
“Think we should go to the fireworks in Hollowell?” she asked, studying the page.
“Where else would we go?”
“We could go to the ones in Rockford.”
“Why would we do that?” I asked.
Frita shrugged.
We were quiet for a minute, but then she said, “Terrance told me there wouldn’t be any black people at the ones in Hollowell. He said they’d all be going to Rockford.”
I wondered why it made a difference. Never seemed to bother Frita before.
“Terrance said white people aren’t celebrating our independence. He says they’re only celebrating the independence of white people.”
Huh. I thought we were celebrating everyone’s independence.
“Momma and Pop and me are celebrating your independence,” I said, “and we’re going to Hollowell.”
Frita shrugged like it was no big deal.
“I was just wondering,” she said. Then she flipped the page around so Jimmy could see. “You think Mr. Evans will be there?”
She said it real casual, but I could tell she’d been gearing up to ask me that. I hadn’t thought about it none, but I supposed he would be. “Yup,” I said.
Frita flipped off her sandals and wiped the sweat from her brow.
“No big deal,” she said, tapping on Jimmy’s tank. Then she turned over on her back and changed the subject. “Want to go swimming in the catfish pond?”
Frita was already wearing her bathing suit top with shorts because it was too hot to wear other clothes. Swimming sounded real good, except there was always a clump of sixth-graders at the catfish pond, and two of them were sure to be Duke and Frankie.
“We could use the sprinkler,” I said.
“Sprinklers are for babies.” Frita looked at me like she knew exactly what I was thinking. “It’s time we did more liberatin’ anyway.”
Frita stood up. “I’ll do something off my list if you come swimming.”
Now my ears perked up because I was always interested in what was on Frita’s list, and it was pretty hot out.
“What’s left on your list?” I asked.
“The rope swing…mostly.”
“Mostly?”
Frita nodded.
“It’s on my list too,” I said, but that was the wrong thing to say, because Frita got all excited.
“Go ask your momma if we can go,” she said, standing up. Then she picked up Jimmy’s tank and twirled him like a ballerina.
“This will make us brave for sure,” she said.
* * *
Maybe Frita was going to be brave, but I knew I was headed to almost certain death. I said I’d do five other things off my list if we stayed home and used the sprinkler, but Frita was being a locomotive again.
“Just wait,” she told me. “After this you’ll feel so brave, you’ll be first in line for the fifth grade.”
Fat chance of that. Besides, the sixth-graders never let anyone else use the rope swing. It was an unwritten rule. But apparently Frita didn’t intend on following it.
“No one’s going to tell me what I can or can’t do,” Frita said as we walked to the catfish pond. “We’ll just march right up to that tree and climb to the top before anyone can stop us. It’s only fair. Ain’t their tree to…”
Frita stopped mid-sentence. We’d reached the pond, and there in a clump, just like I’d suspected, was a whole group of sixth-graders. Smack in the middle of them were Duke Evans and Frankie Carmen.
Soon as I saw them, my whole body tightened up like a dishcloth that was being wrung tight. Duke and Frankie were real close to us, standing on the opposite side of the cypress tree, chewing on candy cigarettes and talking to some girls. Any minute now they’d turn around and see us.
“Let’s go home,” I whispered, but Frita shook her head.
“No way,” she said. “We got just as much right to be here as them, and I want to go swimming. They’re not going to scare me.” She started forward, but I pulled her back again.
“What if Duke wants to fight? You punched him in the nose, remember?”
Frita made a face. “I can whup Duke Evans and Frankie Carmen both,” she said, “and they know it. Now, come on.”
Frita was right about one thing. She could whup Duke and Frankie both and they probably wouldn’t risk getting walloped in front of girls, but I bet they could think up something else to do. I stared at them, then up at the rope swing hanging off the high branch. I was so nervous, I could feel the waterworks gearing up, but I choked them down and Frita grabbed my hand.
“You can do it,” she whispered. The look in her eyes said she believed it even if I didn’t.
“You sure?” I asked.
“I’m sure,” she told me.
I swallowed hard and let her pull me toward the tree.
My heart was pounding fast and my throat felt full, like I couldn’t breathe, but Frita held tight and neither Duke nor Frankie turned around to notice us. Frita slipped off her sandals and shorts, real silent, and I took off my T-shirt and sneakers extra fast and left them next to Frita’s stuff. Then we climbed up the tree, quick and quiet as we could.
The bark was rough against my toes, but it was easy to get my footing. I kept looking down at the ground below, and the higher we climbed, the more certain I was that there was no way I’d survive. But I couldn’t turn around now. Frita and I sat down on the tree limb facing each other, gathering our courage. For a minute we were completely silent. I watched her face and listened to the sound of my heartbeat. Thump, thump, thump, thump.
Then they saw us.
Duke was pointing up, and my heart sunk. I looked at Frita, real panicky, but she kept her eyes locked on mine.
“You can do it,” she said. “I got faith…”
Down below, the rest of the kids were laughing and pointing too.
“It’s Gabe and Frita up in a tree.”
“K-I-S-S-I-N-G…”
“Too scared to jump? You’ve got to stand up first, you know.”
They were right under us, laughing and whistling and calling out. I closed my eyes because this was real trouble.
“You stuck? Want us to call your mommies?”
“Better call Gabe’s pop,” I heard Duke say. “He always calls his pop. My Pop could take all three of them.”
That’s when Frita stood up. She scowled something fierce. “Gabe,” she said, “I’m going.”
For one minute I thought she meant she was going home—like maybe we’d climb down that tree and walk right past those hecklers—but I should have known better. Frita stood up and looked at me one last time, then she leaned out, grabbed that rope, and swung right off the tree branch.
Even though she was my best friend and I knew what she was going to do, for a minute she was like someone I’d never met. Someone incredible.
Frita landed with a huge splash, and that was just about enough for me. I wanted to climb down right then, and I would have except for Duke.
“You’ll never make it,” he yelled.
I stood up and stared down at the water. Frita waved, and I felt like I was a hundred miles high. I was sure I would break my neck. The water below was brown and murky, and you couldn’t tell how deep it was in the middle. Maybe hundreds of feet. I imagined letting go of that rope and plunging in. Once I splashed down, I’d turn and turn. What if I forgot which way was up and couldn’t keep my breath?
“What’s the matter, Shrimp?” Duke yelled. “Can’t reach the rope?”
My mouth went dry. I hadn’t even thought of that. I forced my eyes away from the water long enough to watch for the rope. It was still swinging from when Frita let go of it, and the next time it came toward me, I reached for it. I missed and my whole body leaned forward, back, forward, back…I waved my arms like a propeller and I heard laughter, but I got my balance. I watched for the rope again and this time I leaned a little farther out.
I caught it just like one of those trapeze guys in the circus and held it tight. I closed my eyes and felt my feet leave the tree branch. After that, all I felt was my heart thump-thumping and the roughness of the rope burning my palms. Then I let go and I was turning and turning in the water. For a minute I didn’t know which way was up, but then I was up, breathing in big gulps of sweet air.
I splashed like crazy, but when I stopped and looked back to shore, there were Duke and Frankie staring with their jaws on the ground.
I looked at Frita and she was grinning real huge.
“I knew it,” Frita said. “I knew you could do it.”
And she was right. I had done it. Me and Frita bobbed and grinned in the water, and back on shore Duke and Frankie waved our clothes and Frita’s sandals in the air, then swung them into the trees.
“Hey,” they yelled, “come and get ’em.”
But we didn’t care. They could take our shoes and shorts, but they couldn’t take our courage.