School

Outside manilla's villa I roam the side of my walk; everyone is more curious than my intention.

A woman stops to pinch my cheek; a ripe lemon squeeze hurts. I conjured metaphorically without simile thick skin for a grin filling up her smooth tips of fingers. This will be enough to please her and the friends she will gossip back at middle town's apartment.

Children chase loose shoelaces in a circle around me; I pick one up to tie.

"Thanks lady....why you wearing hearts on your pajama pants? You not dressed this morning. You better come with me to get you some fits."

This palm is the size of mine; I realize he is not much a child, just the appearance of one.

"I play too much..."

He does not ask me questions, assures me with a look I do not need to say anything at all, I am a written book; the pages must be all over New York.

"I want you to wear jeans like the music on TV with a white tee."

Plasma on a ceiling platform gathers a liquid image of a brown boy named Chris.

"Just like him!"

Soft of my belly hangs a bit over the belted lip; food makes me cramp into protrusion.

"You don't eat much."

I thought I ate a lot.

"You sort of look like them people they be hoisting in a box to cover with dirt except you much nicer looking than them; they wear make up and you don't need all that."

He starts talking to himself as people often do whenever I am around; I always listen, this interests me more than my own thoughts.

"They always telling me I got to go to school to learn something. What do I got to learn?"

Nothing that taking care of yourself will not be a lesson of experience; age is just a number for education but this not enough for discrimination.

"You must of studied something important but you don't use it like they do. You hide it but I see through the cover."

Just like a book.

Examining the coronas underneath the spike edged lay back sunglasses, he is a doctor without the paper to boast.

"Something good too...."

My laughter is silent; his long feather tipped eyelashes tickle my nose.

"It must be what they make those shows with the dum dum music."

Dumb dumb music obliterates the noise.

"That one with the wooden mallet and things they weigh the weed with..."

Scales....

"This house is full of weed. They grow it in the basement. Police don't care as long we don't sell it for lots of money attracting attention. Folks losing their hair, can't eat much, not feeling like they got energy come get some. They pay to keep up the service."

Legalization is an argument without words; there is no other way to cure the flaw. A country split into two faces, one spits while the other chooses to lock us behind bars, we just do as an ailment is natural for the situation of win or lose.

"I brew bat guano tea; they make the best fertilizer for Buddha."

"Who you talking to Abel?"

"Myself...."

"You never made that much sense before. Your self must be really listening this time. Other times you a mess!"

My face is in his hands as he admires the corner of my eyes; he places his nose against mine.

"You look like a cat. I always wanted one for company but I figure they run off. I always wanted one to listen. I want to show you something. Lets go for a walk...."

Flight of stairs is a skip sideways with a three step leap we both jump into the open door for the street.

"You need to see this so you remember for where you're going; I want you to know so you are ready for the people you going to meet. They going to know about you when you stop putting up that front. You know people know you ain't stupid! You act like that just so they don't know who you are but the things you do speak while you quiet."

Where am I going?

"You going to where I'm from! You tell them Abel said Jesus ain't coming after all."

Where is he from?

"You going to find out. Flowers going to steal you. Those flowers that smell funky and look like cut up paper. Expensive too and they say it's romance! Better to be poor than romantic at least you know for sure that somebody likes you."

Threads of memory tread the veins inside my nostrils.

"You must got a boyfriend. He must be looking for you everywhere! He must be going crazy."

Crazy like me......??

"You must be crazy about him! That must be why you so quiet. The puppy got your tongue."

I like puppies....is he a cute one?

"He probably all fluffy like one of those wolf babies and I bet he sleeps with a bone. You wish you was that bone huh?"

Yes....

"He probably got big blue eyes like one of their kids playing in the snow. You like that huh?"

Yeah......

"He don't like those torn paper flowers."

Love letters shred to pieces might of formed a bud with thorns for me to exhale in sneezes; must of been the origin of creation for that damned garden I stumbled upon.

"You don't like those fish eggs either."

Caviar...

"Those things taste like splinters shaped sort of like balls. We chewed some before; the man in the round hat gave us some. Said it was a big deal here. Where he's from they pick it from the part of the pond frogs go to the bathroom."

Russia...

"I spit it out when he said that. He handed me a napkin. I was excited about that too!"

I gave him an apple.

"I never had one of these before."

A big one....

"Is that why they call it the big apple?"

Yup....

"This thing's bigger than your heart!"

My heart.....?

"I'm going to put my hand on your chest okay? I want to feel it."

Okay....

"You got the biggest heart I ever touched!"

Fills up the entire right portion of my rib cage; feel him every moment I am what I am.

"It's shaped like a tear drop. You must cry a lot."

Yes....

"Can't help it huh?"

If I could I would not shed one.

"If you could you would not shed one."

Sliding down the side of a slim stack house I am ready for the vision he gathered; pulling down the brim of shades off my ears just enough to see us filling the tear drop.

"We need bodies....when you figure out how to get yours without disappearing could you do that for us? We will wait for you."

You promise....

"I promise...."

Will I ever figure it out?

"Time doesn't matter anymore for us."

Now I know why I am here.

"They know why you are here."

They are coming after me.

"They coming after you."

Now I got to run.

"Now you got to run."

I cannot hide either.

"Everybody is going to know who you are too."

How do I get away?

"You got to give up. You can't fight..."

What if I die?

"You came out of that box they were going to put in the ground huh?"

Might of been....

"Then you will be just fine."

Where am I going?

"Tell them I got faith!"

Faith in what?

"Tell them faith is enough."

Who is them?

"You going to feel like they the best thing that ever happened to you besides the wolf pup!"

Really....

"You going to cry a lot."

More than this?

"You going to remember me when you do."

What else will I remember?

"You going to remember everything."

How did I forget?

"You don't want to believe people do things like that to other people but they do. That's why I am not a kid anymore. I figured that out. That's why I had enough. I'm done learning for now. There's nothing else to know."