If the Fire Comes: A Story of Segregation during the Great Depression
didn’t shake steady and sure He never got black on a customer’s socks Joseph could tell the difference between a movie star and an athlete a businessman and a crook or a banker and a lawyer You leaving already Maya asked making Joseph jump I want to get an early start Joseph said walking across the shop to the side of Maya’s bed She slept out in the open Joseph slept on the floor next to her The shop only had one room in the back where Uncle Tanner disappeared to more and more often Maya was two years older than Joseph a ripe old age of thirteen but she still liked to play their spy game And even though she didn’t get around the way she used to she could talk all day fix a clock without thinking and pinch as hard as a crab Joseph was about to sit down next to her when he heard cooing coming from Maya’s feet Not again He pulled the thin blanket up from the bottom and found Simon Maya’s favorite bird He was nestled between Maya’s crooked legs thin as pencils He could see a
spot of blood on her ankles from where she must have dragged her legs across the floor Simon wasn’t feeling well I wanted to keep him warm Maya said sticking her chin out in her stubborn way Are you okay Joseph asked Of course Maya said but Joseph saw her tuck her hands behind her back She got slivers when she dragged herself across the shop no matter how many times Joseph swept Maya was hard to keep down Joseph reached down and patted Simon the smallest of the seventeen pigeons on the head Beside the bird Joseph saw the book they read each night The Thirty-Nine Steps which had been one of Momma’s favorite spy novels It helped them get in the mood for their game and keep life exciting for Maya Their game was to pretend Joseph was going out on a spy mission a shoeshine boy as his cover Joseph wanted to say more about Maya pulling herself across the floor to get to the pigeon cages but Maya gave him one of her looks She pushed herself
up to a sitting position hanging on to the side of the bed for support I’ll check the radio in case a secret message comes through You go see what you can find out from the contacts downtown They kept the radio close to Maya’s bed so she could listen during the day She’d read all of Momma’s spy novels at least ten times over They usually had fun playing spies but Maya didn’t smile today and her voice was flat She was just trying to get him out of the shop What can I bring you today Joseph asked Maybe some peanut butter and crackers They were Maya’s favorite and she needed something to look forward to Maya hadn’t been the same since Momma’s heart had given out two years ago Papa had died from influenza when Joseph was small so him being gone was just a fact of life But Momma well Momma’s absence had left a huge hole in both their hearts Maya’s especially Uncle Tanner was Momma’s only brother and he’d been kind and understanding at first But after Uncle Tanner had lost his job things had changed They’d
