Romeo & Julian
A Story of Love & Hate
By Aswad
Smashwords Edition
© Copyright Aswad 2012
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of this author.
Dedicated to James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin
& Marlon Riggs
Thanks for the inspiration
CHAPTER ONE
TEN WEEKS BEFORE GRADUATION.
He ran.
He knew if they caught his Black ass they’d burn him to a crisp and he’d never see his momma again.
He headed for the creek, hoping to loose them in the marsh.
If they caught him he was dead. How the hell did he get in this mess?
* * *
Sometimes when an event happens you don’t think it’s going to have any effect on your life. None at all.
You get up in the morning and you just don’t think about it.
After all they made that decision all the way up there in Washington, DC, it certainly has nothing to do with you way down here in your little southern town.
That’s the way Romeo Jennings was thinking as he tied his tie over his Sears short sleeve school shirt like he did every other spring morning.
He hated his name. As soon as he turned eighteen he was going to change it to something else. Anything other than Romeo.
His mother, Patricia, was a huge Shakespeare fan and had named him after one of the title characters of her favorite play.
Ever since he hit school every girl in town wanted to be his Juliet.
And why not? Romeo was one handsome fellow.
Captain of the basketball team. Blond with chiseled good looks and piercing green eyes.
Life had been good to him.
His father was a respected doctor and his mother a community leader and former debutante.
They were the quintessential American Family.
And with one little decision, their lives were about to change forever.
The decision was Brown Vs. The Board of Education.
Blacks kids were coming to school.
Romeo’s family never used the word Nigger; they were too respectable for that.
But they didn’t have any Black friends either. And it’s not like Black people sat at their dinner table on a regular basis either.
Although Dr.Jennings did treat Black patients at his office. And was very nice about it.
He said it was his “civic duty”.
His Mother’s charity group didn’t have any Black women in it. But this never really came up for discussion.
Romeo was nervous. He had never gone to school with Black Kids before.
He wondered what they were like. What they ate. How they dressed.
He had heard that they smelled bad and ate bananas for lunch like monkeys.
He didn’t believe it but he still wanted to check it out for himself.
He was seventeen now and had to start thinking about his future.
Graduation was in a few weeks and he hadn’t really put his mind to anything. Not even college.
He was constantly preoccupied with the strange feelings he felt welling up inside himself.
Feelings he didn’t understand.
Long hours after school in the library researching shed no light on his situation.
He wished the feelings would just dry up and go away. But they didn’t.
* * *
Julian Long sat on the bus with all the other Black kids.
And like all the other Black kids he had a knot in his stomach and was stunned into total silence.
He had never seen the white folks neighborhood before a day in his life.
It was so clean. So quiet.
Well-manicured lawns. Beautiful houses.
And he just couldn’t believe how quiet it was.
Till they drew up to he school.
“Niggers go home! Niggers go home!”
There were dozens of white people with red faces lining the street in front of the school.
They made the school look like an armed camp.
They chanted and ranted and raved. Some threw rocks. But the National Guardsman put a stop to that.
He clutched his books to his chest and then stopped because his father had told him it made him look like a girl.
He missed his father. Which was funny when you think about it because they had never really gotten along.
Raymond Long considered his son a sissy.
What with his pastel shirts and wanting to go to art school and all. He had no hopes for the boy.
That was the only reason that Julian had joined the basketball team.
Maybe his father would consider that a “manly” enough pursuit and leave him alone, he thought.
But he never got the chance to impress his father before his daddy died.
Murdered actually. By the Klan.
Raymond Long had always had a reputation of being an uppity Negro.
So it was no surprise when he decided to lead an NAACP boycott of the local Department Store and sit in at the lunch counter.
“Hot Dog and a Coca Cola, please.” He had asked in his dignified baritone voice.
Raymond Long had fought in World War two for his country and he felt he deserved a hot dog and a coca cola for his trouble.
His country however thought otherwise.
He and all the other protestors were dragged out of the drugstore kicking and screaming and thrown into the back of squad cars.
Then Raymond began attending more and more meetings at Church, and was branded a rabble-rouser.
He was snatched up one night by a pick up truck full of white boys with ski masks on.
They took him into an alley and told him he if he didn’t stop “stirring niggers up” they would kill him.
He didn’t. So they did.
Raymond Long was not a Black man who was scared of anything white men had to throw at him.
He had fought in Germany and been raised in the south. What more could there possibly be?
Julian’s mother, Mary had to go to work as a Domestic. She had wanted to be a nurse but didn’t have the money for the schooling.
She saved a little here and there. They got by.
Julian decided to honor his father by becoming the best-damned basketball player he could possibly become.
And he did.
His had never seen a player with such single-minded dedication to the game.
One coach even commented that he thought Julian was possessed.
So it was only natural when a group was chosen to be the first kids to go to the white school, that Julian was chosen.
It was not only his ball playing but also his grades that had gotten him there.
He was terrified. Past terrified.
He was going to school with white kids for the first time in his life. He had only seen white kids on TV. He had never been around one in person.
He wondered what they smelled like?
He had heard from his relatives that they smelled nasty and had scraggly hair.
He laughed when they told him that, but he decided to just wait and check it out for himself.
He got off the bus with the rest of the kids and they linked arms.
It was a warm morning in the spring. Graduation was due soon. He hoped he would make it.
* * *
“Good morning class! My name is Mrs. Korman!” “Good morning Mrs. Korman!” The class chorused as one. “Now class...I would like it if we could welcome our classes new members.”
Mrs. Korman gestured at the back of the room where Julian and four other Black students sat.
Not a white head turned. Not a white voice was raised in greeting. She ignored this and pressed on.
She was a good woman and believed in integration. She held the morning’s English lesson as usual.
The Black students had a little trouble keeping up, as the books at their school were three years behind the ones at the white school.
They kept up as best they could. Which seemed to only make the white children colder to them.
Julian was looking forward to Gym class.
At least there he could get lost in the exhilaration of playing basketball and not have to worry about being hated. If only for an hour.
* * *
Gym class was a disaster.
Julian wound up being the only Black boy on the basketball team and despite his obvious height advantage the white boys refused to pass him the ball.
It was, “to keep it clean.,” they said.
Then, towards the end of practice, a blond boy snatched the ball away from one of the meaner boys and tossed it Julian.
Julian leapt down court with the grace of a ballet dancer and made his first and only basket of the game.
Romeo nodded to Julian.
Julian nodded back to Romeo, “Thank you.”
* * *
None of the other boys would shower with Julian. “Don’t want it to rub off!” They would sneer.
He showered alone in a corner of the showers after all the other boys had left.
Then he walked in.
Julian had never seen a boy who looked like that before.
* * *
Romeo didn’t care what the other guys thought. He was going to shower with the new kid whether they liked it or not.
The guy wouldn’t look at him. He kept his back turned to him.
He didn’t try to speak to him, but he couldn’t take his eyes off him either.
He stood there mesmerized as the water trickled through Julian’s kinky short Afro. Across his broad shoulders and slid smoothly down his slim back to his narrow waist.
Then it would take a sharp curve as it worked its way up and over the rounded mounds of Julian’s hard rear end.
He watched the water flow down Julian powerful, slim legs. All the way to his large feet.
Romeo felt the breath catch in his throat. He realized he was looking way to long at a guy. A Black guy.
He quickly turned around before Julian could notice.
He felt hot and a little dizzy. Those feelings were back. And he wished they would stop.
* * *
Julian turned around because he could swear he felt eyes on him.
He was jumpy as a cat. He knew eyes were on him. White eyes.
The blond boy from the basketball game was the only one in the shower with him.
He was all the way down at the other end with his back to him.
He couldn’t help but look. He had never seen a naked white boy before.
He watched as he lathered himself.
The water had wetted down his hair and it was all slick and gold, like his mama’s good tablecloth she only brought out at Christmas.
The boy had slim, rounded shoulders covered in ivory skin.
His body was light and smoothly shaped, with a small waist and a cute little flat behind.
He had shapely legs and very small feet that were kind of cute.
He had never seen a boy like that. He liked what he saw. The boy looked like the white boys on TV who were rich and happy and lived in nice houses.
Julian quickly turned around when he realized he was staring.
His mother had taught him never to get caught staring at white folks. They didn’t like it.
You were supposed to look at the floor, not at them.
His father had said he could look at white folks any damned which way he pleased.
“These ain’t slave times!” Raymond would yell at his son.
Julian didn’t know which one to believe, so he just tried not to look at them.
* * *
The rest of the first day went pretty much like the morning.
The protesters spent the entire day out front screaming their heads off for the television cameras that had begun to arrive.
Julian boarded the bus for the trip back to the Black side of town.
The Black students had suddenly become animated.
Chattering loudly amongst themselves with stories of how white children spat on them or pulled their hair.
Julian had no stories he wished to share.
He was thinking about the beautiful boy he’d seen in the showers and nothing else.
CHAPTER TWO
NINE WEEKS TO GRADUATION
“How was school today, Julian?”
“It was all right Mama.”
“Them white children giving you any more trouble?”
“No Ma’am.”
Julian had been at school for three days when he had his first run-in with the white boys. He was in the cafeteria when it happened.
He tried to find a table to sit at by himself when three white boys would run up and say it was “their” table.
This went on for five minutes until Julian gave up and decided to take his lunch out side and eat under his favorite tree.
But they followed him.
The leader, an ugly dark haired boy named Biff, took his milk and poured it down his own shirt.
“Hey Nigger! You spilled milk on my shirt!”
He laughed at Julian.
“Yup!” Sure did!” His two companions agreed. True witnesses to the end.
Biff took Julian’s lunch tray and slammed it up against his chest. Chocolate pudding smearing his bright canary yellow shirt.
Julian tried to leave but the boys grabbed him and yanked him back under the tree.
“Where you think you goin’ Nigger? I ain’t done with yer’ coon ass yet, boy!”
Biff’s breath smelled like stale bread and beer.
Julian wanted to be anywhere but here. He hated fighting. He hated ugliness.
That’s why he always sketched and painted pretty landscapes. They were always so much nicer than where he always had to be.
“Back off! Now!” The assembled boys jumped at the sound of Romeo’s voice. They turned to face his commanding presence.
“Oh, hey there Romy! We ‘wus just lettin’ this here coon know who’s boss around here, ‘ya know what I’m sayin’?” Biff chuckled, with not too much conviction.
Romeo had already kicked this boy’s ass twice this year and Biff wasn’t looking for a third strike.
“Back off...now!” There was absolutely no room left for doubt based on his tone alone.
The boys laughed, patting themselves on the back for a job well done and ambled off towards the Gym.
Romeo smiled...nodded and disappeared.
“Well you be sure to tell me if any of those boys are bothering my baby! You know I ain’t havin’ no more of that!” Mary ordered.
“Yes Ma’am.” And Julian obeyed.
“You know baby...I really think it’s about time you learned how to defend yourself honey-pie. I mean when you were at your last school...well...I’m not trying to hurt your feelings honey but you seemed to get chased home by some boy or another damned near everyday!” Mary exclaimed in her worried mother’s tone.
Julian merely continued sketching in his pad.
“Honey? Is there something you want to tell me? Anything at all?” Mary always worried about her son. He was such a quiet gentle boy. And he was never without his sketchpad.
“No Ma’am.” Julian mumbled, not looking up.
Mary frowned. She worried so much about her special boy.
She decided to change the subject.
“So...have you decided what you want to do after graduation yet. You got any ideas?” She said in a tone that was brighter than she felt.
“No Ma’am.” Julian mumbled yet again.
“Julian...” Mary took the sketchpad away and sat at the table opposite her son.
“...Look baby, I know we haven’t talked about it since it happened but what happened to your father wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t any one’s fault.”
“Your daddy was a proud man Julian. There was no way he could have lived in this world with white men telling him what to do. There would have been no way. I loved that about your father. That’s why I married him.” She beamed with pride.
“He was so strong and handsome. And he loved you.”
Julian hung his head low. He always thought his father hated him.
“He always had big dreams for his baby boy. He wanted you to be a doctor, or a lawyer. Something where you could use your mind, and help other Black folk. Set an example. He knew you weren’t cut out for any manual labor. But he knew you were smart. Real smart!“
“I thought he hated me.” Julian said in a mouse-sized voice.
“Oh Julian boy! How can you say that?” She asked, startled by the revelation.
“ He was always calling me a sissy!” Julian said. Very hurt.
“Honey you got to understand, your father was a military man. He killed people for a living. He was very strong. And your just...” She struggled for the right word.
“...Different?” He finished for her.
“That’s right baby...your just different that’s all. And different don’t mean bad.” She stroked his kinky hair lovingly.
They hugged as if it was the last hug they would ever share.
“So tell me...what does my special boy want to be when he grows up?” She asked smiling.
Julian took a moment to consider his answer. Wrack his brain was more like it. He had no idea what he wanted to do. Except draw.
“I want to be artist.” He said softly.
“An artist?” Mary responded with more than a hint of disdain.
“Yeah!” Julian’s smile could have lit the way for the landing of a 747.
“Boy! You know your father was right about one thing...you need to get your head out the clouds! An artist.” She snorted.
“What’s the matter with being an artist?” He asked wounded.
“Boy aint no body gonna pay no Black man to be an artist! You need to get yourself a real job, Julian! A real job! Do you understand what I’m talking about?” She narrowed her eyes at him.
“ Doctor. Lawyer! Hell, brick layer! But ain’t nobody gonna’ pay a Black man to be no damned artist! Hell you lucky they let us get you in that school so you could get a good education! You need to take advantage of it!” She warned.
“Yes, ma’am.” He mumbled.
“Yes Ma’am? Boy is that all you ever say? Why don’t you ever stand up for yourself...like your father did?”
Julian shrugged. He had no answer. And he really didn’t care.
“You know something Julian? You better start standin’ up for yourself. And soon!” Mary shook her finger at her son.
“ Things are changing’ Julian! It’s not like it was when I was your age! When I was your age it wasn’t even thought of that I would be goin’ to school with white people!”
My mama told me they stank, and their hair was nasty, and not ever to use a water fountain after them, which I couldn’t do anyway because they was all segregated in them days. You don’t know how good you have it Julian you need to stand up and take advantage of it! Be a man!”
“I am a man!” he suddenly jumped to his feet and screamed at her.
“Well you better start acting like it boy! Or I just don’t know what I’m'a do with you!” She shook her head and went back to pounding hamburger.