Hush Baby, Hush

The Man With The Crucifix

It’s not our fault Ashley didn’t know how to mouth words correctly.

“You don’t like white guys. That’s what it is,” Travis grumbled over his hamburger.

I kinda felt sorry for him because even though he was a decent looking guy with one hell of a personality---Ashley still didn’t like him. Whether it was because he was white I wasn’t sure or not.

“Matter of fact,” he took a huge bite out of his hamburger and my stomach grumbled. Not out of disgust even though I should have cringed at the mayonnaise sitting on the corners of his mouth. It was because I’d put myself on a diet for the third time that month and I badly wanted to go in on a hamburger instead of a salad.

Ashley rolled her eyes and I knew it was because whatever he had to say would have something to do with race again.

Travis took his time with what he said next. He swallowed his mouthful and took a few slurps of his soda before he continued in his same southern drawl. Although he’d lived in the city since he was seven we all knew that he was still a country boy at heart. After another slurp and a belch much to our dismay he continued on with a crooked grin, “I aint seen none of yall mess with anybody other 'n  black.”

The three of us exchanged the same incredulous look. And what did it say?

“He knows we’re black right?”

Not that that was a good reason to date only black guys, but it just made sense to date your race first right?

“Travis I see a lil stupid leaking out your ears,” I stuffed another mouthful of dry leaves in my mouth and mimicked his accent, “betta ‘ketch that ya ‘ear?”

Ashley rolled her eyes and took a sip of her soda. She concentrated hard on the pattern of the table top as she sucked the fizzy stuff through her straw. I knew what she wanted to say but couldn’t. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

All she had known was black guys, from elementary school to middle school that’s all she’d ever been around and it was the same for me. Shawna had went to mixed raced schools before but chose to just date black guys. It was her choice.

But for Ashley….Travis just wasn’t hard enough. He wasn’t the type of guy she went crazy over, regardless of race. She liked roughnecks, assholes and Travis….well he was just too sweet for her.

Not gay…just sweet. In a ‘I wanna follow you around all day and carry your books’ kinda way.

Travis rounded in on me before throwing a sneaky look to my far right and looking back, “And you. I bet you don’t even like any other races either. Hey,” his eyes darted to the side again as his lips continued to spread apart, he leaned forward and attempted to whisper, “ bet you don’t want anybody ‘cept Austin. How’s Nat-Uh-Lee by the way?”

If I could have possessed the ability that David Banner abhorred then I would have jumped across the table and grabbed Travis by his scoop neck tee. But I didn’t. I withered away.

A roll cascaded across the table and smacked Travis across the cheek, his head swiveled to my right. His eyes turned into slits, “The hell?”

Shawna slammed the palms of her hands beside me against the table and got up in his face as much as she could, “Mention either one of them one more time and I’m going to shove my foot so far down your throat that you're going to shit that hamburger you eating right now. Ya hear?”

Ashley tore her mouth away from the straw and twisted up her lips, she crossed her arms and spewed out all the nasty she’d been holding in, “You tell that bitch that you call your friend to sleep with one eye open. And tell that other bitch to keep her legs closed because word on the block is she got gonorrhea.”