?Maybe I'll go back home, back to King Malone's place. Maybe if I take enough time I can figure out a business or sumpin'.?
?Like what??
?I'ont know. But not where I'm workin' for somebody who if they find out who I am they gonna let me go. 'Cause you know there ain't nuthin' wrong with me.?
?But you ain't gonna leave?? Darryl asked nervously.
?Leave where??
?Howard said that the best thing for you to do is to get out of California. He said that they know who you are now and once they know that about a black man he got to go.?
?A smart man maybe,? Socrates agreed. ?But I ain't all that smart.?
?You smart. You the smartest man I know,? Darryl said. ?Not like in a book maybe but books cain't make you smart anyways.?
?I'm not leavin', Darryl. I'ma stay right here or maybe down at King Malone's. Some place. And I'm gonna do sumpin' too.?
?What??
?Ever since I saw all those people jump up to save me from the cops I knew that there was sumpin' goin' on. Not like Lavant says. Not like Nelson Saint-Paul says neither. Poster board don't get it. Goin' on TV with white people don't get it neither. You cain't see it or show it, not yet.?
?Then what if you cain't say it or see it??
?You got to dream it. You got to make it up. And when you get it right then it'll be there.?
Luvia brought up lemonade and ginger snaps for the man and boy. After a little coaxing Darryl started to talk about his grades and his new girlfriend. Socrates listened happily.
After the boy had gone Socrates laid back on the bed and listened to Hoagland Mars practicing across the hall. It was a sweet sound from a sour man but it was better than any radio.
?It's just that one sweet note,? his aunt Bellandra said in his dreams. ?Just that one sweet note and everything is sometimes turnt around.?
