Magic Street Page 0,72

morning, Mrs. Tucker came over for coffee while Miz Smitcher and Mack ate breakfast, which was becoming her custom now, with no kids in the house and Mr. Tucker off to work so early every day. Mack usually kept still, but today he had a lot on his mind.

"Over at DeVries they had a meeting last night."

"About Miss Motorcycle," said Mrs. Tucker.

"Motorcycle ain't the problem," said Mack.

"Wakes me up out of a sound sleep every time she goes by!"

"I mean, last night Mrs. DeVries said it didn't matter if Yolanda give up the bike or not, she still not welcome here."

"I completely agree," said Mrs. Tucker. "She cheapens the whole neighborhood." else's?"

"Got to have respect for the neighborhood," said Miz Smitcher.

"That bike is her ride," said Mack. "Since when do neighbors have the right to tell you what to drive?"

"We not telling her what to drive," said Mrs. Tucker. "We telling her what not to drive at three o'clock in the morning."

"Never woke me up," said Mack. Though he immediately realized it was probably because he was in Fairyland at the time.

"Might not have the right in law," said Miz Smitcher, "but we have a natural right to protect our property values."

Mack set down his fork and looked at them both in exasperation. "Can you hear yourselves?

Property values! They taught us in school that 'property values' was how white people used to excuse themselves for trying to keep blacks out of their neighborhood."

Mrs. Tucker snapped back, "Don't you go comparing racism to... to cyclism."

"Not that you were alive in those days, Mack, so you might know what you're talking about," said Miz Smitcher, "but the only reason property values went down when black people moved in was because of racism. If they just stop being racists, then black people moving in doesn't lower property values."

"So if you stop minding her riding her bike...," Mack began.

"Being black doesn't make a loud noise in the middle of the night," said Miz Smitcher.

"Neighbors got a right to have quiet. To keep people from being a public nuisance."

"So you're on their side. To treat this girl like a... like a nigger just cause - "

"That word does not get said in my house," said Miz Smitcher.

"Just cause she's young and cool. Wasn't anybody in this neighborhood ever young and cool? I guess not!"

Mrs. Tucker looked at Mack and cocked her head to one side. "I don't know that I ever seen this boy mad like this before."

"Say that word in my house," muttered Miz Smitcher.

"I guess I just made your property values go down," Mack muttered back.

"Listen to me, young man. You may be six foot four and too cool to stand, but you - "

"You don't understand anything about what it means to a black family to own a house! White people been owning houses forever, but here in the United States of Slavery and Sharecropping we never owned anything. Always paying rent to the man when he didn't own us outright."

"You never a sharecropper, Miz Smitcher," said Mack, trying to keep the scorn out of his voice.

"My daddy was. Not a homeowner in this neighborhood who didn't have a grandma or grandpa paying rent to some redneck cracker in the South, and a daddy or a mama paying rent to some slumlord in Watts. These aren't the people who made money and moved to Brentwood and pretended to be white, like O. J. These are the people who made their money and moved to Baldwin Hills cause we wanted to have peace and quiet but still be black."

"She black," said Mack.

"We want to be black our way," said Miz Smitcher. "Decent, regular, ordinary people. Not show black like those hippity-hop rippety-rappers and that girl on her bike."

Mrs. Tucker spoke into her coffee cup. "She's a little bit old to be calling her a girl."

"How do you know she isn't a decent, regular, ordinary person who happens to ride a motorcycle?" demanded Mack.

"And why do you think I didn't go to that meeting last night?" answered Miz Smitcher.

"Well if you're against what they doing, why are you arguing with me?"

"Because you judging and condemning people you don't even understand. What they doing to that girl, you doing to them. Everybody judging and nobody understanding."

"You were talking about property values," said Mack.

"I was explaining why somebody like that comes here, it makes us all feel like we getting invaded. Like the neighborhood maybe starting to turn trashy. Plenty of places for trashy people to