Birth of a Dark Nation Read Online Free PDF Page A

know…as a
team?"
    "Not really," Ernie responded. "It's totally
a political process. They already know who they want to give the
grants to from the outset. We just have to keep trying."
    Cissy tried her hardest not to roll her eyes
at Ernie. We knew he was feeding us bullshit.
    The meeting continued much like a Charlie
Brown special, with echoes of French horns standing in for the
voices of my coworkers. The program staff was ignorant to the major
issues. Except for Steve, they wasted time in meetings telling
stories about clients rather than focusing on the hard data and
contributing ideas toward a long-range plan. Luckily, it was Friday
again, and I'd be home soon enough.
    Around 4:30 p.m., Ernie had left for the day,
and the rest of my coworkers slowly tiptoed out. Before I knew it,
I was in the building alone. I turned out the light in the attic
and walked down the steep stairs to the second floor. I went to
each small room, closed the blinds, and turned the lights out. As I
did the same for Ernie's office, I mused that his desk was too
junky to ever find anything incriminating on it.
    I locked the door to the second floor and
continued down to the main level. Somebody-probably Steve-had
already locked the big brown door to the reception area, leaving me
to just turn on the security system and lock the front door of the
building as I left.
    As I did that, I felt a light tap against my
back, then a second. I turned around and saw Dante down the
sidewalk, lightly throwing small pebbles at me. One hit me in the
chest.
    "Nigga, what are you doing?" I asked,
brushing away the dust that the pebble had left on my red polo
shirt.
    "Nothin', man. Just messin' with you."
    "Don't you have some movies to sell?" I asked
him as I walked off our porch and onto the sidewalk.
    "Always man," he said, giving me dap. "But I
just wanted to come by and see the homie. See what's good with
you."
    "I'm okay. Ready to get out of here." I
started walking in the direction of my car.
    "You got some place to be?" he asked me.
    "Just home. Gonna order some food and chill
out."
    "It's just you? No kids?"
    "Nigga, you know I'm gay."
    "Yeah, I know. That don't mean you ain't got
a family."
    "Well, I don't. It's just me."
    "Oh, okay," he said. He stopped walking. I
paused along with him.
    "What's up?" I asked.
    "If all you gonna do is go home…I mean…you
ain't gotta go home to kick it."
    "Where else I'ma go?"
    "You wanna come to my crib?"
    "Your place? I don't know about that,
man."
    "Come on, I'm just across the street and up
the block."
    "I don't know, Dante. Like tonight? Like
right now?"
    "Yeah, right now. Come on." He started
walking back up the street.
    I followed him and stopped at the corner.
    "Dante, maybe we can hang out another day.
I'm really tired and—"
    "Will you stop trippin' and come on across
the street? All we're going to do is order some food and kick it.
You act like I'ma rape and murder you or something. Shit, I'm
hungry too, nigga. Damn."
    "Well…okay," I said. Spending an hour or two
at his place wouldn't be the worst way to spend my Friday evening.
And I'd only be a block from my car if I needed to make a quick
getaway. Not that I would need to.
    I caught up to him at the corner across the
street. As we walked up Thayer Street, we passed a few kids
skateboarding down the street. Where I grew up, skateboarding was
for angry white kids. On the avenue, it was just another way for
black boys to get around.
    The houses on Thayer Street were all designed
slightly differently. Though most were square and compact with
small front yards, some had vinyl siding and others had brick
facades. While some had fully enclosed porches that were filled to
the brim with junk, others had no porch to speak of.
    Dante's house was near the corner. There was
no actual house on the corner-it was a vacant lot. Because I could
see the front and the side of Dante's house, I could tell that it
was much larger than I originally thought it would be. It was