Harvey Porter Does Dallas Read Online Free PDF Page A

and Valencia, to see if she can shed any light.”
    â€œYour mother, Mrs. M.? Where does she live?”
    â€œCooperstown, New York.”
    â€œThat’s real far away.”
    â€œYes, but I could call her or communicate by e-mail. Why are you interested so much about this picture?”
    Harvey pointed to a little girl on the end of the front row. She might have been four or five. She was very dark-skinned. “Who’s this?” he asked.
    â€œTo be honest with you, I’m just not sure. I think Valencia might have said once she was the child of a second cousin by marriage. An older second cousin. I’m not sure if he ever knew us or not.”
    Harvey pointed to the girl again. “She looks like a nigger.”
    â€œNo, Harvey, I’m sure she’s not an African-American , but I have a vague memory of Valencia talking once about a distant cousin who married a Cherokee woman.”
    â€œYou mean like a half-breed?”
    â€œI don’t think we use terms like that any more,” said Wilberta primly, while wiping at the corners of her mouth for cookie crumbs that weren’t there.
    â€œAn injun and a white bread. That’s where this little girl came from?”
    â€œI think it would be more polite to say a Native American and a white man. But like I already told you, I’m not so sure. Let’s find out what my mother and Valencia can find out about her, okay?”
    Harvey was expelled from East High after one week. He couldn’t understand why. Sure, he’d gotten into a little tomfoolery like beating kids up after school, stealing their lunch money and such, but there wasn’t anything serious about any of it, so he couldn’t understand why they expelled him.
    Bobo was soo glad; now he wouldn’t have to look at Harvey anymore at school. Or hear him either.
    Bailey Mushrush practically went through the roof after he heard about it. He told his wife, “I tried to tell you this kid was no good. I tried to tell you it wasn’t safe having him in our home. Now do you believe me?”
    â€œIt’s a sad turn of events,” she admitted. “Maybe Harvey doesn’t fit in like other kids.”
    â€œHe’d fit in just fine at the juvenile lock-up.”
    â€œPrison?”
    â€œYeah, prison. That’s probably where he belongs. Doesn’t his violent behavior at school bother you? Just think of the violence he could perpetrate right here at home, on our own children.”
    â€œYes, it bothers me,” she confessed.
    â€œThen that’s final. Tomorrow I’m putting him out of the house and into some social service facility. Maybe they can lock him up or get him into juvenile detention.”
    â€œLet’s not act in haste,” said Wilberta.
    â€œHaste?! He’s been here three weeks, he’s broken all the house rules about smoking, and now he’s been expelled from a perfectly good high school for his violent behavior.”
    â€œLet’s sleep on it overnight,” said his wife.
    â€œYou can sleep on it. My mind is made up. And if you had a brain in that head of yours, your mind would be made up too.”
    â€œI’m just thinking we ought to check out other options,” said Mrs. Mushrush. “Let me do some looking around.”
    Mushrush rolled over in bed so his back was facing her. “Looking around,” he muttered.
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œOkay, here’s the way it’s going to be,” he said, still with his back turned. “You’ve got one day. If you can’t do your looking around tomorrow, then I’m booting him out of here. Understand?”
    â€œGo to sleep, Bailey.”

6. DEALEY PLAZA
    The next day, Wilberta Mushrush took the day off from the canning factory. She got lucky, right where she thought she would, at the Special Alternative School. Most people simply called it the SAS.
    It was the new alternative school, located in