Where the Line Bleeds Read Online Free PDF Page A

down the
length of the floor. The more punctual family members claimed choice
seats in the metal rows while the less punctual consigned themselves to
the bleachers. While Uncle Paul led Ma-mee by the elbow to her seat next
to Aunt Rita and the rest of the extended family at the front of the gym
near the long dais that served as the stage, Joshua and Christophe skirted
the crowd and found their way to the rows of graduating students. The
graduating class had nearly two hundred students, but still, they filled only
around ten rows: St. Catherine High was a small high school, even with all the students from the town of St. Catherine and its country neighbor,
Bois Sauvage. About half the students were white, half were black, and
there was a smattering of Vietnamese. While most of the Vietnamese kids'
parents had immigrated to the area after the Vietnam War to work in the
shrimping and fishing industries, most of the black and white families
had been living in the two towns since their foundings, and some of them
even shared last names with each other, which was the result of littleacknowledged intermarriage. Their seating in the gym belied their social
interactions: the two groups lived mostly segregated lives.

    Joshua peered into the crowd and saw Laila; he waved. She had eyes
that turned to slits when she laughed, a curvy waist, and lips he thought
about kissing every time he saw her, but he'd never told her that. He and
Christophe had lost their virginity to two sisters from St. Catherine when
they were fifteen. Dunny had taken them along when he'd gone to their
house to visit the oldest sister. While Dunny disappeared in the bedroom
with his girl, Christophe and Joshua had sat sweating on the sofa. Lisa, the
middle sister, had just walked over and sat on Christophe's lap and flirted
with him. She laughed at his jokes. Within minutes, they'd disappeared
down the hallway. Nina, the youngest, had sat next to Joshua and told
him she had seen him around school-and did he think she was cute for
a ninth grader? When he'd told her yes, she'd kissed him. The next thing
he knew, she was partly naked and on top of him and the remote control
was digging into his back and the TV went black and he didn't care.
    Afterwards, Christophe had laughed when Dunny asked him about
it, but Joshua had been quiet in the backseat. Since then, every time he
had sex seemed a lucky accident, while Christophe grew more and more
confident. He had just broken up with his latest girlfriend, he said, for
being too clingy. Christophe tugged him toward their seats. Joshua and
Christophe found their assigned chairs in the "D" row; Christy Desiree
sat on their right, and Fabian Daniels on their left. Christy was busy
pulling at her blond hair and reapplying lip-gloss. Fabian curved into his
seat with his arms crossed over his chest: he looked as if he were sinking.
Joshua ignored Christy and perched at the edge of his chair, scanning the
program.
    "So what y'all going to be doing after this?"

    Christophe turned to Fabian and adjusted his robe where it had
bunched beneath his legs. He could hardly move. He knew it was going
to be wrinkled when he walked across the stage, but he didn't want it to
be too wrinkled. He knew Aunt Rita would talk.
    "Look for a job, I guess. You don't know anybody trying to get rid of
a old car for cheap, do you?"
    "Naw." Fabian pushed his cap up and back on his head since it had
begun to slip down over his dark, broad forehead. "If I hear something,
I'll let you know. I probably won't hear nothing before I leave-I'm going
offshore. My uncle already got my application in. I start in two weeks."
    "I couldn't be out there on that water all the time, cooped up. I'd
go crazy." Christophe shifted his robe again, resettling it flatly beneath
him. "Who knows, though. They make good money. Maybe when I get
older, I'd go offshore for that kind of money." The only way he could
ever consider leaving