Bad Boy Brawly Brown (21 page)

poses.”

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“Come with me,” the Aryan dream ordered.

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“Hal,” Miss Pfennig said. It was just one word but there was a lot 2

behind it.

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Hal ignored her and repeated, “This way.”

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We walked in a straight line to a door about sixty-two degrees up 5

the circle from Pfennig’s desk. Hal knocked and then opened the 6

door without waiting for a reply. The room we entered had normal 7

lighting. It also had a mahogany desk and a thickset secretary. She 8

had long hair that would have looked better short and wore a pink 9

dress that should have been battleship gray. Her eyes were round but 10

still uninviting.

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“Yes, Sergeant Gellman?” If I were a young man and had heard 12

that deep and sensual voice on the phone, I would call back a few 13

times, hoping for a way in.

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“This man has a card he said he got from Detective Knorr. He’s 15

here looking for him,” Hal said.

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“And you brought him here?”

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Hal’s mouth opened as if he intended to speak, but there were no 18

words in the pipe.

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“You couldn’t even leave him at the front desk?”

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“He was being belligerent with Doris.”

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“Did you frisk him?”

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Again Hal Gellman searched for words that did not exist.

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Looking back and forth between those two, I began to have heart 24

that change was possible in my lifetime. My enemies were both blind 25

and small-minded, vain and unable to imagine me even though I 26

was standing right there in front of them.

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The nameless secretary pressed a button on a walnut box that sat 28

on her desk.

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A man’s voice said, “Yes, Mona?”

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“Ezekiel Porterhouse Rawlins came to the front door, and 31 R

Sergeant Gellman brought him here. What should I do?”

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Small-minded, maybe, but they did their homework.

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A silence followed Mona’s question. Hal stared at the wall above 2

her head.

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His glare and his situation reminded me of my father.

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My father disappeared forty-two days after my eighth birthday.

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He went out to work at a lumberjack camp and never returned. I 6

have very few memories of him, but what I do remember is cast in 7

bronze.

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He once told me that anything that happened to a man before he 9

was sixty was a good thing.

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“Not everything,” I said, testing my own childish knowledge 11

against his.

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“Yes,” he said, “everything.”

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“Uh-uh, not if you get your arm cut off.”

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“Even if you’re right-handed and you get your right arm cut off,”

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he said. “Even that will turn out to be a good thing if you’re a real 16

man.”

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“But how?”

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“Because a real man will know that he has to overcome anything 19

that gets in the way of him caring for his family. A real man will study 20

the arm he has left. He will build its strength, learn how to use tools 21

with it. He will make sure that he’s a better man with one arm than 22

other men are with two. And he’ll make it so, no matter how hard he 23

has to try. A real man can be beat only if you kill him. And with his 24

dyin’ breath he will try to overcome Death itself.”

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Standing there between those bickering police, I thought of my 26

father and of Raymond Alexander, who never feared Death or her 27

emissaries. Hal Gellman was being given a chance, though he prob-28

ably didn’t realize it. The deep-voiced Mona was helping him to see 29

something. His boss’s silence was telling him something.

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I saw no awareness in his angry glare, though. That was my lesson.

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The beech door behind Mona opened and a tall man, about my 2

age, walked into the room. He wore a cheap dark suit with a white 3

shirt and no tie. His shoulders were narrow and his gaze, behind the 4

round wire-rimmed glasses, was intense.

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“Rawlins?” he said.

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I nodded.

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He looked me up and down, decided by some unknown calcu-8

lations that I wasn’t a threat, and said, “Colonel Lakeland. Come 9

with me.”

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He turned and walked back through the buff doorway.

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As I followed I experienced a familiar feeling of elation. It’s a 12

reaction that black people often have when going into the slave 13

master’s quarters. In there, we imagine, is the place where freedom 14

resides. And if we get the chance, maybe we could pick up a little of 15

that most precious commodity when the man is otherwise occupied.

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I smiled at my silly delight.

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Mona mistook my smile as being for her. She sneered at me and 18

I was jarred back to reality.

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22
/ LAKELAND’S OFFICE CONSISTED
of a large 1

space with a broad desk dead center. There were a 2

dozen chairs or so at various attitudes around the room. A powerful 3

lamp hung maybe five feet above the desktop, illuminating the 4

counter-sized work area and leaving the rest of the office in a kind of 5

twilight. The room smelled heavily of cigarette smoke. That was 6

when I felt my first real twinge of withdrawal.

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I noticed that there were half a dozen or so diplomas in frames 8

hanging on the wall near the door. A bachelor of arts from UCLA, a 9

master’s degree from Caltech. I didn’t have time to make out the 10

other degrees but I was sure that Colonel Lakeland was the recipient 11

of each parchment.

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“Sit,” Lakeland said as he made his way to a plush swivel chair.

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I took a seat off to the left, not wanting to make it seem that I was S 14

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the subject of our discussion. I was just another one of the guys, sit-2

ting on the edge of the project.

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The nameplate before me read lt. l. lakeland. I just glanced at 4

it and he said, “I’m a colonel in the army. I was tapped by city hall 5

and Sacramento to run this operation.”

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“Intelligence?” I asked.

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I guess he heard the sarcasm in my question, and that’s why he 8

passed it over.

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“What are you doing here, Rawlins?”

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“I could ask you that same question, Colonel.”

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Lakeland’s face was also narrow. His lips seemed to belong on a 12

corpse, they were so leathery and thin. His grin was a disgusting show.

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“The Seventy-seventh Precinct captain thinks that you might be 14

our man,” he said.

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“Your man for what?”

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“Didn’t Knorr tell you?”

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“He said something about an insurrection. Sounded pretty crazy 18

to me.”

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“It’s not,” Lakeland assured me. “They’re stockpiling guns, shad-20

owing the police.”

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“With the police following them,” I added.

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“It’s our job to ensure the safety of the people, Rawlins. That’s 23

what they pay us for.”

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“What’s that got to do with me?”

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“Knorr offered you a job, did he not?”

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“I’m no rat, Lieutenant,” I said.

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“Colonel.”

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“I’m speaking to the cop wants me to be a stool for him.”

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Lakeland considered me. I presented a problem. I knew what he 30 S

was doing and where he was doing it from. But then again, I had 31 R

come into his lair, unafraid.

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“What do you want, Rawlins?”

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“Brawly Brown.”

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“Again?”

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“I got a friend named John. He’s got a close friend named Alva.

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Brawly is Alva’s son. He’s a bullheaded young man but not bad as far 5

as I’ve been told and as far as I could see. What I want is to pull him 6

out of any trouble he’s in with you and try to get him back home.”

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“What do I get in return?”

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“I don’t know.”

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Those dead lips grinned again.

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“Not a very good trade, now, is it?” he said.

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“As far as I’m concerned, Brawly and me are innocent by-12

standers,” I said. “Just two black men in the wrong place at the wrong 13

time. If I see something I think you need to know, I’ll tell you about 14

it. I won’t be a rat for you but if we have some interest in common, I 15

might let something drop in your lap.”

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“I need more convincing than that,” Lakeland said.

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“You won’t be gettin’ it from me, man. Listen, if I heard that 18

there’s going to be some ambush or bombin’, I’d tell you in a minute, 19

especially if innocent black people are about to get killed. All I’m 20

askin’ you for is Brawly.”

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Lakeland let his head loll to the side, to take me in from another 22

angle.

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“We could pay you. . . .”

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“You could . . . ,” I said, and then I experienced a moment of 25

dizziness. I was just then realizing how far I’d climbed into that lion’s 26

den. I had taken steps, one after the other, without any real regard to 27

my destination. I was speaking to a man who could have me killed, 28

a man who was my enemy and my people’s enemy. But there was 29

no turning away. “But I’m here for only one reason, to get Brawly S 30

home.”

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“And what do I have to do with that?”

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“I need some information.”

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“What kind of information?”

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“Addresses for Christina Montes and Jasper Bodan, president 5

and secretary of the Urban Revolutionary Party.” I waited for a reply 6

but none came. So I continued. “And some idea of what you have on 7

Brawly.”

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“I ask you again, Mr. Rawlins. What will you do for me?”

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“You’ve read my files, man. And you know how deep I can get 10

into a situation just seein’ me sit in front’a you. It wouldn’t hurt you 11

to have me worried about some conflagration. I mean, if the man you 12

got in there now isn’t doin’ the job so you need another source.”

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“What do you know about our informants?” He tried to sound 14

threatening but I could see the worry in those wormy lips.

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“Just a guess, man. Only way you could keep tabs on one black 16

man is through another one. That shit goes all the way back to the 17

plantation.”

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“All you want is Brawly Brown?” There was humor in Lakeland’s 19

question. “And you don’t want to be paid?”

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“That’s right.”

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“How can I be sure that you won’t use what I give you against us?”

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“You mean if I tell Tina where Xavier lives at?”

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“Have you ever heard of Vietnam, Mr. Rawlins?”

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“Yeah. That’s over in Asia, right? Where the French got their 25

butts kicked.”

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“There’s red-blooded American men over there right now fight-27

ing for your right to vote and pray and walk down the street without 28

being molested. Those men are black as well as white. I was with 29

them only six months ago. I don’t hate your people. I only hate the 30 S

enemies of democracy. These radicals, these black revolutionaries 31 R

are undermining the foundation of our democracy. I don’t care that
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they have a valid complaint. We all have problems. But regardless of 1

those problems, we cannot threaten the land that our children and 2

their children will inherit.

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“Brown is just a misguided pawn. He doesn’t know anything. He 4

follows whatever fool yells the loudest. People like this Xavier Bodan 5

and his girlfriend Tina Montes, they have a whole army of young 6

fools like him. If you can help us, we’ll help him.”