Page 10 - Contrast1992Spring

bar trying to avoid the beer cans and empty stares that littered the room. Victor
watched as they stepped to the bar beside him. Their skin looked to be as dark as
his. "Too much sun," he said to Tony, who nodded his head and held his lighter to
another ball of sage.

"Wa-da-ya want fellas," he dropped the ball into the tray.
"Three bucks, all we can handle," one said, quoting the illuminated "Spe-
cial" sign out front. "We didn't know if that was more or less than 'All you can
drink' but figured it was a cool deal, anyways." The two boys laughed.
The other pushed his cigarette into the tray of sage. "Shit stinks." he
mumbled.
Victor came down from his chair for the first time that day and stood before
the boys. His fist gripped the bar firmly as he steadied his swimming head and
tried to focus on the lettering blurred across the boys chest. "W.M.C." something
it read.
"So, are you Babb?" the first said jokingly as Victor's fist sent his face into
the bar knocking the smoldering sage to the floor. Thump.
Victor pulled himself erect and began the speech his father never finished.
"You don't know my people," he yelled, voice trembling. "And you'd be sick if
you did." A tear fell from his cheek and dissolved into the pool of beer at his feet.
An old man in the comer spouted "Fuckin' Siyeh," and everyone laughed at
the boys as Victor ran, carrying a pain the bar could no longer feel.
Ben turned to the kid, "His father hit white men, too."
"That didn't last long." Tony added.

KA. Geremia

If)