CATERINO TAKES ON LIFE

The south is a warmer climate but not to dry this time of year. His eyes almost shut; Harry hears a car pull over to the curb in front of his home. Harry watches as an older black man steps out of the car, and opens the hood. “Damn, overheating.” The man walks up to Harry’s porch and asks to use his water hose. Harry seems to ignore the man in the expensive looking blue suit.

“Did you hear me; I asked to use your hose, please. My car, it’s overheating and…”

“I heard you boy,” Harry says, aloud. “My hose is broken, not my hearing nigger.” Harry whispers under his breath.

“Please Mr. I don’t want any trouble, I only need some water, and I will be on my way.”

“I guess you’re the one with the hearing problem nigger, now get. Thats the trouble with the nigger today, they just don’t listen.”

The tired old black man stood and waited a second, he started to turn and walk away but something made him turn and face Harry again.

“Listen, Mr. This is your house, and you can give me the water I need to get out of this place or not, but you have no right. I let it pass when you called me boy, I guess that’s the way around these parts, but you have no right to call me nigger, no right at all.”

“Oh, that’s right, you people can call yourselves niggers all you want but when I do it, that’s a bad thing. Oh get out of here and take that junk heap with you. Nothing but loud mouths that’s all you are. Not even one single damn sign of respect out of your God damned nigger mouth, but I didn’t expect anything else.”

“Oh, no you don’t. Respect is a two way street Mr. We call ourselves nigger to remind us how stupid that word really is. We know if we say it often enough it will lose its evil tones and meanings. Yes, we use the word nigger to remind us that we still have a ways to go, and for what? We were brought here against our will; we were taken as slaves to do all your dirty work Yes I call my brother nigger for a different reason then you call me that word. You use it to degrade me, because you hate me and you don’t even know me. If people like you would take the time to get to know someone before they hate them, oh man, why do I even bother. Listen, I am a man just as you are a man. No, you can’t call me nigger, you haven’t earned that right, and you will never earn that right until you walked a mile in my shoes. No mister, you keep your precious water, I will manage without the likes of you. nigger, No sir, you just aint got the right. I am not ignorant, just a man in this world just as you.”

“You people just like to cause trouble. You come here into my neighborhood asking me for things? Go burn down your towns, you people love to do that. Animals, just animals, that’s all you are. You turn perfectly good neighborhoods into slums, making babies all over the place, damn, you people.”

“You call me animal, and yet I have to laugh. I went to school, and worked a job. My mamma, God rest her blessed soul, worked two jobs so I can get an education. I made something out of my life.”

“Sure you did, you are a hate monger, a militant, a trouble maker, just like the rest of you animals. Respect, niggers don’t deserve any damn respect.”

“No sir, I am a Doctor, at a big city hospital. I make more money in a year then you will ever see in your lifetime, three of your lifetimes. I cure people, all people, of all walks of life. I don’t turn any man away because his skin is different then my skin. We all bleed the same. Those slums as you put it, were built by people like you to keep us all in one place, to beat us down, keep us down. Yes some of us burn out of frustration, anger, because we deserve a better life and we try, oh we try but we are always beaten down, and when we try to get out, we are beaten down some more. I was one of the lucky few who managed to get out of your rat holes. No sir, you keep your water, and your life. People like you are a dying breed and that’s a plus for this world. I can’t stand the sight of you. My car is cooled down enough, I’ll be going now, and trust me, a pleasure this was not. I’ll get water someplace else.”

The man turns and walks away. He reaches for the door handle of his car. Harry picks up his rifle, and starts down his steps. Aiming his rifle, he pulls the trigger. Just as the shot rings out Harry turns his ankle in a rabbit hole and falls to the ground. Harry’s gun is lying on the ground next to him. He lifts his head and watches as the man fumbles with the door handle then falls to the ground. Harry crawls over to the man, and places his wallet in the mans hand and tossed his watch and some money around the lifeless body. A neighbor walks out on his porch and says, “Harry, are you ok?” Harry replies, “Yep, some nigger tried to rob me, I guess he didn’t know who he was dealing with. It took these old bones all I had to fight him off. That nigger never knew what hit him. The filthy animal.”

The man lying in a pool of his own blood opens his eyes and with his last breath says, “I knew, I knew exactly who I was dealing with.” He closes his eyes drawing his last breath. Harry’s neighbor calls the sheriff, and he sends a car. The car pulls up and asks Harry for a statement. Harry tells the deputy a bunch of lies. The police called for the coroner, and that incident was done. Harry kept ranting racist remarks and his temper was getting out of control. He was screaming so the whole neighborhood could hear him.