Rocket To The Moon

   Outside of Lincoln's, Josh complained, "Damn it to hell, it didn't save me nothing to finger these grenades. Those pills set me back a deuce."
   He led us to the bush by the Chinese laundry where he'd hidden the two casings.
   "Quick! Put the metal into our shopping bag, Josh." I worried that snoopy neighbors might see us. "We don't want anyone examining our haul. Let them think we have cake and cookies." The idea brought a smile to our faces.
   We crossed the A & P lot, then down Carmella Avenue. My street. I hoped that no one stop us here with idle chatter. I didn't want anymore people tagging along. Josh was more than enough.
   "Aa..iiii.iiii!" A Tarzan yell pierced the neighborhood.
   "What the hell?" Josh and Luke both said.
   "It's that damn Mickie kid." I pointed across Carmella Avenue. "Look at the top of the big yard's house's tree."
   They both followed the direction of my arm to our neighborhood, Tarzan. Mickie, a small nine-year-old boy

 

swayed with the thin branches in the April breeze.
   "What a view that boy up there has." I admired the daring-do it required to climb up limbs thinner than your own. Perched forty feet above the ground, he could see across the rooftops to other streets.
   No longer did the rows and columns of group homes stop in his world in all directions.
   "And the view down here is black and dirty."
   I turned from my upward gaze to look at Josh. Never before had I know him to utter a philosophic sentiment.
   "Look at those damn niggers!" Josh gestured with a tilt of his nose towards two black youths. "What are they doing on your street, Chet?"
   "Walking to the store." I said. "Everybody's got a right to do that, don't they? They aren't bothering anyone."
   "They're bothering me." Josh grunted. "What do you think, Luke?"
   "I'd offer them a trade, Josh. They don't walk down my street and I won't walk down their road."
   "Some trade, Luke." I shook my head. I knew no meeting of the minds was possible on this. Luke and I sometimes