Lewis Abrey Maynard
Normal
Normal
All that’s in Selma is the tobacco farms and Main Street. Paper-pads don’t come cheap apparently, and every time I get mad in class and tear one up, my teacher tears me up. Last time, my act of rebellion got me five rounds of pops on the hands. It ain’t my fault we’re a poor school. Daddy says everybody’s poor right now. Someone crashed into some stocking market and now everybody has no money. That’s why I’m glad we don’t have a car. We just own two mules that pull our buggy, Kate and Nell. I feel sorry for the family that made those stockings though.
That crash didn’t really hurt us though. It ain’t a problem to lose money when you didn’t have none to begin with anyway. My daddy and us is tenant farmers. That’s pretty normal around here. We don’t got a farm ourselves or nothin’, but we work on one and get to keep what we earn. Daddy and momma help grow and harvest tobacco. I get to walk around with them and slap the bag. This bag has dust in it that daddy says kills the bugs that eat at the crops. The dust might kills bugs, but for me it just makes my nose tickle and my skin itch.
I think we must do a pretty good job. We always make enough that daddy takes me to town with him sometimes and gives me a dime to spend as I please. I always do the same thing with that dime. There are two different places to get ice cream in Selma. One at each of the medicine stores. One has really good vanilla, and the other has really good chocolate. So I go to each one and spend five cents for one vanilla cone and five cents for one chocolate cone. Everything in Selma has been normal my whole life. I’ve been doin’ things pretty much the same as long as I can remember and there ain’t never been nothin’ to worry about around here. The only thing that’s ever changed happened the last time we went to town.
When me and daddy got to town I thought everything was the same as it always was. We pulled our buggy up to the side of the street and I jumped off and patted Nell on the side of her belly. Then I held my hand out and waited for my dime.
“Not today Emma Lucille,” Daddy said.
“Why not?” I said.
“We can’t be spending money on ice cream right now,” Daddy said. “I’ve got some people I need to talk to today. You wait here and I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Then daddy left me alone. I hopped back up in the buggy and waited for him. I didn’t know why he left me alone, or why I couldn’t have my ice cream. I started to look around and all the older folks looked as serious as daddy was. Nobody was laughin’ or playin’ or nothin’. Then I saw a man walk past with the newspaper. On it in big, black letters were the words “Japs Bomb Hawaii.” I didn’t know what a Hawaii was or what a Jap was. But I knew it must be somethin’ bad if everyone was being so weird.
That night Daddy said we were gonna walk over to our cousins’ house. We only ever went there this late to listen to the radio. President Roosevelt did these things called fireside chats. Every now and then we’d go over and listen so we could hear what was new in America from the top man himself. This night was different though. Usually gettin’ to listen to the President was fun. Ain’t nobody I know in Selma ever seen a President in real life, so to hear him speakin’ to us was a lucky thing. But that night daddy was still being very serious. He grabbed his lantern and we followed him out the door. The road to their house was long and it was too dark for the mules so we couldn’t take the buggy. I stayed close to daddy, almost huggin’ him on the leg. I’ve done this walk with him a bunch of times. Even sometimes in the dark. But tonight I knew somethin’ was different. Everything outside the reach of daddy’s light was scary and foreign to me. All I wanted was everything to be normal again and to go back to town and see everybody actin’ like they’re supposed to be actin’ again.
“Daddy,” I said. “What’s gonna be on the radio tonight?”
“Folks in town said the President has something important to say tonight,” Daddy said. “I want the whole family together to hear it.”
When we got to the house more than just our cousins were waitin’ for us. There was most every person I knew we were related to in Selma there. Some people there I didn’t even know. The adults all went out on the porch and started talking together, leaving the kids inside in the living room by the radio. We were supposed to call them when the radio-man started talking. My siblings, cousins, and I just sat there quiet so we didn’t miss the radio-man talking to tell us it was time. When we heard the voice sayin’ the President was gonna speak soon we called the adults over. There we all sat. Everybody huddled around the radio waiting for the President to make everything normal again. Then he started talking.
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan,” the President said.
He continued on to saying some stuff I didn’t understand, but I wasn’t really hearing him. I was watching the adults. Everybody looked worried. Some were mad. Daddy just stared at the radio. He wasn’t mad. He wasn’t sad. He wasn’t anything. He wasn’t normal. I focused back on the radio.
The President continued, “Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night Japanese forces attacked Wake Island. And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.”
I don’t know any of these places either. But I bet they were all mad at the Japs too. At the end the President said we were at war with Japan. There was a war when daddy was younger. Daddy has told me about it before. Then there was a war here long before I was born. Daddy says we had all kinds of family in that one. Some of them died in it too. I hope we don’t have any in this one. I hope it’s not a normal war.
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We are just starting to have fun when our teacher comes outside with that stupid handbell of hers, ringin’ it and telling us it’s time to come in from our break. All I want is to stay out here climbin’ trees til I say our break is over. Angie starts runnin’ off so I grab her by the back of her overalls and she hits the ground with a thud.
“Ouch!” Angie says. “Emma Lucille what’d you do that for? That really hurt!”
“I ain’t ready to go back inside yet,” I say. “If that old lady wants to teach us so bad she can come get us herself, instead of ringin’ away on that handbell.”
“Emma Lucille we gon get in trouble,” Angie says. “I don’t feel like getting in trouble just cause you don’t know nothin’ and don’t feel like learnin’ no different.”
She runs to the line with the other kids leavin’ me at my tree by myself. I do to know stuff. Just cause I don’t like that old lady, don’t mean I don’t know stuff. I run to the line too. I’ll show her I know stuff. I get back in line just in time to hear Angie betraying me.
“Teacher! Teacher!” Angie’s screamin’. “Emma Lucille called you an old lady. And said that your handbell’s stupid.”
“You ain’t nothin’ but a liar Angie!” I say as I grab a handful of her hair.
“Emma Lucille you let that girl go and get inside right now,” Old Lady says.
I let go off Angie’s hair with a shove and walk inside, thinkin’ all kinds of things to myself that would surely get me in more trouble if said out loud.
We get inside and I run to my desk. I think maybe if I act all nice now she won’t have to go and get that ruler of her’s. I pull out my pad-paper and act like I’m writin’ somethin’ important in it. Teacher walks in and stares right at me.
“Emma Lucille get up here,” Old Lady says.
I know what’s comin’ now. I walk to the front with all the other kids lookin’ at me like I was caught stealin’ from church or somethin’. Teacher grabs that wooden ruler of hers and taps it on her desk with two louds pops.
“Hold out your hands,” Old Lady says.
She brings the ruler down on the back of my hand. I wince at the pain. She does it to the other hand. I wince again. She repeats herself two more times. My hands are red and stingin’ like I stuck them in an ant pile.
“Now go get your paper-pad,” Old Lady says. “You’re sitting up in front for the rest of class.”
I return to my desk, hands still stingin’, and grab my paper-pad. I didn’t deserve to get popped like that. I sure don’t deserve to have to sit up front and get snickered at for the rest of class either. I walk back to the front of class, pass the front row of desks, and walk right up to the trashcan. Teacher looks right at me. She knows good well what I’m about to do. I glare right back at her as I tear up the paper and throw the whole pad in the trash. I can’t have my ice cream, daddy ain’t acting normal, and we’re at war with the Japs. Well I’m still me, and this is me acting normal.