2003-10-27 - 4:22 p.m.
"Why no officer, everything is all right. Why do you think there could be a problem?" She looked at him with big brown eyes as she stood in the drizzling rain. She knew the answer before the police officer said it."Well it's just you don't usually see someone like yourself with people like... him." He spat the last word out as if the simple pronoun itself was degrading to speak. She smiled on the outside, not on the in, when she replied "Yes yes, it's quite all right, I understand, thank you for being concerned."
As the police car drove away and they continued walking, the boy looking downcast and very sullen as the rain ran down his face.
"Aw what's the matter baby?"
He looked up and saw the faint traces of a smirk on her face, then replied "I don't see what's so bad about me being seen with you. I mean, it's just skin color."
"Don't worry about it, someday they'll learn."
"I want to make them learn now."
"You can't change the mind of everybody in the world in a day babe, just don't let it faze you."
At home his thirteen year old sister was asking their father the same thing. She sat complaining on the couch, describing the taunts she recieved during the day. She sputtered through the list, ignoring the calming words her dad tried using on her. "We're all the same on the inside, right? Aren't we daddy? Aren't we?"
"Yes honey, and that's all that matters.
"So why? That's all I'm asking. Why? I mean seriously.. just because we're white!"