Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
The news was on. He looked up at the screen. Information about liberalism versus conservatism, Congress and broken laws, being woke versus being asleep, police, protests, and a call for more or less elections dotted the screen, causing a canvas of visual vomit—a tapestry of blood-drenched divisiveness and political uproar, sewn tight with lies and delusions.
“Who’s pullin’ the puppet strings?” He heard her mutter as she approached him. Genesis sat back down next to him, crossed her legs, adjusted her white sweater that she wore over jeans, and picked up a small cup of water from the table, her eyes glued to the television. They both stared at it, listening to all the things that made many people’s blood boil. It was a distraction from the trauma. A distraction from the big dinosaur roaring in his ear.
“You know how I say random facts and shit that nobody cares about?” she asked with a twisted smile.
“Mmm hmm.” He lay back in his chair and crossed his arms, his attention on her as she turned back towards the television screen.
“All this mess the media is showin’ us. A bunch of bullshit to confuse us. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m right. Somethin’ ain’t right, though.” She shrugged, took a taste of her water then set the cup back down. “I used to not vote in elections. I didn’t see the point. But then, my neighbor convinced me to start voting, so I did.”
“How’d she convince you? I can’t see how that would’ve been easy.”
He heard her laugh. She crossed her legs and locked her hands over her knee. “It wasn’t easy. But, I was willing to listen. Told me it made a difference. Each vote counts. Like each second of the day counts. Each breath we all take counts. Each step we make, each heartbeat, all of it… It’s just one, but it makes up many.”
“I’ve always voted.”
“You’re military.”
“Yeah, I ’spose that plays a part in it.”
“My parents used to be angry with me about me not voting. They’d go over Black history ’nd and the ancestors did this, the ancestors did that. How they lost their lives to vote. None of that changed my mind because to me, Roman, my ancestors fought for the right for me to not participate in rigged contests, too.” She shrugged. “But Ms. Charlie came home one day, proud as she could be, with her little ‘I Voted’ sticker on her pink shirt. I was home, too. Just outside my door pickin’ up some broken pieces of glass that someone dropped. I think it was from a beer bottle. Anyway, she assumed I’d voted as she showed off her sticker to me, and she wanted to talk about the candidates. I told ’er I didn’t vote, and that each political party is the same—both sides lie. I braced myself to hear about the ancestors, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the usual rhetoric.
“Instead, she smiled at me and said, ‘Voting means you get to tell the truth.’ It’s another opportunity to tell folks, be it rigged or not, what you want, and what you do don’t want. It’s a warnin’ to others to let these government folks know what you’ll put up with, and what you won’t. Tells them what you expect. The election ain’t just about the end result. It’s about democracy. Freedom of choice. If you don’t pick a side, a side will be picked for you. It’s about Black folk, White folk, Asian folk, Indian folk, Muslim, Hindu and Christian folk, and everyone else, tellin’ the powers that be, who pretend to be God, that we serve a higher power. However, right here, in these human bodies we move in, we will be heard, Genesis. I was alive, a child here in Texas, when the schools were still segregated. When the water fountains had ‘Colored’ written on ’em.
“I know young folk can’t relate. But we all understand what it’s like to not be heard, disregarded, and unloved. If folks got to rig it, that means they already know the majority in the country see through their malarky. It means they’re afraid. Fear makes folks do wicked things… Like cheat. Lie. Steal. Kill. If we stop voting, it tells them they can tell us our opinions, too. It tells them that they can stop the truth from being told. Once you tell someone a lie, and then another, and another, until everything they believe in and hold dear is nothin’ but one big ass lie, Genesis, you own their mind. Own a mind? The heart and body will follow. We become puppets.’ I wanted to argue with her, Roman, and tell her that it didn’t make no sense. But then, I would’ve been lying, too.
“She went in her apartment as soon as I opened my mouth to try, in some respectful manner, to refute what she said. At least the parts that were still questionable. She returned with a big plate of fried fish, collard greens, cornbread, and yams. She made me take it. She said, ‘You see what I did there? I heard you, and I saw you getting defensive before I walked away. You don’t believe what I believe, but I still think of you as a lovely girl, and I want to show you kindness. You’re not my enemy. No matter what others may want, you and I will NOT be divided. I want to feed your mind and your body, ’cause this life is short. I ain’t gonna waste my time arguing with a woman half my age, who ain’t seen even a fourth of what I’ve seen in life. As my mama used to say, ‘When you’re right, you ain’t got to argue.’ You’re smart as a whip, girl, but you don’t know no better. But when YOU DO KNOW BETTER, Genesis, you must DO BETTER. One day, you’ll know better, and then, you’ll vote. Eat your food. It’s getting’ cold.’