Strong Island Page #4

---

I looked pretty, you know?

He's like, "Now look at yourself."

And he's like, "You're pretty."

And I'm like, "No, I'm not."

And he's like, "Yes, yes, you are."

That's just something I never forgot.

My parents wanted

to raise remarkable kids.

Our blackness, and what it meant

to be black in America,

and how to survive being

black in America,

and the resilience that needed

to be black in America,

as well as the pride,

was something that

our parents

instilled in us

extraordinarily well.

But it didn't occur to them

that there were other things

that their kids might struggle with.

William's room had been directly

across the hall from my parents.

He quickly...

OK, what I remember...

There are five steps

from the main level of the house

down into the basement.

By that summer,

William had moved to the basement.

I would sneak into William's room

and I'd read his magazines, and...

You know, I read a lot of Playboy...

that summer!

I read a lot of Forum magazine

that summer.

And...

that was something that I...

felt, really...

both...

excited by, and ashamed of.

Because I knew I was queer,

and there was no one

to talk about it with.

Happy birthday,

dear Yance!

Happy birthday to you!

I never asked...

I never asked my parents questions.

You know, we had health

class in school,

so I learned about sex

and childbirth...

from Catholic nuns.

Instead of going to math class,

I went to the library and found...

you know, Rita Mae Brown books,

and even though they were corny,

I read those.

That's how I learned that there were

other gay people in the world.

I never told William

that I was queer,

and I wish I had.

That's right, the basement room

was my brother's last room,

and he was living at home,

when he was killed.

I think it was a weekend,

because William and Lesline

had taken me bowling.

It was a fun night.

I bowled a 96.

On the way back,

I was sitting behind William.

Lesline was driving.

We were going to take the shortcut

onto Brightside, and as we were turning,

I saw this tow truck

that didn't have any lights on,

and before I could say, "Look out,"

bam, we were in a car accident.

William helped

me out of the car.

He asked me if I was OK.

I said yes,

and then he walked me

over to the tree stump,

sat me down, said, "Stay here."

The tow truck belonged

to some kind of body shop,

and they said that

if they didn't file a police report,

that they would fix Lesline's car.

All I knew was that it was

being fixed by the guys who hit it.

Once I found out

where the car was at,

I said to Ford that,

"I don't think the place

is legit. I

don't think it is what

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes