"wishing on a star"
rose royce
1 of 20
Summer heat licks his shoulders tan and comes up in sweltering waves from pavement pounded by hand me down pivoting sneakers. The day is July 4th and the street is alive with celebration. The scent of cooking food wafts around the makeshift basketball court - grilled chicken, sizzling hot links, corn roasting - and the adults have relaxed fully from a long work week. Off of rhythm to the sound of dribbling basketball the sharp crack of dominoes slapped on card table punctuates the air every so often. And sometimes louder than hard shuffled pieces the men have loud, spirited discussions about everything from Blockbuster hits to star athletes in the NFL.
Every 4th of July is similar to this one. Long afternoons set crackling with the anticipation of fireworks to come. The taste of numb your lips chips of ice dripping with strawberry or blue berry or piña colada syrup lingering on his mouth like a sin. Between games of three-on-three, he, Frankie and Saul run next door, to Saul's house, to assist the tallest boy's father in the nearly communal backyard. They do so not simply out of the kindness of their hearts but because Wes is generous in allowing them to sample the product. Perfectly seasoned chicken or kebabs fresh off the grill. Besides, this is where all of the music is.
From just inside the house, a secondhand stereo boasts upbeat seventies funk and Motown and . Throaty crooners speak to their listeners like longtime lovers. All three of them are far too young to sing Betty Wright's transition from girl to woman. They shouldn't even know what's really going on when Marvin talks about getting it on. But they exchange knowing glances and shit-eating grins whenever Wes pipes up with "Now what do you boys know about this?" Usually with tongs or two-pronged fork or grill brush in hand. They memorize all the words they should be too naive to comprehend. And later, following the neighborhood progression across beaten new cracks into the street, they'll be too excited about the show to come to remember what they're not supposed to know. They'll belt Johnny Gill and all the rest into the darkening sky and laugh until their guts ache at the resulting looks.
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