• Playing Soldier


    It was a boiling hot day like everyday in Birmingham, Alabama, as the white children played in the clean city parks, a group of four black children met at the local junkyard.
    "Line up Soldiers!" commanded the eldest of the little junkyard group.
    "Yes, Sir!" shouted the younger boys. They formed a straight line as if they were truly in the Army.
    "Sound off men!" The commander held a broken piece of wood in his dark black skin.
    "Dan!"
    "Gregory!"
    "Clay!" one by one the boys stepped forward and announced their presents.
    "All are accounted for, Commander Maurice!" said Clay in his meek voice
    "Then let us begin!" Maurice turned to face the high sun. "Today's challenge is to climb Mount Junk!"
    The younger boys admired their commander, his great courage and strength made any large task seem like a meaningless piece of dust. Until the enemy attacked.
    The group of boys spotted his white skin a mile away in mass of dirt & rubbish.
    "A spy!" alerted Gregory, running towards the intruder
    "Go get him!" Maurice gave a fearsome yell of war as his men charged after this little white boy.
    The invader was brought back squirming like a worm as they dragged him to Maurice.
    "Why has thou come to this battlefield!" boomed Maurice the way his pastor does every Sunday.
    "I just." stuttered the white boy "I just wanted to play soldier with you!"
    "Play soldier with US!?" laughed Dan "White people always look down on us, now one wants to play with us!" He cackled, as his newspaper hat fell over his eyes.
    As Clay and Dan continued to harass the boy, Gregory noticed Maurice's large brown eyes brimmed with tears.
    "Men!" Maurice's voice cracked "Leave the maggot be! We have a mountain to conquer!"
    Immediately the boys left to follow their commanders order. The white boy sunk behind an old rusty garbage can, watching Maurice as he was the first to reach the top of Mount Junk.
    The burning hot sun sank beneath the brick buildings when Maurice announced to the soldiers the day was done.
    Together, the three younger boys left laughing and teasing each other.
    Maurice waited until he could no longer hear their obnoxious joking. he went around to the garbage can and saw that the white boy had fallen asleep amongst the debris. Maurice shook him awake & motioned him to follow him. The boy introduced himself as Johnny but Maurice kept walking. Maurice took Johnny through confusing turns & twists through the darker side of town. Finally the cam to a dead end.
    Johnny sighed and sat on the filthy street. Maurice looked stiff and ridged, his body twitched. Without a word Maurice shoved Johnny into a garbage can.
    In the darkness Johnny herd shouts & accusations. in a few moments the lid of the can was opened-but not by Maurice. Clay gave a helping hand to Johnny, along with an apology. In fact everyone from Maurice's group where there and all of them gave an apology.
    Johny never understood what happened in that alley way. Maurice stood up for him & that's all he wanted to know.
    In the years that followed the boys met every year in that same junkyard & remembered the times they've had together.
    As Johny turned 50 he lost contact with all of his junkyard friends, except one. He stood with flowers in hand in front of a tombstone. He read and re-read the epitaph it said:
    "You're always our commander."