Blackanese Dream
³Nicholas ³Cordarious ³Peter
³Quintavious
³
³Joell ³Jon ³Rashad
³Darnell
³Denis
³Rashad
II ³
This story is the
creation of ten young men from the
These talented
children came up with the entire story line and content and because they did
not have access to a computer, I wrote it with their consent and editorial
input.
He lay in bed panting, almost too afraid to open his eyes. His heart raced, his body heated, his muscles
tightened and his skin was so hot-to-the-touch that it swelled and released big
drops of sweat as large as, and as quickly as, water being released from the
kitchen faucet. Awake, but not willing
to open his eyes, five-year-old Renee Juntal Lee turned on his side and pulled
the string that lit the lamp on the wooden crested chest next to his bed.
“Father, where are you?” he
whispered as he clenched the sheet and pulled it over his head. “Father, father, where are you?” he
cried. His body was shaking and he had
succumbed to a dismal and dark feeling that made him believe his father had
been killed as he had just seen in his dream.
Within seconds Renee Juntal was wailing so loud that his mother, Myiachal
Lee, was jarred from her sleep. She
jumped to her feet and ran to his room.
“Renee Juntal, you are dreaming again.
You must not make so much noise when you dream. There is no barrier for
the noise you make. The walls are too
thin and the other families have complained.
We will not be allowed to stay because you disturb their families when
you cry so loud in your sleep.”
“Mother, where is father? I just
saw father get killed!”
“You are dreaming again. Your
father is at work. Don’t worry.”
A tall, long, dark shadow approached the doorway to Renee Juntal’s
room. The shadow gave way to a large,
strong-built man of African American decent, Perezalau Desoto Lee. Renee opened his mouth to say speak but he
could not utter a sound for a few minutes.
His tears were stuck in his throat and his fears began to melt. His mother turned to see the man and then
bowed her head to acknowledge her husband.
“You see, Renee Juntal, your father stands at the door. He is alive and well. Now, will you go back to sleep?”
Renee Juntal took a deep breath, jumped out of the bed and ran into his
father’s arms. His father had a grim
look on his face. His eyes were stern and the lines over his forehead where
drawn and deep. His thin mustache turned
up as he pursed his lips to deliver a harsh scolding. But, by the time Renee Juntal reached his
father, the firm grimace melted into a warm, loving, comforting look of
understanding.
“Renee Juntal. This is not an
April’s Fool joke is it?” He asked in a voice so deep that had Barry White been
there, he would have had to look in the mirror to make sure the words were not
coming out of his mouth.
“No father. I thought you were
dead and I was afraid for you.”
“Not that same dream again. What
on earth would make you dream that I was dead, son? By now you know it is only a dream. Why are you so worried?”
“The man on your job. He wore a
purple and white badge on the sleeve of his suit. He was jealous of you and he turned everyone
against you…”
Before Renee Juntal could say another word his father interrupted
him. “Son, look at me. I am a big man…bigger and stronger than
anyone on the job. Nobody there can hurt
me. I won’t let them. I intend to teach you how to drive when you
turn 16 so I’ll be around for at least another 10 years.”
“You promise.”
“I don’t make promises, but I do make guarantees.” A serious look was in
his eyes when he continued, “I guarantee that I will teach you how to drive
when you turn 16. Now, give me a kiss
and get out of my arms you little scoundrel.”
Renee Juntal wiped the tears from his eyes, kissed his father and
tightened the grip on his neck. His
little heart was beating so fast and hard that it caused his father some
concern. His father walked over to the
bed and bent down to let him jump onto the bed.
His closed- mouth smile opened up to a broad, all-teeth-showing, smile
as he scooted to the top of the bed and pulled the sheet over him. His father greeted his broad smile with an
even broader smile and then he backed out of the room. His eyes were no longer compassionate; they
had a look of concern in them. He was
not worried about Renee Juntal’s seemingly irregular heartbeat. He has the image of the purple badge before
him.
“I will be in shortly, I want to tuck Renee Juntal in for the night,”
said Renee Juntal’s mother. She turned
to Renee Juntal and whisked her finger across his eyebrow. “I love you, and I love your father, Renee
Juntal. Nothing will happen to your
father. We are no longer in danger. We are in the
Renee Juntal sat up on one elbow and looked deep into his mother’s
eyes. “Mother, tell me about
grandfather. Why did he force us to
leave
“Okay, but I must speak to you in our native language of Mandarin
Chinese. Some of what I must say would
be insulting to your father but it is important for you to know who you
are…that way you know who your enemies are.”
Myiachal Lee sat at the edge of Renee Juntal’s bed for an hour. With tears in her eyes and a pain that grew
deeper with each word she spoke, she told him about being a descendant to an
emperor whose tyranny spread throughout the
Renee Juntal was falling asleep.
His eyes were partially opened when he saw his mother’s beautiful face
lean in close to his. His eyes closed
just as she kissed him goodnight.
Renee Juntal’s father worked a split shift and had to return to work
later that night. It was early in the
morning when the phone rang. It didn’t wake Renee Juntal. It was the bone-chilling scream that his
mother let out as she shoved the three-and-a-half foot samurai sword deep into
her stomach. She was on her knees
falling forward when Renee Juntal reached her.
“I’m sorry, son. I cannot live
without your father. Avenge him,” were
her last words.
Renee Juntal did not cry. He
pulled the sword out of his mother’s stomach and sat down next to her. He turned his head and saw a big box covered
in white wrapping paper. It had red,
green, yellow and blue cars printed in center in a big green square. It was his sixth birthday.
Renee Juntal stood solemnly at the foot of the double grave and swore
that he would avenge his father’s death.
By avenging his father, he would be avenging his mother’s death,
too. After several minutes, a tall, thin
man with a bandage covering his left eye took his hand and led him away from
the graveyard. This man was sent from
The man was mean and did not like Renee Juntal. He refused to call him by name. Instead he called him, Blackanese boy. When they reached the mountainous region of
Renee Juntal had become a master by the young age of 16 but each night he
suffered as he had each night before his father was killed. Each night Renee Juntal Lee saw his father
being ambushed by six men at the instruction of the man with purple and white
badge on his suit. This man’s father was
dying of cancer. His dying wish was to
place Renee Juntal’s father, Perezalau Lee, in charge of his company, instead
of his son, the man with the purple and white badge on his suit.
Each night he saw his father straining to pull the handle that would
switch the tracks on for the B&O Railroad.
He could see the man with the purple and white badge on the sleeve of
his suit pick up a sledgehammer and walk up behind his father. He saw one of the men call his father’s name
and he could hear the distant whistle of the train as it made its way to the
station. The loud whistle drowned the
man’s voice so he pointed at something on the track. He was calling Perezalau’s attention to
something on the track. While his father
looked down at the track, the man with the badge on the sleeve of his suit hit
him in the back of his head. The other
five slipped a large bag over his body and threw him onto the tracks. Within minutes, the B&O was heading down
the track to meet its 12:01 AM deadline.
The clock struck 12:01 AM and Renee Juntal sat up in his bed. It was time to avenge his father’s
death. He stayed in the monastery long
enough to be trained and registered around the world as a deadly weapon. Even though he embraced the spiritual
teachings of the monks at the monastery, he still harbored a deep commitment to
avenge his parents’ deaths. He sat silent
for a few minutes. When the realization
that this day was again the day of his birth and the day of his father’s and
mother’s deaths sank in, Renee Juntal rose with a firm commitment to return to
the United States of American to find the man with the purple and white badge
on his suit to kill him. He was now a
man…21 years old. He had no family and
he wanted the man who killed his father to understand the pain of an orphaned
adult.
Renee Juntal trained his mind so well that he felt no pain at all when
hit with an object as fortified as a hammer or when he held his hand over a
burning flame. These were just some of
the rituals he performed each day to prepare to avenge his father and
mother. Although he was a big man on a
6’1” frame, with washboard abs, weighing 225 pounds he was also a very agile
man, capable of moving in and out of small spaces and bending his body into
positions that only a limber child should be able to achieve.
Renee Juntal worked at B&O Railroad five years. Each day he studied the habits of the man who
used to wear the purple and white badge.
They met the day he was promoted to Lineman…the same job his father
held. Renee Juntal was disappointed that
the man did not recognize him. He was
ready to speak when the train’s whistle blew.
The sound of the whistle caused him to flashback to the scene of his
father being thrown onto the tracks.
“12:01 PM. Right on time. Never late, morning, noon and night
trains…never late in 27 years. Yep, you
can count on the good ole’ B&O to be on time, every time,” the man who used
to wear the purple and white badge said.
“You can count on it to be right on time, every time,” Renee Juntal
repeated.
“Yes, you can. It is never
late. That’s all my dad talks
about. Hi my name is Cheralyse
Brainard. I’m the bosses’ daughter,”
came a voice as soft as an angel’s from behind the man.
“Yes, and I’m the boss. Jim
Brainard, here.”
“Brainard! Mr. and Ms.
Brainard. I am Blackanese,” Renee Juntal
said as he exhaled a long breath of air.
He looked into Cheralyse’s eyes and fell in love with her halfway
through that fleeting glance.
“What kind of name is that?” asked Cheralyse.
“It is my nickname.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“Yes,” he said as he looked down at his feet.
“You are a humble man, Mr. Blackanese.”
“Humility is good.”
“To a degree.”
Renee Juntal’s plan was almost complete.
Several years had passed and each year Renee Juntal tried to save his
father. Each year he failed to save him.
He had come so close to saving him that he was frustrated the entire day and
night. He could not sleep at all the
night before he was to execute his plan.
This was the first night that he did not dream that terrible nightmare
that haunted him the past 27 years. This
was the first night that he did not see a glimpse of what was to come…the
future…the horrible, terrifying future.
His mind was calm. His plans were
exact. He would strike Mr. Brainard so that his mind would still be active
while his body slowly shut down. Then he
would shove the samurai sword that his mother killed herself with deep into his
stomach and pull it all the way up to his brain. He would cover Mr. Brainard’s
body in the bag and throw him onto the track so that the good ole’ B&O
could run over him just as it did his father.
As Renee Juntal walked into the lunchroom at the B&O Railroad
Company, people jumped up out of their seats and started running out of the
room. Everyone, that is, except a
scrawny little slice of a man, 5’4” tall weighing almost 120 pounds. He had one green eye and one brown eye and a
baldhead with two, long stringy locks of hair that hung to his shoulders from
both sides of his face. He had on a gold
Armani suit and olive green Calvin Kline shirt, a gold and green tie with white
Converse tennis shoes. He walked over to
Renee Juntal and touched his arm while others who had not made it completely
out of the room screamed for him to go with them.
“Hey, show me how to do that! My name is Peanut if you don’t already know
it,” he squeaked. He cleared his throat
and asked again.
“It’s nice to know you Peanut but what is it you want me to show you?”
“Show me how you just walked through that wall. I mean, doggone. That ain’t a natural thang. You gonna show me?”
“Train your mind.”
“Man, come on, that ain’t telling me nothing. Train my mind. My mind is trained to walk out that door at
12:01 AM each day…that’s ‘bout it.” He continued, “Yo’ man, I got this thang
going on, you know. I might be able to
use that kind of service at my club. See
I own a restaurant/bar type setup and I could use some help. Up for it?”
“No.”
Renee Juntal walked silently and softly through the train yard to the
office of Mr. Brainard. Mr. Brainard was
a workaholic who worked from sun up to sun down.
“Late night, Mr. Brainard?”
“Blackanese…It’s you. You scared
me walking so silently in the dark, boy.”
“Yes, the night does allow you to walk in the shadows and silence. You can walk upon someone without them
knowing it,” he said as he slid the large bag off of his samurai sword. He laid the sword at the door and walked into
the room.
“Come in, why don’t you?”
“Thank you. You killed my father
27 years ago and I have come to kill you.
My mother killed herself because she could not bear to live without my
father. Mr. Brainard, you killed my
father and my mother.”
Mr. Brainard pushed his chair away from his desk and tried to stand but
his knees were too weak to stand. “I
thought I recognized you. You have your
father’s ways and looks. I should have…”
He looked past Renee Juntal to see his daughter standing at the door. “Cheralyse. Get out of here. Go, darling, please. Get out of here…Go, go, please, go for help,”
he pleaded.
“Father, is it true? Did you kill
his father?”
“Cheralyse, get out of here.”
“Is it true, father? Tell me,” she demanded.
“Ms. Brainard, it is true but you have nothing to do with this. I must avenge my father’s and mother’s
deaths.”
Cheralyse looked at the samurai sword lying by the door. She picked it up and held it by the
blades. Her hands bled from the tight
grip on the blade. “Your mother and
father are avenged,” she said as she shoved the knife deep into her stomach.
She fell to her knees and died.
Her eye looked painfully on at her father, who instantly lost his
mind.
At 12:01 AM the whistle of the good ole’ B&O blew. The loud whistle penetrated Renee Juntal’s
mind and instantly took him back to the landing where he tried to save his
father. This time, instead of the man
with the purple and white badge being able to walk up behind his father, Renee
Juntal was able to take the sledgehammer from the man’s hand. He was able to save his father. It had taken 27 years but Renee Juntal was
finally able to save his father.
Renee Juntal woke to the sound of singing. It was his sixth birthday and his mother and
father were standing in the doorway singing Happy Birthday. A big box
covered in white and green wrapping paper with cars and trucks in the center of
a green block sat at the edge of his bed.
“Happy birthday Renee Juntal. You are a big boy now. You are six years old,” said his mother.
“I had that dream again. But this
time father I was able to keep you safe.”
“I have another ten years before anything can happen to me. Remember my guarantee? I promised to teach you how to drive.”
Ten years later Perezalau Lee taught Renee Juntal how to drive and six
years after that he stood up for him as he married the love of his life,
Cheralyse Brainard. They all lived long, happy lives and everyone lived happily
ever after.
End