Shit.
“Youwannaexplore that?”Jaggerasked.
“What?That he and Mom split?”Mal asked back.“Not really.It sucks.It happened.They fought a lot and it’s better this way.I don’t haveto listen to them shouting at each other.And they don’t have to shout at eachother.But I’m her guy now, he’s not anymore, and Igottalook after her.I told him it’s what he taught me to do.Even if they fought alot, he looked out for her, still does.So he knows he gave me that and it’swhat Igottado.”
Jag did not get where this was going, this talk of lookingout for his mother when it wasn’t her that was being harassed by some assholes.
So he cautiously pushed, “What does that mean?”
“It’s cool you guys are named weird names.”
It took a sec, but at this abrupt change in topic, Jagreleased the tension in his shoulders that was caused by his excitement andhope that Mal was finally opening up.
Mal had shared.
He was done sharing.
They got what they got, and Jag wasn’t going to push it.
“I wish I had a weird name, like LeBron or Chadwick,” Malcontinued.
“Those aren’t weird names,” Dutch said.
Mal looked at him.“Don’t fake it.White people totallythink Black people have weird names.”
Dutch wisely decided not to reply because Dutch, like Jag,didn’t give a shit what anyone named their kid, and not only for the obviousreasons they wouldn’t give a shit about something like that, but they both knewwhat Mal said was not wrong.
“Mal is a cool name,” Jagger told him.
“It’s short for Malcolm,” Mal replied.
“Malcolm is a cooler name,” Jag returned.
“I know.And you don’t have to educate me.Mom and Dad toldme.Made me read about him.I know I’m named after Malcolm X.He’s theirsthough.Or their parents’ and he was passed down to them.But LeBron andChadwick, they’re mine,” Mal stated.
You really couldn’t argue that either.
“So name your kid one of those names,” Dutch suggested.“That way, you can give him that and keep those names alive, at the same timegive him who’s a piece of you and keep Malcolm X alive.”
Mal stared at Dutch a beat before he turned to Jag.
“Your brother’s dope,” he declared.
Jag grinned at him.“Pretty much, yeah.”
Mal kept eye contact when he said, “Thanks for today.It’scool you care.And I’m really not mad at Archie.So Mom will know now.I’lldeal.”
“All right, Mal.But just to say, it’s clear there’s more,and if you need to talk, like I told you, I’m there.”
Mal nodded a boy-man nod that was more man than boy.“Thanks.Though even if Dad doesn’t get to call very often from where he’s at,he calls.I talk to him.So I’m cool.Honest.”
He wasn’t cool.
But again, they got what they got that day, and it was morethan Mal had been giving.
So he wasn’t going to push.
“Okay, buddy,” Jagger said.
