{"product_id":"moon-and-the-mars-isbn-9781644211038","title":"Moon and the Mars","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn exploration of NYC and America in the burgeoning moments before the start of the Civil War through the eyes of a young, biracial girl—the highly anticipated new novel from the winner of the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Corthron, a true heir to James Baldwin, presents a startlingly original exposure of the complex roots of American racism.\" —Naomi Wallace, MacArthur \"Genius\" Playwriting Fellow and author of One Flea Spare\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eMoon and the Mars\u003c\/i\u003e, set in the impoverished Five Points district of New York City in the years 1857-1863, we experience neighborhood life through the eyes of Theo from childhood to adolescence, an orphan living between the homes of her Black and Irish grandmothers. Throughout her formative years, Theo witnesses everything from the creation of tap dance to P.T. Barnum's sensationalist museum to the draft riots that tear NYC asunder, amidst the daily maelstrom of Five Points work, hardship, and camaraderie. Meanwhile, white America's attitudes towards people of color and slavery are shifting—painfully, transformationally—as the nation divides and marches to war.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs with her first novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Castle Cross the Magnet Carter\u003c\/i\u003e, which was praised by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Robin D.G. Kelley, and Angela Y. Davis, among many others, Corthron's use of dialogue brings her characters to life in a way that only an award-winning playwright and scriptwriter can do. As Theo grows and attends school, her language and grammar change, as does her own vocabulary when she's with her Black or Irish families. It's an extraordinary feat and a revelation for the reader.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eMoon and the Mars\u003c\/i\u003e, [Corthron's] latest masterpiece, is an absorbing story of family and community, of Africans and Irish, of settler and native, of slavery and abolition, of a city and a nation wracked by Civil War and racist violence, of love won and lost.\" —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of \u003ci\u003eThelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Ms. Corthron’s humility and curiosity match her outsize intellect and ambition. ... Theo is the lone narrator in \u003ci\u003eMoon and the Mars\u003c\/i\u003e, but her voice is so rich with the locutions and grammatical tics of her joint heritage that it sounds almost choral.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Sam Sacks, \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Kia Corthron has a knack for seeing what we cannot, for laying bare the truths we refuse to see. \u003ci\u003eMoon and the Mars\u003c\/i\u003e, her latest masterpiece, is an absorbing story of family and community, of Africans and Irish, of settler and native, of slavery and abolition, of a city and a nation wracked by Civil War and racist violence, of love won and lost. Unsettling the victim-perpetrator binary, she writes instead of people caught in the whirlwind of history, violence, politics, ideology, love, and desire; people navigating the \u003ci\u003eactual\u003c\/i\u003e world where race lines are drawn in shifting sands in blood and glue, elusive yet enduring, smelling of death and flowers. Corthron once again reminds us that nothing is black and white.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Robin D. G. Kelley, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"A searing, far-flung epic, a truly American tale, centered on one girl of African-American and Irish heritage, as she makes her way into a world rife with brutality, change and war. Kia Corthron is one of our finest novelists, constantly unveiling the truth and the way histories have been hidden from us, revealing people in all their glory and imperfection. This isn't just a novel. It is a history, a monument to hope.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Rene Denfeld, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Enchanted\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Child Finder\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Rarely does one encounter a book that can so profoundly change a reader. \u003ci\u003eMoon and the Mars\u003c\/i\u003e is that book. Corthron, a true heir to James Baldwin, presents a startlingly original exposure of the complex roots of American racism and classism as well as a sweeping exploration of love in all its myriad forms. The best work of fiction I have read in many years.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Naomi Wallace, MacArthur \"Genius\" Playwriting Fellow and author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne Flea Spare\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Kia Corthron is a singular crucial creative artist with enormous vitality, re-imagining the real life of New York City rooted in new histories.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Sarah Schulman, author of \u003ci\u003eLet the Record Show\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Playwright and novelist Corthron (\u003ci\u003eThe Castle Cross the Magnet Carter\u003c\/i\u003e) combines a propulsive coming-of-age story with a fascinating history of the years before and after the Civil War... Corthron smoothly weaves in historical developments as divisions flare in the Five Points, such as the implications of the Dred Scott case, something Grammy Brook sums up concisely: “Whenever the rich make a crisis, you know what gonna fall to the poor is catastrophe.” Corthron’s ambition pays off with dividends.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Kia Corthron, writing with insight, empathy and an acute sense of history, has reached into the divided heart of nineteenth century New York and produced a story of exceptional power. Through the eyes of Theodora Brigid Brook, a young woman of Irish and African ancestry, we encounter a city of vibrant streets, tangled loyalties, and the best and worst possibilities.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Robert W. Snyder, Manhattan Borough Historian and coauthor of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eAll the Nations Under Heaven: Immigrants, Migrants, and the Making of New York\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"In the native language of the colonized Irish Gael, the proverb \u003ci\u003eAr scáth a chéile a mahireann na daoine\u003c\/i\u003e tells us it’s in the shelter of each other that the people survive. In \u003ci\u003eMoon and the Mars\u003c\/i\u003e, Kia Corthron has channeled the Seanchaí and the Griot, using beautifully rendered, gripping storytelling to resurrect histories too often disappeared. You will fall in love with Theo, a Black and Irish child who embodies her histories, as she takes you by the hand, guiding you through a mid-19th Century Manhattan landscape of community, solidarity, class manipulations, and racist violence. And you’ll tear through these streets and pages of joy and heartbreak full tilt, emerging with a renewed call to solidarity—for all our survival.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Michael Patrick MacDonald, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eAll Souls: A Family Story from Southie\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eEaster Rising: A Memoir of Roots and Rebellion\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Corthron’s new historical epic spins an absorbing and linguistically nimble tale that proves she’s one of our most dynamic and risk-taking writers.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Chicago Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"In her absorbing and original second novel, Kia Corthron examines racism, family and identity through the eyes of Theo, a young biracial orphan growing up in mid-19th century New York City. You won’t soon forget this one.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eKarla Strand,\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e Ms. Magazine\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“As the story progresses, our protagonist evolves from child to teenager. As she does so, the world around her changes, and so too does her understanding of this world and her position within it. [] Corthron, a critically acclaimed playwright, effectively draws from this experience bolstering the story with song, props—letters, news bulletins—and spirited dialogue, to make the novel intimate and immediate.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003cb\u003eBrigid O'Dea, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Irish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eKIA CORTHRON's debut fiction, \u003ci\u003eThe Castle Cross the Magnet Carter\u003c\/i\u003e, was the winner of the 2016 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e Editor's Choice. She was the 2017 Bread Loaf Shane Stevens Fellow in the Novel. She is also a nationally and internationally produced playwright. For her body of work for the stage, she has garnered the Windham Campbell Prize for Drama, the Horton Foote Prize, the United States Artists Jane Addams Fellowship, the Flora Roberts Award, and others. She was born and raised in Cumberland, Maryland, and lives in Harlem, New York City.\u003cb\u003eLucky\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMutt I am.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIrish and the black, black and the Irish, colored, Celtic, County Kerry, Afri-can!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat you sayin in there? call Grammy Brook from the front-room. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNothin!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTalkin to yourself again, mutter Grammy Brook to herself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThrow the cover off, jump outa bed, brrrrr! Woke up alone in the bed I share, alone in the bed in the bed-closet in the apartment in the tenement a Grammy Brook. Come out to the front-room grinnin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhatchu grinnin for? she ask, smilin. Then hold out somethin warm, somethin sweet: johnnycake! Happy birthday, birthday girl.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThank you, Grammy! Careful—hot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAh!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eToldja—hot!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow old’s Miss Theo today? ask Mr. Freeman.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSeven!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSeven. That’s a good one. Mr. Freeman nod, Mr. Freeman our boarder sit in the chair havin his bread n coffee breakfast, his bedroll rolled up, rolled to the corner. Our apartment have two rooms: front-room and bed-closet. Our apartment have two rooms, two windas—both windas in the livin room facin the street, none in the bed-closet. Gran-Gran sit in her chair nex to the front winda near the door, Gran-Gran always at her winda lookin down on Park street. Gran-Gran is Grammy’s mammy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo whatchu gonna do today, Miss Seven? Grammy ask, ironin her whites for the whites. The wet ones hung all over our apartment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDoor fling open, in come Hen. My cousin Hen, carryin in the pail.\u003cbr\u003eThree, Hen say, then dump the water into Grammy’s pot on the stove. Hen strong! Hen only nine years of age, carryin the full water bucket: heavy! Soon as Hen empty it, she turn back around, head out our apartment, down the stairs for more.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI’d better be getting on to work, say Mr. Freeman.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll right, say Grammy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI just want to say again how much I appreciate it, Mrs. Brook—you not raising the rent.\u003cbr\u003eDidn’t get mine raised, no call to raise yours.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe barbering business not what it used to be, Mr. Freeman say, more to hisself. Then put his tin cup on the shelf and our barber boarder out the door.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI’ll sing a song for you, Grammy, that what I wanna do for my birthday!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGood girl. Grammy switch irons. Grammy tole me why ironin need two irons: one to use hot till it cool while the other gettin hot on the coals.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHark! the herald angels sing!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOh, that’s that new pretty one.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat song old, Grammy! Two years old, that song come to be when I was five!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNew to old me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGlory to the newborn King!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYour papa woulda been proud a you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI knew she say that! Every time I have a birthday Grammy Brook smile teary and say my dead father her dead son Ezekiel woulda been proud a me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn come Hen. Four, she say, emptyin the water into the pot. After five, I gotta get to work myself, Hen say and gone. When the water come to boilin, Grammy’ll dump it in the washtub and put in more a the white sheets and white towels for the white folks.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI gotta go to the necessary!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBring me back a paper. Then Grammy careful count out her coin, sigh. I remember when it was the penny press. Now hard to find it under two.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut you gimme two cent and a half, Grammy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe half-cent for you, birthday girl.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThank you, Grammy!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMijn gelukwenschen met uw verjaardag, say Gran-Gran, still lookin out the winda. Gran-Gran and Grammy useta be slaves with Dutch masters. I look at Grammy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe wishin you good wishes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThank you, Gran-Gran! I’m seven!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGran-Gran blink, not turnin her head from whatever’s happenin out on the street.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe live on the fourth floor: top! I skip down the steps, out to the back courtyard water-closets to wait in line, one two three four five six seven eight nine in front a me! Nine colored, our tenement all colored, nine in front a me, I gotta go! There’s Hen at the pump, Hen! I wave but she act like she don’t see me. Eight in front a me, I gotta go! Hen finish fillin the bucket and start luggin it back up to our apartment, seven in front a me, I gotta go! gotta go!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe little Brook girl hoppin, she gotta go bad, say Miss Lottie who live crost the hall from us. Then everybody let me go! Then I run out to see whatever’s happenin out on the street. The mornin boys hollerin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNew intelligence on the Bond street murder!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBill passed for wagon road to the Pacific!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLatest on President-elect Buchanan’s picks for his cabinet! Read all about it!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI buy a two-penny press for Grammy Brook, run it up to her, run back to the street back to Park street, right on Baxter street. Five-story tenement and on the third floor: Grammy Cahill.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMaidin mhaith, Grammy!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMaidin mhaith, Theodora Brigid, say Grammy, smilin because she pleased I’m practicin my Good mornin in Irish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt’s my birthday!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know, little sprout. Seven is it?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI’m grinnin, noddin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLá breithe shona duit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat’s that, Grammy!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHappy birthday.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLá breithe shona duit, Theo! say Maureen and Cathleen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMay the saints be with ye, say Cousin Aileen, who’s my cousin Maureen and my cousin Cathleen’s ma.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGo raibh maith agat!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat’s how ye be thankin one person, Grammy correct me. More than one, ye say Go raibh maith agaibh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGo raibh maith agaibh!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo, thank you for bein the livin spirit of herself, your dear mammy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(I knew she’d say that! Every time I have a birthday Grammy Cahill smile teary and say I’m the livin spirit a my dead mother her dead daughter Brigid.) You’re after catchin me in the nick, mo leanbh, headin out to work. But I’m ready for ye. And she hand me a bite a cake.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBarmbrack! I chew it—still warm. Now Cathleen hold out her hand. A little something for the birthday girl, say Cathleen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAh! say everybody. Cathleen made me a doll! Little doll, jus tall as my wrist to my fingertip. My cousin Cathleen and her sister Maureen and their mammy Cousin Aileen is seamstresses, \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCathleen musta made my doll outa scraps from her work. Cathleen make pretty sewn things! Her mammy and sister work at the workshop but Cathleen gotta work the piecemeal at home: Cathleen’s fifteen years of age, and when she was six, she climbed a tree and fell and her legs stopped workin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGo raibh maith agat, Cathleen!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou’re welcome.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGrammy Cahill headin out to work carryin her wares table, me skippin nex to her. Out to Baxter, then block and a half back to Park, set up her table, then send me to the grocer on Mott to pick her up a little flour. Crunch crunch through the Febooary sleet. Cross the road, I can do it! Look right and left for the carriages and carts. Look down for the horse manure and tenement manure. Look everywhere for the people rushin, pushin—hog runnin loose, everybody jump out the way! Buy the flour, back to Park, give it to Grammy. Then head six doors down the street: o’shea’s board \u0026amp; publick.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMornin, Auntie Siobhan!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWell, good mornin to you, Miss Theo. Wonderin when you wander by, it bein the ninth of Feb.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI come near every day! Look what Cathleen gimme!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAw, what a pretty doll baby. Care for a little birthday nog?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYes! I can pay for it! Grammy Brook gimme a half-cent for my birthday! You save that for candy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThank you!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBetter spend it today. Government claimin they’ll be endin the half-penny later this month.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSpend it today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI sit in my auntie’s tavern sippin my nog. Nutmeg! And a birthday apple! I’ll save it till later.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTell me a story, Auntie Siobhan!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEm… Let me think.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(My colored family says um, my Irish family says em!)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA birthday story.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRight. Your mother’s birthday was—\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMay the twenty-fourth!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMay the twenty-fourth. Woke up to a glory of a Wednesday and I said to my sister, Whyn’t you take off from that tyrant, we make a day of it in the park? The tyrant was—\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMrs. Bradley!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTold ye this one before, have I?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBrigid was a day-maid, another girl lived there but your mother-to-be came home nights. Like all the fancy folks, Mrs. Bradley lived uptown— \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eForty-first and Fifth!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd if your mother’d been older she’d never a done it, played hooky from her place of employ. If I’d been older I’d never a suggested it, but her newly sixteen and me two years behind so there we were, plannin the mischief. Walkin down to City Hall—\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo the park!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd who we run into goin the other direction but Lily the cook! Brigid begged her to tell Mistress Scowlface she fell ill, promisin to return the favor one day. Your mother’d been workin for the beast a year, screamed at near daily, her face slapped for a vocal tone not pleasin to the lady or for disturbin the library’s alphabetical, placin a Charlotte Brontë before an Anne. Lily’d had her own troubles with the witch, don’t the Irish and the black always suffer it all? So Lily wished your ma a happy birthday and went on her way, and there we be: your mother and I and soft grass and crackers and whiskey. Laughin at some rough n tumble we’d seen at Mott street and Pell that mornin or at the people walkin by or at Brigid scrunchin up her face and makin her boss lady’s voice and that she just happened to be at when we look up to see none other than you know who!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMrs. Bradley yell at my mother?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHerself was takin an afternoon stroll with her aul chum Mrs. Hyde, another one. Everything stops still, them starin at Brigid, the one supposedly home runnin a bout of fever. Then the old mistress heads straight toward my sister, chargin, her hand ready aimed to slap your poor mother’s cheek! Gets within three feet of her—and falls! Flat on her face, Lady Bradley is sherry-drunk middle of the afternoon—she of the Temperance Society! Then her companion comes to her aid, but appears aul Mrs. Hyde’s not exactly treadin steady ground neither! Finally Brigid helps her employer to her feet, and Mrs. Bradley yanks herself away, stumblin again with that, and the ladies depart. When they’re beyond hearin, we’re rollin, our stomachs torn up with the laughter! But next day, your mother trembles to show up for work, fearin she’ll be given her walkin papers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy mother get sacked?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAuntie Siobhan shake her head, smilin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe she-devil musta worried Brigid might someday have a mind to reveal that peculiar episode in the wrong company, so not only was your mother’s position secure but thereafter her tenure on Forty-first and Fifth proceeded appreciably more agreeable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot fair!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe turn to the man just entered the tavern from upstairs, tenant a the boarding-house.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYe can’t just raise the rent every February the first, Siobhan!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe law says otherwise, my auntie answer him. Don’t go into effect till May, ye make your decision. ’Tis a wee increase, be no effort ye’d just re-budget your monthly liquor allowance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHere I slip off the stool, out the door, leavin em to their shoutin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow do ye, Theo!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRound the corner in the alley I see Nancy, smaller n me, standin with her brother, Elijah, smaller n her. They sleep in the alley crates since their mammy caught the influenza from the white folks she worked for and died. Nancy and Elijah skinny like sticks, eyes on my birthday apple. Now my eyes on my birthday apple. I take a nibble: sweet! Then give the rest to Nancy and Elijah who attack it, hungry-greedy. In my head I see Saint Peter in heaven markin this good deed on my list.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYour rich auntie give it to ya? ask Nancy, crunch. 16 KIA CORTHRON\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne of em, I say. Now off to see the other.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUptown I head: twenty blocks north, forty blocks and more, up to the country. At Fifty-ninth, Broadway change its name to Bloomingdale, still I keep goin. Eighty-sixth and Seventh, knock knock! Nothin. Knock knock! Then I remember: today’s Monday—my auntie at school!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGood mornink, Theo!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI turn around.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGood morning, Mr. Schmidt! It’s afternoon now!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAh, you’re right! he smile. Tell your aunt sank you again. She’s a nice landlady. I will!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSeneca Village where my Auntie Eunice lives where her tenant Mr. Schmidt lives is Seventh avenue to Eighth, Eighty-second street to Eighty-ninth and some say higher. Mr. Schmidt lives in the house my auntie and uncle used to live in before they built the new one. Crost the field, I see Mr. O’Kelleher drivin a hog home. I wave. He wave back.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI run over to Colored School No. 3. My auntie at the front a the class nod her head to the back for me to sit, then she ask everybody, What’s one over two times five over six?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEverybody click click scratch their slates.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen dismission time come, my teacher-auntie and me walk back to her house hand-holdin. I tell her what Mr. Schmidt said to tell her he said. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt’s because I didn’t raise the rent. February first is Rent Day, to warn the tenants if the rent’s to be raised in May. If it’s too much, May first is Moving Day, but Mr. Schmidt won’t have to worry about that. Now why in the world would you be paying me a call on February ninth?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI grin. Look what Cathleen gimme!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat a pretty doll. You should leave it at home to play with so you don’t lose it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI won’t! I can carry it around, not lose it!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll right, stubborn, don’t cry when it’s gone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWon’t be gone!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAuntie Eunice cookin. We got her house all to ourself because Uncle Ambrose a seaman, more months away than home. Teachers ain’t sposed to be married but Auntie Eunice say she The Exception Proves The Rule and somethin else about bein a good convincer and childless. I look out the winda.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe in Seneca Village, Dolly, I tell my dolly. How the colored people come again? I ask my auntie.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSeneca Village as we know it began when land here was sold to a colored, then another colored, then another. In Seneca Village, the negroes are the landowners. But we get along fine with our tenants, those Johnny-come-latelys from across the Atlantic: the Irish and the German searching for America. Why don’t you read me some Thoreau.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI read Resistance to Civil Government while she stir the stew, then she wipe a tear and say, Your papa loved that book. Then she tell me read a little Winter’s Tale. I do, then: When you plan on going to school, Theo?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhich is a very often disagreement between me and my auntie. I say nothin. Auntie Eunice been teachin me to read since I was three. I tried school once for a week and didn’t care for it so didn’t go back. I know she know but I say nothin because impolite to insult somebody’s livelihood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter supper, Auntie Eunice step outside with a bowl and no coat, come back in with a mound a freshly fell snow. Open a cupboard. Vanilla, sugar: vanilly snow!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor the birthday girl, she say and hand me a spoon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI snuggle up with Auntie Eunice for the night. In the morn, she go to school, and I turn south, walkin ninety-six blocks back downtown to below First street. In the Thirties, a nativist man gawk at me: that look I sometime get from them ones claimin they the First Americans, descended from the original white people. Then he bark: Mongrel!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo! Mutt! I giggle and run.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDon’t let the ignorants worry you! my grammies and aunties always say. And between Seneca Village and my downtown home’s a whole lot a blocks a ignorance. Plenty a mutts where I live, home is black and Irish every day every minute crossin all kinds a paths, don’t the rest a the world only wish they got our harmony?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNear dinnertime, Park street bustlin in the pre-noon winter sun. Newsboys callin the afternoon editions—and there my grammies talkin together! Grammy Brook makin laundry deliveries, Grammy Cahill with her table set up peddlin anything she find to sell. Right now appears they dickerin on a shirt.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGrammies!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey see me, drop their haggle-faces to smile.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI take a hand a each one. Green eyes and flowy light-brown hair the Irish gimme, but my nose and lips took a bit a thickness from the colored. High yella, my skin betwixt: not rich dark like my father’s people nor rosy fair like my mother’s.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLong lashes just like your mammy, Grammy Cahill say.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDimple-smile just like your papa, Grammy Brook say.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese I collect to make a picture, otherwise I don’t know what they looked like. My mother dies three days after I’m born, father two years after her. Last summer, couple nights I stayed with Nancy and Elijah the back alley. Their mother passed not long before and no rent money, now they sleep the street. I try cheerin em up: Look at the Milky Way! But I don’t speak a weather, rain and the comin snow. I don’t remind em beddin under the stars is fun n rare for me because any night a the week I got a choice of roofs: my colored grammy’s tenement or my Irish auntie’s boarding-house or my colored auntie’s uptown house or my Irish grammy’s tenement. Mutt I am: orphan lucky.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe grammies start up the bargainin again so I move on. Adventures await! And them bounteous in Five Points, Manhattan, New York City, when a birthday girl got a whole half-cent to squander on em.","brand":"Seven Stories Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233401549029,"sku":"NP9781644211038","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781644211038.jpg?v=1767732946","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/moon-and-the-mars-isbn-9781644211038","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}