Day 594: 5 Minute Freewrite: Thursday - Prompt: not normal

(This prompt gave me the opportunity to pick up on the Ironwood Hamilton story line I started in freewrites "Nunchucks" and "Glass Bottle" ... from the comedy of the first and the grim seriousness of the second, this one is a mix of both, featuring Mr. Stepforth and his grandson from "Glass Bottle"]

"Grandpa, do we HAVE TO do this today?"

Thomas Stepforth Sr. looked at Thomas Stepforth III with a look that would have killed ... but then softened his look a little when he could see the real pain on his grandson's face. Grandson had been getting into a bit of trouble at school ... in Lofton County, VA, where racial profiling had been a known problem for 400 years. Only the intervention of the new law man from Tinyville, VA had kept the younger Stepforth from being caught up and introduced to the criminal justice system at only 14 years old.

Grandpa Stepforth had gotten into town just hours after he heard the news. His son was deployed in Afghanistan; his grandson still needed a father figure, so Grandpa Stepforth had stepped in.

"What is the challenge, grandson?" he said, controlling his impatience.

"I hate going to these job fairs and college fairs and business fairs -- you don't understand what it is like, being the only Black boy there! It's just not normal!"

Grandson Stepforth was surprised to see his grandfather's normally severe expression grow more open.

"Oh, but I do understand, grandson. When I was born, what was normal was for young men like us around here to be working in the tobacco fields, and living in poverty. If you wanted more, you had to do what was not normal. I was born very poor, grandson. I would have stayed very poor, if I had only done what was normal."

"You were poor? In real life?"

"That was normal for Black people, then. It is still normal for a lot of us, now. Being free was not normal 200 years ago. Many things had to change for you and I to sit here in this nice car and have a ticket to this job and business fair, and a lot of them were not and are not under our direct control. But we must do what we can. When opportunity comes, you've got to grab it. Opportunity is not normal, it is something better!"

Grandson Stepforth thought about that for a few moments.

"I kind of see what you are saying, Grandpa. It doesn't make it any easier."

"It's not supposed to be easy. You want easy, keep on playing off at school. That's normal for you now. You want easy, keep wasting time with people who are not your friends and letting them leave you holding the bag when the smack goes down. That's normal for you now. You want easy, stay on the track into prison: that will become your normal, only it won't be easy from there on."

Grandpa Stepforth handed his grandson the ticket to the fair.

"Normal or not normal? You decide."

"I'm going, Grandpa, I'm going, I'm going."

Just across the street from the gym, the Stepforths spotted that Tinyville law man -- police captain Ironwood Hamilton, with his unhappy-looking teenage son.

"Come on, Dad -- of all the ways we could be spending Saturday, this ain't it!"

"When you have your own house and car and money, you get to choose what you do on the weekend. Until then, what your mother and I say it is, is what it is. This is it, son. You don't have to like it, but you better get started on learning how to have something of your own if you think you are going to determine how you spend your life."

"Come on, Dad -- do we have to do this?"

"Yes. Get moving, son -- the gym is over there."

Grandson Stepforth looked at Grandpa Stepforth.

"I guess this ain't normal for anybody."

"It does not matter what color you are, surprised as I am to hear myself say that," Grandpa Stepforth said. "If you are not already where you need to be, you have to do what is not normal to get there. It isn't just us, apparently."