Brain Matters

            by Shinequa Sutherland

 

Heart: So Brain, can you tell me why I was beating so fast the other day?

Brain: Yea sure is everyone ready to hear the story?

Cheek, arm, & heart: Yes!

Brain: Ok here it goes…….

Late start day was one of Donnovan’s favorite days at Berkeley High School next to holidays and weekends. Late start was supposed to be the first Wednesday of the month but in the last year it seemed to drift to every other month, then to whenever the principal decided he needed to have a meeting with the staff without students missing an entire day of school.

Hoping to get on the football team, the only thing Donnovan was missing was his physical. His grandmother was too busy this past week to make the appointment for him, so he had him do it himself.

“Yes grandma, I made the appointment for 8:30 tomorrow mornin’,” he answered pausing his video game. Donnovan had lived with his grandmother for as far back as he could remember. Only very faintly did he remember his mother and he’s never met his father.

“Don’t you got school in the mornin’?”

“Not till 10 grandma. Don’t trip, its cool.”

“All right baby. Good night,” she said walking back to her room..

“Night,” he replied then continued his football game. About 20 minutes later, he had won, saved the game, turned off the console and went to bed.

***

The next morning, he was awakened by the sound of his alarm clock at 7:15. Because he had already taken a shower the night before, he grabbed breakfast, put on some clothes and headed out the door to catch his bus. He planned to be on the 390 bus at 7:45.

As he yawned, he thought to himself Damn I’m sleepy and its hella cold out here. All I need is one more hour of sleep, then I would be straight. Ughh leave it to me to suggest a doctor’s appointment on a late start day. Why couldn’t I just have made it tomorrow during class or something? Ok, its 7:40 now so the bus should be here in a few minutes. He pulled out his I-pod and began to search for a song.  Man let me slap that Kanye West while I wait for this bus that’s taking hella long to come.

Ten minutes went bye and still no bus.

Man this bus is late. Now I’m gonna be late for my appointment.  He sucked his teeth and started to dial Tri Delta Transit to find out what time the next bus comes.

“The next 390 bus comes at 8:15” the operator answers.

“And the 391?”

“That bus comes at 8:10”

“Thanks. Bye,” then he hangs up the phone.  I might as well walk to the next bus stop cause its too damn cold to be standing here waiting for this bus. At least then I will be a little bit warm. Shit, it feels like its 30 degrees out here.

 He begins to walk to the next bus stop which is about 2 blocks away. Thinking that this walk would kill ten minutes, he began to recollect last Saturdays memories. His fight with Jose Gonzalez ended with the paramedics being called and Jose in the hospital. It wasn’t his fault. A card game gone wrong that’s all. Donnovan had won the hand and Jose wouldn’t pay up. Jose tried to cheat him and things went bad from there. It was Jose who swung first and Jose who had pulled the knife out on him. Donnovan knew he shouldn’t  have been playing cards with him. He arrives at the stop and is shocked when he sees it only took him a short amount of time to get here.

 Damn, it only took me five minutes to get here. Now I have to wait here for 15 minutes. No, I might as well walk to the next bus stop and wait for the 391. Besides its not like I’ll miss it since both stops are for the 391. Then he was off to the next stop.

On his way to the stop, he see’s one of his friends.

“Wassup son?” Donnovan asked his friend Mike. He and Mike had been cool since the first time they met at his next door neighbors party.

“Nothin much. Just tryin to get my education so I can go to college hopefully. What about you? What you got planned in yo future?”

“Well for right now I’m tryin to get on the football team at my school. I’m on my way to an appointment for my physical. Yo walk with me to the next bus stop. Its too damn cold to be standing in one spot.”

“All right,” Mike responded and they continued walking to the bus stop. “So you tryin to get on the team? Me too. Actually, the coach said I was guaranteed a spot on the team if I passed my physical.”

“Really? Wow man, congratulations.” Just then, Donnovan looked behind him to see if he saw the bus and there was the 390. Both Mike and Donnovan walked a little bit faster to catch the bus but the look on their faces showed they knew they weren’t going to catch that bus.

“Man that bus aint gonna wait for us. We might as well slow down,” Mike said.

“Yea ok.”

They finished the walk to the bus stop in silence. When they finally got there, Donnovan realized that since he had missed the 390 the only other bus he could catch was the 391 and that bus doesn’t come to this stop. He had gone the wrong way and should have turned to go to the park and ride.

“Aye man, I’m gonna have to holla at you later. I’m not even at the right bus stop. I’m posed to be at the park and ride.”

“All right then. Lata.”

He parted from his friend and headed for the park and ride. He once again called Kaiser to reschedule his appointment. This time for 9 am. He was finally at the park and ride. This time he’s not going to walk to the next stop. He going to sit and wait for the bus and only for the 388.

While he sat there waiting, memories of last Saturday’s event came to mind again. His fight with Jose Gonzalez ended with the paramedics being called and Jose in the hospital. It wasn’t his fault. A card game gone wrong that’s all. Donnovan had won the hand and Jose wouldn’t pay up. Jose tried to cheat him and things went bad from there. It was Jose who swung first and Jose who had pulled the knife out on him. Donnovan knew he shouldn’t  have been playing cards with him

He over hears a woman rambling to herself. She sounds angry and he tries to ignore her but her rambling sounds interesting in a way so he decides to listen. She then starts to fade away. He turns and notices that she is walking toward the parking lot.

“Who the hell do you think you are? Huh. You aint shit to me. You don’t own me. Im not your property,” She sighs and begins to sob. “Why. Why do you do this to me. I hate you you son of a bitch.” Just then she walks up to the car closest to her and smashes in the front window. Immediately after, the police show up and begin to question Donnovan and the other person there. He gives his statement to the police and says he has to get somewhere. One of the officer’s doesn’t believe him and begins to get disrespectful. He slams Donnovan against a fence that was near by.

“So you little nigger, what the hell did you do to that car huh? I know you had something to do with this.”

“Aye man, I aint have shit to do with this man. I wasn’t no where near her and who the hell are you?”

“You know that Mexican you beat up last Saturday, I’m his brother and you gonna pay for what you did to my brother. Its cause of you that he’s in the hospital. But it’s all good though, cause I told him I would take care of you. That I would punish the person who did that to him. And that person is you. So if I were you I would be very careful what you do and who you’re with because I can guarantee you that if you slip up or mess up or even get a jay walking ticket, I will be right there to bust your ass and fuck up your life like you did to my brother.”

“Man what ever. I aint start shit with your brother. He lost, started a fight and pulled a knife out on me. It was self defense. Man I’m out of here, I got to go” and he left. He was finally on the bus and on his way to the bart station.

It’s 9:15 am. He’s already rescheduled his appointment three times so this time when he calls, he’s going to cancel it.

Finally, the bart station is in sight. He felt as if nothing more could go wrong with this morning. The bus pulled into the station, stopped and opened the doors to let everyone off. He got off the bus and headed towards the entrance when he heard police sirens. He turned and looked at the car to see what was going on. It was the cop from earlier. What the fuck, is he following me?

“Young man, could I talk to you for a minute?” he asked with a smirkish look on his face. Donnovan walked towards him with caution. Man I’m gettin sick of seeing him.

“Yea man. What do you want now? I aint do nothing so you aint got no reason to be messin with me.”

“Ha ha. You think you funny huh?”

“No actually I don’t. now if you don’t mind, I have to get to school” he replied then turned and began to walk away when the officer grabbed him and slammed him against the hood of his car. While he held him there he twisted his arm so that his hand was turned up his back and his face smushed on the car.

“Remember what I said you little shit head. If you so much as spit one single seed shell on the ground I’m bustin yo ass and there’s nothing you or anyone can do about it.” Then he let Donnovan go. Got in his car and sped off.

After officer rude ass left, Donnovan went into the bart station. Processed his ticket and got on the train. Finally. I’m hungry now. Since I canceled my appointment, I should have a little bit of time so I can go get a little somthin to eat.

The train ride went by so fast. It had seemed like only five minutes went by and they were already at Orinda Bart station. Nine stops from Pittsburg. The train was going through the Caldecott tunnel when it started to slow down then came to a stop. Then the conductor’s voice rang on the P.A.

Um ladies and gentlemen, it seems were having a small problem. I’m going to try something to see if it fixes the problem. I’m going to shut off the power then restart it. This should only take a few seconds. He shuts off the power and turns it back on but that didn’t work. Um folks I’m going to try that again in a few minutes so just bare with me.

Finally the train starts working and this time for sure he knows he’s going to at least make it to school on time.

 

 

Brain: The End. So heart, do you understand now why you were beating so fast? And why you cheek and arm were a little sore the other day?

Cheek, arm, & heart: Yes brain.

Brain: Since I’ve told you what happened, you guys should tell the others what happened. Eyes is telling people too. Now, you guys get some sleep. We wouldn’t you to fall asleep on him and have something happen to him. Except you heart, its not your time to go to sleep.

Heart: No not yet. Good night parts.