Electra works hard to avoid talking about it,

  so I don’t ask about it

  Probably not cool of me to share that info

  but she’s probably not going to

  I been living in this safe and green cul-de-sac

  of a city my whole life

  but every now and again, I’m reminded

  that a city is a city and your world is small

  What I mean is, even when you just walk a few blocks

  out of your way, everything opens up

  I got so swept up in Electra’s search

  for the Gold Monkey of sound, I had no idea where we were

  but she was confident we would find our way

  And it was worth it, last house on the right

  with the dying grass and the weird jockey out front

  What’s the deal with those, anyway?

  It was a sad-looking garage sale

  I could make that kind of judgment now

  By this point I felt like a bit of an expert

  having gone through the Electra Figg

  repatriation-of-junk program

  It was one of those garage sales where they don’t bother

  to even put things on tables, it’s all laid out on the driveway

  But there was no stopping her

  she just knew

  and sure enough

  she saw it, it wasn’t even on the driveway

  it was inside the guy’s garage in an old plastic laundry basket

  stuffed with wires and boxes with smaller boxes

  Electra asked him, What about this?

  He looked at her, surprised, Huh

  That, and she started walking toward it as she was pointing

  sandwiched in the middle—a black box, silver knobs and stuff

  Oh, that’s my brother’s crap, he said

  the way he said it, it was obvious things weren’t good

  with him and the brother

  How much does he want for it?

  Beats me, he’s a deadbeat musician

  Electra’s eyes lit up on that one

  Deadbeat Musician

  She would tell me later that deadbeat musicians

  desire great equipment

  that they will sell or dump in the garage or attic

  of someone responsible

  in a New York minute

  Electra heard deadbeat musician and went in for the hard pitch

  I’ll give you 10 bucks for it.

  The guy looks at her, then me, trying to figure us out,

  though we didn’t say it, Electra and I thought the same thing:

  He’s gonna come back with something wild like 50 bucks

  Instead, he shrugs and says,

  Who knows when I’m gonna see that guy again

  last I heard from his old drummer, he’s out in the country

  working on a pig farm or an anarchist preschool or something

  And with that, he grabs the entire basket and just drops it

  You can take whatever you want

  Yeah, you can imagine what our faces looked like when he said it

  No Telex Viking 86, but not a bad catch for the day

  Mom doesn’t get mad

  but I can tell when she gets annoyed.

  I think she was overreacting

  You said you’d be back to meet Dr. Yesler

  another one of my mom’s many doctor friends

  Sorry, Mom, Electra and I were out at garage sales

  This whole time?

  She had a way of making everything sound absolutely absurd

  Sorry

  You don’t have to apologize, I would have just appreciated a heads-up

  Dr. Yesler waited awhile for you

  Dr. Yesler works with youth

  I was telling her about you

  What about me? I say

  Your challenges

  how you have had trouble with attention span

  I’m sorry, what’d you say?

  People didn’t like when I made that joke, but

  how else was I supposed to respond?

  She’d be happy to talk with you,

  offer you some techniques

  I only have a few weeks of summer school left, Mom

  I’ll be fine

  Not just about summer school, Pernell.

  Next year is your last year of high school

  and we talked about this, you still have a chance

  At this point, I don’t know what to say

  or how to respond, I’m just paralyzed

  looking at her

  What do I say here?

  That the thought of talking to one of her

  seven-degree-holding, fancy, intimidating Doctor Friends

  fills me with dread?

  That the problem attention spans are

  other people’s problems, not mine?

  That searching for the Golden Monkey makes me feel good?

  That it’s just too late, three years, three summer schools, will

  be on my record permanently and my last year of high school

  isn’t gonna make a huge difference?

  That my plan is to just keep my head down and push through

  and have it all in my rearview

  and I will be vindicated and liberated

  to build a life on my terms

  at my own speed and time?

  Mom repeated, Pernell, how does that sound?

  There was a question mark at the end of that sentence,

  but it wasn’t a question, so I just nodded

  Sounds fine

  Future minutes

  There are New York minutes, which are faster

  because New York is faster

  I bet after you all rebuild after us,

  you’ll study our mistakes and track time differently, right?

  Or maybe you’ll do away with time entirely

  maybe it’s all just closer to what it is

  rotations, sleep, wake, eat, poop

  Maybe a day is a minute

  Maybe a year is a second

  Maybe a lifetime is a day

  Maybe paying attention is not a measure of time

  but an exchange, like a trade

  Did I lose you?

  I think I lost myself

  It’s the middle of the night

  I need my rest

  Big week coming

  SEVEN

  So, you guys are into rhyming, huh?

  Harding: Who’re you into?

  Run-DMC?

  Kool Moe Dee?

  Well, you know what? I’m going to kick it really old-school,

  for real. Introduce you to some of the original rhymers

  of the English language. Perfect rhymes.

  Rhythmic consistency, no profanity.

  No disrespect to women or racism.

  Take one and pass them around

  We’re going to review these and do a bit of scansion

  you all know what scansion is, right? Anyone? Who can tell me?

  Oh my gosh. Is that Rapmaster P? You’re raising your hand

  P: Breaking down the rhythm on the page

  …

  …

  Am I right?

  H: You have been paying attention!

  Well, I expect to see some serious scansion

  Look, none of this is new to me

  I don’t want to start a war here

  I don’t know what it’s like in the future as far as

  literature is concerned

  I really got no beef with anybody—

  storytellers who tell stories, poets, singers, movie directors

  arts, all of that is cool to me

  But this whole thing these older generations love to do?

  They’re so quick to say this new thing is an old thing

  And what you kids like now is nothing

  I mean, come on. Shakespeare was the original rapper?

  No

  Yes, he worked with words

  and rappers work with words

  Shakespeare was not trying to deal with

  all different kinds of biases and racisms

  didn’t have all the stuff we carry

  Shakespeare wasn’t writing radio songs

  there wasn’t even such a thing as the radio

  I’m not here to rile up all the Shakespeare people in the future

  let’s be honest, probably even in the future

  you guys are still loving this guy

  I get it, and to be fair, we didn’t read just Shakespeare

  She’s talking about this Longfellow guy,

  and somebody who’s literally named Wordsworth,

  which, okay, I suspect that guy’s probably not

  gonna grow up to become a pilot,

  but then the way that she looks so shocked when I knew

  what scansion was

  How could I not? I’m a sci-fi dude

  and it’s a cool-sounding word!

  Scansion sounds like something from Star Trek

  Captain Picard, we thought we had lost them.

  We will use scansion to bring him back

  And then we can help fight the Klingon War!

  (Okay, I haven’t seen Star Trek in a while)

  But also the timing of this

  She had never mentioned anything about perfect rhymes before!

  Why this sudden interest in rap?

  Never once in the years I’d endured here

  did she ever mention anything having to do with

  hip-hop rhyming—why now?

  Hmm, let me guess

  Can you guess?

  I’ll just tell you

  It’s because I been showin’ promise—I been doin’ my thing

  and the other students, the hall troopers,

  the people who serve the lunch

  I had their attention, they could hear me, they were with me—

  I had them

  and I KNOW it got back to her, she must have heard about it

  and they said,

  Aren’t you teaching that kid this summer?

  God forbid I have a moment where I am excelling!

  Where I get an A in something that she doesn’t understand

  or can’t rule over!

  God forbid the summer school clown college

  be buzzing about something that I, Pernell,

  created with the English language

  I’m mad at myself that I’m spending my own time

  this little window I get between classes, to even say this.

  And that I’m saying this huddled up in some corner somewhere

  because they’re still not done with my favorite stall!

  Just like that, man

  you can be a full firefly blazing like can’t nothing darken you

  and all it takes is one hater

  to make you feel like a gnat again

  A gnat again

  Well, not again

  These wings ain’t fragile as porcelain

  Who is this summer’s Cypher King?

  Gio: Say what?

  Deonna: Huh?

  P: Who is the Cypher King?

  G: That’s what I thought you asked. Obviously, it’s me

  D: Obvious to who?

  G: I went rhyme for rhyme with Hakim all last summer

  and this year nobody is touching me. No offense

  D: I feel offense

  P: See, that’s exactly what we need to find out,

  take a poll or something

  G: How?

  P: We will ask—here, right now, in the lunchroom

  G: What?

  D: P, you can’t just ask them

  P: Why not?

  D: How you know folks will be honest?

  G: Everybody know it’s me

  P: Everybody, everybody, everyone!

  Lemme have your attention please

  Sorry to interrupt, but I have a question

  D: Everybody! Come on, it won’t take long

  G: It really won’t, because it’s obvious

  D: Will you shut up?

  P: I’m documenting it here on my recorder

  you know, for the record.

  Okay—you seen us rhyme last week,

  I know a lot of you were here with me

  last summer

  G: And the summer before that

  P: You know, there’s a king, and for a while it was Hakim

  but Hakim is gone and we need a new king

  Gio thinks he’s the king. I’m not saying it’s me—

  I mean, I just started rhyming here

  Deonna, this is your first summer school, right?

  D: Yeah

  P: And Deonna’s real good, she could be king, queen, whatever

  I’m not asking you to vote on which of us may or may not be king

  I am asking you to confirm that the crown is vacant

  G: Or that it’s me, come on, y’all know

  D: I mean, I’m not hearing anybody make noise when you say that

  G: Because they don’t wanna hurt your feelings

  P: That’s a solid conclusion

  G: Nah, nah, nah, gimme that

  P: Stop, no

  G: Gimme that—so I can say something

  P: Everybody can hear you. This recorder

  is picking you up.

  G: Dude

  P: I said stop—

  D: Guys, guys, guys

  P: Gio, you asshole, you’re gonna br—

  Yep. It’s working again

  P: Really?

  E: Yep, see, the numbers…

  P: Ohmigod, Electra, THANK YOU

  E: No problem

  P: I thought this was broken forever. Wait, don’t shut it off

  E: Why?

  P: You gotta tell ’em

  E: Oh, okay. Hey, Future—

  Pernell seems to think you all care about

  how my internship is going

  P: They do!

  E: It’s standing around while these dudes just obsess over

  the smallest, teeniest imperfection and play the same sound

  over and over and over again… which is cool… but it’s tedious

  and they never ask for my opinion

  they are going through each frequency—

  P: Frequency?

  E: It’s what makes the bass feel warm and… you know, bassy

  and the highs feel angelic

  and I’m good at hearing them, I know I hear them

  but they never ask me

  they just want someone there to watch them

  P: And what about Hakim?

  E: Hakim works with his dad in the admin office,

  you know, phones and forms,

  meetings, it’s kinda cute

  P: You think he’s cute?

  E: Like, his dad is all dressed up all the time, he’s a pastor

  P: Big-time, right?

  E: Yeah, big radio audience that stretches across the region

  P: Uh-huh

  E: The other day, he was all pinstripes

  and Hakim is kinda like his Mini-Me now

  P: Really?

  E: Yeah, last year he was all FILA tracksuits and fake-gold chains,

  and now he’s looking like president of the deacon board

  P: Yeah… so, you guys don’t hang out?

  E: Not really

  P: But if you’re just in there watching,

  how can you get me any studio time?

  E: I don’t know—I was just saying maybe, I don’t know

  P: Oh

  E: Eventually, I will figure it out, but only if you write a song

  P: You won’t just turn the mic on and let me freestyle

  E: No, that’s what you have your recorder for. I want a song

  verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus…

  what are you doing? Oh, now you wanna shut it off!

  The thing about this recorder, it’s very sensitive

  For real, I thought for sure it was over

  when Gio broke my recorder

  When he went for it, I kept it away, like you would

  do to a little kid, you know,

  if you were a bully older brother or cousin

  So he starts grabbing my arm, and I pulled it away, harsh,

  sharp, and as I did that, he tried to go for it with his other hand

  And then I tried to—it flipped and flopped

  I thought I had it—and I didn’t,

  it fell and crashed and it was like

  when you drop a block of ice on a hard floor

  Pieces went everywhere

  The room went quiet

  And I immediately scanned, looking for Electra,

  but remembered she wasn’t there anymore

  I panicked a bit and I screamed at Gio

  I don’t remember what I said, but he got flushed

  his face, I knew he felt bad,

  you heard the recording

  he has no problem with confidence

  But he was frozen, and I was like a machine gun

  Deonna and a few others gathered all the pieces

  I didn’t even realize it, I was so hot

  and freaked out that all that I had shared

  would be gone—all those ones and zeros

  Man, talk really is cheap

  just a bunch of ideas and air

  that can be erased like nothing

  But it’s clear

  The crown is vacant

  they didn’t have to vote

  you could see

  and with me and Gio’s little interaction—

  now it’s personal

  But you heard it too, right?

  Earlier, when Electra was talking about her internship

  and I brought up Hakim’s name,

  there was nothing in her voice that

  would, you know, suggest…

  I’m not jealous or anything

  I mean, look, I encouraged her

  I even went with her to her interview

  saw Hakim too, he was there, like she said, in a

  nice button-down shirt

  and some slacks and shiny shoes

  While she was talking to the office manager,

  I watched him be cool, floating and smiling around,

  joking with the other folks who worked there

  But I still saw him in the cypher last year,

  just flowing like he was painting the clouds

  and I had to find out

  ’Scuse me

  He turned, finally recognizing me

  I knew to lead with compliments,

  exact lines he wove last year, he lapped them up

  and I knew I had him

 

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