Soul Train Time

“Soul Train Time” is another fiction experiment from graduate school. Sadly, it’s based on a very true incident of adolescent violence.

Saturday at 12 o’clock was Soul Train time. Staci picked up the remote and changed the channel just in time to hear the announcer say that one of the show’s guests would be LL Cool J. “Yeeeaaah, ‘LL Cool J is hard as hell!’” she cheered from her spot on the living room couch.

“That’ll work!” Evangelyn responded. “I hope he does ‘Rock the Bells.’” Evangelyn planted herself on the floor in front of the coffee table and faced the TV screen. Staci set the remote on the table and picked up a glass salt shaker and half of an apple. She sprinkled salt on the dull white flesh of the fruit and bit into it eagerly.

At the other end of the couch sat Eddie, the girls’ brother. His lanky six-foot frame was stretched out over the couch, and his size-13 feet were on the table. His left ear was covered by a telephone receiver; his right ear was occupied by the chatter of his buddy Jaquez, who was perched on an arm of the couch. The living room window near Jaquez showed a grey, snowy landscape.

Staci and Evangelyn grooved to the first dance segment of the show, and then sat through commercials for Dark and Lovely No-Lye Hair Relaxer, Fashion Fair Cosmetics and McDonald’s Quarter-Pounders. Then an animated locomotive rode across the screen, puffing and pushing to the rhythm of the Soul Train theme song, signaling the next segment of the program.

“…Performing his hit song ‘Rock the Bells,’ Def Jam recording artist, L-L Cool Jaaay!” Don Cornelius announced.

“Cut it up, Staci!” said Evangelyn.

Staci picked up the remote from the table and held down the volume button. LL Cool J’s macho boasts blared from the TV speaker: “…This is not the glory days of Bruce Springsteen, I’m not a virgin so I know I’ll make Madonna scream!…”

“Turn that down, I’m on the phone!” shouted Eddie.

“I ain’t turning down nothing; this is LL Cool J! I ain’t never even seen him on TV before!” Staci snapped back.

“I’m talking to my girlfriend and I can’t hear! Turn it down!” Eddie yelled, and then he took his right foot off the table and kicked at Staci’s knee.

“You punk! Forget you and your funky girlfriend!” Staci picked up the salt shaker and threw it at Eddie, which hit his leg with a tap against his jeans.

Eddie put down the telephone and rose from the couch. With two long strides he was standing over Staci. He reached down and slapped Staci on the side of her head. Staci cried out and curled her body against the corner of the couch as Eddie’s fists pounded on her back, her side and the top of her head. When Eddie stopped, he stomped back to his end of the couch, sat down heavily, and picked up the phone to resume his conversation.

While Eddie and Staci were arguing, Evangelyn was trying to ignore them: Their hollering isn’t gonna make me miss LL Cool J, she thought. When the salt shaker flew across the room and pelted Eddie, however, Evangelyn was forced to take notice. And when Evangelyn saw Eddie rise from the couch and beat Staci, a fury was awakened in her that ran long and deep. Evangelyn was the oldest sibling at 17, but her brother had been bigger and taller than her and her sister since he was in first grade. Eddie had used his size to bully and taunt his sisters ever since.

Evangelyn rose from the floor and turned to Eddie. “Eddie, you ain’t got no business beating up on Staci like she’s some other boy!”

“Evangelyn, shut up! I’m on the phone!” snapped Eddie, and he continued talking both to the girl on the other end and Jaquez.

Evangelyn walked up to Eddie’s side of the couch and pressed her finger over the telephone hook. “I said you ain’t got no business beating on Staci with your fists. She’s a girl and you’re a boy. She shouldn’t have hit you with that salt shaker, but you kicked her with your big stanky feet first! You ain’t right for that!” Evangelyn shouted at him with a loudness that blared over the TV.

“Oh, I ain’t right, huh?” Eddie said as he stood up to his full height. His chest was in Evangelyn’s face, and he stuck it out like a rooster ready for a cockfight. “So what you gon’t do about it?”

Evangelyn stared up from Eddie’s chest to his puffed-up face for a scorching moment of silence. Suddenly, she turned away from Eddie and walked out of the living room to the kitchen. She quickly returned with a broom in her hands. She held the broomstick near the bristled end, left hand gripping down, right hand in an upturned grasp, like a right-handed baseball batter. The broomstick jutted out high above Evangelyn’s head like a spear. She strode with furious intent twisting her face, heading directly for Eddie.

“Dang!” cried out Eddie, and he raised his hands while ducking to defend himself from Evangelyn’s first swing. Aiming for Eddie’s head, Evangelyn missed but jabbed his shoulder. Eddie ran between the couch and the table, stumbling over Staci, while Evangelyn pursued, sweeping the air behind him with the end of the broomstick.

Eddie ran to the front door, opened it and dashed outside, slamming the door behind him. Evangelyn locked the door. Eddie’s face appeared in the living room window, which was painted shut. “Hey, man,” he called out to Jaquez. “Let me in, man. Let me in. It’s cold out here!”

Jaquez jumped off his perch on the couch arm and walked toward the door. Evangelyn stood in front of him, holding the broomstick as a sentry holds a rifle. “This is family business,” she spoke to Jaquez in a stern tone. “You stay out of it.”

Jaquez turned toward the window, shrugged his shoulders at Eddie, and walked back to the couch to straddle its arm.