Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, January 23, 2006 at about 11pm CST - Segment 3

Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, January 23, 2006 at about 11pm CST - Segment 3

I am going to read you a chapter from my new book, The Deprived. I am down to chapter 11. This is chapter 3.1, yeah, strange way of describing it.

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Monday, August 16, 2004 5:27pm CDT, Wideley, TX, USA
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Grace Billingsley lay on the bed crying. Another dream turned to ashes. She'd wanted J.J. forever. The sex had not been good; it had been fantastic. Better than she had... A woman had stepped into her field of vision. She signed, *My name is Lucy House. I am J.J.'s housekeeper. You need to get up and see what J.J. is doing right now. It will explain something that you do not understand.* She moved back and motioned for Grace to follow. Grace wiped her tears and stumbled out of the bed. The woman led her out to a landing next to the stairs that looked down onto the dance floor.

J.J. and the scary man were fighting. It frightened her how FAST they were moving. The fighting was intense and it was forceful. J.J. was taking a pummeling. Why wasn't J.J. dead? The man was all motion, speed and power. Grace had seen that look in the faces of a few of the artisans she had stayed with. The man was fully engaged in the martial arts contest. J.J. was just as focused. He was taking damage. He was not giving up. He would fall and roll to his feet before the man could get to him. The woman attracted her attention and motioned back into the bedroom. Grace crawled back up on the bed and sat down, drawing her legs under the fleecy white bath robe. It felt good against her skin. It had been a long time since anything felt good in her life.

The woman signed, *J.J. is a mystic warrior now. He can harm people too easily. He can do great Evil if he chooses. Green Sky requires him to treat the weak gently. Green Sky does not say it that way, but that is what he means. With great power comes great responsibility. J.J. can now kill without any major effort.* She paused then signed, *I will be taking you home. You are too upset to have J.J. drive you there. You can keep the robe. J.J. had me make it for a trip he took. I'm sure he would want you to have it.* She hesitated, then signed, *Do you want me to make you some new clothes? You seem to be unhappy with the clothes you have.*

Grace was touched. The woman looked so competent. So cool. She looked down than signed, *I don't want handouts. I've lived too long on handouts. Four more years and I go off to college. Then the good life in the 'burbs.*

The woman smiled and signed, *Sounds like something J.J. would say.*

Grace signed, *He saved me. I was headed for nowhere. We were both thirteen. He took me aside one day and told me that, if I started right then, I could go to college and never have to see another foster home again. Education was the way out. He dragged me over to this accountant's office. This old African-American was there. He was one of the first to open an office on his own back in 1956. The old man told me that I could get pregnant and go on the welfare and have a horrible life or I could fight, get a college degree and have the good life. I told him that all my friends thought there was no way out if you were African-American. He pointed to his degree on the wall. It said, 1949. He said that he'd used the GI bill after World War II. I did NOT know what I was talking about. If he could make it, so could I. Times were a thousand times worse back then.

*It's been tough. My housing situation has been pretty awful. I've had to watch every councillor to make sure I got the right courses. I keep having to fight the Liberals. They want to make me a victim. They keep wanting me to let them take care of me. I hate it.*

Something about the woman made her sign, *I have not had that many guys. I got a NorPlant put in to avoid taking the pill. My friends keep pushing me to have a baby... At fifteen... It's crazy. I do not want a dead end life. J.J. made me see that I did not have to have one. I have dreamed about having him inside me. I thought he could NEVER live up to my dreams. He did. It was better than I expected. Much better. I thought the girls were lying about him.*

The woman smiled and signed, *J.J. can do things that he could not and would not do before. Green Sky was upset that J.J. let you into his bed without much of a thought. Now he knows that you are a special case, so he will not penalize J.J. for violating the rules.*

Grace finally realized what had been going on. She had not allowed it to sink in before. She signed slowly, *That man out there would have beaten J.J., because he felt J.J. had taken advantage of me?*

The woman signed emphatically, *Yes. It would have been a very painful beating, because J.J. loves that man and to have him inflict that amount of pain would have been more painful than the beating.* She hesitated, then signed, *I hope you realize that J.J. cares about you, but he does not love you. Green Sky was very clear that J.J. could not grow emotionally attached to any one girl.* Grace shook her head in denial. This was making no sense. *Dear, he really means it when he says that he will kill a girl, if J.J. falls for her. J.J. and I have not figured it out as to why. I will say that I think the reason is VERY important. As in millions of people's lives are in jeopardy.*

That seemed impossible to Grace. She stared at the woman and then signed, *Have I fallen into the Twilight Zone? This is crazy. Mystic warriors. Getting killed for loving someone. A guy I have known for years suddenly becomes a comic book hero. Why does this make sense?*

The woman laughed. She signed, *You sound exactly like J.J. He keeps saying that people are falling into the Twilight Zone swimming hole when he is around. It has been happening to him as well. He is not happy about that. And, Grace, I want you to know that he may have gone to bed with you to force Green Sky to admit he can make a mistake. There is a lot of tension between them, because J.J. might fail in his training to become a mystic warrior. That means he dies. Green Sky kills him.*

Grace was shocked and appalled. She signed heatedly, *Why does THAT make sense? He fails in his training and he dies? That is insane as well.*

The woman waved away her objections and signed, *Grace, please get dressed. J.J. will have to present you with a rose before you leave. You can either try to get it from his hands or sign Warrior, may I have that which is in your hand? or you can reject it. No one has, but you should know that you may do so.*

Grace got dressed. She went into the bathroom and cleaned up a bit. The clothes felt awful. When she came out, the woman had the bathrobe in a bag. They went downstairs. The two were still fighting. When Grace set foot on the of the dance floor, the action stopped. The scary man backed up. J.J. came over and signed, *Green Sky has called a break so I can see you off properly. Wait here a moment while I get something for you.*

Grace grabbed him and signed, *If you mean the rose, I don't want it.* Then she folded her arms.

J.J. looked at her funny, then signed, *Lady, our time together was a joy to me. I have offended you by my actions. I do not apologize. I do not accept your rebuke. There are some things I do not have control over.* He halted for a moment, then said to her face, "Thursday I start a club for people who have had bad lives and want to go to college or a trade school. If you join and keep with the program for four years, you can get a scholarship to any school that will accept you."

Grace signed, *I do not want anything from you.* She turned her back on him and started for the door. The woman followed. When they were outside, she skipped ahead and motioned toward a white Chevy. Grace got in the passenger side. The woman threw the bag in the back.

The woman said nothing else on the way to her current foster home. It wasn't until they got there, that she realized that she hadn't given an address to the woman. She got out, then she stalked to the door with the bag in her hand. She couldn't help but keep the bathrobe.

The door popped open and Ms. Blanchard started screaming at her. Being deaf in this case was a blessing. The woman came up behind her and said something to Ms. Blanchard. The tirade cut off. Grace watched Ms. Blanchard's lips as she said, "What do you mean she was invited over for a visit by an old friend?"

Grace glanced back at the woman who said, "Grace has been in the Child Welfare system of Texas all her life. She ran into another child in the same situation a while back. John Jones is his name. He has a stable home right now. He wanted to show it off to Grace. His guardian came down hard on J.J. for bringing Grace home without first contacting him. Grace and J.J. had a fight and I have had to drive her home. I am J.J.'s housekeeper. I believe that she has been punished enough for an ill considered action, but that is just my opinion."

She looked back at Ms. Blanchard who was looking much less upset. She said to Grace, "Go up to your room."

Grace looked back at the woman who said, "Have you reconsidered my offer of making you some clothes? Really, it would be easy for me. I would like to do it for you."

Grace missed part of what Ms. Blanchard said before she looked back at her, "... mean by that? Her clothes are okay. I get everything at the Second Chance for myself and my real kids."

It made Grace angry. She signed to the woman, *I would like that. Anything would be better than second hand.* She missed a bit of Ms. Blanchard's question.

Ms. Blanchard said, "... did you say to her?"

The woman said, "... agreed to let me make some clothes for her. She is a challenge because she is so stiff necked."

Ms. Blanchard said, "... stop you from donating something to her. I'm sure it will make you feel good to help a poor African-American child down on her luck." Grace couldn't hear the nastiness, but was sure it was there.

The woman unruffled said, "... mistaken. Grace is a friend of J.J.'s and someone who has decided to better herself. The clothes are more in the way of an encouragement. They are there to let her know that not all people are convinced she is going to fail in life."

Ms. Blanchard said, "... you insinuate something like that. You have no idea how hard it is to take in a child like this who is so willful. She has been here only a few days and already she is causing problems for..."

The woman said, "... case, then I will have a word with one of the supervisors in Child Welfare and have her moved. I wouldn't want her in a home where she was not welcome."

Grace could tell that Ms. Blanchard had panicked, "... on a minute. I need that income from having her here. You have no call to interfere in..."

The woman said, "... great, then I will be moving along." She looked Grace in the eye and handed her a piece of paper. She said, "Call that number any time if you want to talk, I know you have a vocoder, or you can log into the web site written there and we can sign to each other. I know you have an insta cam."

Grace reached out and touched her. Then she signed, *What was your name again?*

The woman smiled and signed, *Lucy House. Grace, I want to be your friend. You may not want to associate with J.J., but that is not part of the deal. Being my friend and being J.J.'s friend can be two different things. Think on it. I will call you when I have the clothes done.*

She was in her car and gone before Grace thought of how strange it was that Lucy had not taken her measurements. She smiled. EVERYTHING about that experience was too strange for words.

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Tuesday, August 17, 2004 7:37am CDT, Wideley, TX, USA
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The bus bounced over the broken road. She had never met her seatmate.

Someone touched her. Betty... something. It was two years since she'd seen her last. They had been friends. She said, "Someone saw you in the car with J.J. Is that true?" The conversation that followed was too strange for words. Before it was over every girl on the bus was listening. All of them thought she was nuts for rejecting the rose.

All morning long, girls came up and asked her about J.J. She finally stopped talking to them by turning her back on them or closing her eyes. One girl got physical about it. Grace had to slap her to get her to leave her alone.

Lakesha Brenner sat down across from her at lunch. She gently touched her hand and said to her face, "I hear you went to bed with J.J." Lakesha was a friend. She had been there for Grace over the years. There were not many African-Americans in school. Lakesha was one of the few who didn't rag on her for making good grades.

Grace wrote on a tablet she kept for talking to people who couldn't sign, *Yes. I don't understand why everyone is going crazy over this.*

Lakesha looked down and then said, "He rejected me because I was a virgin. His rules of conduct don't allow him to have sex with virgins. He would get a beating if he went to bed with me. He was there for me when we were kids. I thought he would be my first. He wouldn't touch me. He said he wouldn't take a beating for me. Besides... he said that he felt Blacks who have sex too early screw up their lives."

Grace wrote, *Lakesha, he's been beaten too many times. Once it was with a bull whip. He went to bed with me, because I had asked him to hook up with me more times than I can count. He always said no, because he was afraid I would become a single parent and screw up my life. African-Americans who start having sex before they marry very rarely GET married and wind up having crappy lives. He wasn't good with that. I asked him to marry me... He said no, because I wasn't smart enough for him. He said that inevitably, we would divorce and our kids would be screwed. Lakesha, he rejected me again. Yesterday. After we'd gone to bed... His guardian said that disabled girls were out of bounds. PERIOD. He made an exception for me, because I had asked J.J. a while back. If he had asked me, he would have gotten a beating.*

Lakesha looked at her funny, then said, "Why no sex with disabled girls?"

Grace said, *Lucy, his housekeeper, said that J.J. is so deadly now that he had to be gentle with people or... I don't know. I couldn't follow the logic. It's like J.J. has to be good or he could walk in one day and slaughter the entire school.*

Lakesha smiled, ate some of her meal, then said, "Yeah, there is always that... Was he any good in bed? No, don't tell me. It would be torture. Besides every girl who's been to bed with him has gushed. It's been pretty awful. There for a while he had a witch living in his house. She scared the shit out of anyone with sense. He moved her in with grownup witch and now he's back to bed hopping. I didn't know he had a car. He was riding a bike this summer. Or rather people were driving him around... Or something."

Grace couldn't help herself. She was sure she wasn't going to like the answer. She wrote, *A WITCH! Earth to Lakesha Brenner! Earth to Lakesha Brenner! There are no witches. Do you mean she was a witch with a "b"?*

Lakesha laughed and laughed and then said, "Girl, you have no idea how weird things are around J.J. A car fell out of..."

Pearl Panzazu sat down next to Grace. She had on an African dress in yellow and black. Her hair was in corn rows. She said something to Lakesha that Grace missed. Lakesha said, "You have to face her, so she can read your lips. Why you're jealous, I don't know. You insulted the guy. You're lucky he didn't hurt you."

Pearl turned to Grace and said with too much force, "Did you REALLY go to bed with him and to top it off tell him to keep his rose?" Grace could barely understand Pearl, because she talked so fast.

This was getting too weird. Why were all these girls acting this way? Grace wrote, *Look. I don't know you too well. You've always been on my case for being too damned White, because I make good grades. What's your problem?*

Pearl's face collapsed. She said, "He said I was virgin, so he couldn't touch me. My gramma went over and drew a gun on him. She's convinced that he rejected me because he's a bigot."

Grace was now too weirded out to believe what was going on. She wrote, *If you're a virgin, I'm...* She crossed that out and then wrote, *Forget it. How he could make that mistake is too weird for me. Girl, you have a reputation for too much sex, not too little.*

Pearl said, "I never let a guy inside me. I heard too many stories about girls getting pregnant and... Not me. My momma and gramma keep screaming that it's Whitey's fault, because African-Americans are poor. Well, what do you expect if you have a baby before you can support him? I was going to let J.J. inside me because I had heard he was sterile... I can't take the pill. It makes me sick... I had a Norplant insert and I damned near died. Three days at St. Josephs... Sex with girls is less complicated. Even with lots of Monicas, it's been tough keeping guy from whining and begging for something more strenuous... Rubbers break... BUT Rainbow parties are fun. I like them... Ahhh, I want a husband, not a lover... It never dawned on me that he would say no. It made no sense unless he was a racist."

Grace was now ANGRY. How could she see it that way? She wrote, *Lakesha, what the hell is she talking about? John has never been anything but a friend to me. He's always been there for me. What is she talking about?*

Lakesha said, "As near as I can tell, J.J. has a rule that defines virgin as penetration. Pearl has all kinds of sex, but it hasn't included penetration. If J.J. goes to bed with a virgin, he gets a beating. Pearl doesn't believe that a guy CAN say no unless he's gay or a racist."

Grace wrote, *Pearl, you total moron. John has been beaten too many times. He refuses to let it happen again. The woman I spoke with said he loves the monster who would beat him.* Grace came to a full stop. Why was she defending John?... He wouldn't take a beating for anyone. Not just her, but anyone. She had to think about this. She stopped talking to the other two for the rest of her lunch.

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This chapter is about avoiding being a victim if you are disabled. It's kind of difficult to do that. Liberals really and truly want disabled people to depend on the government to provide them with every want and need, because society owes disabled people an apology for not being able to cure their ills.

I never have gone for that. I am not into social Darwinism, but I surely am not into birth to grave coddling by the state.

If you are disabled, then you should be as independent as you can be. Dependency is a silly idea.

As long as you think yourself a victim, then you are.

Ah, well, I have said all I am going to say tonight. I now turn it over to MacKenzie Pequa the Third who will play you an eclectic mix of music throughout the night.

Take it away Mac.