Page 100 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade6_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 1.15
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29 “I’m not looking for your treasure,” Greg answered, smiling. “If you have one.”
30 “What you mean, if I have one.” Lemon Brown said. “Every man got a treasure. You
don’t know that, you must be a fool!”
31 “Sure,” Greg said as he sat on the sofa and put one leg over the back. “What do you have, gold coins?”
32 “Don’t worry none about what I got,” Lemon Brown said. “You know who I am?”
33 “You told me your name was orange or lemon or something like that.
34 “Lemon Brown,” the old man said, pulling back his shoulders as he did so,” they
used to call me Sweet Lemon Brown.”
35 “Sweet Lemon?” Greg asked.
36 “Yessir. Sweet Lemon Brown. They used to say I sung the blues so sweet that if I
sang at a funeral, the dead would commence to rocking with the beat. Used to travel all over Mississippi and as far as Monroe, Louisiana, and east on over to Macon, Georgia. You mean you ain’t never heard of Sweet Lemon Brown?”
37 “Afraid not,” Greg said. “What . . . happened to you?”
38 “Hard times, boy. Hard times always after a poor man. One day I got tired, sat
down to rest a spell and felt a tap on my shoulder. Hard times caught up with me.”
39 “Sorry about that.”
40 “What you doing here? How come you don’t go in home when the rain come? Rain
don’t bother you young folks none.”
41 “Just didn’t.” Greg looked away.
42 “I used to have a knotty-headed boy just like you.” Lemon Brown had half walked,
half shuffled back to the corner and sat down against the wall. “Had them big eyes like you got. I used to call them moon eyes. Look into them moon eyes and see anything you want.”
43 “How come you gave up singing the blues?” Greg asked.
44 “Didn’t give it up,” Lemon Brown said. “You don’t give up the blues; they give you
up. After a while you do good for yourself, and it ain’t nothing but foolishness singing about how hard you got it. Ain’t that right?”
45 “I guess so.”
46 “What’s that noise?” Lemon Brown asked, suddenly sitting upright. Greg listened,
and he heard a noise outside. He looked at Lemon Brown and saw the old man pointing toward the window.
47 Greg went to the window and saw three men, neighborhood thugs, on the stoop. One was carrying a length of pipe. Greg looked back toward Lemon Brown, who moved quietly across the room to the window. The old man looked out, then beckoned frantically for Greg to follow him. For a moment Greg couldn’t move.
Then he found himself following Lemon Brown into the hallway and up the darkened stairs. Greg followed as closely as he could. They reached the top of the stairs, and Greg felt Lemon Brown’s hand first lying on his shoulder, then probing down his arm until he took Greg’s hand into his own as they crouched in the darkness.
my Notes
Unit 1 • Stories of Change 73
commence: begin, start
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