Tight

The next day, the two boys walk to the subway instead of to school. Bryan lacks the money to pay the fare, but when Mike tells him that he “got it,” Bryan is impressed with what he perceives to be Mike’s brotherly generosity. In this moment, he almost feels guilty for having doubted Mike in the past. However, once they reach the turnstiles, Mike ducks under without paying. After a moment of shock, Bryan follows him, and no one gives chase. (The teller shouts at them through the speaker in a “Darth Vader” voice but takes no other action.) Scared and angry, Bryan finds Mike on the platform leaning casually against a pillar. Mike claims that he didn’t warn Bryan because he himself “didn’t know” that he would do that. Showing Bryan a handful of money, he says that he could easily have paid, but that this way was much more fun. Bryan, still angry and confused, lets the issue drop because he doesn’t want to look “soft.” As they ride the train, Bryan decides that Mike is right to declare that what they are doing is fun. Caught up in the excitement of the moment, he feels sorry for his classmates who are stuck in school. The train enters a dark, “scary” tunnel, and the two of them agree that it feels like they are “flying.”

Mike takes Bryan to a comic book store far from their neighborhood. The proprietor greets Mike as “Rob,” and Mike introduces Bryan as “Ray.” As they look at comics, Bryan suggests that they go to a park, but Mike scoffs that the park is the first place cops look for kids cutting school. He suggests Starbucks, and because Bryan is far from home and has never ridden a train by himself, he feels that he has no choice but to follow where Mike leads, even though he feels increasingly guilty over their actions. Mike, he thinks, has him right where he wants him, “kissing his butt” (83). Tamping down his anger, he follows Mike into Starbucks, where they blend in by sitting close enough to other families to fool any cops who might be watching. Soon, Bryan relaxes and begins to feel that all the deception he has engaged in is not really so bad, since it feels like having a secret identity, just like superheroes do. As the hours pass, Bryan comes to relish the peace and quiet of reading comics in Starbucks, which he reasons is more “chill” than throwing pebbles off a roof. Later, they go up on a roof in their own neighborhood, but this time they behave themselves, reading quietly just as they did in Starbucks. Bryan feels lucky to have Mike, whom he thinks is almost like a “real brother.”

A few days later, Bryan and Mike cut school again and board the subway to go downtown, but this time Mike goes to the very last car and tells Bryan not to get in. Without warning, he jumps onto the back of the train, catching hold of the handles on the outside of the car, six feet above the tracks. Mike shouts to Bryan to grab one of the other handles. At a loss, Bryan finally obeys and jumps on. As the train picks up speed, Bryan holds on for dear life, praying that the handle will not slip out of his sweaty hands. Mike, he notices, has a huge smile; it is the happiest Bryan has ever seen him. As the train zooms through a dark tunnel, Bryan sees sparks flying from the rails far below and howls with excitement, all of his fear turned to exhilaration. When they get off at the next station, Mike tells him, “You gangsta.” Bryan tries hard to process the excitement and danger of what they just did, which Mike says is called “train surfing.” Later, as the two boys “chill” in Bryan’s room, Bryan compares what they did to the speedy superhero “The Flash.” Mike agrees but then insults him for no reason, giving him the “Steve Harvey” smirk and calling him “dumb slow.” Bryan breathes deeply to control his temper, as his mother has taught him to do.

The next day, Bryan and Mike are playing handball and joking about their pet peeves when a flashy car with fancy hubcaps and a loud radio cruises by. Bryan, who is not interested in cars, takes little notice, but Mike gazes after it, “hypnotized.” He ends the game and refuses to let Bryan use his ball to practice, treating him like a pest. Bryan “hates” this behavior of Mike’s, which pops up frequently. When Bryan gets home, he finds Ava watching a TV show. The characters strike Bryan as very realistic, and some of their “foul” behavior reminds him of Mike. He wants to discuss Mike’s erratic behavior with Ava, since he feels unusually close to her at this moment, but he decides against it because he knows she thinks Mike is “cool” and he doesn’t want to provoke her again. Ava shares with him the message of the show, which is to always give other people a chance, even if they upset you, and to “talk it out if you can” (97).

Instead of waiting on the corner for Mike the next day, Bryan goes to the community center to hang out with his mother, whom he calls his “heart.” He wants to tell her about all the “ill stuff” he has been doing with Mike, but he hesitates out of fear. Soon, the office becomes busy, and he loses his chance to confess his recent misdeeds. His mother introduces him to a boy his own age named Kamau, whose family is from Kenya, Africa. Bryan shows Kamau one of his Black Panther comics, and for a while, the two of them bond over their love of superheroes. Soon, Melanie enters with her parents and seems happy to see Bryan and Kamau together. After she leaves, Mike enters and behaves rudely to them both, glaring silently at them and refusing to shake Kamau’s hand. His behavior shatters the “good vibe” between Bryan and Kamau. When it is time for Kamau to leave, he and Bryan are both sad that they probably won’t see each other again, since Kamau is going to live in a different neighborhood. After Kamau leaves, Mike mocks Bryan, comparing his sad goodbye to a break-up in a “chick flick.” When Bryan reacts angrily, Mike apologizes with seeming sincerity. Though still a little angry, Bryan decides to accept Mike’s apology.

That night after dinner, Bryan’s mother shows him and Ava a letter from their father, which encloses a photo of himself for each of them. After Ava leaves, Ma, remembering Mike’s odd behavior in her office that day, asks if something has “happened” with him. Bryan says only that his friend sometimes acts like “two different people,” and that the “grimy stuff” (107) that he does makes Bryan angry. Ma tries to reassure him that he and Mike are like brothers, and that it is perfectly normal for brothers to get angry at each other—angrier, even, than friends do. Bryan realizes that his mother has no idea what Mike is truly like, but he still can’t bring himself to confide in her. Ma says that however angry he gets, he should not get “physical” with anyone, because violence only makes problems bigger—as has happened to his father so many times. She offers to talk to Mike herself, but Bryan rejects the idea, thinking that Mike will just believe him to be “soft.” He tells her that he will handle the issue with Mike by himself.