To Africa to see the “King Kong” (5)

  

 As an inducement and prize for getting his haircut his father had bought  a complete cowboy outfit complete with double holster  and spurs. Instead of showing excitement or pleasure Leroy cried an involuntary deep pain felt cry. The sort that starts off with a deep breath but instead of exhaling it 
becomes a sniff that becomes another sniff to then become a hick-up and the shoulders heave and there is no control. The tears flowed leaving a white track down his cheeks.

   Leroy had always identified himself in the “game” of cowboys and Indians as the Indian a warrior brave who would one day defend his nation and become chief of the Sou’s, Apache, Comanche.  Leroy was an Indian Brave not a singing cowboy, drunken cowboy or bank robber cowboy. The nearest Leroy ever got to being a cowboy was the father in “Bonanza”.
   This was yet another indication to his parents that Leroy was indeed backward. 
“Most boys want to be cowboys” said Aunt Mo. Coming in to appease the situation. With a sense of humour Ivan did an Indian dance around the room with two fingers as feathers and the other hand patting his mouth to represent the sound OOOHHH, OOOHHH, as he war danced.
  
   Leroy could not help but sniffle himself to silence and then to a smile. Leroy submitted to be scalped with his father’s brand new clippers. Kindness and understanding shown by Aunt Mo. Previously evaporated. 
She announces: “What a way him look like Bud Pinckney.”
   The heaven gates opened and Noah had prepared for the flood. Not Leroy involuntarily the tears washed his face. He stood in his full cowboy outfit. As his face was a washed by tears. Leroy felt the breeze he had not experienced for some time the coldness of a bald head. Aunt Mo’s words sunk in like an arrow he had made and shot a tiny bird whilst in the bush as a child. He stared at the Bud Pinckney still pink with clear wriggly lines for veins. The rear end covered in a downy feather and he Leroy had lit a fire and set up a spit and roasted the creature and ate it in the ashes of his fire. He placed himself in the place of the ill
fated hatch ling, with the scrawny neck. Leroy felt openly vulnerable of everything. He had no cover. He had been truly scalped. Ivan out of frustration shouted: Shut up Shut up “bwai” he shuffled around to find a strap, Leroy exited to the garden without another word and stood under the tree in Dead Wood City. As he watched the back of the house, waiting. He plucked a long stem of grass and chewed the stork
emitting a white sap.
   The psychological pain was too much for Leroy he was “a- mean- looking -bald- headed, bud Pinckney, Indian dressed as a cowboy.”Social reality 2.3
  
   His parents had cheated.  They had gone to somewhere very special together. The evenings preparations were the most elaborate he had ever seen. Aunt Mo. Took her time to prepare in front of the dresser in their
tiny room. She used her best perfume and carried her shiny plastic handbag.  He had suspected that they had gone to Africa without him.
   They came back late that night laughing and happy. Leroy screwed up his eyes and pretended to be asleep. Overcome by a presence standing over him in the bed Leroy peeped to see his father dressed in his silk lapel jacket and his frilly shirt complete with black bow tie. Ivan shook his head from side to side. 
   “Boy, you asleep?”
   “Yes.” Leroy could hear snippets of conversation “about “King Kong.” Leroy felt betrayed they had gone to Africa to see the “King Kong” and had   not taken him.  They were guilty.