“Well, I guess I could ask you the same thing, Negro Brown. And why are you looking like the Secret Service wearing that baseball hat and sunglasses? Are you hiding from someone? The mob? The KKK? That Christian white boy you ran away from last night? I’ve never seen you move that fast.”

I don’t admit it, but I am hiding from Bryce. I hope carefully placed hats, scarves, and sunglasses will prevent him from recognizing me for the rest of the school year. I never want to see him again.

“I’m not hiding from anyone. It’s way too early for your shenanigans. So don’t start. Let me just sit here in peace until they open.… I almost caught a plane back to Cleveland last night, but forces bigger than me intervened.”

Earnell’s tone shifts immediately. He places a hand on my thigh, the pressure of his palm alternating between caring friend and desirous lover. I don’t move it.

“I shouldn’t have said that to you the other day—”

“No, it had nothing to do with that,” I say, interrupting him. “I know you were just trying to help.”

“What happened? Why were you about to go home?”

I know I can’t tell Earnell about the astral travel. I focus on my sliding grades instead.

“It just seems like everything I’ve worked for is crashing down. I didn’t pass my calculus midterm. Got C’s on all the rest. I’ve never failed a test in my life. You were totally right this whole time about getting help. I feel like a complete failure.”

Earnell takes an exasperated inhale.

“I’ve been thinking about the conversation we had in that study room and have arrived at a new place of understanding. What if I was wrong? What if I told you that you can’t lose?”

“What do you mean?”

“Hang with me here. Even if you leave this godforsaken place, return to Cleveland, get a job trying to make a dollar out of fifteen cents—and to be clear, I don’t want that for you at all—you will find another way to do what you came to do. This path we are on was started long ago by the ones that came before. It’s ancestral. After everything they went through, if they did it, then damnit so can we. We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams. Their spirit lives in you. It lives in me too and it will never stop. So as Dr. King once said, ‘I have been to the mountaintop.’ Seriously, look around, we are literally on a mountain. ‘I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory.…’ We can’t lose. Your spirit won’t allow it. Purpose is bigger than our fears and limitations.”

“Wow, Earnell. That was really deep and sounds a lot like what Yoda said.”