We begin the exercise. I’ve known Earnell since the beginning of the school year, but I’ve never seen him like this. In raw form. Behind all the humor and antics, a tender soul. The jokes just a mask to keep it protected.

His eyes drop. He knows he’s been seen. When they return, tearful at the gift of being witnessed, finally. A weight lifted. He can stop hiding, at least for a little while.

There are no words, but some part of him asks for something I don’t know I can give yet, until it happens. The light comes on in my own heart center. It moves up to the middle of my forehead and spins. A presence—not my own—inside with words to deliver to Earnell.

“It’s not your fault, lil bro,” it says through me. “Let it go. We’ll always have Tybee.”

The light moves on. Earnell looks just as perplexed as me.

“How do you know about Tybee?” he asks confusedly.

“I don’t know.”

He swims deep down to the bottom of his thoughts.

“That was the last time we had together before it happened. We stayed out there talking all day. About life, the future. It took us almost four hours to get to Tybee Beach from Atlanta, but we didn’t care. We just wanted to sit in front of the ocean. We buried it, our time capsule, just as the sun was setting. I put in a letter to my future self and my favorite Power Ranger action figure, the red one. I don’t know what he wrote in his letter, but he put in the black Power Ranger. We used to play fight with them when we were kids. We buried our treasures and said we would dig it up in twenty-five years. Sixteen more before I can go back, without him.”

Earnell breaks. He sobs. Kurt likes the wailing.

“You’ll notice that as we go on, this exercise becomes deeper. That’s OK. Allow it. Tears are an indication of healing, contrary to what you’ve been taught.”

Others are crying also, all around the room. It’s an unbelievable sight that would never happen in the “real world.” Is this the answer to world peace? Have political leaders sit and look at each other in silence until the truth is revealed? All is unmasked here.

“I’m sorry about your brother, Earnell. From the bottom of my heart. I can go with you if you want, in sixteen years, to dig it up.”

Earnell is moved by the offer. He leans in, hugs me, lays his head on my shoulder, and lets go. The first time in a long time he has had any rest.

We smile at each other. I extend my hand, the olive branch.

“Friends?” I say.

He reaches back and says, “Welcome home, Negro Brown.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE