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“Yeah,” he says. A young man in a white 30 I punch my username and password into the 5
T-shirt staggers toward us, “Grrrrr,” he says. He’s computer, and Richard bows down to me like
gnawing on something. I move to sling him one of I’m to be worshipped. Angela nods at me like a
the SlimStraights in his size — he thinks it’ll make proud mama. While I’m gone, Angela will take
him popular at school — but stop because of how my spot in the PoleFace TM section. It’s the lull, so
quickly Duo tosses the right kind of jeans to the she can handle it. Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
customer, who takes them and limps to the register. Outside the store, the Prominent is bloody 40
“You understand them?” I ask. and broken, so I can tell it’s been a great Black
“Now I do,” Duo says. He kicks at a tooth Friday. There are people strung out over benches
that’s lying on the ground. Then he shows me and feet poking out of trash bins. Christmas
a small bloody mark in the space between his music you can’t escape plays from speakers you
thumb and forefinger. cannot see. Christmas is God here.
“That’s Black Friday.” I’m hungry. My family didn’t really do the
“This is my first.” Thanksgiving thing this year — which felt like
“Well, the worst part is done,” I say, kind of 35 a relief except I missed my chance for stuffing.
smiling, trying to see where he’s at. I’d offered to help with some of the shopping.
“I don’t know,” he says. My mom had lost her job. I make $8.50 an hour,
“Yeah,” I say, and continue on toward the but I saved. Mom, Dad, sister, me. But then we
register. skipped the whole thing because we don’t really
“My break is after yours,” Duo says. That’s like one another anymore. That was one of the
retail for Hurry up, I’m hungry. side effects of lean living. We used to play games

Photo Josse/Leemage/Getty Images

The Ricotta Eaters is an oil painting by the Italian artist Vincenzo Campi (1536–1591) that
hangs in the Museum of Fine Art of Lyon, unflatteringly depicts a group of peasants eating
a staple of the lower classes of Italy at the time.
How does this painting comment on social class? How does Adjei-Brenyah’s story
use similar strategies to make a different point than Campi?
57
Copyright © 2021 by Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample chapter.
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