August 30, 2008
Lower Stories: Mr. Starks and Mr. Green in Dayton
Starks and Green were nightshift high school custodians. They feared the terrible power of the daytime maintenance men. Sherman Starks looked like an earlier version of B.B. King and drove an immaculate blue 1970 Buick Electra 225. Jim Green was an older, more grizzled man with a steel wool mustache and a twinkle in his eye.
Starks wouldn’t say anything without taking a quick look to see if the maintenance men or some white people were listening. He’d laugh without showing his teeth so he wouldn’t get caught.
Jim Green didn’t care who heard him. He talked about prison and how he got there. “Yeah, I killed that sombitch. Then I dug him up and stuck a knife in his heart.”
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