LATE SUMMER, EARLY FALL

About the Book

David Wilson had just graduated from high school and was waiting to enter the University of Texas and become a lawyer. He was an honor student; literate but he lacked athletic and social skills. He lived in the shadow of his mother and was never quite allowed to develop like a normal boy. In the course of summer, David met a nigrah boy who worked in the grocery store down the block. Toye Lee Johnson was a year younger than David and was waiting for the day he turned 18 so he could join the army — his sole plan. He had no interest in school nor graduating, but he was the embodiment of a perfect athlete. He was very familiar with the “worldly ways” of life and had a great deal of common sense, something David lacked. Not two humans were as different as the two. During the course of summer, the two boys who met daily at the trash bin, got to know each other, and decided to do things that the other boy had never done. This was against the “code” of the community, which absolutely prohibited whites and nigrahs from associating with each other in social matters unless the coloreds remained in their "place.” Consequently, any kind of activity that the boys participated in had to be done in secret and often at night when they would not be seen together. The summer activities were a revelation to both boys and each was exposed to things he had never known, all these without their secret being discovered. All went well until the week before David left for Austin, and Toye Lee returned for his senior year. The event that happened that week changed the course of their lives and force David to make decisions, which would affect him for the rest of his life. It was a decision in which he consulted three people who had the most influence on his life. But in the end it was a decision only he could make. Then again, the question would always be: Did I make the right decision?

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