Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff

by Walter Dean Myers

  Another thing that happened that same summer was that they tore down some buildings in the next block and made new projects. This didn’t seem like much but it was really an important thing. The neighborhood started to change. When all the new people moved in we ended up going to school about a half mile away. We had to take a bus to get there. And slowly the things that made the neighborhood changed and it wasn’t the same. I think it had something to do with the new buildings and the fact that new people replaced Clyde and Sam and them in my life. Oh, I still see Clyde when he comes in from school. He dropped out a year and then went back because of money troubles. Sam I see in the summer and sometimes at track meets. He plays baseball in school and runs track. He thinks he’s going to play with the major leagues someday. I haven’t seen Gloria but, as I told you, I found out that she got married.

  The one thing I won’t forget is how close we all were. How much we cared for each other. I just hope I’ll always have people to care for like that and be close to. And I’d like to be able to teach somebody else that feeling.

  Do you know what I wonder? I wonder if sometimes any of the Good People sit around, wherever they are, and say, “Hey, remember old Stuff?” I bet they do.