Radio

Jabari inclined his face toward the radio and listened to the soccer game. He could see it all in his mind's eye… the Players lining up on the field, each taking their positions. The yell to start, the kicking and running and everything swept Jabari into it. Oh, he wished he had a radio of his very own, so he could listen all day. “Jabari! Time to go!” his Mama called. Jabari got up from the radio, Yared, his best friend, following. “Great game, huh?” Yared asked. Jabari nodded. “Did you hear that goal? Basically ripped a hole in the net!” Jabari exclaimed. “Yeah, that was awesome!” Yared agreed. By then, the duo had reached Jabari’s Mama, and their bicycles. “Well, see you tomorrow Jabari?” Yared asked. “Definitely. See you soon!” Jabari called as he drove down the dirt path to his house. His Mama followed, soon outpacing Jabari. She got off and started to walk her bike up the driveway and lay it against the house. Jabari was so lucky he lived next door to Yared, first because he could go there pretty much whenever, and second because it was close enough that Jabari could walk there. As a plus, Yared also liked soccer, so they would listen to that together most days. But Jabari wanted to listen to the games when he was home, but he didn't because he didn't have a usable radio. The Radio that his family had was all broken, with no more battery life and rusting sides. The paint was peeling and the buttons were broken off. Jabari wanted to fix it, but his Mama said there wasn’t enough money. At least him and Yared could play soccer. They used rolled up trash bags as the ball and two sticks as the goals. Jabari got off of his bike and liened it up against the house. He walked inside and opened the door to his bedroom. He sighed and looked at the shelf of books and picked one up. The cover was dirty and ripped, but this was Jabari’s favorite. He read the cover out loud. “The Life of Jabari Abara.” he loved this book because the soccer player shared his name, and he hailed from Jabari’s small village. Jabari Abara was a legend in Jabari’s eyes. The best soccer player in the world. If only Jabari could listen to him more than just two or three times a week. He wanted to listen to him every day. Jabari looked out the window and into the yard. The chickens  ran around like fools, while Jabari’s little sister Zuri chased them around with a rock. Jabari looked up at the straw ceiling and watched as dust fell down onto the floor. Life, he thought, was a bore without the Radio. He needed one. Jabari stood and walked out of the bedroom and into the living room. No one was in the house right now. He sneaked towards the cabinet and reached above it, quickly wrapping his fingers around a small rectangular box. He pulled it out and ran to his room, shutting the door behind him. Jabari stashed the Radio under his bed and ran outside. He couldn’t let his Mama find out about the stolen Radio, and she made him clean his room instead of doing it for him so at least she wouldn’t sweep the Radio out that way. He walked towards the woods and whistled for Kumba, his dog. Kumba lopped over to him and barked. “Come on Kumba. Let's walk.” Jabari gestured towards the woods. Jabari thought as he walked. He would want to paint the Radio first, since that was the easiest job. Then he needed new buttons. And then he needed new batteries… the latter, he guessed, would be the most expensive. He knew that his house had some paint somewhere, but he didn’t know the color. He figured red would look cool if they had it, or maybe blue. He turned back toward home, Kumba following. Jabari walked over to the side of the house and towards a big wooden box. He opened it and jumped over the side, into a small cellar space. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the light and looked for the cans of paint. He found them in one corner and lifted each of them, trying to find the heaviest one. The heavier it was, the more paint it contained. He found one that was pretty heavy and threw it out of the cellar. He found a couple of paint brushes and threw them out as well. He climbed out of the hole and picked up the supplies. Jabari walked over to his Mama and tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up from her flowers. “Oh, Jabari! What’s the paint for?” she asked. “I figured my room could use some extra color.” Jabari lied. “What a great Idea! Just remember to wear a mask so you don’t get sick.” His Mama replied. Jabari nodded and walked towards the house. He dropped them off in his room and went to pick up a towel to wrap around his face when he was painting. He bolted towards his room and shut the door. Jabari tied the Mask on and opened the can. The foul stench wafted up towards his nose, making his eyes water. He determined that it would be too dangerous to paint the Radio during the day, so that time was reserved for his bedroom. Jabari stabbed the brush into the paint, swirled it around, then took it out. It was covered in a reddish, brownish color. He swiped it against the wooden wall and started to paint.

* * * * *

Later in the night, Jabari pulled the Radio out from under the bed. He decided to finish peeling off the paint. He sat down and started to pull at the paint, spending hours at it before dropping the paint shavings out of his window. After he was done pulling the paint off, he put the Radio under his bed. There would be more time for re-painting it later. He fell down on his pillow and almost immediately fell asleep.

* * * * *

A few weeks went by without incident as Jabari finished painting and started to scrounge for something to make a button out of. The only thing his family complained about was the smell of wet paint, but that wasn’t that big a deal. Yared was helping him, under the promise he would never tell anyone about the Radio. “Hey, Yared! Do you think this would work!” Jabari held up a thick piece of plastic. Yared looked up from his work across the junkyard. “Yeah, probably!” he called back to Jabari. “Put it in the bag with the rest!” They were both holding plastic bags stuffed with pieces of usable material. Jabari pushed his piece of plastic inside his bag. “I think we have enough!”Jabari called.  Yared laughed. “Yeah! If we wanted to make a hundred buttons!” Jabari smiled and trudged toward the exit of the dump.

* * * * *

They walked side by side toward Yared’s house, wondering how they could possibly make a button out of plastic pieces found in a junkyard. “I suppose we could cut out a circle for the button.” Yared supposed. “Yes, that might work!” Jabari exclaimed. At that time they were at Yared’s house. They walked around back and dropped their stuff off at a tree stump. Yared ran inside and soon came back out with a small satchel. They both sat down and Yared opened the pouch, pulling out a small knife. He picked up one of the thin pieces of plastic and pushed the knife carefully through. “I think it best to start with the thin pieces and melt them together somehow.” Yared explained. Jabari nodded, pulled out another knife, and started to work it through the plastic.

* * * * *

Jabari held a small bag full of tiny pieces of plastic. He poured the plastic out and onto his desk, then picked up a small candle. He grabbed a small, straight stick and set the very tip of it alight. He then grabbed a piece of plastic and set it on top of another, on and on until he had a stack of plastic. Then he held his tiny torch stick against the top plastic circle. After a few seconds it started to melt, dripping down the sides of his tower, melting more and more of the circles, until he had a puddle of plastic on his desk. Jabari waited a few seconds before using a different stick to mix the colors together until he had a nice marbling. He tapped the top of the plastic to see if he could hold it, then picked up the whole piece and molded it together until it was more or less in the shape he wanted. By then, it had become too cold to move, so he picked up a flathead screwdriver and held the tip against the flame. He waited until the tip was wavering the air around it, before pressing the tip against the button, over and over until the marbled plastic had facets like a gem. He then took out the Radio and looked at the broken button. He started to twist and twist, until it popped off. He didn’t know how  he would make the divets inside the button, but he was determined to try. He sat on his bed and thought. He could heat up the middle of the button and then screw it on, wait a few seconds, then unscrew and wait for it to dry completely… he smiled. It might work. But for now, he was bone tired, so he laid down and fell sound asleep.

* * * * *

Later the next night, Jabari was heating up the screwdriver until it was hot enough. When it was, he held it to the bottom of the button and then pushed the button to the Radio button thingy. He didn’t know what the thing was, but he held the button on it for a few seconds, before unscrewing the button and blowing on it to make it cool down faster. He put the screwdriver against the plastic for half a second, just to make the inside flexible, before screwing the button back on. He waited, then pulled at the button. It held. And Jabari smiled.

* * * * *

“I got it to work!” Jabari told Yared the next day. “Excellent! I can't wait for the batteries.” Yared exclaimed. Jabari nodded and listened to Yared’s radio as the team scored a winning kick. Later they went over to Jabari’s house to work on the Radio. “Wow… That seriously looks great man! Can you do mine?” Yared exclaimed when he saw it. Jabari laughed. “Only After this one. After that, happily.”

* * * * *

Jabari was scrounging the junkyard for batteries. He needed to find the little ones, because the things that used them didn’t need as much electricity, so the battery failed before all the juice was used up. As opposed to big, say, car batteries. The big thing used more electricity, so the battery was used up before it failed. At least, that was the theory. He had found some, but he would need more. Also a copper wire, since they conducted electricity, so he could make the electricity travel to one battery, instead of having a dozen batteries that didn’t work. He had found one wire, but it wasn’t long enough. So he needed another. The best ones were inside old cars, or motorcycles. He had found some, but they had already been stripped free of the good stuff. So Jabari walked around looking in places that were promising, but nothing. He decided to give up and search more tomorrow, but as he turned, he tripped on something. Jabari looked down, and saw a pile of trash.  He kicked it, scattering a tangle of wires and batteries.

* * * * *

During the night, he wrapped the wire around the batteries and hoped that his idea would work. After he had all of them strung up, he walked outside the house toward his bike. His bike had a generator attached, so he could ride in the dark if he had to. He walked the bike inside the house, then his bedroom. He hooked the wires to the bike generator, then put the kickstand down on the ground. He unhooked the wires coming from the generator to his headlight and hooked his Radio wires to the headlight instead. Jabari got on and started to pedal. Since the headlamp and generator were not connected, the headlight couldn’t get power to shine from that, instead getting its power from the batteries. It took a few minutes, but eventually, the power flowed from the batteries and to the lamp, making it shine three times as bright as the candle on his desk. “Yes!” he shouted, then cut himself off. He didn’t want anybody to notice him. Jabari grinned.

* * * * *

Tonight was the night. Jabari had managed to move the electricity from the batteries to his lamp, making the batteries useless. But if he could reverse the operation, charging a battery instead… he hooked up the wires from the generator to a battery. Hopefully, that would send the power from his pedaling to the battery. Jabari hopped onto his bike and started to peddle. There was no real way to tell if it was working, but he kept at it for a few minutes before getting off and putting the battery into the radio. He used his screwdriver to close the box and then ran toward Yared’s house with the Radio. He was about to climb through the window to wake him up, but he was already standing in front of it. Jabari set the Radio on the tree stump and looked back at Yared. “Are you ready to witness the first words coming out of this miracle box?” he whispered. “Turn it on already!” Yared sat down in front of the Radio. Jabari clicked the button and waited, expectantly. Nothing happened. “Sorry dude. That’s terrib-” Yared started. The radio blared to life. “And did you see that kick! Hit the goalie right in the face!” one of the commenters said. “That's right Tim! Goalie Brandon won’t be  playing for the rest of the game!” Yared and Jabari looked at each other. “Dude! Mines next Right!” Yared exclaimed. Jabari couldn’t believe it. He had fixed his Radio. He had done it. “Yeah Man. Sure.” he breathed. Yared punched the air and sat down in front of the Radio to listen to the rest of the game.