The Dantents’ white ’97 Jetta pulled into the driveway of their new home. It chugged a little bit as Edmund shut down the engine. He got out, stretched his arms up as far as he could reach and involuntarily let out something between a groan and a grunt. He turned and watched Jenn do something much the same on the other side of the car, although significantly quieter.
“Here we are, guys. Our new home.”
From Portland, Maine to Greensboro, North Carolina was a heck of a drive, even split over two days. He had two days to rest and get the house sorted out before he started his new job at ViaTech on Monday. He’d be tired. The house would still be mostly a mess. But they were finally here.
Jenn pulled Gunnar’s carseat out of the back and headed inside. Driving 400 miles in a day with a four month old was an interesting trial. Edmund looked at the Jetta and realized that before long, they’d probably have to scale up to a minivan or SUV. Full dad-mode, here we come.
“Hey Cassie, come over—“
Whatever he’d been about to suggest to Cassie was forgotten when he saw her struggling with the bike rack on the back of the car. Of course. Couldn’t keep her from that. Edmund walked around and helped Cassandra remove her bright-pink toddler-sized bike. She was really getting too big for it. That would need upscaled soon too.
He helped her get the bike down and then looked up and down the road. It was a quiet suburban street. She had developed decent common sense about biking. She should be fine.
“Just stay in sight of the house, okay sweetie?”
Cassie nodded happily and then took off. Edmund watched her a moment, then opened the trunk and started carrying their suitcases in. Most of their things had been brought here already by the moving company, but until they unpacked, they’d still be living out of suitcases for a few days.
A few minutes later, he came out to find Cassie riding back up the slope of their driveway.
“So what do you think of our new neighborhood, munchkin?”
She looked around. “It’s okay, I guess. But the man at the house over there scares me.”
Edmund turned and looked at the house across the street and two doors down. A tall, slim black man was sitting on a patio chair on the front porch.
Edmund bit his lip. He should have thought of this, planned for this. In Maine, virtually everyone around them had been white. North Carolina was a different matter entirely.
He knelt down beside Cassie’s bike. “Now Cassandra, I know he looks different than us, but it’s not nice to not like people because of that. It’s what’s inside that—“ Edmund stumbled a bit when he looked back over and saw the man’s face. It looked . . . no, he must be misreading him.
“—that matters. He’s probably a great guy, and you’ll like him when you get to know him, okay?”
Cassie gave him a skeptical look for a minute, but then said, “Okay, Daddy. Hey, are we having pizza for supper?”
“You know what, baby, that sounds great. I’ll get on the phone for delivery in just a minute.”
Later that night after Cassie was in bed, Edmund mentioned the incident to Jennifer.
“I’m just a little worried that she might develop some bad attitudes. I mean, she didn’t grow up around a lot of black people, and you know bigotry is mostly a result of ignorance.”
Jennifer turned from the cabinet where she’d been stacking their frying pans.
“I don’t know, Ed. I mean, on the way down we saw a few of them and she never reacted badly.”
Edmund thought about it a minute, then nodded and said, “Yeah, that’s true. I guess we’ll just keep an eye on it.”
The Mayor of Christ Mountain 
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