Read Online Midnight Taxi Tango by Daniel José Older - Free Book Online Page A

I’m here for it. We all are.
    â€œThank you all for coming today, kids!” Sally says. Sally’s the white lady that runs things. She’s barely taller than the new capoeira teacher and he’s sitting down. She looks like a sack of mediocre potatoes next to his glowing golden perfection. Shit, we all do. “I’m really excited to introduce you to Rigoberto, our new capoeira instructor.”
    â€œWhat happened to Gilberto?” Devon asks.
    â€œYou scared him off with ya loud-ass farting last week,” Karina tells him.
    Devon flips her off. “Shut the fuck up.”
    â€œYou guys,” Sally says. “Let’s not do this, okay? Gilberto unfortunately had an altercation in a bar the other night and won’t be able to . . .”
    â€œSomebody faded Gil?” Devon translates helpfully. “Shit.”
    Tarik jumps up. “Wait! Gil gets jacked up at a bar and the new homey got a shiner? Y’all ain’t seeing what I’m seeing?”
    A general murmur ensues. Sally looks
vexed.
“Guys, it’s Rigoberto’s first day here and—”
    Mikey B. raises his hand. “Rigoberto a Dominican name, right?”
    Rigoberto smiles. Teeth: perfect. At least four audible sighs happen. “Actually, I am from Brazil, like your last teacher.”
    â€œYou speak Spanish, man?” someone yells.
    â€œWell, I do, but in Brazil we . . .”
    â€œDumbass, he speaks Brazilian.”
    A bunch of us roll our eyes at the same time.
    â€œY’all so stupid,” Karina says. “He speaks Portuguese. Now how ’bout we let the man talk and stop showing off how ignorant y’all are, ’kay?”
    Laughter breaks out, and then people settle down and look at Rigoberto. Sally smiles a little too broadly. “I’ll just let you talk to the kids now, Rigoberto. Thank you!” She pats his majestic shoulder and skitters out of the room.
    Rigoberto stands up. Dude must be six three at least. He’s perfectly proportioned; each piece fits into the other just right. His arms hang just right; his loose white pants fit just right—it’s almost sickening. “Hello, guys and girls,” he says with a doofy wave. “You can call me Rigo.”
    â€œDo we have bulge?” Karina whispers, peering over Devon’s baseball cap.
    We do. “We appear to have bulge,” I report.
    Karina nods. “Confirmed bulge.”
    â€œRigo, you married, boo?” Kelly yells out. I want to punch her in the face. Everybody groans.
    Rigo chuckles. It sounds a little forced. “Today we’re going to talk about capoeira, yes? Not Rigo’s personal life.”
    â€œFat chance,” Karina mutters.
    â€œLet’s begin by seeing what we know so far, okay? Because I don’t know this other teacher, Gilberto, yes? But he may be, how do you say . . . incompetent? Capoeira is how my people survived European domination in Brazil. It is beautiful, but deadly.”
    â€œJust like him,” Karina mutters.
    â€œIt is a martial art disguised as a dance, but it is also a dance disguised as a martial art. Why? Because we were not allowed to train to fight. We had to disguise our training as dancing, yes? We had to become clandestine warriors in a system that did not believe we are human, yes? Maybe this is something you can understand today, or maybe not. I don’t know. But for this reason, it is very serious, the study of capoeira. We can have fun, but we also must remember it is survival, class, okay?”
    Everyone just stares at him.
    â€œThat time, it was not rhetorical, the question.”
    As one, the whole class yells: “Yes!” It’s the first time we’ve done anything in synch with one another.
    â€œHoly fuck.” Karina sighs. “He’s beautiful and rebel deep.”
    â€œNow, why don’t we have demonstration?” Rigo says. “Which one of