Swing Read online

  Praise for Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess’s Solo:

  “I’ve been a fan of Kwame Alexander for a long time, but this book is special.”

  John Green, New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down

  “A gorgeously lyrical and passionate meditation on family and identity. Solo is Kwame Alexander at his finest.”

  Nicola Yoon, New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything

  “From the lyric verse to the driving beat of the storytelling, this book is music, and beautiful music.”

  Ellen Hopkins, New York Times bestselling author of The You I’ve Never Known

  “A contemporary hero’s journey, brilliantly told.”

  Kirkus Reviews, starred review

  “A rhythmic, impassioned ode to family, identity, and the history of rock and roll.”

  Booklist, starred review

  “Hand to music lovers, reluctant readers, fans of spoken word poetry, those who appreciate Alexander’s work, or anyone seeking a tale of self-discovery.”

  School Library Journal

  Other Novels by Kwame Alexander

  Rebound

  Solo (with Mary Rand Hess)

  Booked

  The Crossover

  He Said, She Said

  BLINK

  Swing

  Copyright © 2018 by KA Productions

  Original Art © 2018 by Mary Rand Hess

  The art in the book was created using ink and mixed media on paper.

  Requests for information should be addressed to:

  Blink, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

  Epub Edition August 2018 9780310761877

  Hardcover ISBN 978-0-310-76191-4

  Audio ISBN 978-0-310-76192-1

  E-book ISBN 978-0-310-76187-7

  ITPE ISBN 978-0-310-76193-8

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

  Cover direction: Ron Huizinga

  Interior design: Denise Froehlich

  Printed in the United States of America

  18 19 20 21 22 / LSC / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  To the beautiful ones unborn. And

  to their forgotten histories.

  Contents

  Praise for Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess’s

  Other Novels by Kwame Alexander

  Prologue

  Part 1: Cheesecake Tryouts

  I’ve Liked Baseball

  Cut

  Primer One

  I Don’t Understand Jazz

  Swing

  Discharged

  Truth

  My Secret

  The Dare

  Next Week

  While I’m Waiting

  Surprise

  My Funny Valentine

  Unforgettable

  Insults

  We Sit

  Stars and Stripes

  Batter Up

  A Lonesome Ride

  Phenomenal

  Phone Conversation

  Spain

  La Quinta

  Tattoo

  Inked

  Dairy Queen

  Conversation

  This Is What I Know About Sam

  This Is What Floyd Knows About Sam

  The Secret Formula

  Unlock Your heart

  Guru Confusion

  A Sign

  The Meaning

  Family Meeting

  Sit Down, Noah

  The Walk of Death

  Twins

  Two-of-a-Kind

  The Jalopy

  Three-Way Conversation

  First Attempt

  Woohoo Woman Podcast #1: Who’s at the Controls?

  For Your Safety—Please Read All Warning and Operating Signs Before Batting

  Conversation on the Way to the Mall

  The mall

  Cruel Comparison

  Cruz

  Out With the Old

  Conversation

  Gift Giving 101

  The Keepall

  The Loan

  I Walk Outside

  After Dessert

  Conversation With Walt

  Share

  First Draft

  Woohoo Woman Podcast #3: Training Wheels

  What Matters

  Inspection

  Lucky Day?

  Text to Walt

  Tonight, After Reading the Love Letters

  Bon Voyage

  Text From Walt

  Star Spangled

  He Reads

  Part 2: I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry Too Good to Be True

  What Are You Doing Here?

  The Master and the Pupil

  We Kick Off

  Ebony and Ivory

  Texts With Granny

  Inspiration

  Friday Morning

  Practicing

  A Clue?

  Patriot

  The Line

  Primer Two

  Park of Love

  Wrong!

  After the Lecture on Jazz

  A Big Hiccup

  Heart Attack

  Written

  Truth

  I Walk

  When Your Best Friend Is Trying to Ruin Your Life

  Shut the Freak Up

  Stuck

  My Heart

  Finally

  When Walt Strolls

  Apology

  Noise

  I Slam My Door

  The Price of Betrayal

  Starbucks

  On Tuesday

  Apology Accepted

  The Baddest Girl on Earth

  So, We Go Back

  Conversation

  Birth of the Cool

  An Hour Later

  The Only Thing That Can Shut Walt Up

  Out of His Mind

  When We Get Home

  You Hear Cool, Noah?

  Part 3: Second Balcony Jump Guess Who?

  Conversation

  Close, but No Cigar

  Primer Three

  I Hear

  Starbucks Fix No. 1,299

  Never Mix the Wrong Drinks and the Wrong Company

  Awkward Conversation With Cruz

  Black Lives Matter!

  Squirrels and Lovers

  Disgusting

  Conversation With Walt

  Searching

  MIA

  Text to Sam

  Text From Sam

  What Happened Was

  I Throw My Clothes on

  Mayhem

  Chance Encounter

  Phantom

  Happiness

  Trap

  Love Is the Reader

  X-Man

  No Dice

  A Secret

  King of Heartbreaks

  Text to Swing

  Text From Swing

  Ceiling Lights

  The Metaphors

  Out of Two Hundred Balls

  Spur of the Moment

  Thrifting and Riffing

  When I Get Home

  What Else Did She Say?

  We Listen

  Primer Four

  Speechless

  All Night Long

  What Are You Doing Here?

  Art Is

  Speechless Again

  Primer Five

  Her Name Is Dream
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  Sam at the Window

  Opportunity

  At Lunch

  Dear Love

  Dear Love

  All the Things I Want to Say

  All the Things I Text

  Texts With Sam

  The Party

  10:15 PM

  10:29 PM

  Love Is Love Is Love

  Blur

  10:45 PM

  The Masquerade Is Off

  The Myth

  Nerves

  Verve

  Writing the Story

  Reckoning

  The Wave Is Coming

  Part 4: Love for Sale Quiet

  Bewildered

  We Interrupt This Broadcast

  It’s a Bird,

  He Misses

  The Sirens

  Over

  Knock, Knock

  Nightmare

  Busted

  They Pick Cruz Up, Unlock His Cuffs, Shove Him Toward Us

  Men in Blue

  They Leave Us All With a Warning

  Tomorrow?

  I Want to Crawl Back

  Intruder

  Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2

  Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2: Scherzo

  Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2: Lullaby

  Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2: Serenade

  Text to Sam

  1:31 AM

  The Right Time

  We Lie Across the Bed

  Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars

  2:06 AM

  Moon River

  Conversation

  On Monday

  When I Get to School

  I’ve Got You Under My Skin

  Prelude to a Kiss

  The Week With Sam

  Olive Garden

  Give-and-Take

  Are You Kidding Me?

  In Full Swing

  After I Congratulate Walt

  I Didn’t Get a Call

  Boundaries

  The Anatomy of a Kiss

  Caught in a Love Haze

  When I Get Home

  The Blues

  No Fries, Just More . . . Floyd

  Where Floyd Tells Walt What to Do and It Makes No Sense Whatsoever

  Special Something

  Phone Conversation

  The Big Game

  Realization

  Caught in the Truth

  The Last Inning

  Debut

  The Ride From Antarctica

  Forlorn

  Texts With Granny

  Woohoo Woman

  Text From Sam

  Dear Sam

  Text to Walt

  Text From Walt

  Something Is Coming

  Part 5: Where Are You? Conversation With Walt

  Texts to Sam

  On the Drive

  When the Traffic Clears

  How Long Has This Been Going on?

  Escape

  Another Reckoning

  End

  Early

  Consequence

  Kind of Blue

  Part 6: Three O‘clock in the Morning Text From Walt

  Two Strikes

  Walt at Bat

  Unfortunately

  Independence Day

  Texts With Walt

  Future Plans

  At the Stoplight

  Conversation With Sam

  It’s Definitely Over

  All the Things You Are, Divya: A Playlist by Swing

  Slowly Coming Alive

  What Being Alone Looks Like

  Best Thing I Never Had

  Why Is My Alarm

  Stranded

  I Leave

  Let’s Face the Music and Dance

  The Flag Bearer

  Mo!

  Haunting

  Out of Nowhere

  Boom!

  War Zone

  Witness

  Interrogation

  Says Me

  After

  Critical Care

  Autumn Leaves

  I, Too?

  Epilogue

  There’s This Dream

  Strings

  Chapel

  Texts From Chapel

  Leaving in Ten Minutes

  The Show

  The After-Party

  Hollywood Report

  Who Am I?

  Are You Sure They Aren’t Coming Home?

  Those Eyes Will Be the Death of Me

  Two Years Ago

  Prologue

  We were halfway through

  junior year.

  Rounding the bases.

  About to score.

  Walt was still pretending

  like he wasn’t weird,

  and fronting

  cool.

  Sam was busy being cool, and fine,

  while her boyfriend, Cruz,

  was busy hitting

  home runs

  and being president

  of the I’m-so-cool-even-my-temper-is-lukewarm club.

  And I was in the dugout.

  Mostly happy

  just watching,

  trying to get up the nerve

  to get in the game.

  Things were pretty much normal:

  baseball was still king,

  but people were also talking about

  the American flags

  randomly popping up

  around town—on car windows at malls,

  in graveyards, graffitied

  on freeway exit signs.

  Everywhere.

  Anywhere.

  We were best friends

  rounding the bases,

  about to score.

  Everything was copacetic, Walt liked to say.

  Until it wasn’t.

  Part 1

  Cheesecake

  Tryouts

  We

  go

  to

  check

  the

  list

  and

  for

  the

  third

  year

  in

  a

  row

  we

  aren’t

  on

  it.

  I’ve liked baseball

  since I was three,

  when Dad handed me

  a glove

  that swallowed

  my arm.

  But Walt has loved it.

  His trading cards

  fill five albums:

  Hank Aaron,

  Roberto Clemente,

  Bryce Harper,

  Carlos Correa,

  Willie Mays.

  He gave away

  all his Sammy Sosas.

  We’ve been

  to see

  the Yankees

  at least once

  a year.

  We love

  the hot dogs,

  the spin

  of a curveball,

  the crack

  of a well-hit ball.

  In our minds

  we could hit

  anything,

  run the bases

  like gazelles,

  slide into home

  safe.

  But the truth is

  we suck.

  Our baseball dream

  is a nightmare.

  It haunts me.

  If only Walt

  could catch on

  to the signs

  the universe

  is pitching us,

  we could both

  move on

  from this horror.

  Cut

  Yo, why are you smiling? This sucks.

  Noah, you ever heard of the saying, fourth time’s a charm?

  It’s third time’s a charm.

  If you’d rather focus on the No, that’s on you. I choose Yes.

  YES?! What are you even talking about? We didn’t make

  the team. Again. That’s a definitive NO if I’ve ever seen

  one.

  A setbac
k is a setup waiting for a comeback.

  Well, you can come back by yourself. I’m done, Walt.

  Noah, this is not the time to give up on chasing cool.

  I’m not giving up on cool. I’m giving up on baseball. And

  you should too. We’ll find cool another way.

  Burger King.

  Huh?

  Like Burger King, we can have it our way. Don’t give up on

  our dreams.

  Your dreams.

  I’m not the one who studied up on all the greats in

  baseball history, and I’m not the one who made his best

  friend watch the World Series in silence so he could hear

  the sound of every pitch, hit, and catch. And, I’m not the

  one who used to want to play catch every day.

  Used to.

  I’ll tell you this, Noah. I WILL make the varsity baseball

  team senior year. Bet on that. I’ll practice harder than

  before. Work out harder. Get ripped. Give the whole of my

  heart and soul to the glove and the ball. Become one with

  the bat. In fact, from now on, Walt’s no longer my name.

  From now on, just call me Swing.

  I’m not calling you that.

  Well, it’s my name. I’m Benny Goodman, yo!

  Who’s Benny Goodman?

  WHO’S BENNY GOODMAN? Are. You. Kidding. Me.

  Primer One

  Listen to this

  clarinet swing,

  he says,

  playing a song

  on his phone.

  That’s Benny Goodman.

  The King of Swing,

  the Sultan of Smooth,

  the Rambo of Rhythm

  and Romance.

  Really? Rambo?

  Jazz is jungle

  and jam, yo!

  Plum sweetness

  from the first note

  to the last,

  broken time

  put together again.

  Benny Goodman is the fixer, dude.

  He’s sway and swoon,

  groove and drive,

  melody in your steps,

  “Bumble Bee Stomp,”

  butter when you talk,

  a chance to dance

  offbeat,

  an in-the-pocket wish

  to come true.

  Blue wings

  that fly you

  to the moon

  and back.

  Oh, well that explains it completely, I say, shaking my

  head. How’d he die? I ask, knowing he’s gonna tell me

  anyway.

  June 13, 1986.

  Benny was taking a nap,

  snoozing and doozin’,

  then BAM!