LAST EDITED ON 07-31-05 AT 11:59 PM (EST)In 1954, Bourbon, Alabama was the home to a seven-year-old boy by the name of Moses McGee. Moses was a smart little boy and for as long as he could remember his granny told him that he was going to be something special. Every Sunday she would read to him from the Bible, and his favorite stories came from the part she called “Exdus”. There was this guy named Moses in the Bible and granny said that he was very important to his people. Little Moses McGee felt that it was only natural that he was going to be important, too. But he was getting impatient and he had made the decision shortly after his seventh birthday that he was going to have to go to work on being important.
He got up in the morning and came to the table where his granny was serving up Sunshine and Sausage. This is what she called fried eggs with bacon. Granny was a little peculiar that way. Moses didn’t mind, he just thought it made her special, too. As Moses and his older brother Noah were eating, Moses made a proclamation.
“I’m not goin’ to school today.”
Granny turned from the stove and studied him closely. “Are you feelin’ sick, child?” she asked.
“No, ma’am. I’m jus’ not goin’.”
Granny leaned back away from him with a shocked look.
“What you say?”
“I’m not goin’ to school,” Moses said again. “They can’t teach me nothing’ I need to know. You always sayin’ that we got a no-good school, anyhow.”
“You may not be goin’ to the best school in the county, but you sure are goin’ to school today.”
“I’m not goin’ neither,” Noah piped in.
Granny swiftly smacked Noah upside the head. Noah was always getting smacked upside the head for something, Moses thought.
“Now I know both of you boys are goin’ to school today and you’re goin’ to do well,” she told them sternly. “Little colored boys got to do well in school if they ever want to make something’ of themselves. Sure enough, nobody‘s gon‘ give you nothing, so you‘re gonna have to earn it. And the only way you can earn a proper livin‘ and support a family is if you‘ve got a education.”
“But granny,” the younger boy argued, “Moses didn’t need schoolin’. And he was in charge of his people.”
“Don’t you go comparin’ yourself to that man in the Bible. He was called by God Hisself to do what he did. And they didn’t have schools back then, anyway. If they had, you know Moses would have went. He was a good man who obeyed his granny.”
Moses thought this over as he finished his breakfast. When the two boys later headed off to school, Moses walked slower than usual.
“C’mon, knucklehead,” Noah yelled back at him. “You’re supposed to walk with me and I don’ want to be late on account o’ you movin’ like a old cat on a cold day.”
“How do I know if God tries to call me?” Moses asked. Noah just looked at him with a puzzled expression. “What will he say?”
Noah didn’t answer at first. Moses kept thinking of what it would be like to be called by God.
“Maybe God will come down during church and tell the preacher to hush up ‘cause he wants to talk to me.”
“God’s not goin’ to come lookin’ for you.”
“Maybe he will”
“If he does, he’ll prob’ly come down to the house while you’re out playin’. He’ll ask me where you are and I’ll tell Him that He can jus’ give me the message. Then you won’t be nothing’ special and everybody will have to do what I say.”
“Shut up, Noah,” Moses cried as he ran off.
“Come back here, knucklehead. I got to take you to school.”
Moses didn’t want to hear anything else his brother had to say. The little boy ran as fast as he could until he reached the little river that ran along the outskirt of town. Moses paused at the edge while he thought about what his granny read to him from the Bible. Moses realized that maybe he had to call out to God first. So he closed his eyes and shouted out to no one in particular.
“God, it’s Moses. The new one, not the old one. I want you to split this river for me, jus’ like you did back in the Bible.”
Moses opened his eyes and, to his disappointment, the river looked the same. Moses thought that maybe he needed to be in the water for it to work. The little boy waded in up to his knees and called out again.
“God, this is Moses talkin’. Please split this water up jus’ like you did before.”
When Moses opened his eyes, the river stilled looked the same. However, at that moment, a frog croaked on the other side of the river. Moses thought back and recalled that there was a story that had something to do with a bunch of frogs or something spreading out all over the land of the Fay-ro. He took this as a sign from God that he was almost ready to be important. So, the little boy walked up and down the river bank for almost an hour trying to split it in half while looking for more frogs. He grew tired of this and decided to go back home.
When he was almost home, he saw that there was a police car at his granny’s house. A man in a uniform was talking to his granny and she looked pretty upset. Moses had heard adults talk about this sort of thing before and he believed his granny was in trouble with the police for no good reason. Little Moses walked up just as his granny was getting in the back of the police car. Since he was so little, no one had noticed him. Moses tugged at the stripe on the pants of the police officer. The man turned his head down to the boy with a surprised look on his face. Moses summoned up all the courage he could and with the most sincere conviction of a seven-year old he gave the officer a command.
“Let my people go.”
Granny jumped out of the car and lifted Moses right up into her arms.
“Where were you baby? We were so worried that something bad happened to you. I told Noah to keep an eye on you, but he said you ran away. Don’t you ever run away like that again, you hear?”
Moses did hear. For the next two hours and for weeks to come, he would hear it from his granny. But he kept sneaking away anyway. Every chance he got, Moses would go to the river and call out for God. For he was so sure that, one day, God would call back.
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