Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks

Gregory Pitts’s friends tell Gregory that he smells “like his body had mistaken its organs for garbage” (157). They do this out of love. His friends begin a mission to help Gregory “because today was a day of romance” (157). Remar, also known as Remy, starts off the mission by spraying Gregory with his older brother’s body spray that smells like “a combination of burnt flowers and burnt rubber” (158). Instead of heading home to their apartment building, the crew “decided today that they would walk over to Rogers Street because that’s where Sandra White lived” (159). Gregory hopes to confess to Sandra that he likes her.

The crew continue their journey to Sandra’s apartment. Candace initiates the next step of their mission where she attempts “to explain the importance of moisturizing” (160). Candace produces a large bottle of her mother’s lotion and works to apply the lotion to Gregory’s arms and face as they stand on a sidewalk. She moves methodically by making “circles with the center of her palm, then pincher-claw rubs with the tips of her fingers for optimal moisturizing” (162). A school bus pulls up and mocks Gregory. The crew instantly defends Gregory and confronts the boy in the school bus.