My friend and I were in a store.

He happens to be black. Not that it matters. He’s just my friend. I don’t even notice.

Except sometimes, like now.

He went up to the counter.

The guy behind the counter said, “Whadda you want, boy?”

My friend said, “My name is not boy.”

The guy said, “Yeah?”

“My name is Everett.”

“So whadda you want, Everett, boy?”

I tugged his arm and said, “Let’s go somewhere else.”

I added, loud enough to hear, “Some place with humans.”

We went in another store.

Everett went up to the counter.

“Whadda you want, boy?”

We went for the door.

Out on the street, we looked at each other, and said in unison, “Really? Seriously? Still?”

Then our competing phrases spilled out over each other.

“After all these years?”

“What’s happened to our country?”

We went down the street.

We tried another store.

The man behind the counter said, “New around here? Haven’t seen you before. Welcome. Special discount for new customers. We may not have everything you want, but we have everything you need, and then some.”

Everett and I looked at each other, smiled, then started laughing.

The man behind the counter started laughing too, and didn’t even need to know why.