6 Quotes by Leslie K. Barry

We’re also the battle-hardened survivors of the Great War who reclaimed Palestine from the Turks,” Longie says. Our leaders are describing the boxers and their sons who are the Newark Minutemen. I swell with pride whenever Longie compares us to King David's mighty warriors. The timin’ is lucky that Longie’s got an army of boxers he can pivot into a band of soldiers for the FBI.

My knuckles look like the inside of a grapefruit, but I punch the bag more. With each hit, I repeat the Newark Minutemen creed: “We train to gain control over our bodies. But to triumph, we wrap our bodies around individual will. With each trial, pain becomes more bearable, motions more familiar, waitin’ more calm. Then it’s our way. Then we are Newark Minutemen.” My limbs begin to feel reconnected to my body. I start to feel whole again.

If we fail today, we might as well throw in the towel.My ears hammer against the roarin’ crowd. We must stop the rallying call for a Nazi Party in America. The last thing we need in the middle of the Depression is a fascist party here to support the one the Nazis are building in Germany. Everyone’s still nursin’ their wounds from the Great War.

The starburst from the rising' sun beams through the canvas hole. It blinds me. I lose control of my own free will. In that moment push the canvas aside, crawl between the man's legs, and search my father's steel eyes. Papa flicks his eyebrows, signaling me to calm.

With the card, there’s a photo of us from the day Yael taught me to box. The selfie in the mirror. I gulp at the image of our bodies together. My heart feels like its pumping tar through my veins. I wish I had the power to free my hands and shape my own life. But I don’t.

YAEL; He slides the suitcase and pumps my cap over my eyes and back up again. The crow's feet that bloom into a dozen crinkles around his eyes when he smiles warm me. When my father smiles, nothing in the world can hurt us.