Comics Guest Edited by Qiana Whitted

We Collect Cans for Money

The year is 1987. The narrator is six. Her brother is nine. Their sister is four. The children fan out across the park under the hot sun. One yawns. Another exclaims, “Swings!” as they spot a playground. One sibling yells, “I see another one!” Another insists, “That one’s mine!” The narrator doesn’t want to race but is tempted when a can is offered as a prize: “Race and I’ll give you a can!” They sweat, run, and compete. One offers a can saying, “Here,” then immediately pulls it away: “Sike!” Another shouts, “I’m not playing with you!” One sibling lounges: “Oh, loosen up, sis.” The narration reads, I sweat and taste of salt.The narrator’s jelly shoes grow dewy and squish with every step. Her siblings laugh in the background. She gets an idea. She proposes, “Today, let’s pool our cans and split the cash.” Her siblings hesitate: “Umm, maybe,” and “I don’t know.” Eventually, one relents: “Okay, okay, I’m in! Wait up!”

The kids dig through a trash can full of cans. One exclaims, “Look at all them cans!” Another replies, “Ugh, it stinks.” A girl climbs in. A sibling warns, “Ew, don’t dig in the trash!” She responds, “I’m just getting the ones off the top.” Another warns, “You might catch rabies.” She smirks, “My shirt will protect me.” One sibling says, “You wild acting!” The narration: Planes fly close. Our bodies tremble and suddenly, we’re free. One child runs barefoot and exclaims, “Come on, there’s some over here!” Another says, “You showing out!” She replies, “Not uh!” A sibling shouts, “We need more bags.” Another adds, “Let’s smash the cans!” They stomp cans, laughing, and yell, “They’re little metal pancakes!” Laughter fills the page.

The narrator cups her hands to shout at her little sister: “Hey, lil’ sis! You better get off that slide! We’re not done!” “You better pick up more cans or we’re not sharing with you!” “You better not drag your bag on the ground! You don’t want to tear it!” The narration reads: We take deep breaths and taste fresh-cut grass and honeysuckle blossoms. A younger sibling begs for a break: “Hey lil’ sis?” “Go away, I’m busy.” They all laugh and move as one, flying across the field. A sibling worries, “We won’t have enough money left over!” They offer: “Don’t you want soft serve with rainbow sprinkles?” “No.” “How ’bout some penny candy?” “No.” “How ’bout Garbage Pail Kids cards with that sweet stick of gum?” The narrator and her sister continue playing. One shouts, “Here’s one!” Another looks confused: “Wait… what happened to your shirt?” The siblings erupt in laughter. The father sleeps on a bench nearby. The narration: Now the world revolves in slow motion as we move the world. The final row shows the father yawning and waking up: “Yawn.” The kids jump up yelling, “Found one! Found one! Found one!” The dad calls, “Come on, y’all! We’re leaving.” One of the kids cheers, “Candy time!” Their dad shouts, “And stop showing out and put your shirt on!” A sibling yells back, “I tried to tell her, Dad!” The comic ends in joy and laughter.

Ebony Flowers is an award-winning cartoonist and educator. She is an Assistant Professor in Creative Writing, Fiction in the Department of English at Wake Forest University. Ebony was a Mary I. Bunting Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University for the 2022-23 academic year.

FROM Volume 74, Numbers 1 & 2