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“So, whichever way we go – either up into the sites of where our relatives perished, or down again into Big Loft's downtown, or *both* – we're going to do a motorcade,” Rev. Obsidian Stone was saying to Rev. Timothy Frank in the hearing of Rev Frank's grandson, “Lil' ” Timothy.

“Excuse me,” Lil' Timothy said at a break in the conversation.  “What's a motorcade?”

Both of the elders smiled.

“You were listening after all,” Rev. Frank said.

“And you waited to the right moment to ask, too,” Rev. Stone said.

Lil' Timothy beamed.

“Yes, sirs,” he said.  “I like my toys, but I like new words, too.”

“You ought to hear how my boy Timothy reads now,” Rev. Frank said as he gestured and his grandson scampered into his lap.

“Well, lil' brother Timothy, I'll make sure there's a reading part for you next week, wherever we are,” Rev. Stone said.

“Yaaaaaaay!” said Lil' Timothy, his chocolate-colored face lighting up.

“What is a motorcade – you remember when Mother Magden went home to be with the Lord, and we had that big homegoing celebration?” Rev. Stone said.

“Yes, sir.”

“Remember when we all got into our cars, and got in that long, long line of cars going up to Sweet Rest Cemetery?”

“Kind of – I think I went to sleep before we got there.”

“That's all right, dear boy – that long, long line of cars was a kind of motorcade, a formation of cars driving together for the safe passage of an important person.”

“You are too young to remember,” Rev. Stone said, “but we saw President Barack Obama traveling in a motorcade, a long, long line of cars, in Washington D.C. back in 2015.”

“Actually, I do remember – never seen so many black cars in a row.”

“All right then, grandson – now imagine this.  We had a long, long line of cars for Mother Magden.  President Obama had a long, long line of cars. They are both important people.  Imagine how long and how thick the line of cars is going to be when we celebrate the homegoing of 12,000 important people at once.”

Rev. Stone and Rev. Frank did not go into how those 12,000 Black and Latino victims of the Ridgeline Fire had been judged unimportant, and how they were directly working to correct that error.  

But, Lil' Timothy figured it out without having to be told.

“Wow … everybody's going to know how important they are.”

“Right,” Rev. Frank said.

“Wow … everybody else may have to build themselves new roads or wait a long time, because that's going to be a lot of cars.”

“They've only got three days left to build some new roads,” Rev. Stone said, with a smile.

Lil' Timothy thought very hard, and then shook his head.

“Not enough time, so I hope their parents or grandparents pack them some good toys, or teach them some good words, because they are going to wait a long time in traffic.”

“Right again, grandson,” Rev. Frank said.  “We've got some good words for them to learn that you already know, like 'respect,' 'dignity,' 'fairness,' 'justice,' and 'equality.' ”

“It's always good to know the meanings of good words – can I ride in the motorcade?”

“We wouldn't think about leaving you out,” Rev. Stone said.

“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!”


**Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash**