Say His Name

by Jim Finley

“Jimmy Ray Haskel! Jimmy Ray Haskel!” I yell his name like his mama yelling him to supper. I do every thing for Jimmy Ray. I pick up stuff he drops and turn him around when he makes a bad turn. Jimmy Ray can’t care. He can’t get his clothes pulled on the right way. He can’t button or zip for nothing. His hair pokes out the side of his head and at the back of his head. Jimmy Ray can’t care for nothing. 

Sometimes Jimmy Ray grabs at me in bad places. I feel like I don’t count for nothing when he grabs at me like he does. His mama, she can’t feel nothing neither. She don’t come see him like she did. She don’t never come to our building. Nurse Sanderson says his mama got married with a new husband and can’t be worried about nobody who acts like Jimmy Ray acts. 

Jimmy Ray screams, “Get set, get ready, go!” Then he makes a middle finger and grins. I see his purple gums on top of his teeth. Him looking like that, with breakfast across his mouth and all that chewed-up food mixed with them big gums, it makes me sick in my belly.

Lots of times Jimmy Ray throws out his butt and struts like he is a famous movie actor. But he is not that. He has on them run-over shoes without no strings. Lots of times he has on just one shoe. Nobody can be no movie actor with one shoe.

Story telling is Jimmy Ray’s most favorite thing. He always tells about baby Jesus since his mama put him in Vacation Bible School forever. He made things there. He made Virgin Mary and Three Wise Men out of plaster of paris. Jimmy Ray named them Wynkln, Blynkln and Nod because he said they was looking at stars too long and got their eyes bent. Jimmy Ray keeps them in his room.

Today Jimmy Ray tells how baby Jesus had a daddy and it weren’t the man in the picture holding the donkey neither. 

“Then who was his daddy?” I say.

​“He was a big red head,” says Jimmy Ray. “His name was Cletus Lee Washburn.” Jimmy Ray can try, but he can’t fool me. Everybody knows Cletus Lee Washburn works at Ritz Car Wash on 61st Street, and Jimmy Ray can’t get nothing straight.

I say, “Jimmy Ray, you can’t get nothing straight.” Jimmy Ray grabs me and pushes his big breakfast face up against my head.

He says, “I want to marry with you and make a baby Jesus.” The sunshine comes in the window and it lights up Jimmy Ray’s face. I see his thin hair and his wet eyes shinning in the sunshine. He looks more pretty than I can ever believe. He looks so pretty I about cry. I cannot help myself; I have to say his name. I say it over and over. 

​“Jimmy Ray Haskel. Jimmy Ray Haskel. You say it. Say his name.