‘I enquired of neighbour-kid as to his situation: hooky? Exams?’

“I was suspended”, he said.

“What brilliance got you that?” I asked.

“I was joking with my black friend, who calls me ‘The White Kid’. I call him ‘The Black Kid’. He brought some noodles to school today, and somebody asked me why. I said ‘Ask the Black Kid’, but then the teacher heard me. She told me that was unacceptable. My friend even tried to explain that “it was a joke back and forth between us all the time, and I call him The White Boy”, but that didn’t matter.”