Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks

Chapter 6 is organized in a list that details five things easier to do than Simeon’s and Kenzi’s secret handshake. Each item on the list is followed by a related anecdote and follows Simeon and Kenzi through their afternoon.

The first item listed is “Getting through the crowded hallways after the bell rings” (97). The third-person omniscient narrator describes Simeon Cross as “impossible to miss when he was around and impossible not to miss when he was absent” (97). Simeon has a secret handshake with his friend Kenzi Thompson. Unlike Simeon, Kenzi is “tied for the smallest kid in his class” (98). While Simeon’s size distinguishes him, Kenzi “wasn’t particularly tough or loud or funny or sad or weird or even smelly” (98) and carries around a small blue bouncing ball. Kenzi avoids the crowded hallways because of his small stature. He waits for Simeon in his last class of the day. Kenzi jumps on Simeon’s back with “his arms wrapped around Simeon’s neck, tight enough to hold on, but not tight enough to choke him” (101). This is how they get through the crowded hallways.

Item 2 details how Simeon and Kenzi get “out of trouble with Ms. Wockley for pretending to be in a horse race” (101). Ms. Wockley scolds Simeon and Kenzi for traipsing through the hallways with Kenzi on Simeon’s back. In a good-natured manner, the boys argue with Ms. Wockley and ask her to listen to why they do this routine. Although she is familiar with their reasoning, Ms. Wockley allows them to repeat their story because “they were always so entertaining” (102).

Item 3 follows Simeon and Kenzi as they travel to their neighborhood after school. Kenzi stops to give his routine hug to Ms. Post, the school’s crossing guard. She asks them if they are “staying out the street” (105). They assure her that they are. Simeon and Kenzi both reside in Chestnut Homes. They walk home to their neighborhood while the few fellow classmates that “actually lived there didn’t walk there” (106). While “most people tighten up when they walk down Chestnut,” Simeon and Kenzi see “Chestnut Street is a paradise […] where they could let loose” (106-07).

Item 4 describes Simeon and Kenzi’s journey to pick “the perfect snack from Fredo’s Corner Store” (107). Fredo, the owner of the store, jokes with Simeon and Kenzi about worrying that he’ll see their faces in the local newspaper for crimes they committed. Kenzi shares that he wants to become “‘a big-time lawyer’” and Simeon shares his dream to become “‘a famous actor […] so I can act like a big-time lawyer’” (108). As Simeon takes time to count change to pay for his and Kenzi’s snacks, Fredo asks the boys about their older brothers. When Fredo insults Kenzi’s brother by noting how Kenzie carries “‘that old handball of his everywhere you go. You know he ain’t no good at that game, right?’” Simeon interrupts Fredo and “slammed his hand on the counter” (110). When Fredo then insults Simeon’s large size, Kenzi defends Simeon by taking Fredo’s newspaper and lighter. The two boys run out of the store.

The last item on the list of things easier than Simeon and Kenzi’s secret handshake describes Simeon and Kenzi making wishes. The two boys sit outside their apartment building. Simeon uses the lighter and newspaper they stole from Fredo to make a makeshift candle that he sticks inside the MoonPie he purchased from the corner store. He begins to sing happy birthday to Kenzi even though Kenzi explains to him that it is not his birthday. Simeon urges Kenzi to blow out the candle anyway and make a wish. Simeon shares the MoonPie with Kenzi. Before the boys head up to their apartments to work on their homework, they complete their secret handshake and call each other brothers. They complete the handshakes “just like they’d watched their older brothers do it” (114). The two boys share the same bond as their older brothers. As they ride the elevator up, Simeon looks “at Kenzi, knowing what he wished for” (114). He knows that Kenzi wished for his older brother Mason not to be in jail after being convicted for stealing a car that Simeon’s older brother Chucky actually stole. Kenzi wishes that his brother could pick him up from school, take him for a ride, “maybe even show him how to play” with the blue handball (115).