Brian Gilmore (’14, ’15) in FJORDS REVIEW
Frightful Weather Outside (A You Tube Video)
Brian Gilmore
(as published in Fjords Review – Black American Special Edition 2015)
2006
Freddie Que dressed up as Santa Claus. Handing out small gifts to kids in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. People around him passing by looking for a cocaine fix and there was Freddie barking “Ho Ho Ho” and “Merry Christmas” and smiling. He even had on a fake beard that couldn’t hide the fact that he was Black.
I felt ill all of a sudden riding along seeing him on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in the heart of Washington D.C. after all these years. Usually, a lawyer has a client, you do work for them, and then they are gone, poof, forever. But there he was: Freddie Que, in all of his glory. Christmas Eve, quite chilly in the Capital of the World, Freddie outside Fat Claude’s Barbershop, and he had a grocery cart full of holiday gifts for those denied a material Christmas blessing. Tonka trucks and dolls; footballs and make-up kits; cheap hats and puzzles. He was giving the goods out like they were mints and people were thanking him like he was the real Santa Claus.
Fuck Freddie Que. Fuck him.
To read the rest, you can download pdf of the entire issue of FJORDS REVIEW at this link: http://www.fjordsreview.com/pdfs/fjords-black-american-edition-digital.pdf
