Little Drummer Boy

I asked Ballard why, if he is so dedicated, he doesn't get the steel drum kids together on his own, for free, maybe at the local Boys and Girls Club. He says he'll try to do this, maybe get the band together for scheduled gigs. But there are transportation problems. And the kids are hard to get together--not all of the parents speak English or have phones.

And he says there's one more big problem: The Boys and Girls Club meets at the Wilson schools.

And besides, he's already taken his drums to the Roosevelt district, where he's starting up a new band--for free. He hopes to get a job there, he says.

In short, there's not much chance Lee's steel drum band will be revived.

Lee shares his house with 10 people--including his mother, grandmother and 7-year-old brother. On my second visit there, I sit in the front yard with Rosa so that Lee can play outside for a while.

Strange people live in the storage shed next door. A young woman wanders off the street and goes into the shed. She carries what appear to be heavy saddlebags. She is neatly dressed in a little brown linen outfit that looks like it was purchased from Ann Taylor. Except for her bare feet, the woman looks as though she belongs at a Kappa Kappa Gamma tea party instead of in this seedy neighborhood.

A few minutes later, the woman comes out of the shed looking dazed. She is no longer carrying the saddlebags. She stares at Lee, who is playing in an old car in his front yard.

"Don't look at her," Rosa tells her son.
Rosa says the only decent thing about the 20th Street and Van Buren neighborhood is that it is near downtown Phoenix and the Hyatt Regency, where she is a "turndown maid"--she turns down beds for the evening, puts candies on the freshly fluffed pillows, fancies up the rooms so guests can sleep restfully.

But her son Lee rarely sleeps well. His house is constructed of wood, and he worries that bullets will penetrate the walls.

Rosa hopes to move Lee and his brother to a different home in June, a home constructed of block.

"Block homes are best," Lee says, "block homes with bulletproof glass in the windows so I don't get killed."

--Greene Sterling