«David, Jonathan, and Sylvester» by Charles Harvey

Through hard work and good luck David «Big Nose» Calloway navigates through the Jim Crow South and into the plush chandeliered Walnut Grove Country Club. There he meets Jonathan Knapp a fellow businessman. Jonathan tries hard to befriend David. However, David remains aloof and distant. Jonathan's anger sends him on a quest for revenge and exposes a secret neither man knew they shared.

Excerpt

The leg was good luck to David. It kept him out of the army during WWII. Army Doctor smiled at the big black shirtless boy thick as a chifferobe. Then he smiled at David’s bulging crotch. “That nigger is packing a sack of walnuts there!”

David stood with his pants around his ankles. The doctor nodded at his left leg big as a phone post. However, the doctor’s smile vanished, when he looked below David’s right knee at what looked like a gnarled piece of hickory. Still, the Old southerner steeped in a belief that Negroes were workhorses, made David walk and jump. He squeezed the good leg with his hand, massaged the good strong calf and then the weak one. He measured the leg from crotch to ankle, wrote down the numbers on a chart, and studied the chart marked with other men’s numbers. He sized up David’s withered leg next to a scrawny white boy’s good leg and told himself he didn’t see much of a difference.