Forever This Summer

by Leslie C. Youngblood

  Tears rolled off my chin.

  “Maybe it’s best that we go back to the way it was.” Without asking I knew what she meant. She didn’t even look at me. “I knew she was too old for you to hang around with.”

  “Stop saying that. She didn’t get me into nothing. I know how to make my own decisions.”

  “That’s it. You find another way to occupy your time while you’re here. No more spending time at the diner. This friendship you’re building with Markie Jean is making you act out. No more.”

  I trembled and bit my lip so hard it hurt.

  “Katrina, don’t you think you’re being a little harsh?” Grandma Sugar said. She had eased in the door a minute ago but hadn’t spoken.

  “Let me handle this, Mama.”

  “We have enough going on in this house,” Grandma Sugar said, standing next to me.

  When she tried to hug me, I pulled away. She wiped my tears with her thumbs and rubbed my wiry hair.

  “Stop treating me like a baby, Grandma, please,” I said.

  “Trina, you know how it is when kids are in a new town, nothing is off-limits. I’ll talk to Markie Jean. I’m sure she didn’t mean for all this to happen. You know all she’s been through. But don’t try to ground this child in the middle of summer.”

  You know all she’s been through? What did Mama know? If she knew, why was she treating Markie like she was the worst influence on me ever? But Grandma Sugar’s words hit Mama’s cement wall and didn’t make a dent.

  “Go on upstairs, G-baby. You might not leave until it’s time to drive back home.”

  “It’s Georgie. And that’s fine. I want to go back. Now. Let me go stay with Daddy or Frank and Tangie. Anywhere but here. I didn’t want to be here in the first place.”

  “You’re pushing it. You’ll be here until I say so.”

  “Only because you need a babysitter. You’re doing it again. You and Daddy. It’s not fair.”

  “Doing what again?” Mama said.

  I swallowed. “You don’t care about what I want. I’m nothing but a baby until you need me to help with Peaches.”

  I turned and headed upstairs.

  “This isn’t over,” Mama warned.

  Once in my room, I plugged in my phone. Soon as I got a little juice, I checked it for a message from Markie. Nothing. It would only be a matter of time before Mama launched her full-throttle punishment. What if she called my bluff and Daddy came to take me home? I’d lied. I wasn’t ready to leave Bogalusa. And those were words I’d never thought I’d say a few days ago.

  I kicked off my shoes and flung myself on the bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, everything I’d been through that day crashed down. Even though I tried to stay awake and wait for Markie to reach out, I’d been up since five this morning with Peaches. I drifted off to sleep. A couple hours later, I knew Mama was still cooling off when I woke up and there was a shrimp po’boy, sweet potato fries, a slice of chocolate cake, and a bottle of water on a TV table.

  Even if Grandma Sugar or Aunt Essie would have wanted to bring it to me in my room under normal circumstances, Mama would have vetoed it and made me come downstairs. She wasn’t ready to “see my face right now,” that’s what she used to tell Daddy when she was mad at him. “Go ahead and leave. I don’t want to see your face right now.”

  The shrimp spilled out of the po’boy and I ate a few but it didn’t taste as good up here in my room alone.

  Right after I finished my lunch, Markie called. “Wow. I’m surprised you can answer. Thought your mama would take away your phone asap. Isn’t that punishment 101?”

  “She will when she remembers.”

  Markie told me that she was at McClurie Park and asked me to come back out.

  “Ah, doubt it. Remember, Peanut Man brought me home.”

  “Thought you were helping me, being a private investigator and all. Is that only when your mama says it’s okay?” I was quiet. For whatever reason, Mama hadn’t unloaded her full wrath on me. Maybe Grandma Sugar got to her. Maybe even something I said. Did I want to ruin that? “You’re no better than the grown-ups. They don’t keep their words either. All that stuff about you willing to go out of your comfort zone was just a bunch of baloney.”

  “That’s not fair,” I said. “It’s not like you haven’t been messing with my head, too.”

  “Well, you shouldn’t say you’re going to help someone and not do it. If you’re grounded anyway, what’s the difference? They can’t double ground you,” she said. “Stuff your pillows under your blanket. That’ll work. Meet me here at seven.”

  “I’ll be there,” I promised.

  All the air seemed like it left the room. I was dizzy. Instead of figuring a way out of trouble, I was about to dig myself in deeper.

  13

  BAT SIGNAL

  Six thirty. I hadn’t conjured up a plan to get out and meet Markie. I sat there and nibbled on my cold po’boy feeling like a squirrel trapped in the attic. I flipped up my phone and pressed BFF, which was something like sending up the Bat Signal.

  “’Bout time you called,” Nikki said. “Must not be that boring there, you don’t have time to talk or text.”

  “The time I tried, it went to voicemail.”

  “That was only one day. Got caught with eyeshadow. Not even the real stuff. Nothing but glitter, like Lu Lu wears.”

  I rolled my eyes like Nikki could see me. Lu Lu was the nickname of Lucinda Hightower, a Sweet Apple bully but not the kind who takes your lunch money. Those are easier to spot. We’ve reported a few to teachers with decent results. Lu Lu was the kind who’d pretend to be your friend if they want something you have. They were slimier than fake friends. A fake friend will talk behind your back. But those bully friends would even stick up for you as long as you had something they wanted.

  “Hey, can we talk about Lu Lu later? I need your help.”

  “Why didn’t you just say so? What’s up?”

  Nikki was excited at first, but when I told her that it wasn’t about a boy, that faded. Of course she couldn’t let that go without teasing me about Kevin Jenkins, who was the closest I had to a boyfriend ever. I considered him my “almost boyfriend.” Once we were over that, her voice filled with genuine concern.

  “The thing is that I’m sort of on punishment. If I don’t go, I’ll let a friend down. If I go and get caught, I can’t imagine Mama ever allowing me out of her sight again. What do you think I should do?”

  “Yikes. You’ve only been there a hot minute. How did you get involved in all that?”

  “Long story. Let’s bookmark it.”

  “Okay, but uh, she’s not your friend.”

  “How do you know that? You’ve never met her.”

  “A friend wouldn’t ask you to do anything that would get you in trouble.”

  “Nikki, are you serious? We’ve both been guilty of that and that’s not even including you and Lucinda.”

  “Okay, okay, but not when you’re already on punishment. They’d care more about you getting off punishment, not adding to your time.”

  “Good point.”

  “I’m supposed to try and sneak out the house and meet her in just a few minutes.”

  “Don’t do it, Georgie, please. There’s still a lot of summer left. Don’t let this insta-friend mess it up for you!”

  Nikki was making sense whether I wanted to hear it or not.

  “You’re right,” I said.

  “Remember that summer I was grounded for more than a month. It was almost time to go back to school before I could even ride my bike.”

  “Yeah, I remember.”

  Nikki’s mama called her in the background. “I’ll let you go,” I said.

  “Don’t do it!” she warned right before we both said “bye” and hung up.

  I sat there and watched the clock on my phone hit 7:00 p.m. I couldn’t bring myself to call Markie. A quarter after, Markie’s number flashed on the screen.

  I was tempted to answer but got
ready for bed. If I was ever going to help her find her mama, getting in more trouble with mine wasn’t the way. That, I was sure of.

  The next morning, Mama knocked on the door. “You up, Georgie?” Before I could answer, the door flung open.

  I yanked my sheet to my chest, covering my thin nightgown. Not that I had anything that Mama hadn’t seen, but who doesn’t want some privacy? Even though I had my own room at home, Mama never bothered to knock. To me, privacy was just as important as her calling me “Georgie.” But one of Grandma Sugar’s favorite sayings was “Pick your battles.”

  I slid my feet into my slippers, securing the sheet around me with clasped arms, then I glanced at the empty twin bed across from me.

  “Peaches slept in your room last night?”

  “She’s trying to give you some space.” Mama didn’t sit on the empty bed, but she fluffed the pillow.

  “Did you call Daddy?”

  “Co-parenting doesn’t mean I call him every time you get out of line, Georgie. We’ll talk soon enough.”

  “Sorry about trespassing.”

  “You could have landed in much more trouble than you did. Both of you.”

  “Am I grounded?”

  “I’m still processing this. Your great-aunt and grandma weighed in. If I try to confine you to this room, they said they’ll free you.” She gave me a half smile, sat down, and then glanced out the window. “Whether I like it or not, I have your Grandma Sugar and Aunt Essie to contend with in this house.”

  As Mom sat there, my courage built up to ask her one of a dozen questions that had been buzzing in my head. I swallowed hard and went for it.

  “Why didn’t you tell me that Markie used to be Aunt Vie’s foster kid?”

  Mom pinched the space in between her eyes like she’d taken off her reading glasses. We both listened to a car’s bass so loud the windows vibrated.

  “Turn it down,” someone shouted. Mom waited for the commotion to pass before she spoke.

  “Markie hasn’t officially been Aunt Vie’s foster kid for a while. Even though the state thought she’d be better off placed with another family, she and Aunt Vie remained close. Then once Aunt Vie’s condition worsened, Aunt Essie moved back to Bogalusa and she used to let Markie sit with Aunt Vie.”

  I crisscrossed my ankles. Crossed them back. Anything I could do to ease my nerves as Mama continued talking. But she stopped and now was facing me. Still silent.

  “Why she stop letting her? She loves Aunt Vie, I know it. It’s not fair I get to see her and Markie doesn’t. She knows Markie more than she knows me.”

  It hurt to say it aloud but it was true. Mama knew it, too.

  “Things started missing, Georgie. Valuable pieces of jewelry that belonged to Aunt Vie. Aunt Essie suspected that Markie might be taking them but didn’t know for sure. She found Aunt Vie’s coin purse in that bag that Peanut Man brought here.”

  My stomach was caving in but I tried not to show it. I’d looked through her bags, too. Wasn’t I just talking about my privacy? I was that word I missed on a spelling test last year. A hypocrite.

  “She said she gave it to her, Mama. It’s possible.”

  “She’s a smart girl and knew that Aunt Vie wasn’t in a position to give away anything. At the least she should have told Aunt Essie.”

  A part of me wanted to tell Mama how I thought Markie was stealing peanuts. How I was wrong about that. But it didn’t seem to compare to finding that coin purse. Right now, it was all about trying to figure out how not to let what all I wanted to do in Bogalusa go down the drain.

  I crisscrossed my ankles a few times waiting for the punishment that still hadn’t landed.

  “Do you think you can stick it out with us here?”

  After a few seconds of contemplation, which was more like shock, I said, “Yes, ma’am.”

  Mama pulled me close. Instead of one of her favorite perfumes, she smelled of Dove soap and mouthwash.

  “After yesterday, I think I need to spend some quality time with you two. This is your summer vacation. We’re going on a little trip. Peaches is having breakfast now, then I’ll do her hair. Just come down when you’re ready. I have a few other things I need to finish up for Aunt Vie. We’ll be on our way before long.”

  “Okay,” I said. Mama kissed my forehead and left.

  I tried to put Markie out of my mind as I got ready, but it wasn’t working. I mustered up the nerve to call. It went to voicemail. Maybe it was for the best. Since I wasn’t going anywhere and had miraculously avoided major punishment, that bought us a little more time. Mama wanting to spend “quality time” with Peaches and me was a good thing. She had been more stressed than I’d seen her since Peaches was in the hospital. I knew that Aunt Vie’s condition was just part of it. Maybe this time away could help all of us. I’d rethink my plans with Markie when I got back. Starting from square one with her not trusting me wasn’t an option. We just didn’t have enough summer left for all that.

  14

  THE CAUSEWAY

  As soon as we had Peaches in her booster seat, I buckled myself in.

  Grandma Sugar, Aunt Essie, and Aunt Vie were on the porch to see us off. Aunt Vie looked like she was sleeping with her eyes open. Grandma Sugar leaned and whispered in her ear, and she shivered like Grandma’s breath was a cold breeze. But when Mama blew her horn, something in Aunt Vie switched on. She started waving, not just with one hand but with both. That car horn meant something to her. My heart leaped.

  “Aunt Vie’s waving,” Peaches shouted.

  Mama tooted that horn again and the waving became even more frantic.

  “Bye-bye! Bye-bye!” Aunt Vie shouted. I waved until we couldn’t see them anymore and so did Peaches. I knew she probably didn’t know it was us leaving, but whoever she saw in her mind meant something to her.

  The navigational system started in and Mama said, “Don’t need you today, Gladys,” and reached to turn it off. She started calling it that last year when she learned a Black woman helped design it. She took it off the dash and stored it in the glove compartment.

  “Peaches, don’t have me stopping at the gas station before we get on the road good,” Mama said.

  “I already used it,” Peaches said, not looking up from her game. “Two times,” she added. I held my breath, waiting for Mama to ask me, too. It’s hard to explain but it felt like she’d trusted me to be in charge of when I had to go without her reminder. Yeah, it was a little thing, but I’d take it. I made sure that my seat belt was fastened.

  “You’re not telling us where we’re going, Mama,” I said.

  “You’ll know soon enough.” I loved the anticipation in her voice. It was rarely the three of us anymore since she married Frank. It felt good with it being “Mama and her girls” again. As Mama drove, I stared out the window happy that I recognized places that I’d walked with Markie. Along one side street, a fire hydrant was on and kids skipped and danced in the white water like a street-long Slip ’N Slide.

  Mama seldom listened to the radio when we were in the car. But this time she tuned in a jazz station and let it play for a few minutes while she tapped the steering wheel. When she was ready to speak, she turned it down.

  “Girls, you know how Aunt Vie lives in her home but stays in her room most of the time?”

  “Yeah, she doesn’t like to come out,” Peaches added.

  “Well, her sisters are starting to think it would be better if she lived somewhere else for a while. Somewhere they could help her and where she could socialize with people with similar conditions.”

  “But where could be better than home?” I asked. Mama didn’t answer right away. “You’re talking about a nursing home,” I finally had the courage to say. “That’s where Grandma Sugar says she never wants to go.”

  “Georgie, your grandma and Aunt Essie are the ones who have to make the decision about their sister. They’ll do the best they can until they can’t. That’s what loved ones are supposed to do. But this isn’t a re
gular nursing home, it’s a—”

  “Memory care facility,” I said.

  I glanced out the window, wondering what I was seeing that Aunt Vie had seen for years. I tried to lock it in my memory so I could tell her about it. Things that you never thought you’d care if you remembered or not, like what the specials were at Travis’s Grocery. Or how telephone poles and wires played double Dutch against the Bogalusa sky. When I thought about Aunt Vie not remembering things in her own kitchen, I realized that it wasn’t just about not forgetting the big stuff in life, like the names and faces of people you love, but the ordinary stuff, too.

  “That’s right,” Mama said. “Memory care. How do you know that?”

  “The ads come on all the time when we’re watching Judge Judy.”

  “Nothing is decided yet.” Then Mama’s voice cracked. She let the music play for a while and we enjoyed the ride. When I saw the sign for Mandeville, LA, which was about thirty miles away from Bogalusa, I guessed we were heading to New Orleans. For almost twenty minutes, Mama sang along to the radio and I joined in if I recognized a song. Then she glanced in the rearview to see if Peaches had nodded off to sleep.

  “Good. She’s napping,” Mama said. “Georgie, I told them about the slap.” She whispered the word “slap.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment. “What did they say?” I asked.

  “Both of them told stories about Aunt Vie’s aggressive behavior. This was the first slap. I mean, she’s pushed my hand away but never something like that. But it’s not only about protecting those around her, but protecting her, too. Right now, we still think she is manageable. Keep in mind that Aunt Essie’s husband, your uncle Dean, drives long haul.

  And your grandma hasn’t retired yet, though she’s thinking about making this year her last. Aunt Essie can’t handle things on her own. The truth is that we’re leaving soon.”

  “How soon?” I said.

  “I mean we won’t be here forever. You know that.”

  Mama turned up the music again, but her words were in each beat. Then something crossed my mind. Something that Mama and all the grown-ups already knew: It didn’t matter how much we wanted it, Aunt Vie would probably never again know any of us like she used to.