Can't Stop the Shine

by Joyce E. Davis

  Kalia tried to distract herself, flipping through several Essence and Vibe magazines that were on the table, but for some reason she’d gotten anxious about this rehearsal and wanted Mari to hurry up. She’d promised to show up and support her whenever she had a rehearsal, especially because their mother had been noticeably absent in their lives since they’d confronted her about Peter.

  When she heard footsteps in the hallway, she knew it had to be Mari. To her surprise, Asha walked into the waiting room.

  “What’s up?” she asked Kalia, sliding into a chair and crossing her long legs. Kalia noticed her butterfly toe ring and wanted to ask Asha where she’d gotten it, but her competitive spirit kept her quiet.

  “Ain’t nuthin’ up,” said Mari, walking in right behind Asha. “Hey, K.”

  “Hey,” Kalia said to her sister. She still hadn’t spoken to Asha.

  “Well, lookie here,” said Asha, lowering her Gucci sunshades down her nose to peer at Kalia and Mari over them. “If it isn’t the Sisters Jefferson.”

  Mari sat down and ignored Asha, who turned to Kalia.

  “I hear that you and your sister think you can beat me. It’s going to be such a shame when I wipe the floor with you both.”

  “You might be the one on the ground when we’re done with you,” said Mari.

  Kalia looked from one to the other. “Did I miss something here?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” said Asha, running her fingers through her long, wavy hair. “Your sister here thinks that she’s going to whip me on the track and that you’re going to shut me down on the stage. I hate to say it, but you’re both sadly mistaken.”

  “Whatever,” said Mari. “You’ve got no talent and no speed, so we won’t even have to try hard.”

  “Well, how did my slow butt beat you in cross-country last year? And, I think I got a standing ovation and your sister, if I’m remembering correctly, got clowned—isn’t that right, Kalia?”

  Kalia hesitated for a moment. “Well, maybe I could have loosened up a bit, but—”

  “But nothing,” said Mari, raising her voice. “You don’t have to explain anything to her. Don’t say a thing, just let your actions speak for themselves.” She turned to Asha. “Stop trying to psyche her out. You aren’t going to throw her off her game—me either.”

  “Me?” said Asha, feigning concern with her hand over her chest. “Oh, I would never try to do that intentionally. I don’t have to cheat. I have all the support I need from my family and from my sweetie.”

  “What are you talking about, Asha?” asked Mari, immediately sorry she went there.

  “You know, my man from Versace.”

  “JD don’t care about you,” said Mari, wondering why she was allowing herself to be antagonized by her classmate. “He probably just saw you drooling over him outside Versace and took pity on you.”

  “Yeah, well we’ll see who’s feeling sorry for who in a few weeks, won’t we Kalia?” said Asha nastily.

  Kalia opened her mouth to respond just as the receptionist stopped by to tell her it was her turn to rehearse.

  “JD’s not a judge, so even if for some unknown reason he is feeling you, it won’t make a difference. You should have flung that hair in Big Spinner’s face. He seems more like the type to fall for your fakeness,” she said, standing. “Play nice, Mari. I’ll be back in a few.”

  Although there was a lot of sighing and coughing and generally unnecessary noisemaking, not a word was spoken between Mari and Asha the entire time Kalia was in rehearsal. The same uncomfortable silence that hung between them had taken hold in the Jefferson household. When the sisters got home from Fire, their mother was in her room with the door closed and their father was in the guest room, door closed as well.

  Sick of coming home to a house that might as well not have any parents at all, Mari banged on her mother’s door first and then her father’s. No answer led her to Kalia’s room. Her sister didn’t want to talk about it or even think about how to save their parents’ marriage. She’d successfully practically avoiding her mother and her father since the Peter incident several weeks ago.

  Mari was angry with her mother, too, but it wasn’t as intense as Kalia’s ire, probably because she didn’t catch their mother in the act, she thought, sitting at the top of the steps to the kitchen. She wondered what was going to happen to her family. Was her mother going to run off with this yoga guy? What happened if her daddy found out? Were her parents going to get a divorce? That thought was so upsetting that she hopped up to call Colby. She needed distraction immediately, and Colby was always good for a complaint about how she was feeling or how Sean was clueless about pregnancy.

  The next rehearsal to which Kalia went coincided with Asha’s again. She wondered how it was that she and Asha had been scheduled for the last two rehearsals right after each other. Maybe we’re getting taped for some reality show, she thought, her paranoia working overtime as she sat in the waiting room with another contestant, anticipating her main competition’s arrival. She looked hard at the light fixtures in the ceiling, the phone on the coffee table and even the rivets in the floor, searching for hidden cameras. Shaking her head, she decided she was letting the pressure get to her. She leaned her head against the wall behind her and took some deep yoga-inspired breaths, trying to calm down. Only two more rehearsals left, and that’s it, she told herself.

  The receptionist came and got the other contestant, and as she left, Asha walked in, with, of all people, JD.

  Asha hadn’t even gotten into the room good before she was dragging JD in front of Kalia. “Kalia, this is JD. JD, this is Kalia, my competition,” she said, trying to hold his hand. Kalia noticed he wasn’t really cooperating.

  “What’s happenin’, Kalia?” he said, extending his hand. Kalia looked into his hazel eyes and lost her capacity to speak for a second.

  “Hi,” she said, finally taking his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  “So, you nervous?” he asked. “About the contest?”

  “Um, yeah, kinda.” She smiled, but she wasn’t sure why. He was looking directly in her eyes as he was speaking to her. Malcolm was always looking everywhere else but at her when they were together.

  “What’s so funny, cutie?”

  “Nothing,” Kalia said, giggling a bit.

  Asha coughed horribly all of the sudden, and they both looked at her, neither asking if she was all right. Kalia doubted she was really choking.

  “Whew,” she said, placing her hand on her chest theatrically. “I thought I was going to need the Heimlich for a few seconds there. Would you have saved me, JD?”

  Her purring was making Kalia ill. JD whipped out his cell.

  “I don’t know how to do the Heimlich, but I know how to dial 911.”

  He and Kalia burst out laughing. Asha twisted up her face.

  “All right, ladies, I gotta jet. Thanks for the ride, Asha. I don’t know how you ended up at that studio,” he said. “Nobody knows where it is. As a matter of fact, what were you doing back there anyway?”

  “Oh, I just got turned around, you know,” she said, smiling shyly. Kalia knew she was faking. Asha was a lot of things, but shy was not one of them.

  “Okay,” he said, frowning at Asha’s response. “Anyway, I’m checking out the rehearsals today, so I’ll see you inside.”

  “Bye,” Kalia said.

  “Yeah, see you later, baby,” said Asha, wiggling her fingers at JD.

  He looked at her strangely and walked out of the waiting room.

  “That’s my sweetie,” Asha said, sitting down.

  “Umm, hmm,” said Kalia, sitting as well.

  “On the ride down here, we had the best conversation, you know, exchanging industry info.”

  Kalia rolled her eyes. Asha wasn’t even on stage, but she sure was hamming it up. “What industry info do you know?” she asked Asha.

  “You’d be surprised,” she said, flipping through a magazine.

  “I sure would,” Kalia said,
leaning her head back against the wall.

  “I think you’re just jealous of me and JD. You can’t take it that we’re going out.”

  Kalia chuckled at Asha.

  “What’s funny?” Asha demanded.

  “You are,” said Kalia. “You’re the star of your own sitcom, but you have no audience ’cause I’m certainly not paying attention anymore.”

  “Well, you will be when I win this contest and my song is on the radio and you’re standing in line at Wal-Mart to buy my album.”

  “Dream on, silly goose,” said Kalia without moving her head.

  Asha huffed, and they sat there in silence until the video girl came to collect Kalia for her rehearsal. While singing on stage with the band, she tried to peer into the audience to see JD, but the overhead lighting blinded her, so she sang her heart out and hoped he was paying attention. She was back in the waiting room putting on her jacket to leave when JD appeared.

  “That was really tight,” he said, standing half inside the door.

  Kalia knew she was blushing. “Thanks,” she said. “That means a lot coming from you.”

  “No, for real, I mean it. You’ve really got some skills,” he insisted.

  “Thank you,” she said again, not really knowing what else to say. She stuffed her hands in her pockets and tried to control the ridiculous grin on her face.

  “I’ll walk you out, if that’s cool.”

  Kalia had a hard time answering verbally. She just nodded and walked out into the hallway with him at her side. On the way to the lobby he told her all about how he had been spending a lot of time in the studio recently with professional backup singers. In the few months he’d been signed, he’d recently learned how to distinguish between the singers who were theatrical and those who could actually throw down.

  “You’ve got it, that thing that all singers want—incredible skill, maturing technique, a willingness to try different styles and deep soulfulness.”

  Kalia just nodded and kept saying, “Thank you” at his assessment of her talent. She wasn’t used to hearing him so articulate. Every time she’d heard him on the radio, he was all “youknowwhatI’msayin’?” She couldn’t help herself. She had to ask.

  “Sooo, can I ask you a question?”

  “Shoot,” he said.

  “Okay.” She stopped and turned to him a little too dramatically. “What do you really want to do?”

  JD furrowed his brows and tilted his head forward, pausing to think for a minute, stroking his chin. “I wanna be a producer, and, you know, have my own label, then maybe I can branch out into producing films and maybe own a network or something.”

  Kalia smiled and opened the door to the lobby. “Big dreams, Bob Johnson,” she said.

  “Well, you know hip-hop is for the young folks. Can’t spit lyrics forever,” he said, following her to the front door. “So what do you want to do?”

  “Um, I think I want to do Broadway and musicals like The Wiz and Dreamgirls—you know, produce some theater one day after I’ve toured the world fifty times headlining my own shows.”

  They were at her car. “So who’s got the big dreams now?” he asked.

  Kalia laughed a little, feeling kind of special when two girls walked up to JD and asked for his autograph, which he gladly obliged them.

  “All right, little lady,” he said, backing away with his hands in his pockets. “I’ll check you later, ahight?”

  “Yeah, cool. See ya,” she said, getting into her car. She tried to resist the temptation to turn around and look at him walk into the building, but she couldn’t. When she looked over her shoulder, she saw him still looking at her as he continued to walk backward toward the building. She winced when she saw him bump into a group of teenagers, who immediately recognized him. Embarrassed, he grinned at her through her back window, and she waved at him.

  Kalia rode all the way home lost in emotion, replaying the entire conversation between her and JD. She remembered every word he said, how he smiled easily, patted his chest when he was trying to make a point and spoke so intelligently about his dreams. Stopping at a red light, she watched a young couple cross the street in front of her. The guy was tapping on his Blackberry, and the girl seemed to be talking to him, but he obviously wasn’t listening. Seeing the girl throw up her hands in desperation, Kalia realized she’d hardly thought about Malcolm at all since she’d met JD. Looking at the couple in her rearview mirror as she crossed the intersection, she caught a glimpse of the name chain Malcolm had given her. At the next stoplight she took it off. No need for this anymore, she thought, dropping the necklace into a cup holder. She was in such a good mood when she got home that the somberness on her mother’s and father’s faces when she walked into the kitchen was jarring.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked immediately. Her father was leaning against the kitchen counter and her mother was sitting at the table across from Mari.

  Kalia looked from her father to her sister.

  “Don’t look at me,” said Mari, raising her eyebrows. “They just called me down here. I don’t know what the deal is.”

  “Sit down, Kalia,” said Ronald.

  “Okay,” said Kalia, taking a seat at the table.

  “Elaine, you start,” Ronald directed.

  “Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath and turning to her daughters. “We have something to tell…well, your father and I have…we’ve made a decision.”

  “What are you talking about, Ma?” asked Kalia, worry heavy in her voice.

  Elaine looked at Ronald.

  “We’ve decided to spend some time apart,” he said, “but we want both of you to know that this decision has nothing to do with you.”

  “Well, we know it’s going to affect you, but what he means is that you aren’t the reason for it,” Elaine said.

  “I don’t need you to clarify for me, Elaine. The girls know what I mean,” Ronald said harshly.

  Elaine rolled her eyes. Numbed by their parents’ news, neither Kalia nor Mari had been able to say a word. They watched their father open the refrigerator, pop open a beer and guzzle half of it before he put the can on the counter.

  “Girls, are you all right?” their mother asked, reaching across the table to touch Kalia’s hand. Neither answered as Kalia looked at her mother’s hand on hers and felt sick.

  Mari stood up abruptly. “Are you getting divorced?”

  “Well, we’re not saying that exactly,” said Ronald. “We just know we need to separate right now to figure some things out.”

  “But you’ll still be able to see us both,” Elaine added.

  Mari sat down on the back steps. “So who’s leaving?”

  “I am,” said Ronald, taking another long swig. “Tonight.”

  There was silence in the kitchen. No one said anything for a while.

  “Do you have any questions?” their mother asked in a choked-up voice.

  Kalia shook her head, got up and walked up the steps. Mari followed.

  “I’m going to be staying downtown. Your mother will have the number,” they heard their father yell up the stairs after them.

  Kalia had only been sitting in her room for about a minute when Mari came in with her jacket on.

  “Come on,” she said, picking up Kalia’s car keys. “I gotta get outta here. Let’s go for a ride. Ooh, I’ll be glad when I can drive without the parents.”

  Kalia didn’t say anything. She picked up her jacket and followed Mari down the front stairs. Not even bothering to tell their parents they were leaving, they walked out the front door and got in the car.

  Listening to the oldies but goodies station, neither said anything for nearly half an hour. They drove through all kinds of neighborhoods letting Luther Vandross, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Phyllis Hyman and the SOS Band lead the way. They ended up at Grant Park, just as Stevie Wonder’s “All Is Fair in Love” began playing. Kalia drove slowly in the parking area and backed into a space underneath a tree behind them. To their right th
ey could see parents watching their children playing on the playground.

  “Remember when we were kids, we used to play over there,” Mari said, watching a little boy swing himself from one monkey bar to the next.

  Kalia didn’t say anything. When Mari turned to look at her, tears were running down her sister’s cheeks.

  Kalia wiped her eyes and turned down the radio when Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration” came on.

  “You think they’re gonna get a divorce?” Mari asked.

  “I don’t know. I mean, maybe.”

  “It’s going to be so strange going to visit Daddy somewhere else.”

  “Yeah,” said Kalia. “God, what’s going to happen to us?”

  Mari returned her attention to the playground. “I remember when you fell off that seesaw and you busted your lip.” She smirked. “You were so mad at me, and your lip was so big. Remember we called you bubble lip for like a month?”

  Kalia couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yeah, I remember, brace face.” She smiled. “I also remember when you slid down the slide backward and landed on your head in the dirt.”

  “That hurt, too,” said Mari, touching the back of her head.

  “Remember Daddy came over and picked you up and promised he’d get you some ice cream if you’d stop screaming.”

  “Yeah, yeah. We drove around all night trying to find chocolate chip ice cream.”

  “We must have gone to six or seven stores.”

  “But I bet I got it. Ma made sure of that,” said Mari.

  “That was a fun night, back in the day,” Kalia said solemnly. “I guess we won’t be having any more of those.”

  “Them breaking up isn’t why we won’t be going out for ice cream anymore. We’re just too old.”

  “You know what I’m saying, Mari. Life is going to be different.”