“Hello.”
I’m shocked when my mama answers.
“Hello, who is this?” she asks. “Kylie, is this you?”
I don’t say anything.
“Kylie, honey, just say something, please,” she begs. “I know it’s you. Look, everything is fine. Clyde paid the rent for us so that we can stay in the apartment. Of course, he’s moving in but it’s only to help us out. You can come on back home. We don’t have to move.”
I sigh in frustration. Why would I want to go back there with some thug living in the apartment?
“It’s just temporary,” Mama quickly interjects. “Kylie, why won’t you talk to me? Tell me where you are? Honey say something . . .”
“I just called to see if you were okay,” I inform her. “And to let you know that I’m okay. I don’t want you to worry about me.”
Not that you were.
“You need to come home, Kylie.”
“Mama, who is Clyde?”
“He’s my man.”
“What happened to Jake?” I question. “I haven’t been gone that long. When did you meet Clyde?”
“Kylie, c’mon, don’t give me a hard time. I really like this guy.” She pauses for a moment, then says, “Come home so that you can meet him. I just know we’re gonna be one big happy family.”
“I don’t think so,” I say. “But I’m glad you weren’t evicted. Mama, I need to get off this phone.”
“Kylie . . .”
“Bye Mama.”
“Tell me where you’ve been living. I want to know how to reach you.”
I hang up the phone, fighting back tears.
When I finally make my way to the bus stop, the one going downtown arrives within minutes, which pleases me because I can’t wait to get back to Miss Lucy.
I probably would have gone back home if Mama hadn’t been with that thug; the man was uglier than a lard bucket of armpits. Grandma Ellen said that a few times about the men Mama brought home from time to time.
During the bus ride, I think back to the good times I used to have with Grandma Ellen. Hot tears spring up in my eyes once more.
I miss her so much, and I believe she died because we left her all alone. She and my mom didn’t always see eye to eye but Grandma Ellen loved her. She loved us and we left her. We never knew that she had cancer. When she finally told us, everything kinda happened real fast.
Grandma Ellen was gone.
Now I’m all alone.
A couple of girls get on the bus at the next stop. They talk and laugh, oblivious to everyone around them. I bet they have been friends a long time. I miss my old friends back home in North Carolina. I haven’t really made any out here yet, except for Miss Lucy. It would be nice to find some friends my age, too.
“I wasn’t expecting you back here. I thought you’d be able to work things out with your mama,” Miss Lucy tells me when I get off the bus.
“Some things never change,” I respond, taking a seat beside her on the bench. “My mama’s mind is on a man, so there’s no room for me. That’s the way it’s always been with her.”
“I’m sho’ sorry to hear that.”
“Me, too,” I say in a whisper. I hate being out on the streets, but right now it’s better than being home with my mom and all her drama.
“I’ll keep your mama in my prayers.”
“Thank you, Miss Lucy. She needs all the prayers she can get.”
“I guess we best be getting down to the mission.” Miss Lucy rises to her feet. “We don’t want to miss out on a bed tonight.”
I stand up, too, saying, “I sho’ don’t. I’m not crazy about sleeping on the streets.” I was so scared that night I spent with those other kids in that abandoned building. I couldn’t sleep good because I kept hearing people walking by, talking, cussing, and even fighting over drugs.
We stand in line to see whether we will end up sleeping indoors or in the courtyard of the mission. I’m hoping for a cot inside, but if we have to sleep in one of the tents out back, I’m okay with it. At least we’ll be safe.
After we are assigned beds for the night, Miss Lucy and I head to the cafeteria to get something to eat.
I pick up a tray, hand it to Miss Lucy, then grab one for myself. “I want to learn how to make collard greens, too. I love them.”
“Have you ever had mixed greens?” Miss Lucy asks. “I make mine with collards and mustards.”
“No ma’am,” I reply. “But I’d like to try it.”
After dinner, we leave the mission to go search for cans. While we walk, Miss Lucy tells me a little bit about her past. It turns out she was in the army. She describes what it was like for her during the Gulf War.
“I’ll never forget the morning of March tenth in 1991,” Miss Lucy says. “We were positioned near the banks of the Euphrates River when two trucks raced through our position at roughly four in the morning. We opened fire. One truck was carrying fuel, and it splashed its burning cargo on the other. Burning men ran everywhere, only to be met by our machine gun fire. This was my first tour.” She shakes her head. “Those images have never left me.”
“Why did you decide to join the army?”
“I was bored with working in an insurance broker’s office,” Miss Lucy replies. “I just couldn’t handle the mundane day-to-day tasks of an office job and I didn’t want to settle down. I married young and he wasn’t a good husband—I never had any desire to get another one. Anyway, I joined the military because I could travel and see the world and have an interesting job.”
“Did you still feel that way after you went to the Persian Gulf ?”
She nods. “I did two tours over there. Despite the horrors I’ve seen, I enjoyed my job and would probably still be in there had I not been diagnosed with scoliosis.”
Miss Lucy points down at her camouflage pants. “I wore this uniform proudly.”
She stops at an empty lot and says, “Let’s look over here. The more cans we find, the more money we’ll get.”
“How much money can you make selling cans?” I ask.
“We get five cents a can,” she responds. “But we can make up to a dollar on some bottles.”
“Is that why you have the shopping cart?”
Miss Lucy nods. “I need something to carry them in. I get tired quick and can’t always carry stuff in my arms or even my backpack so I put them in here,” she says, pointing to the cart.
“I heard a lady say that she was gonna sell blood to make some money.”
“Yeah,” Miss Lucy says. “You can make between twenty-five and thirty dollars giving blood to the blood bank.”
I frown. “I don’t like needles.”
“I’m anemic, so I can’t give any,” she tells me. “I need to keep what little bit I have.”
I am totally against having someone stab me in the arm with a needle, but since we need money, I may have to get over my fear. “Can I give blood?”
“You have to be at least seventeen years old.”
“Oh.” Relieved, a grin creeps over my face. “When I get through this,” I say, “I’m gonna come back and help out here at the mission. I’m gonna volunteer. I didn’t really think much about the homeless people I used to see, but now that I’m in this position, I’m gonna do whatever the Lord leads me to do.”
Miss Lucy waves away that idea. “Kylie, you can’t save the world, so don’t go thinking that you can,” she advises. “Some people out here don’t want to be helped. You’re right about letting the good Lord be your guide, though.”
We don’t speak for a while after that. Finally, I ask her a question that’s on my mind. “Did your mama love you, Miss Lucy?”
Her answer takes me by surprise. “She loved me just like your mama loves you, Kylie.”
I fold my arms across my chest. “If she loves me, then why is it that she forgets all about me whenever a man looks her way?”
“Kylie, I don’t know your mother, but I’m sure she loves you. I guess she’s probably lonel
y and looking for love, or maybe she’s trying to create her impression of the perfect family—you know, mommy, daddy, and children.”
“Those men don’t want to marry her,” I say. “There’s only one thing they want from my mama.”
She knows what I mean. “You’re very angry with her.”
I don’t deny it.
“Miss Lucy, I have every right to be upset with Mama,” I tell her. “I wouldn’t be out here living on the streets if it wasn’t for her.”
“Honey, it was your choice to run away,” Miss Lucy feels the need to tell me.
“I felt like I had to leave. I didn’t like the way some of those men were looking at me. One of her so-called boyfriends even tried to step to me, Miss Lucy. If my mama loved me so much, then she shouldn’t put me in danger.”
“Did you tell her what happened?”
I shake my head. “I’m not sure she’d believe me. Serena Sanderson only thinks about herself.”
She can see how angry I am. “You know, life out here ain’t easy, Kylie.”
I try to lighten up. I touch her arm. “That’s why God sent me you, Miss Lucy. I know that it’s not by accident that we met. Grandma Ellen used to say that there are no accidents when it comes to God. There’s only purpose.”
“Your grandma was a smart woman.”
I smile and nod. “She was the smartest woman I know. I miss her so much, Miss Lucy. I miss my mama, too.”
“I just believe in my spirit that the day will come when you and your mother is gonna be reunited. I really believe that.”
I sigh in resignation. “I wish I had your kind of faith, Miss Lucy.”
“So what do you plan to do?”
“I plan to stay here with you, Miss Lucy,” I respond. “I read about teens getting emancipated so that they can live on their own. I’m going to do that as soon as I can afford it.”
“You’re going to need an attorney for something like that,” Miss Lucy warns me.
“I’m aware of that.”
“Well, if we’re going to stay together, we need to see if we can get family housing in one of the shelters. I don’t know if they’ll let us without you being my child.”
That sounds like a great idea, and I grab on to it with both hands. “They won’t have to know, Miss Lucy,” I tell her. “It’s not like we have to show a birth certificate. Besides, it will only be for a little while. We will stay there until we get our own apartment.”
Her patient eyes study me. “I guess it won’t hurt us to try.”
I break out in a big grin. “I can’t wait to get a place of our own. It doesn’t have to be a huge apartment—just room enough for the two of us. That’s all we need. Then I can go back to school and finish up.”
“I sho’ hope that you have college in your future,” Miss Lucy comments. “I see the way that you read whatever you can get your hands on. You love books and you love to learn—Kylie, you have to go to college.”
I’m not so sure about that idea. “I want to, Miss Lucy, but that will depend on my financial situation at that time. I know that I can probably get student loans. I’ll spend the rest of my life paying them back if I have to,” I say to her.
“They have grants and scholarships available, too. What were your grades like?”
“I’m an A student,” I tell her proudly. “My GPA was 4.0 but then we moved here and I missed more days than I attended, with moving around and everything.” That’s another reason I’m mad. “I don’t know what it is now—I missed some of my midterms and a couple of finals.”
“I have no doubt in my mind that you’ll be able to catch up in no time. There are some online classes for high school students. We’ll go down to the library one day and research them.”
“Sounds good to me,” I respond. “I want more than anything to be able to graduate on time if at all possible. The sooner I get to college, the sooner I can get that piece of paper and change my whole life around.”
Chapter 3
I slip on a red-and-white-striped shirt and a pair of black jeans. My flip-flops are red, so I wear them instead of my ratty Converse shoes. I want to look nice for my first day on the job, but this is all that I have. Besides, Miss Marilee understands my situation.
I’m too excited to eat breakfast.
“Honey, you need to put something on your stomach,” Miss Lucy tells me. “Take you some fruit to snack on.”
“I’ll get some fruit to take with me, but right now my stomach is too nervous for me to eat, Miss Lucy.”
I glance over my shoulder where people are in line for cold cereal and say, “I might take a box of that cereal, too.”
“You have enough money for the bus fare?” Miss Lucy asks. “You got enough to make it back downtown?”
“Yes ma’am,” I say. It feels good to have somebody really care about me.
Although I know Miss Lucy isn’t feeling her best, she walks me to the bus stop. She’s worried that Lucky D might come back around looking for me.
“I’ll be here waiting on you when you get off work,” she says.
“Miss Lucy, I want you to try and take it easy,” I respond. “I know that you’re not feeling well.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I mean it,” I say to her. “Get some rest. I know you’re in pain, Miss Lucy. You don’t have to meet me. I know to be careful.”
“I’ll be right here. Lucky D’s been sniffing around the mission again. I’m not gonna take a chance on your life.”
The bus arrives.
I give Miss Lucy a hug before saying, “I’ll see you later.”
She waits for the bus to take off before making her way back to the mission. I hope she takes my advice and takes it easy. I’m really worried about her.
When Miss Marilee arrives, I am waiting patiently outside the shop. My bus dropped me off a block away at fifteen minutes to nine.
“Good morning, Kylie.”
“Morning,” I respond with a smile.
“How long have you been here?”
“About fifteen minutes. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t late, especially on my first day.”
“That’s an admirable quality in an employee. We’re all very glad you’re here, Kylie, so just make yourself comfortable.”
Miss Marilee holds the door open for me.
I follow her inside, where she disables the alarm.
“I picked up a couple of black T-shirts for you,” Miss Marilee tells me. “I see that you already have some black pants. I bought you a pair just in case and some black ballet shoes. I bought a size seven and an eight because I wasn’t sure of your shoe size.”
“I wear a seven,” I say.
“Then I’ll keep the eights,” she decides aloud. “Mine are worn down almost to nothing.”
“Thank you for the clothes, Miss Marilee. If you don’t mind, I’d like to keep them here so that they don’t get misplaced or taken. Some people at the mission get desperate and dishonest.”
“That’s perfectly fine with me,” she says. “I’ll wash them for you when I do the aprons and the towels.”
Miss Marilee is such a nice person. I can tell that she has a kind heart and is sincere.
“Will I be wearing an apron?” I ask her. I really want to look like I belong there along with everyone else.
“Only when you work the shampoo bowl,” she answers. “Otherwise, you don’t have to wear one unless you want one.” She can see that I do. “You can grab one from the closet near the break room and keep it up front with you.”
A couple of the stylists arrive and Miss Marilee introduces me as the newest member of the Crowning Glory staff, which really makes me feel good.
Their friendly demeanor makes me feel welcome.
I notice a picture of Divine Matthews-Hardison on the wall. I didn’t notice it when I was there yesterday. “Does she come here to get her hair done?” I ask China wide-eyed.
“Yeah. Her mom is also one of our clients. Kylie, we have a lot of
high-profile and celebrity clientele. There may be times when a reporter or someone will try to come into the salon. Don’t respond to any of their questions—just get my mother.”
“Okay,” I reply. I can’t believe that I’m actually working in the same beauty shop where Divine gets her hair done. Miss Marilee is big-time.
China shows me how to print a list of daily appointments per stylist and how to schedule future ones. As she’s talking, a client arrives.
“She’s here to see my mother,” China states. “I’ll let you check her in.”
I follow her instructions.
“You’re a quick learner,” China says afterward. “That’s good. We have them check in so that we keep a history of the services they receive. This way we don’t have to guess when they got a retouch or a full perm. All of the stylists will tell you if we add any additional services, and you have to record them as well.”
“I can do that,” I say. “Do the clients pay y’all, or do they come up and pay me?”
“They’ll pay you. Are you comfortable with that?”
I nod quickly. “I’m really good with math. I just didn’t know if I was responsible for taking payments from the clients. I forgot to ask Miss Marilee yesterday.”
China stays up front with me until her ten o’clock appointment arrives. I have four more clients arrive. As China watches, I get them checked in and notify the stylists that their appointments are waiting.
Processing payments is easy and runs smoothly. I’m actually having a good time. Mostly it is because I have a job, which means that I will be getting a weekly paycheck. Once I save some money, Miss Lucy and I can get an address. I’ll get my first paycheck on Saturday. I’m so excited. She says that she has veteran benefits coming but can’t get them until she has a place to live.
I plan to save every penny I can of my paycheck. I know that I have to buy some more pants and shirts for work—maybe two pairs of black pants and a couple of shirts. I’ll then have four outfits and can rotate them.
Miss Marilee gives me a bus pass. “I don’t want you worrying about getting to work.”
I offer to pay her back, but she says, “I just want you to show up for work as scheduled, Kylie. That’s all that I ask of you.”
Split Ends Page 3