“On the way there, or coming home, Mom’s tire blew out, and they were hit by another car. Their car flipped a few times. Mom and Morgan were in intensive care. Mom, for nearly a month. Morgan, just for a few days, then she died. Mom and Dad seemed to fall apart after that.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.” My hands collapsed into my lap. When Tangie didn’t say anything, I figured I’d messed things up again. But when I had the nerve to look at her, her tears were falling and she didn’t bother wiping them. I didn’t know what to do. What if I touched her and she flinched away from me?
I eased closer to her. I was too scared to hug her, so I just sat there. When I got up enough courage, I patted her back.
“It’s gonna be okay, Tangie,” I said. I just kept sitting there without trying to think of anything new to talk about, but she didn’t ask me to leave and that was just as good as her asking me to stay.
“Special delivery,” Frank said, and knocked on the door.
I realized then that the doorbell had rung a couple times since I’d been in her room. “Come in, Dad,” Tangie said.
Frank entered with the pizza. “The captain of my bowling league stopped by with all kinds of goodies for you girls. And this came a few minutes ago.”
“I forgot we ordered it,” I said. On top of the pizza box were cups and plates. In his other hand was a jug of sweet tea. He sat them on Tangie’s desk.
“Upstairs?” I said, and knew Peaches wouldn’t believe it. But it still didn’t feel as good as when I got to eat in Nikki’s room. It was just because Peaches was sick. That sucked the happiness right out.
“Didn’t want the pizza to get cold,” he said.
“Thanks, Dad,” Tangie said.
Frank’s eyes darted to the pictures of Morgan on Tangie’s lap. He sat the pizza down on the table and reached for the album.
“Daddy’s beautiful little girl,” he said quietly. Then he glanced at Tangie. “You need to talk, Tee?”
“I’m good, Dad,” she said. Frank handed her the album and she stood to put it back in her closet.
“We have to remember what the counselor said.”
“I know. I know. Don’t be afraid to schedule more appointments if I need to.”
“We agreed?”
“Yes, Dad,” Tangie answered, and stared out her window.
“Are you holding up okay, Georgie?”
Talking to Tangie had made me feel a little better. A thousand words were on my tongue, but all I managed to say was “Okay, I guess.”
“That’s the best any of us could do right now.”
I nearly held my breath thinking he’d say something new about Peaches.
“I’m gonna go back up to the hospital, but first I’ll stop and pick your mama up a fancy salad. That was her on the phone. Told me something to tell you.”
“To behave myself?” I asked.
“Nope. Peaches has been cleared for visitors.”
I perked up instantly. “Really? When can I see her?”
“First thing tomorrow,” Frank said. He did the head-rubbing thing again and walked toward the door.
“Are you sure?”
“As sure as we can get. Your mama wouldn’t let me say a word until she cleared it with Dr. Harris herself. Didn’t want to get your hopes up.”
“That’s good to hear!”
I was nervous to look at Tangie because of the mean things I’d said, but when our eyes met, she had a little smile that even showed in her eyes.
“Frank!” I called out. I wanted to run up to him and wrap my arms around him like I would my very own daddy, but I lost my nerve.
“Present!” he said.
“Can you eat with us?” I asked, opening the box.
“You know what? Roger that. I could use a little something to hold me over.” He slid a chair from under Tangie’s desk and took a slice. Tangie and I grabbed slices, too. “Pepperoni, sausage, and ham…Love it.”
Tangie nodded. “Not too bad,” she said, and poured our tea.
“You’re eating the meat?” I said, noticing that she wasn’t picking off the toppings.
“Can’t eat like a bird all the time, especially after good news,” she said.
“If you want to taste the pizza in a boot camp chow hall, just take a heap of tomato sauce and pour it over one of those right there,” Frank said, pointing to one of the sneaker boxes stacked in the corner of Tangie’s room.
I laughed and took a bite so big it filled both my cheeks. I couldn’t wait to call Nikki and tell her that she was wrong about Tangie, but most importantly, I’d see Peaches tomorrow!
We’d been eating and talking for about ten minutes when the doorbell rang again.
Frank wiped his mouth and stood up. “You didn’t order from two pizza places, did you?”
We shook our heads, although it wouldn’t have been the first time. Frank headed downstairs to answer the door.
Tangie sipped some tea. “Peaches having visitors is a good sign. I’m so glad your dad got her to the hospital when he did.”
“Yeah, but they could have gotten her there quicker.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’d snuck over to Nikki’s. My daddy and Millicent didn’t know where I was. Millicent said that Peaches wouldn’t tattle even when she was sick.” Since Millicent tried so hard to be nice to me at the hospital, I was going to forget about “Millipede.”
“Georgie,” Frank said as he trotted upstairs a couple of minutes later. “You have a visitor, young lady.”
I bugged my eyes. “Really? Who is it?” I was hoping it was Nikki so she could see Tangie and me in action.
Frank tapped his foot but still had a smile on his face.
“Who?” I asked again, and took a bite of pizza.
“A very polite fella,” he said. “Told me his name was Kevin. Kevin Jenkins, to be exact. Says it’s important.”
I swallowed before I could stop myself and almost choked.
“He’s having a glass of apple juice and some crackers at the kitchen table.” Frank smiled. “Quite the industrious guy. He brought it himself.”
Frank walked down the stairs with me, and Tangie followed us carrying the pizza box and tea. I tried to act like it wasn’t a big deal, but there was a jackhammer where my heart usually was.
In the kitchen, Frank stood with his arms folded, eyeing Kevin like he was a mini soldier. “So where do you live, young man?” he asked.
Kevin’s shoulders straightened. “Culberson Street. It’s not ’round here, sir, but in Georgie’s old neighborhood.”
“He’s our friend from Sweet Apple,” I said. I wasn’t sure if Frank knew the “our” was for “Nikki and me,” but my mouth was too dry to add anything else.
“That is a long trek on a bike,” Frank said. “Where are your folks? They okay with that?”
Kevin bobbed his head as Frank asked the questions. “My mom is home, and my dad is in Rochester.”
Frank tipped back on his heels. “Rochester, New York? That’s quite a ways away.”
“It’s nine hundred and sixty-two miles from here. Not far from Buffalo,” Kevin added.
“Upstate. I’ve been through there a few times. Far cry from Georgia.”
“I’m going to live with my dad soon.”
Frank nodded. “Ready for that knee-deep snow, young man?”
“Count me out of any place dealing with snow,” Tangie said, and set the pizza and tea on the counter.
“Gonna make money shoveling,” Kevin said.
“That’s the way to think…. Well, I’m off to the hospital. You two can visit in the kitchen, living room, or front porch.” Then Frank turned back to Kevin. “Don’t stay more than an hour, young man.”
“Yes, sir,” Kevin said.
“Did you hear me, Georgie?” Frank added.
“No more than an hour,” I repeated when I got my tongue to work again.
Frank saluted us. Kevin saluted back, and I waved.
Once Frank left, Tangie playfully tapped her foot like Frank. “Guess I’m the official chaperone,” she said. “You were at the hospital, right?” Tangie asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered and reached out to shake her hand like Daddy would a customer at the car lot.
“Just call me, Tangie. That’s fine.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said again, and she giggled.
“Hope my dad didn’t scare you,” she said.
“No. He’s kinda like my dad.”
“Do you want something else to drink? What about a slice of pizza?”
“Thata be cool.”
“Georgie, pop Kevin here a slice in the microwave and pour him some tea. I’ll get started on my nails.”
“Okay,” I said.
As soon as she left the kitchen, I grabbed the pizza, put it on a plate, and slid it in the microwave. “How did you know where I live?”
“I stopped at your old house first, but nobody was home. Then I saw Nikki. She told me.”
When I tell Mama something and she doesn’t feel like writing it down, she says, “I’ll make a mental note of that.” I made a mental note to wring Nikki’s neck. She could’ve at least called and told me she’d talked to him. She didn’t have a problem calling me any other time.
“You rode your bike all the way here?”
“Halfway until I caught a bus that let me bring my bike along. Like Nikki said she did.” He raised his eyebrows a bit. I almost forgot about that part of her fib. I was bursting to tell him the whole story, but Nikki would bite my head off if I spread the news she was bullied. I did a mama move and changed the subject.
“So what did you want?” I asked. “You told my stepdad it was important.”
“Guess who I saw at the Boys and Girls Club?”
“Probably Lucinda Hightower,” I said, thinking of her being captain of the new step team.
Kevin nodded. “Guess what else.”
“What?”
“Lucinda is the one who stole Nikki’s bike.”
My eyes widened. “How did you find out?”
“I saw her with it. But the crazy part is that I was ready to go take it from her and she told me that Nikki knew all about it.”
At that moment I hurt even more for Nikki. Lucinda was flaunting Nikki’s bike right in her own neighborhood. Didn’t even have the decency to ride it on some other block. Just rubbing her face in it.
“I hate to say that’s true, but it ain’t that simple.”
When the microwave dinged, I opened the door. “Hope this is hot enough.” I set the slice in front of Kevin.
“Thanks.” He bit into it right away. After he swallowed he said, “So what’s the deal with it?”
“Nikki keeps telling me that Lucinda ‘borrowed’ it.”
“Looking like it’s hers now.”
“Nikki says she and Lucinda are friends.”
“You don’t buy that, do you?”
“Not one bit. But I got other stuff to think about right now.”
“Well, that’s why I’m here, too.” He lowered his voice. “Wanna go see your sister again? I could help sneak you in her room. I’ve snuck into my mom’s room before.”
“Oh, they moved her out of ICU. My mom said I’ll be able to see her tomorrow.”
“If they moved her, she’s getting better?” He twirled a piece of cheese on his finger and popped it in his mouth. Then he wiped tomato sauce off his face with a napkin.
I put another slice in the microwave for him. “Yeah. I hope so. Everyone keeps saying that she might not be a hundred percent, though. But they won’t say how or anything.”
“My mom doesn’t see too well out of one eye ’cause of the diabetes, but she can still see okay.”
I shrugged. “Maybe it’s something like that?” I really did want to know, but another part of me just wanted to be happy about visiting Peaches, not wondering about what Mama wasn’t telling me. “Thanks for checking on me.”
“My dad called my mom last night,” Kevin said in between bites.
“Oh, to make plans to come see you?” I asked.
“More like plans for me to come live with him before school starts. My mom argued him down, but since I had to repeat, she says that he’s threatening to take her to court.”
“I thought you were going to stay here for the rest of the summer.”
“Nah, my dad said the way it’s situated now ain’t working. Says somebody’s gotta keep an eye on me. He wants me there to stay as soon as possible.”
“When’s he coming?”
“Next week.”
“Wow, that’s soon.” I put my hand to my stomach while the butterflies went haywire.
“You okay?”
“Yep. Too much pizza, I guess.”
“It makes my stomach hurt when I eat too much, too. But I eat it anyway,” he said.
“Yeah, me too,” I said, and smiled.
“Guess I coulda waited, but I didn’t know when you’d be back over Nikki’s. Plus, I wanted to tell you about Lucinda.” He took a big gulp of his tea, holding the glass up until the bottom pointed to the ceiling.
I put the other slice in front of him and refilled his tea. As he ate, we chatted about Sweet Apple, our old teachers, but the conversation circled back to Lucinda Hightower. One good thing about talking about Lucinda was that I could be angry. I’d take angry over sad any day.
“That Lucinda thinks she can get away with anything,” I said.
“’Cause she usually does,” Kevin said.
“Well, not this time. I don’t care what Nikki says, soon as Peaches is home, if I find out that Lucinda still has Nikki’s bike, she’s gonna be in a whole heap of trouble.”
“What you got in mind?” His eyes lit up like when I asked him to help me get to the hospital.
“I don’t know yet, but it’s gotta be something good to teach her not to mess with my friends anymore.”
“Whatever it is, count me in.” He held up his hand, and I high-fived him. There was always the chance that Lucinda would give Nikki’s bike back on her own. But that had about as much chance as Nikki admitting she liked Kevin before she started saying he liked me: Zip. Zero. Zilch.
About thirty minutes later, Kevin said, “Guess I better be going.”
“How do you know when the bus comes?”
“It’s every forty-five minutes. I ride until I see one. Do you have a pencil and paper? I can write my e-mail address for you. We don’t have a house phone, and my mom only has the kind of cell that uses minutes.”
I ripped off a grocery-checklist memo slip from the refrigerator door and found a pencil in a cabinet drawer. Before I gave them to him, I said, “My mom opens my e-mail all the time. If there is anything in it she doesn’t like, she deletes it and blocks the sender.”
After he wrote his address down and I gave him mine, we walked through the living room to the front door. “I won’t send nothing bad,” he said. “Just tell you how school is going and stuff.”
“Leaving?” Tangie called, and waved from Mama’s favorite couch with big roses printed on it. Mama found curtains that matched a pink color she called “mauve” and ordered them from Sears. The room looked like springtime. “Be safe getting home.”
Kevin waved back. “Thanks.”
Outside, a warm breeze hit me, and I could practically taste Mama’s sweet gardenias on my tongue. Kevin’s bike leaned on the edge of the steps, right next to them.
“Is your dad driving here?” I asked.
“No, he’s flying. Then we’re flying back within the next couple of days, I guess. If he can’t get off work, he says he might send me a ticket and I’ll fly by myself.”
“We flew when we visited my aunt Elvie in Louisiana. It was kinda scary.”
He jumped on his bike. “Well, I wouldn’t be scared. I’m not scared of nothing.” His voice was louder than before.
“I didn’t mean you’d be scared,” I said.
He inched h
is bike along. “No biggie.”
I walked next to him. “Hope you get a pilot that lets you see the cockpit and learn how everything works.”
“That’d be cool. I hope your sister comes home soon. We don’t have a computer, but I’ll ride to the library and e-mail you.”
“Okay!” I said.
I waved as he sped off. But then he stopped and came back.
“Oh, I meant to give this to you.” He jammed his hands in his pocket and kept whatever he pulled out balled in his fist. He drew his arms closer to his chest, and I leaned in. “Do you want it?”
“I guess. Is it another address for you or something?”
When he opened his hands there wasn’t anything there.
“Did it fall out?” I asked, looking at the ground.
“Nope, it didn’t.”
Just then, I felt his lips on my cheek like a buzzing bee had landed on it.
“Hey!” I said as he zipped off.
“I’ll e-mail you,” he said again, and I watched him pedal down the street.
I stood there with my hand on my cheek, like the kiss was gonna fly away.
When I got my feet unstuck from the ground, I walked back inside the house. Tangie was standing at the kitchen sink with her hands plunged in the dishwater. “Kevin leave okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, he’s gonna ride until a bus comes.”
“That’s smart. I’ve pretty much finished the dishes. I just filed my nails while I waited. Didn’t feel like tackling my braids today, but let’s get to your nails.”
“That’d be cool.”
Once we were back in her room, I sat on her bed. “What color do you want?” she asked.
My cheek was still tingling. “Probably bubble-gum pink?”
“Sit on the chair at my desk. I’ll go get one from your room.”
A minute or two later she returned dragging a chair with one hand and balancing a bowl of soapy water in the other. I jumped up to help.
“Grab that towel and put it on my desk for me. You’re getting ready to see a real manicurist at work.”
As soon as I did, she placed the bowl on the towel. “Go ahead and put one of your hands in here,” she instructed me. “You know, just your fingertips.”
Love Like Sky Page 14