Black Beauty

by Constance Burris

  Granny ran from the kitchen screaming, and Latreece jumped from the couch, heart beating out of her chest.

  "Damn what's wrong with y'all?" asked Aunt Khandi and Aunt Tasha, Granny's other two daughters. Aunt Khandi was a big-boned woman, who always wore red lipstick two shades too bright for her dark skin. Her younger sister had the same dark complexion as Khandi, but Aunt Tasha was shorter with fewer curves.

  "Y'all don't know how to knock?" Granny held a greasy fork in her hand and specks of flour stained her chin. "Y'all scared the hell out of us."

  "I wasn't scared," Latreece lied, sitting back on the couch with her heart still thumping.

  "Girl, please. I heard you scream too," said Aunt Khandi.

  "Damn, it's raining hard out there." Aunt Tasha took off her floor length denim jacket stained so dark with rain that it could have easily been soaked with blood instead of water.

  "Latreece, where is the tornado right now?" Aunt Khandi asked, paying more attention to the TV than her rain-soaked coat.

  Latreece flipped the TV station back to Gary England. "No tornadoes yet. Just rain."

  A second later, Benita and Aaliyah came through the door carrying grocery bags. "Why y'all close the door on us? Damn," Benita said.

  "Sorry. Y'all slow." Aunt Tasha plopped down on the couch next to Latreece.

  "Y'all could have helped get some of the bags out of the car," Aaliyah said.

  "Why? I had kids so I wouldn't have to carry another bag or wash another dish in my life." Aunt Khandi took off her coat and hung it behind a chair in the dining room.

  Latreece stood, took a bag from Benita and placed it on the kitchen table.

  Benita and Aaliyah were thirteen months apart. They had two brothers, but when their parents had split three years ago, the boys had chosen to live with their dad.

  As soon as the food was put away, the three girls escaped to Latreece's room to let the adults finish cooking.

  Latreece's Gold n' Hot flat iron sat on her vanity table alongside a jar of hair gel and a bottle of Tommy Hilfiger perfume. "Just Kicking It," the R&B song by Xscape, played on the radio, drowning out Gary England's weather report from the living room.

  Benita and Aaliyah had brought some weed over to help Latreece with her break up. She took a puff of the joint, closed her eyes, and let herself relax. When Latreece was sixteen, Granny had given them permission to smoke weed, as long as they did it at home and stayed away from hard liquor and hard drugs.

  Latreece had been crying on and off for the past two days, whenever the TV shows were not good enough to make her forget about Sean, but as she smoked, the stress and hurt eased.

  "You know. I don't mind if black dudes date white girls. But what pisses me off . . ." Benita paused and took the joint from Latreece. "I can't stand the ones who only date white girls. I don't understand that crap." Benita puffed, held her breath for a few seconds and exhaled. She sat at the vanity, above everyone. Her long braids were tied back in one ponytail.

  "Why are you worried about Andre? He stupid. Let the white girls have him," Latreece said, thinking more about Sean than Andre, as she sat on her bedspread with her back against the wall.

  "He's cute, though." Aaliyah accepted the joint from Benita. "And he is one of the only black dudes that's into something other than being a thug." She sat on the carpet leaning her back against the mattress. It had been a gift from Aunt Khandi after her sons had left with their dad, but there was no bedframe so it sat directly on the floor. Both Aaliyah and Benita were Aunt Khandi's children, but where Benita took after her mother, Aaliyah was more like Aunt Tasha, short and curvy.

  The sisters fought like cats and dogs. You could never tell what would set either off. Latreece had wanted a sister until Benita's and Aaliyah's fights became unbearable. From what Latreece observed, Benita was fiercely jealous of Aaliyah. If something good happened to Aaliyah, Benita wouldn't say anything at first, she'd let one or two days pass before she'd blow up over something small and silly. During their fights, there would be windmilling punches, piles of hair, scratched faces, and bloody noses.

  "Andre's only interested in girls and basketball. That does not make him a deep thinker," Latreece said.

  "But he could make it out of the hood, though," Aaliyah said.

  "This is not the hood, and you is shallow," Benita said.

  "You don't know hood until you've lived on the east side," Latreece corrected her.

  "Yeah, yeah, Latreece, we all know you're hard 'cause you lived a minute on the eastside. But still, I want a man with money. I'm tired of being poor." Aaliyah took a long, exaggerated puff. Instead of relaxing, weed always pepped Aaliyah up and made her more talkative. Her gaze narrowed and settled on Latreece. "So what's up with Sean and Shemeya? Are they official now?"

  "Forget Sean," Latreece exclaimed. "If that dreadlocked bitch wants him, she can have him."

  Aaliyah said, "I still can't believe Shemeya is that devious. She's always been so cool."

  "She can have him if he's that easily got," Latreece said. Granny said time heals all wounds. Now, Latreece just had to do her time. She puffed the joint, the heat burned her chest, but she held it there, reveling in the pain before she exhaled. Through the haze of smoke, Latreece focused on Aaliyah. "Why does your skin look so different?"

  Aaliyah's smile lit up her face. "It's about time you bitches noticed. I went to Crazy Jade, and she gave me an herb that cleared my skin."

  "Granny is gonna get you once she finds out. You know how she feels about witchcraft. Sean even told me to stay away from her," Latreece said.

  "Forget Sean. Witch or not, the stuff she gave me cleared my skin." Aaliyah turned to the vanity and ran her hands along the side of her face, admiring her reflection in the mirror.

  "I don't know if it's science or witchcraft, but I heard she turned Old Mr. John's gray hair black, and she gave Miss Dorothy something to help her lose twenty pounds," Benita added.

  "But what about your soul?" Latreece asked in a low whisper, thinking Granny would come through the door at any moment and condemn them for talking about witchcraft.

  Benita shook her head. "The weed is making you paranoid. Granny is superstitious. You can't believe everything she says."

  Latreece perked up. "Do you think Crazy Jade can make my butt bigger?"

  Benita and Aaliyah exchanged glances before they burst out laughing. "I don't think there is anything you can do about that crap," Aaliyah said. "Besides, if you want to be a model and make money, the last thing you want is a big butt."

  Monday morning, on her first full day of suspension, Latreece found herself outside of the witch's apartment. Granny left to refill her diabetes medicine. The storms from Saturday night were long gone, and the sticky, hot weather had returned. Industrial sized lawnmowers whirred somewhere near the back of Vista Apartments, and the air was thick with the smell of fresh cut, wet grass and exhaust fumes.

  Latreece mustered her courage, took a deep breath, and knocked on apartment 180.

  The woman on the other side of the door wore a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt. "What do you want?" Jade asked.

  "Yeah...Uh...," Latreece's voice quivered. "I wanted to know if you could help me with something."

  Jade narrowed her eyes. "You're the girl that was messing with Shemeya the other day."

  "Yeah. So?" Latreece folded her arms across her chest.

  "What do you want?" Jade straightened and squared her shoulders.

  It was too late to leave now. "I heard you could do things?" Latreece said.

  Jade laughed, her freckles crinkling along her nose and cheeks. "You can't afford me."

  "I have money." Latreece pulled out the two hundred and fifty dollars she'd been saving since her birthday. She had planned to use it for her and Sean's prom night, but that plan was dead and buried.

  The humor disappeared from Jade's face, replaced with greed. "What is it you need?"

  "Can you make my butt and chest bigger?"

 
; Jade studied the money in Latreece's hand. "If I told you for two-hundred and fifty dollars I could grant any one of your heart's desires, would you still wish for bigger assets?"

  "Yes," Latreece answered. She should have said the nice thing and wished for world peace. But there was no such thing. It was a hypothetical question beauty queens were asked in pageants. Latreece wasn't Miss America, and the world would never be happy. People like her mother would always choose pain. "But I'm giving you money, so that means you can't have my soul, or curse my granny, or anyone else in my family." The world may never be at happy, but having a bigger butt would get her closer to having inner peace.

  "What exactly do you think I am?" Jade asked, her voice filled with curiosity and humor.

  "A witch who helps some people but might curse others?" Latreece had thought of everything Granny had told her and remembered all the movies about witches she'd ever seen. She'd decided on a simple plan to make sure Crazy Jade wouldn't be able to curse her.

  "Why come here, if you think I'd put a curse on you?"

  "I don't know. Everyone comes here. And you're always nice to your son. You can't be all that bad," Latreece answered honestly.

  "Come in and give me the money." Crazy Jade's shirt showed her midriff. Her stomach was flat, but stretch marks crept past the top of her jeans, but at least she had a nice sized butt.

  Granny's threats about witchcraft and Sean's warnings about Crazy Jade were playing on repeat in her head, but she ignored them and stepped inside.

  Her apartment was humid and muggy, but at least it was clean. She had one couch and no television.

  "Turn around and let me see your butt," Jaded ordered.

  Self-consciously, Latreece did a slow turn, trying not to cringe as she felt Jade's gaze probe her body.

  "Have you tried just eating more?" Jade asked.

  "Yes, but nothing happens."

  "Hold on." Jade turned towards the bookshelf in the living room. The top shelves were filled with normal non-witchy things like Where The Sidewalk Ends and even a few black romance novels. But Jade wasn't looking at the books on top. She was crouched towards the bottom shelf where the books had no titles. Instead, they had brown paper bag book covers. "My book is gone," she said after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence.

  "Does that mean you can't help me?" Latreece asked, disappointed.

  Jade furrowed her brow before she snapped her finger. "Wait here." She walked into the back of her apartment and returned a moment later with some type of potato.

  "What's that?" Latreece asked, apprehensively.

  "This is maca root." Jade caressed it as if it were a baby. It was about half the size of Jade's hand, and the color was ugly, something between the brown of a potato and a purple beet. Flecks of dirt covered the root as if it had just been pulled from the ground.

  "What the hell is a maca root?" Latreece asked.

  "It's something that will give you junk for your trunk," Jade said. "But you'll still have to eat."

  "I told you. I have and it didn't do anything."

  "Believe me, this root will help, but you'll still have to eat more."

  "I'm paying two hundred and fifty dollars for a root. What makes you think I can't go and get this myself?"

  "You could try, but my remedies are unique."

  Latreece didn't see how a root could do crap to make her gain weight, but Jade had helped everyone else, so it couldn't hurt to give it a try. "What am I supposed to do with it?"

  "After you wash it, take one bite a day. No more than one. And eat three good meals a day. Do everything I say and, you'll have an ass in two weeks."

  SEAN

  No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. - Oscar Wilde

  The aroma of cinnamon and bacon nudged Sean from a restless sleep. He wondered if he'd awakened in the right place. His dad had to be at work before the crack of dawn, so unless Sean cooked it, there was never breakfast in this house.

  He hurriedly pulled a pair of jeans over his boxers and walked to the kitchen. William Accra stood in front of the stove cooking turkey bacon on an electric stove. Sean inherited his thick build and six-foot height from his mother's side of the family, so he stood half a foot taller than William. But Sean's copper-colored skin and broad nose were a direct gift from his father.

  "What's going on?" Sean asked, sitting at the kitchen table. "Why aren't you at work? Did you lose your job?"

  William's shoulders shook as he laughed. "No, I haven't lost my job." He placed a bowl of cinnamon-flavored oatmeal and a plate of bacon on the table. "I have an appointment later."

  "Are you okay?" Sean asked.

  "It's just a check-up," William said, sitting in front of his food. "I'll have to work late tonight though to make up the time."

  Sean nodded, his mouth full of oatmeal.

  "Have you seen anything strange in the apartments lately?" William asked.

  Sean swallowed his food in one large gulp, almost choking. "No. I haven't noticed anything," Sean lied. He'd seen plenty: Ashley suddenly getting sick, Shemeya walking around with snakes instead of dreads. There were plenty of strange things happening, but he couldn't tell his dad. "Why? Have you noticed something?"

  Mr. Accra glanced at the picture of Sean's dead mother hanging above the television. "No, but you would know more than me."

  Sean's heart rate increased, but he kept a straight face. "No, Dad. I haven't seen anything like before."

  "Good. Good." Mr. Accra sighed, looking like a weight had just been lifted from his shoulders. "You've been pouting around the house all weekend. Did you and Latreece finally break up?"

  Sean rolled his eyes.

  "Don't roll your eyes at me, boy."

  "Sorry," he mumbled, staring at his half-eaten bowl of oatmeal. William thought Latreece was loud-mouthed and over emotional, but that was why Sean was drawn to her. He had been taught to never make waves and always stay quiet, but Latreece would have none of that. She said and did exactly what she wanted. Unfortunately, when she was pissed, she also held a grudge with the same intensity.

  His father had loved Shemeya, though. He thought she was smart, reserved, and destined to make something of her life. Sean wondered what William would say if he knew about Shemeya's hair and her habit of wanting to make-out at house parties.

  "Latreece is always mad over something, she'll get over it. She always does," Sean said, but he wasn't really sure if she would this time. If it had been anyone but Shemeya, Latreece would have cursed him out and moved on, but she hated Shemeya because Latreece knew how much Sean's father liked the other girl.

  A spiky, bloated horny toad, the same color as the concrete, stood outside of Latreece's door. Vista Apartments were full of the creatures, but they usually ran away when someone approached. The lizard sat undisturbed, like a miniature guard dog, with its gut rising and falling with each breath.

  "Move," Sean shouted and stomped his foot. It must have been sleeping because it jumped and scurried away with its four short bowed legs. It was lunch time, and he'd told Principal Kerr he would take Latreece her homework. With the small guard gone, he knocked on the door. After a few minutes of pounding with no response, he gave up and started back to his apartment.

  He was halfway home when he saw Latreece leaving Jade's apartment. She wore a pair of ripped stonewashed jeans and a t-shirt with the picture of the all black boy band, New Edition. She held something in her hand. She stared at it like it was a Christmas present.

  "What is that?" he asked.

  "Oh crap! You scared me." She had been so distracted by what she held, she hadn't noticed him walking beside her.

  "I just saw you come from Jade's apartment. I told you to stay away from her. She's crazy."

  Latreece's thin lips twisted into a sneer. "You don't control me. What are you even doing here? You're supposed to be in school."

  "I brought your homework."

  She snatched the papers away from his hand. "I got it. Now, go away."

  "What
are you holding?" Sean couldn't decide if it looked more like a beet or a turnip, but he knew if it came from Crazy Jade, it was dangerous and Latreece didn't need it.

  "Don't worry about it. I'm no longer any of your business."

  "Latreece, what you saw between me and Shemeya was nothing. I'm not messing around with her."

  "I. Do. Not. Care," she said. "You knew how I felt about Shemeya. Out of respect, you should have stayed away from her. You couldn't do that, so now you need to stay away from me."

  "You don't understand."

  "I don't need to understand. It's been long enough. We're about to graduate. We need to move on anyway. I hope you, your dad, and Shemeya are happy together."

  "Latreece, I love you." He'd never had the guts to say how he felt out loud, but they were powerful words, and maybe it would make her listen.

  Her expression softened, and for a moment he thought it worked. But then she hardened again. "Now you love me? Too little too late."

  He should have known kind words wouldn't work on her. She was still pissed, and a pissed Latreece jumped on kindness like a tiger pouncing on a gazelle. Still, he couldn't let Crazy Jade get to her.

  "Fine, I'll leave you alone. But give me what she gave you first."

  "Hell no," she snarled.

  Sean grabbed her hand. "Give it to me."

  She tried to pull away, but he tightened his grip, hoping the pain would make Latreece drop it. He was not the type to make a girl do anything she didn't want to, but he couldn't let what happened to Shemeya and Ashley happen to her.

  Latreece's face contorted with pain and determination as she tried to break free. He was much taller than her, and she was as skinny as a rail, but her will gave her the strength of a bull.

  "Is there a problem?" a voice asked from behind.

  Sean's blood turned to ice, his breath caught in his throat, and he let go of Latreece's hand.

  Latreece grinned from ear to ear as she turned from Sean to Jade. "Cra-. . . Jade, Sean has been warning me to stay away from you. He says you're dangerous."

  Jade's gaze felt like a physical thing as she looked him up and down. "Why do you think I'm dangerous?" she asked.