She Said, She Said

by Celeste Norfleet

“He’s cute, so…”

  Laura looked up again. “So what?” she questioned.

  “So what about him?”

  “What do you mean, what about him?”

  “He wrote this in your yearbook, so what about him? I thought you said a million times that you didn’t have a boyfriend when you were in high school.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Well, I beg to differ,” she said, then cleared her throat to begin reading the quickly written scripty writing beneath his photograph. “To my heart, I will always remember you no matter where I go or what I do. You will always be in my thoughts.” She looked up from the book, awaiting an explanation. “Well?”

  “Well, he wrote the same exact thing in every female’s yearbook.”

  “For real?” Tamika asked.

  “Yep, for real. It might have been easier if he’d just gotten a rubber stamp and had us all stand in line.”

  Tamika chuckled at her mother’s quip.

  Laura didn’t. She remembered at the time feeling too thrilled that he’d written something so personal in her yearbook. But it wasn’t long before every girl in the twelfth grade started bragging about the exact same thing.

  “Ooh, look at this,” Tamika said, showing the book again. Laura scooted closer. They spent the next twenty minutes going through the book in detail.

  The calendar receded and the years fell back as the two sat enjoying the photos of the past, making memories for the future.

  Later Tamika sat in her room still looking at her mother’s yearbook. She still couldn’t believe she had done all those things. She pulled out her laptop and was just about to blog on her MySpace when she got an IM.

  Sean: hey, U N Fraser yet?

  Tamika: yeah, we got here 2night.

  Sean: what do U think?

  Tamika: 2 dark, I’ll check it out L8R.

  Sean: It was nice talkin 2 U B4

  Tamika: yeah, ditto

  Sean: I saw U’R myspace response—star

  Tamika: how’d U know it was me?

  Sean: good guess

  Tamika: uh-huh

  Sean: I noticed U didn’t fill out my survey.

  Tamika: 2 busy.

  Sean: do it now.

  Tamika: still 2 busy.

  Sean: doing what?

  Tamika: talkin’ 2 you.

  Sean: LOL I’ll wait.

  Tamika: No, L8R

  Sean: promise

  Tamika: promise

  Tamika: when R U comin down?

  Sean: 2 wks mayb, why, miss me

  Tamika: just 1-dering

  Sean: miss me?

  Tamika: just 1-dering

  Sean: LOL

  Tamika: gtg, L8R

  Tamika stopped IMing and went to Sean’s MySpace with the survey he mentioned. She read through the questions. It was about the same as most online surveys.

  The perfect date: last day of school

  Your favorite color to wear: white

  Hottest body part on a guy: eyes

  Biggest regret: no regrets

  Favorite room in the house: my bedroom

  Favorite food to eat alone: popcorn

  Favorite beverage: orange soda

  Peas: NO!

  Ice Cream: chocolate

  Favorite season: summer

  Can’t live without: cell phone

  As soon as she finished and sent it she got another IM. It was Sean again. They chatted online for almost half an hour this time. Tamika realized that Sean was nothing like the guy she thought she knew. He was funny and understanding and she really enjoyed being with him before and chatting with him now. They were still talking when her cell buzzed. She checked the caller ID. It was Lisa.

  Tamika: I gotta go.

  Sean: U deserting me again.

  Tamika: sorry—Lisa’s on my cell.

  Sean: U owe me

  Tamika: owe U what?

  Her cell buzzed again and she picked up quickly and immediately asked Lisa to hold on a minute, then went back to Sean.

  Sean: I’ll think of something

  Tamika: like what?

  Sean: I’ll let U know

  Tamika: K C U

  Sean: L8R

  “Hey, girl,” Tamika said as soon as she logged off with Sean and picked up her cell.

  “Are you busy?”

  “Nah, I was just IMing Sean.”

  “Sean,” Lisa said, drawing his name out. “Ooh, Tamika and Sean sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. I forget the rest.”

  “Good, ’cause I don’t want to hear it. It’s way too early for that crap. Besides, we’re just friends, that’s all.”

  “Friends, huh?”

  “Yeah, friends, so stop acting crazy.”

  “I’m not acting crazy. Last I heard you were using him to get Justin back.”

  “I was not. We was just talking at the party. I wasn’t using him exactly.”

  “A’ight, whatever. So, how’s it going?”

  “We just got here tonight.”

  “I thought you said that it only took twenty hours.”

  “My mom decided to do the scenic tour.”

  Lisa started laughing, knowing that there had to be more coming. When Tamika and her mother got together, there was always drama.

  “Oh, and there’s more. We stopped at Arlington Cemetery to see her grandfather’s tombstone. Then we went to Alexandria to check out another cemetery. This time it was from, like, the eighteen hundreds or something like that. It was the white guy that owned the family.”

  “What?”

  “No lie, my maternal ancestor’s last name was Fraser because the man who owned one of our ancestors was named Fraser. He was some big-time general in the Civil War. So anyway, we go to this cemetery and there are our names etched into this old beat-up tombstone.”

  “What do you mean your names? Like your last name?”

  “Yeah, plus the general’s wife was named Tamika Fraser and his eldest daughter was named Laura Fraser.”

  “Get out.”

  “Talk about freaky.”

  “Eww, creepy-spooky. Your names were actually there except switched? The mother was the daughter and the daughter was the mother?”

  “Yeah, it’s just by coincidence that my mom married my dad with the last name Fraser too. That’s why her family is from Fraser, Georgia. The whole town was named after this general’s family even though he’s buried in Virginia.”

  “So why’s he buried in Virginia and not in Georgia?”

  “’Cause he was a Union general and not a Confederate one.”

  “Huh? I thought everyone in the South was a Confederate.”

  “Me too, but evidently not. This General Joseph T. Fraser went against his family in Georgia because he fell in love with one of his father’s slaves. After the war he went back and to please his family he got married, but his white wife died in childbirth. He kept the affair going with the slave and had, like, ten kids with her.

  “When most of his family died from, like, the bubonic plague or the flu or something he built a house, then moved his slave family in. The slave woman he loved was named Tamika and their first child was named Laura. When he got sick he freed all his children and left them the land, but his family and white neighbors wouldn’t bury him and his black wife in Georgia, so they were buried in Virginia.”

  “Damn, that’s some serious history.”

  “I know.”

  “So, you’re, like, doing U.S. history while you’re there.”

  “Oh, but wait. Then yesterday my mom told me that we were going shopping, so I’m, like, I’m cool with that, but the next thing I know we’re pulling into a huge parking lot with all these stalls and barns. She took me to a flea market.”

  Lisa was laughing her head off.

  “I hate when she does that read-between-the-lines crap, and would you please stop laughing. It’s not funny.”

  “Yeah, it is, ’cause she gets you all the time.”

  “I wish my mom was mor
e like yours.”

  “Why?” Lisa asked.

  “’Cause your mom is cool,” Tamika said.

  “That’s ’cause she lives over three thousand miles away and it’s the beauty of divorce. Believe me, when I go live with her in California now it’ll be the exact same thing like with you and your mom.”

  “I wish for once she would just hear what she sounds like and what it feels like to be me,” Tamika said.

  “Yeah right, switch places, like that’s ever gonna happen,” Lisa said.

  “Yeah,” Tamika commiserated, “like that’s gonna happen.”

  “So, tell me about Sean,” Lisa said, changing the subject.

  “There’s nothing to tell.”

  “So, what’d he say exactly?”

  “We was just talking.”

  “Yeah, you said that before.”

  “Well, you gave him my cell number. What did you expect us to be doing?” Lisa didn’t say anything. “Uh-huh, that’s right. You can’t say anything, can you?”

  “Girl, Sean was bugging from day one. He’s been asking me for your number for a long time. And since you wasn’t seeing Justin…”

  “Yeah, a’ight, whatever. So, check this out. At the cemetery I got these serious shots. I’m talking perfect. They’re, like, right out of National Geographic.”

  “So you should send them in.”

  “No way.”

  “Yeah, do it. You see that all the time, captions from freelance photographers.”

  “Yeah, but those are professional freelance photographers, not sixteen-year-old high school juniors.”

  “You should still try it.”

  “I don’t know, but anyway, tomorrow I think we’re supposed to be getting started. Oh, wait, I forgot to tell you,” Tamika began excitedly, “my mom was singing a Chris Brown song, knowing all the words and then we were up in the attic and she has all these old concert T-shirts.”

  “What kind of concerts?”

  “All kinds of concerts.”

  “Your mom?”

  “Yeah, seriously. And you know that else? The exact same hairstyle that I have right now, she had the same one when she was my age.”

  “Really?”

  “I couldn’t believe it,” Tamika said. They started laughing.

  “So, what did y’all do after you got there?”

  “We ran into one of my mom’s old school friends and she is seriously outrageous. It looks like she was time-warped right out of the seventies, clothes, hair and all.”

  “What?”

  “For real, no lie, this place is a trip.”

  “So, what y’all have to do now?”

  “I don’t know. Pack everything up, I guess, or trash it all.”

  “How much you gotta do?”

  “The whole house, everything.”

  “Damn.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it. My dad said that it would take something like two weeks, so we’ll see.”

  “How you gonna pack everything in two weeks? I’ve been packing for a month and I’m still not done and I only have my bedroom to do.”

  “Well, that’s what they said, so I guess that’s it. I figure we’ll be out of here around the first week in July.”

  “Cool, you can still start your internship.”

  “Yep, that’s exactly what I planned.”

  Chapter 8

  Laura

  Laura knew she was dreaming, mainly because she was actually happy and having way too much fun. She was in a park or meadow beneath the stars at either sunrise or sunset. Music was playing, something soft and melodious. She was dancing with Keith Tyler, her high school crush. Slow-dancing and it was nice. They weren’t saying anything, just dancing and smiling. He was holding her and rubbing her back and she was just standing there letting him.

  Well, maybe not letting him. She was actually telling him to do it. And each nonverbal instruction made her feel better and better. She heard herself moan as she instructed him to kiss her neck. Obedient, he did as he was told. It was nice. She gave further instructions and he did exactly as told. It was great, the complete and total control over something. Her life felt unbelievable, which is why she knew she was dreaming.

  She woke a few minutes later feeling troubled. Although the dream was pleasant enough she felt weird being married and dreaming about another man. Sigmund Freud wouldn’t have any problem analyzing that dream.

  Maybe it was all the drama with Malcolm or being back home or maybe it was going through her yearbook the night before, but either way it was strange thinking and now dreaming about Keith. She hadn’t seen or heard anything about him in years, not since he left professional football.

  After a quick washup she got dressed in her jogging sweats and was just about to head downstairs when her cell rang. “Hello.”

  “Hey,” Malcolm said, “how’d you sleep?”

  “Fine, you?” Laura yawned.

  “Okay. I’m at the office now. I decided to get in early. So, how does the place look? I forgot to ask last night when we spoke,” he said.

  “Exactly the same.”

  “What about the house?” he asked.

  “It needs a lot of work. I’d forgotten how run-down it was. But aside from that, everything is exactly the same.”

  “Was the electric and water still on?”

  “Yes, Aunt Sylvia left them on just as I asked.”

  “Still want to sell it yourself?”

  “Yeah, I think so. I don’t know what else to do with it. I don’t want to deal with a Realtor, but to tell you the truth I’d love to keep it in the family. After all, it is the family home from over a hundred years ago and maybe—”

  “Okay, um, listen. I found out this morning that they want us to leave earlier. I have a flight out to Tokyo in two days,” Malcolm said, interrupting her conversation.

  “What happened?”

  “I don’t know yet. I know that their server crashed so there’s no computer service there at all. But I’ll have my cell with me and if you need me call me.”

  “We’ll be fine,” she said coolly.

  “Are you okay about this?”

  She smiled. “You gotta do what you gotta do, right?”

  “You didn’t call me back last night.”

  “It was late and I figured you’d be working anyway.”

  “I was but I still missed hearing from you. I was worried. I tried to call, left a couple of messages.”

  “I forgot to charge my cell. It shut itself off,” she lied easily, knowing that she purposely didn’t answer or return his call because she just didn’t want to deal with him.

  “Laura, are you okay?”

  “Yes, fine.”

  She could hear Malcolm’s hesitant pause from the other side. She knew that he wanted to say more, but he didn’t want to get into anything so he just let the conversation go.

  “So, how’s the cleaning going?”

  “We haven’t really started yet. It’s only been a few hours.”

  “I know but I figured you’d be halfway done by now.”

  “Malcolm, cleaning out a house, a full house like this, takes a lot longer than a few hours.”

  “I’m joking, I’m joking,” he said, chuckling. “I know you have a major job ahead of you. I’m just glad you have Tamika down there to give you a hand. I know you wanted to do it yourself before, but to tell you the truth I was a little worried about that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I was afraid you wouldn’t be back. Then when I found out about Tokyo…”

  “I’ll be back, Malcolm,” Laura said.

  “Look, I know we’ve slipped into that same rut again. I see it. And I know it’s mainly my fault. But I—”

  “Malcolm, we can’t do this over the phone.”

  “I know, I know, I just want you not to make any decisions while you’re away. I mean—”

  “I know what you mean and I won’t.”

  “Promise?” he said.

>   “Yeah, promise.”

  “Good. So, how’s your daughter?”

  “My daughter?” she asked.

  “Your daughter. I imagine she’s still sulking, so that makes her your daughter now. I’m joking.”

  “Not funny. But actually she’s fine. We were up in the attic last night going through some things. We were listening to some music and she was trying on some of my old clothes. Apparently Jordache jeans are back in style again.”

  He started laughing, and she joined in unexpectedly. They started talking about the seventies, the eighties and the good old days. It was one of the best conversations they had had in a long time.

  The rest of the morning was quiet. Tamika had slept late and she let her. There was no real hurry to get anything done. She had all summer. She went for her run, but it was already too hot to be out. Still it felt good to get back to a normal routine. She ran before work every morning, not necessarily to keep fit although that was working, but also to clear her mind and still her thoughts.

  She got back and Tamika was still locked up in her room. Again she let her be. After a quick shower she dressed in shorts and a cotton top and went back out.

  Knowing that the kitchen was bare and the refrigerator was empty prompted her to start moving. She’d go to the grocery store, to the bakery and then to the hardware store. It was strange doing all this here back at home.

  The people behind the counters were all different and the sights and sounds of her childhood no longer existed. Suddenly she felt old again.

  “Hey, we just gonna keep running into each other.”

  Laura smiled and turned to see her old friend, Grace, walking across the street. “Good morning.”

  “Morning, girl, you look positively miserable.”

  “Thanks a lot, I appreciate that.”

  “I’m messing with you, you know that. But really, what’s wrong?”

  Laura looked around. “Where is everybody?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “All our friends are all gone?”

  “Some. The others are still here. You remember Judith Clark. Well, she’s on the school board so she’s around, and Francine Baker is related to the high school principal so she’s still around. Betty Green owns the beauty shop across the street and Kelly James is married and living in Elwood.”