Love Like Sky

by Leslie C. Youngblood

  Now because of me being a snooper, I’d never have a big sister to tell me anything.

  And I could forget about ever knowing if Kevin Jenkins liked me or not.

  I buried my face in my pillow and soaked it with tears. All I wanted to do was get Tangie to like me, and I ended up making her hate me more. The more I cried about it, the more I felt like a huge potato head. I needed to think. Daddy said if he sat around and twiddled his thumbs and waited for people to want to buy a car, he’d be belly-up. What was his word? Pro. Pro. Proaction?

  Proactive. That was it! It was time to bring in the getting-out-of-a-jam expert. I sat up, wiped my eyes with the back of my hands, picked up my cell phone and called Know-It-All Nikki.

  “What up?” Nikki answered on the first ring. She was always on her phone. Mama got me the kind with limited minutes and no internet. I made sure I didn’t sound like I’d been crying. Nikki might say something about me being a “crybaby” and we’d argue.

  “Need your help.”

  “What else is new.”

  “Anyway,” I said. I hurried up and told Nikki what was going on. I left out Tangie calling me Snoop Tattler and everything about Marshall.

  “You need to get over here, and fast. She’s probably hating you more every split second.”

  “My mom put me on break from coming over there since we argued so much last time.”

  “Uggh. That was a week ago. She’s probably forgotten. This is what you do: Clean up without being told. Take your shower without being told. When you do stuff like that, grown-ups like to reward you,” Nikki said, popping her gum.

  “Proactive.”

  “Pro-whatever. Do I have to think of everything? You know what, don’t ask to spend the night. See if you can come over for the afternoon.”

  “I’m on it!”

  After that we hung up, I hit the shower, dressed, and ran downstairs.

  “Top of the morning to you,” Frank said, and pretended to tip his top hat.

  “And a good rest of the morning to you,” I said, and tipped mine. He liked teaching me different ways to say the same thing—good morning.

  Peaches was so busy swirling strawberry syrup on her biscuits she didn’t even look up.

  Mama kissed my cheek. “Good morning, baby. What kept you?”

  “Shower.”

  Mama raised her eyebrows. “Wow, you’re getting yourself together early this morning.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said.

  “Turkey bacon or sausage?” Mama asked, plonking a scoop of grits on my plate. Mama used to cook regular bacon till she learned Tangie wouldn’t eat it. She still eats like a gymnast, even though I heard Frank say that she hasn’t been on a team in two years.

  “Bacon, please.”

  “Coming right up.”

  “Think I can go over to Nikki’s today, Mama?” That didn’t come out the way I was thinking, but I didn’t have time for beating around the bush.

  “Well, I doubt you’ll want to when you hear what I have to say. I was waiting for you to come down so I could talk to you and Peaches.” Mama cinched the belt on her silk robe that replaced her old terrycloth one Daddy had helped me pick out years ago.

  “Let me give you ladies some time. I’ll be home around six, good-looking.” Before Frank waved good-bye to us, he kissed Mama’s lips and both of her cheeks. “See you this evening, Tee,” he shouted upstairs to Tangie, then he clanked out the door with all his telephone line repair tools.

  Mama walked to the door and kissed him again. A loud smack like Tangie and Marshall. I decided I’d better put Tangie’s kiss out of my mind because Mama had a way of peering right into my brain.

  When she returned, Mama was smiling brighter than neon fingernail polish.

  I pushed my plate back a little. “What about Nikki’s, Mama?”

  She raised her eyebrows at me, and I knew I’d gone a little too far.

  “Didn’t I say I had something to talk to you two about?” She grabbed a pan out of the oven, set it on top of the stove, and then faced us. “Your daddy called this morning.”

  Peaches almost choked on her biscuit. “Why didn’t you let us talk to him, Mama?”

  “He was supposed to call last week,” I said, and mashed my grits with my fork.

  “You know your daddy’s schedule, G-baby. What matters is he’s calling now.”

  “’Member, G-baby? It’s just like you said. You told me he’d call, ’member?”

  “Yeah, I remember.”

  “Don’t you want to know what he said?” Mama asked.

  “That he’d call back later?”

  It wasn’t thinking about Tangie that made me sad now, but Daddy’s new life that didn’t include us as much as he’d promised.

  “He said he wants to come and pick you two up.”

  “Just Daddy, or Daddy and Millicent?” I said but thought, Millipede. My plan to get over to Nikki’s might be worth putting off to spend time with Daddy, but not Daddy and her.

  Daddy moved with Millicent to Charlotte right after he and Mama got divorced. There must be a time a man and woman are supposed to wait before moving out of town together, because Mama told Nikki’s mom that Daddy was living in sin. The summer after he moved, he’d come get us every other weekend, and we’d stay at a Comfort Inn with cable, free breakfast, and an indoor pool. I hated the pool because it was filled with happy kids, who had their mama and daddy with them, splashing around. Peaches doesn’t remember it, but I do. Even now, when I see a Comfort Inn, my stomach gets queasy like I’m losing Daddy all over again.

  He came back to Georgia ’cause he said he missed us too much, though I can’t really tell it.

  “Now G-baby. Millicent is his family, too. Just like Frank and Tangie are ours.”

  “When’s he coming?” Peaches shouted.

  “In a little while. He wants you two to pack for overnight.”

  Peaches lit up like a Fourth of July sparkler.

  “C’mon, G-baby. Let’s get ready. C’mon.”

  “I’m not going. I want to visit Nikki, not Daddy and his girlfriend.”

  Mama frowned at me. “G-baby! You know good and darn well they are married.”

  “I’m just not going over there….”

  “But you said you still loved Daddy.” Peaches stabbed her biscuit with her fork. I wished I could remind her about those eight days without a word from him. She was ready to jump in his arms like he’d only stayed out of touch for eight hours.

  “That don’t have nothing to do with nothing,” I said.

  Mama tussled Peaches’s hair. “Go on upstairs. We’ll be up in a minute.”

  “You going to come with me to see Daddy, G-baby?”

  When I didn’t answer, Peaches turned and waddled upstairs. Mama sat next to me.

  “Now that it’s just us, young lady, tell me what this is all about.”

  “I don’t want to go, that’s all. I never get to see Nikki since we moved out here.”

  “Pick up that lip right now. If you two didn’t fuss so much, you’d see more of her. School hasn’t even been out that long. But you know darn well that’s not what I’m talking about. Why are you so angry at your daddy and Millicent?”

  “She’s why he’s not coming around like he promised.”

  Mama closed her eyes for a few seconds, then she wiped her hands over her face like a handkerchief. When she sighed a strand of hair curled up.

  “It doesn’t matter, Mama. I don’t want to go. I want to go to Nikki’s. Why we gotta jump when he’s ready? What about the times we waited on him and he didn’t come? I bet he doesn’t keep Ms. Millicent Parker waiting for nothing. She’s his ‘best girl’ now.”

  “Watch your tone, G-baby. Her name is Millicent Matthews since the wedding. Your daddy moved back here to try to make up for some things. He and Millicent have been getting settled in. We have to work with them, okay?”

  “Whatever” sat right there on my tongue, but I knew if I said it, Mama would
slap the taste right out of my mouth. “Peaches wants to go,” I decided on.

  “That’s right, and you know she won’t go if you won’t.”

  I dropped my head and thought about how much she missed Daddy. “I’ll get ready.”

  Mama pinched my cheek. “Peaches is lucky to have a big sister like you.”

  I nodded as “lucky to have a big sister,” “lucky to have a big sister” ping-ponged in my head, leading me right to Tangie’s door.

  Once upstairs, I could see Peaches was in her room, opening drawers and stuffing everything she owned into her overnight bag.

  I eased in front of Tangie’s door, practicing different ways to apologize, then it opened.

  “What are you doing by my door?”

  “I wasn’t trying to listen in on you,” I said, and put up my hands, like I’d been busted.

  “What’s up with the hands?” she asked as I dropped them.

  “It’s what my daddy does sometimes.”

  “It’s not what girls do.”

  If my tongue wasn’t a brick, I would’ve been fast enough to ask her what girls did do.

  “Hello? What do you want?” she asked, tucking some braids behind her ears.

  “Just wanted to apologize for before.”

  “You already did. I’m not buying it, Georgiana. What else?”

  “You can call me ‘Georgie.’ It kinda sounds like Tangie.”

  “I’ll call you Georgie, G-baby,” Peaches said, going from her room back into mine.

  Probably wasn’t the best time to ask her not to call me “Georgiana,” but I didn’t like it, only Georgie or G-baby. Georgiana sounded like a teacher’s pet. Mama said I got the name G-baby because I’d run to Daddy for every little thing. He’d swoop me up and say, “What’s wrong with George’s baby?” Peaches’s real name is Patrice, but Mama loved Libby’s sliced peaches when she was pregnant with her, so that’s how she got her nickname. I didn’t mind G-baby, but Georgie sounded like an almost teenager.

  “I got the name for you and you know what it is?” Then she mouthed in slow-motion, “Snoop Tattler.”

  “I’m not a tattletale. I won’t say anything. Swear to Josh.”

  “What?”

  “I mean, I swear to God.”

  I flinched like a lightning bolt, or, worse yet, Grandma Sugar, was about to strike me for using the Lord’s name in vain. But I needed Tangie to believe me. I zipped my lips like I was five. That dorky move made me want to crawl underneath my koalas.

  Tangie’s cell rang. “Just a sec, Val,” she said. Right before I turned to walk away, she grabbed my arm. “Just be sure to keep your mouth shut, Georgiana, Georgie, G-baby, whatever your name is. If you blab, you’re gonna wish you weren’t any of them.”

  A baseball-size lump sat in my throat, and I could barely respond. Tangie’s door shut so hard it almost blew me to my room, which is just where I needed to be to figure how to get to Nikki’s. I went and combed Peaches’s hair, and we got ready to go to Daddy’s. After putting on her favorite Princess Frog short set, somehow Peaches fell asleep, and I watched Tangie’s door like it was the entrance to Willy Wonka’s factory.

  About an hour later, Daddy’s car pulled up. Even though they’d been divorced for a while, hearing Daddy ringing the doorbell was odd. It used to be that whenever I’d hear his car, either I’d run to the door or Mama would. Or I’d listen to his keys bang against the doorknob. I wouldn’t move a muscle until he’d say, “Daddy’s home,” and then I’d take off.

  Mama would put her hands on her hips. “You gonna break your back letting that big girl jump on you like that. You know what the doctor said.”

  Peaches was still a baby, so Daddy would scoop her right up. He’d wink at Mama. “I got room for one more.” She’d wave her hand like she was shooing a fly.

  I pushed that out of my mind and walked to the top of the stairs to listen.

  “Come on in,” Mama said.

  “Good to see you,” Daddy replied.

  “Sales okay?”

  “It’s up and down. People always going to need a car sooner or later. How’s it going at Aetna?”

  “Folks always going to need insurance, sooner or later.”

  They laughed. I loved the familiar sound of it. I used to fall asleep to it as they watched The Late Show. But those times happened before the shouting and slamming doors. If divorce made them laugh together again, it had to be better than them being married, I guess.

  “G-baby…Peaches…your daddy is here. Get your bags together and come downstairs.”

  Peaches was still out cold. It was sorta strange that the news about Daddy didn’t keep her bouncing around, but I figured that Mama’s big breakfast must have caught up with her.

  “Hey, Daddy’s here,” I told her.

  She yawned and rubbed her eyes. “Okayyy. Is he coming up?”

  “No, silly. This isn’t his house. We gotta go downstairs. Go wash your face. You got sleep in your eyes. I’ll get our bags.”

  Peaches’s excitement seemed to have gone down the drain. She walked to the bathroom as if I were making her brush her teeth to get ready for bed.

  “G-baby, what’s keeping you two?” Mama asked on her way upstairs. “You okay, Peaches? I thought you would have met your daddy at the curb.”

  Mama eyeballed me.

  “I didn’t say nothing, Mama. I did her hair and everything. She’s just tired.”

  Peaches fastened a barrette. “I’m not tired. I’m ready.”

  Mama put the back of her hand on Peaches’s forehead.

  “You’re a little warm.”

  “I feel good, Mama.”

  “I’ll call and make sure your daddy takes your temperature later today.”

  I touched my forehead with the back of my hand.

  “Don’t you even try it,” Mama said.

  Once we got downstairs, Peaches shrieked, “Daddy!” loud enough to make the house rattle.

  I bet Millipede was waiting in the car with that cheesy too-white grin of hers. The only thing that wasn’t perfect about her smile was that it belonged to her, and so did my daddy.

  “Am I imagining things, or did you turn into a supermodel when your daddy wasn’t looking?” Daddy said as he hugged me. I breathed in his Drakkar Noir but didn’t enjoy it as much when I thought of Millipede buying it instead of Mama.

  I kept my hands at my side, but I wanted to wrap them around him tighter than I ever had. Daddy’s hair and beard were what he called “fresh-out-the-barber-chair neat.” I was happy he had on jeans and a Falcons T-shirt. He never stopped by his dealership with jeans on, even when it wasn’t open.

  For a few months, Mama and Daddy got “separated,” which Mama said meant, “taking time to remember why they got married in the first place.” Now I know it was nothing but a dress rehearsal for divorce. Just like when I was in The Wiz, and we had to pretend it was the real show when it wasn’t. Daddy called us right before bedtime, and some nights I’d hear Mama crying in her room when she thought we were asleep. That’s what she did a lot until she met Frank, which is one reason why I like him, but I never told anybody that.

  One time, Daddy picked us up for what Mama called our “outing.” We stopped by the dealership for a “quick minute” and watched TV in his office the entire day. Peaches and I didn’t mind because we could peek out Daddy’s office window and catch a glimpse of him shaking hands. He’d blow us a kiss if he’d caught our eye, and it sorta made up for him not being there to kiss us good night. When we got home, we told Mama what we’d done. That next morning, she called him and they argued and argued. We haven’t been back to the dealership since.

  Daddy tickled me, and I put my hands to my stomach. He went for my neck. “Kit-Kat, we better sign this girl up for that top-model show. She could be our meal ticket.”

  I giggled. “Stop it, Daddy.” It wasn’t even the tickling or modeling stuff that was making me giddy. He hadn’t called Mama “Kit-Kat” in forever, and it sound
ed real nice.

  “I’ll have them home by this time tomorrow, Kat.” Daddy walked us to the door. Peaches was on one side, and I was on the other.

  Mama rushed ahead of us and opened the door. “That’s fine.”

  I squeezed Daddy’s hand tighter. “Is Millicent in the car?”

  “Nope. It’s just Daddy and his girls.”

  “Really?” I said.

  “Scout’s honor.”

  Mama stood at the door and kissed both of us. “Call me before bedtime.”

  “Okay, Mama,” I said, and took off.

  As Daddy was struggling getting Peaches into her booster seat, Mama shouted, “Need any help?”

  “I got it, Kat! Strap stuck.”

  “Make sure they stay hydrated, George. Already ’bout seventy-five degrees and it’s only eleven o’clock in the morning. Might hit a hundred.”

  Mama stood rubbing her hands around each other like she was putting on lotion. That’s what she does when she’s fighting the urge to do something that she doesn’t think Daddy can do, anything from cooking spaghetti to giving us medicine.

  A few seconds later Mama was waving like we were going to a weeklong summer camp. I waved back, then gazed up, and there was Tangie watching us from the window. I waved, and I thought she waved back, but I couldn’t be sure.

  “Miss my girls already. Take care of them, George.”

  “They’re in good hands, Kat.”

  I rolled my eyes at that and wondered how I could get out of his “hands” and over to Nikki’s, and how long we’d really be Millipede-free.

  I swear we hadn’t been driving one whole minute, and Peaches was sleeping again. What was with her today?

  “Where you taking us?” I asked.

  “Out for some fun.”

  “You haven’t come around like you promised. You said we’d see you so much, it would be like you and Mama wasn’t divorced.”

  He reached over and put his hand on my knee. I folded my arms.

  “Things have been a little hectic, Georgie. Your mama and I figured that you and Peaches needed time to adjust to your new home, you know?”

  Adjust. Not that word again.

  “No, I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

  I braced myself. Those words would never fly with Mama or old Daddy, but this was guilty Daddy.