“Chip!” Karen dropped her baton and ran over. “Where were you yesterday?”
“I wasn’t feeling well. And I’m not going by Chip anymore.”
Miss Vernie folded down her paper to look at me. “I rather liked your nickname. Why the sudden change?”
I felt my lips tightening. “Brenda is more appropriate for a pageant, don’t you think?”
“I think you should do what feels most comfortable for you,” Miss Vernie said.
I tipped up my chin. “Well, Brenda feels comfortable.” That’s what people called me before I chipped my teeth, anyway. I must’ve been comfortable with it back then.
Karen blinked at me. “Um, okay, Brenda.” She walked up the porch with me. “How’s your turtle?”
Dana froze, keeping her eyes on the same spot of her page.
“Mama wants me to get rid of him. I said I’d let him go in your pond, Miss Vernie.” My voice cracked.
Miss Vernie put down her paper and looked at me. “That turtle’s something special to you, isn’t he?”
I nodded, tears dripping down my face.
“Why don’t you leave him here with me? I’ll take care of him for you until you figure out something that doesn’t hurt your heart so much.”
I ran to her and wrapped my arms around her. She patted my back. She smelled like sugar and lavender and something that softened my heart. Picking up the bowl, she set Earl on the corner of her covered deck.
Miss Vernie cupped my cheek in her hand. Then she sat down and picked up her paper again. “Did you girls know they’re going to test the space shuttle this month with the first manned flights? Isn’t that exciting?”
Miss Vernie was always telling us about news stories. I couldn’t believe how many newspapers she read. There were old copies from cities all around the country. But I knew she was just changing the subject right then on my account.
“Wow,” Karen said, trying to sound interested while she searched for her baton in the grass.
Dana hadn’t looked up yet, but Miss Vernie put her hand on her shoulder. “Shall we work on the choreography for your song?”
Dana shook her head. “I’m just going to sing. No moves. My song will be enough.” She stood up. “I’m heading down to the pond.”
“We’ll come with you,” I suggested, hoping Dana wouldn’t mind.
Karen found her baton and set it on the deck. “Sounds good to me.”
Dana didn’t answer, but she grabbed a shovel and followed us. We were tromping down the path through the woods when something caught my eye. It was a golden glow far off between the trees. I stopped and squinted. “What’s back there?”
Karen put her hands on her hips. “I’m not sure. Looks like there might be a path headed that way.”
I wrapped my hand around a tree branch and gazed down the path. “There’s one way to find out.”
Dana shook her head. “Let’s just get to work.”
But Karen and I ran off along the trail toward the light. I could hear Dana following behind us, twigs snapping under her feet. We pushed back branches and vines until the forest ended in a big open field covered in white. “Is that snow?” I whispered.
Karen stood there with her mouth open. Dana finally caught up to us and studied the field. “Wishing flowers!” she said.
Then it clicked. “Dandelions! Thousands of them!” I took a few steps forward so I could pick one. I twirled it between my fingertips and watched the fuzzy seeds fly. They floated up, up, and away.
Karen giggled and ran through the field, sending clouds of white into the air.
“Karen, you’re wasting wishes!” Dana yelled after her.
“How do you know I’m not making wishes while I’m running?” Karen spun around, kicking at the flowers to make the seeds sail.
I stepped into the field, the puffy flower heads tickling my legs. Then I stooped over and ran my fingers along the tops of the dandelions, releasing their tiny parachutes. Whenever I found a dandelion back home, I’d try to flick off the head and see how far it would go. But this seemed like a place to whisper wishes. So I grabbed a handful of flowers and held them up to the sky, shaking them back and forth hoping Daddy could see. Maybe that would remind him of my wish, because I still didn’t fit in right anywhere, and I still hadn’t seen a sign. Maybe I needed a new wish. “Help me make things right with Dana. Help me be like Mama and Charlene and Ruthie. Help me be one of Mama’s girls.” And I blew on those flowers like they were birthday candles, hoping my words would make it to heaven.
Dropping the bare stems, I looked over at Dana, who was studying a flower, blowing on it softly, and releasing the seeds a few at a time. Karen was still shrieking and running through the field like a crazy person. For someone who normally likes just sitting around, she was having a good time.
I looked up at the thousands of dandelion seeds floating above us like snowflakes going the wrong way—up toward the sky instead of down to the ground. I walked over to Dana. “What are you wishing for?”
She didn’t look at me. “What makes you think I’m wishing for anything?”
“Everyone has a wish, don’t they?”
Dana lifted a shoulder.
I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry about the thing with my turtle.” I tied a flower stem into a knot. “I forgot who James Earl Ray was. I didn’t know he broke out of jail. We haven’t really been keeping track of that kind of stuff at my house.”
Dana snorted, tossing a blown-out dandelion to the ground. “Right. That’s not something white folks would need to keep track of.”
“No.” I nibbled on my lip. “It’s just that lately we’ve had our own problems.” I closed my eyes and waited for her to say something.
Finally she said, “Let’s just forget about it.” She picked another flower and started blowing.
“Thanks.” The corners of my mouth were twitching into a smile. Was one of my wishes already coming true? “So what’s your wish?”
She put a hand on her hip. “Shush! You don’t talk about them if you want them to come true.”
“Are you wishing your mama was still with you?” I sure hoped she wouldn’t get mad at my question.
She gave me a look. “Maybe. But I just don’t like talking about it.” She blew away the last seed on her flower.
“Well, like I told you guys, my daddy died, and I know how hard it can be losing someone you love. And feeling all alone—like your heart has a deep end you didn’t even know about.”
She looked at me and her eyes softened. “I know that feeling.” I hoped she might say something more, but Karen galloped toward us, a white cloud in her wake. “This is so cool!”
Dana scolded her. “Girl, you tore up that whole field.”
“It was fun! And I had a lot of wishing to do,” Karen said. “I wished for a pool in our backyard and a crown at the pageant and to grow four inches by next year.”
“Now that you told us, you’re never going to get those things,” Dana said.
“That’s just a lie. I think the more people you tell, the more likely it is to come true,” Karen said, nodding. “But I forgot to wish for a boyfriend in sixth grade!” She covered her mouth and giggled. “Come on!” She grabbed me and Dana by the hands and pulled us back into the field. We had to run to keep up with her, and soon enough we were tearing trails through the dandelions too, the heads tickling our calves, the air around us looking like a snowstorm. We ran until we tumbled to the ground, panting.
Karen held up her arms. “We’re totally covered in fuzz!”
We looked at each other, giggling. There wasn’t a patch of our skin that didn’t have dandelion seeds stuck to it. It reminded me of the mud back in the pond, only this time we were all fuzzy and white instead of slick and dark.
“What a mess,” Dana said, picking fuzzes off her arm. “We should get back so we can work on the pond.”
We tried brushing away the seeds, but there were too many. The three of us walked back to the pa
th, looking like we’d rolled in lint.
“Did you make a wish?” Karen asked me.
I wasn’t ready to be sharing my wishes. “I did, but I’m not telling. I hope yours comes true.”
She giggled. “Me too. Man, this is better than watching TV. I’m so glad I found Miss Vernie’s school.”
I stopped walking. “What do you mean you found it? Like in a newspaper ad?”
She shook her head. “No. I wasn’t even looking for a charm school. My mom and I were going to the dentist and we were arguing about whether I need braces or not. I don’t. I totally don’t need braces and the dentist agrees, but my mom wants my teeth to be perfect. Well, Mom didn’t even realize she’d turned down the wrong road, which is weird because she never gets lost.”
We started down the path again, listening to Karen’s story, not even paying attention where we were going. “So then what happened?” I asked.
Karen snapped a branch off a dead tree and started using it as a walking stick. “When she finally figured out we were going the wrong way, she turned the car around and I saw the sign. It was like a ray of sun was lighting it up or something. So I begged my mom to check it out. She drove her car up the driveway and we met Miss Vernie.”
My heart was beating double-time. “And you joined that day?”
“When my mom found out it was free, she said we should look for a more respected charm school. I think she figured an expensive one would be better.” Karen shrugged. “But I just knew I wanted to come here, so she let me stay and check it out.”
My mouth was hanging wide open like a jack-o’-lantern’s. “How did you find it, Dana?”
She strapped her arms across her chest like maybe she wasn’t going to tell us. Then she twisted her lips and said, “My dog, Pepper, got lost, and we put an ad in the paper in case anyone found him.” She looked away. “I was really upset because I’ve had that dog since … since I was little. I put flyers up on every telephone pole in town.”
“Let me guess. Miss Vernie found him, didn’t she?”
She nodded. “When we came to pick him up, and I realized it was a charm school, I asked my daddy if I could come for lessons. Once he found out they were free, he said no problem. I hadn’t even been thinking about going to charm school either until we found it.”
The three of us stopped walking and stared at each other, not sure what to say. Finally Karen asked me, “What about you?”
My heart started beating fast just remembering that tappity-tap-tap noise when I found the sign. But it was too crazy to share with the girls. I kicked at a stone. “I was just walking down the road and saw the sign.”
Karen wrinkled her nose. “That’s not very interesting.”
“Speaking of the school, maybe we should skip the cattails for now and get back,” Dana said. “We’ve been out here a long time.”
We turned round in circles on the path, but we couldn’t figure out which way to go. “Oh my gosh, you guys. We are so lost,” Karen said.
“Let’s just keep going this way.” Dana pointed ahead. “Someone made this path, so it has to lead somewhere. We’ll find our way.”
We spent the next half hour walking down paths that turned us in circles and finally got us back to the main trail.
We plodded on toward Miss Vernie’s house, tired from all that traipsing around. Before we stepped out of the woods, I set my hand on Dana’s arm. “I had fun with you guys.”
Those big yellow eyes of hers locked on mine. “That was cool, wasn’t it?”
“Really cool,” I said.
We walked up to the back porch, where Miss Vernie was arranging some flowers in a vase. “Hello, girls. You hungry?”
“Yeah,” Karen said. “And you’ll never believe what we found! That field with all the dandelions.”
“Karen destroyed most of them,” Dana said, flopping onto a chair.
Karen crossed her arms. “You guys were running around too. And the seeds were going to fly anyway. We just helped them get where they were going a little sooner.”
Miss Vernie smiled. “Can’t say that I’ve ever seen your field.”
“Really? It’s right on the way to your pond,” I said. “You have to come check it out. It’s incredible!”
I took Miss Vernie by the hand and we led her down the path. But we made it all the way to the pond without spotting that golden glow off in the woods. I scratched my head, wondering how we’d missed it.
“Oh, look!” Miss Vernie said, pointing at the pond. “Lily pads! They weren’t there before. How lovely!”
“Do we have to rip them up too?” Dana asked.
“Heavens, no. I’d hate to yank them out after they just showed up. We’ll see what they have to say.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“They must have shown up for a reason,” Miss Vernie said. “Everything and everyone does.”
That was good news, but I still wanted to get back to that field. “Let’s head for the house. Maybe we’ll see the path to the dandelions again.” This time we walked real slow, but we still couldn’t find it.
“Darn it,” Karen said. “It was really neat. There were millions of fuzzy dandelions.”
“You could’ve made a wish, Miss Vernie,” Dana said.
“I don’t need a dandelion to make a wish,” Miss Vernie said. She set her hand on my shoulder. “And you don’t need a wish to make your dreams come true.”
My skin tingled under her touch, and her pale blue eyes twinkled like they held a million quiet secrets.
WHEN I GOT BACK TO GRANDMA’S, MAMA AND RUTHIE and Charlene were all in the living room, looking at a whole bunch of fancy dresses carefully laid out on the plastic-covered couch. Grandma stood next to them, smiling at the dresses like they were new grandbabies or something.
Mama waved me over. “Chip, come look at my old pageant dresses. Grandma saved them, can you believe it?”
Charlene held up a pale pink one in front of her, running her hands over the shiny material.
“You could use that for the talent portion,” Grandma said. “Go try it on. Cecelia, you try one on too.”
“It won’t fit anymore,” Mama said.
“Just zip it up the best you can,” Grandma said.
Mama and Charlene looked at each other and giggled. Then they both snatched up a dress and ran upstairs to change.
“Can I try one on?” I asked Grandma.
Grandma’s eyes swept over me. “You’re filthy.”
“But …” I was about to argue, but then I stopped myself, remembering my promise. I wouldn’t want to get one of Mama’s beautiful gowns dirty and it probably wouldn’t have fit anyway.
Sighing, I nodded. Besides, I wanted to wait until the pageant for my family to see me in my fancy dress. I was going to knock their socks off! That’s what Daddy would’ve said.
Charlene and Mama ran down the stairs, the material of their dresses making a rustling sound. They stood in front of the mirror over Grandma’s couch. Charlene wrinkled her nose. “It poufs out like it’s from the sixties.” She turned around to inspect herself.
“It is from the sixties,” Mama said.
Charlene posed in front of the mirror. “I can’t wear this for the pageant.”
“You’re right,” Grandma said. “We’re going to have to make you another dress for the talent competition if you want a real chance at winning. Something more sophisticated and sleek.”
“What’s my talent?” Ruthie asked.
“Being adorable,” Grandma said, pinching Ruthie’s cheek.
“There’s no talent portion for you, Ruthie,” Mama said, smoothing her hair while Ruthie put her hands on her hips and pouted. “You just have to get onstage and be your cute little self.”
They were grinning at each other, while my stomach twisted. I wanted so bad to tell them I was joining too, but I was going to be patient for once and let this be a surprise, just like I had planned. I walked over and picked up one of the dresses.
The material was white and silky, studded with rhinestones in the pattern of little roses. “You wore this, Mama?”
She nodded. “Grandma paid the best seamstress in the county to make these for me.”
Grandma beamed. “You were exquisite in them. Those were good times, Cecelia. And I think we should continue our post-pageant tradition of a special five-course dinner afterward on my good china.”
“A feast fit for a queen!” Mama and Grandma said at the same time, laughing.
“Beef Wellington, French onion soup, strawberry cheesecake—the works,” Grandma said.
Mama clutched her hands in front of her and closed her eyes. “That was my favorite part of the pageants. Our celebrate-like-queens dinner.”
My eyes widened. I loved cheesecake.
“And how about a new tradition?” Grandma asked. “Whoever brings home a crown gets to choose one of my dolls.” She gestured to her doll cabinet.
Ruthie’s eyes nearly popped out of her head and she ran over to the cabinet. Charlene squealed and said, “Really?” She stood beside Ruthie while they decided which doll they would choose.
“Mother, that’s very kind of you,” Mama said.
Grandma wrapped an arm around Mama’s shoulder. “Well, this is an important milestone for the family, passing on the pageant torch to a new generation.”
I looked over at the dolls, chewing on my bottom lip. Was there any chance I could win a crown? And even though I didn’t want a china doll, I couldn’t chase away the image of Grandma opening her cabinet and telling me to pick one out. But me in a crown? It seemed as likely as snow in July.
A FEW DAYS LATER, MISS VERNIE WAS ALL SMILES when we showed up after lunch. “Did you see that Saturday night, girls?” she asked us as we sat in the wicker chairs on her back deck. “It was amazing.”
I knew what she was talking about. A black woman from some tiny island won Miss Universe. Grandma had sat there in front of the TV just blinking.
Karen nodded. “She looked just like a black Barbie doll.”
School of Charm Page 10
