As she strutted past me, Memaw put her hand on my shoulder and whispered, “I’ll be in my room if ya need me.” She snatched the white bag holding her apple fritters off the edge of the counter where I’d put it. She stuck her nose into the air and disappeared around the corner.
My cousin TayTay, whose real name is Quantayvea, came over after the ambulance left. She’s been my best friend since the day I was born. She used to live down the road from us, but when her mama—my daddy’s stepsister—ran off the year before, TayTay moved across the river to Chalmette to stay with her grandma. Since then, I only got to see her on the weekends when she came to stay with her dad on the south side of the Nines. I didn’t like calling him Uncle Alvin, on account of the way he treated TayTay. He was always passed out drunk somewhere, leaving his only child to fend for herself. And besides that, he was mean to her—real mean.
TayTay knew when not to ask too many questions. I liked that about her. I never did care much for anyone trying to get all up in my business. Like my second cousin, Danisha. That girl was messy, always acting like you was her best friend, then going around talking all kinds of trash about you behind your back.
It was fixin’ to be lunchtime, and all us kids were scattered here and there in the living room. Georgie was helping Kheelin build a city out of blocks for his little cars to drive through, but as fast as the boys could stack them, Khayla knocked the blocks down. Georgie pretended to be upset by throwing hisself on the floor in a tizzy fit each time.
After a good while, Memaw came wandering out from her bedroom and sank into her chair. She let out a long, sleepy-sounding sigh.
Mama looked in from the kitchen. “Armani, get Memaw a glass of water.”
“Y’all better stop all this fussin’ over me! Now, I mean it! If I want a glass of water, I’ll get myself a glass of water!” Memaw was known for speaking her mind, but she didn’t usually raise her voice like she did just then. She turned the TV on with the clicker but left the volume down.
“We’re just worried about you, Mama Jean,” Daddy said, walking into the living room. He stood with his arms folded up across his chest.
Memaw let out an aggravated sigh. “Well, all this carin’ an’ lovin’ has plumb tuckered me out.” She noticed we were all staring at her. She clapped her hands together so fast and loud that everyone jumped. You would’ve swore lightning had just gone and struck the house!
Everyone stopped staring, looking anywhere but at Memaw.
“All right then. That’s better. Now let’s eat some lunch. I’m starvin’.”
Daddy showed us the tracking chart that he’d got from Mr. Pete. He explained that it was a map to help people follow the path of storms.
“When I spoke to Leroy this morning at Pete’s, we agreed it’s wise to track anything that comes into the Gulf—like Hurricane Katrina.”
“Yeah, but it’s not comin’ here, right, Daddy?” I asked, after swallowing a mouthful of chicken and biscuit.
“Well, according to the latest coordinates, it looks like it’s still headed toward Florida.” His finger moved slowly through the Gulf of Mexico and into the upper left side of Florida.
“Oh, those poor souls in Florida,” Mama said, wiping lunch goo off the twins’ faces.
“Better them than us,” Georgie piped in.
Mama’s hand stopped wiping and her eyes tore into Georgie. “George Joseph Curtis Jr., don’t you ever wish harm on others!” Whenever Mama used someone’s full name like that, it meant she was mad as a hornet in a pickle jar.
“Sorry, Mama.” Georgie sat back in his chair, quiet for a change. If you asked me, that boy needed to grow up and stop acting like such a child.
CHAPTER 5
Daddy was staring for way too long at the cardboard map again.
“Are you gettin’ worried about the hurricane, Daddy?” I asked.
“We need to keep an eye on it,” Daddy mumbled mostly to hisself. Then he looked up at me and smiled. He folded up the map. “But we’ll be fine.” He stuck the folded map chart in his back pocket.
“Lord willing,” Mama said to no one in particular. She was standing at the sink with Kheelin holding onto her leg.
I started bringing the dirty lunch dishes to the counter by the sink. Daddy came up behind Mama, careful not to step on the baby, and put his arms around her waist. She looked at me and shook her head. A sweet smile lit up her face. Daddy buried his face into her neck. She squirmed a little, and I seen the rose-color creep into her cheeks. But she kept right on washing dishes, and he kept right on nuzzling her neck.
TayTay sat on the kitchen stool with her glass of sweet tea resting on her bottom lip, just grinning with dreamy eyes, like she was watching magic. I smiled inside and out, loving my parents so much right then I could’ve burst.
Mama cleared her throat and said, “Mr. Curtis, I am trying to wash dishes.”
He rested his chin on her shoulder and said, “Mmmhmm.”
Mama grinned and shook her head again.
“You know,” Daddy said, looking at me but talking into Mama’s ear, “we don’t have time to worry about that storm. Tomorrow’s a big day. Someone I know is making ten, and we’re not going to let some storm ruin one of the most important days of the year.” Finally, Daddy was talking some sense.
He reached in front of Mama and dipped his finger into the soapy dishwater. She playfully slapped the back of his hand, but a clump of bubbles still clung to his finger. He stretched out his arm and put the glob on the tip of my nose. It tickled.
“Daddy,” I whined with a giggle.
TayTay quiet-laughed behind me.
Mama grabbed a dry dishtowel and gently wiped the bubbles off my nose. Daddy kissed the top of my head and gave Mama a play-slap on her backside before he left the kitchen.
When I looked down, I seen Kheelin sound asleep, still holding tight to Mama’s leg.
Me and TayTay grabbed pickles from the giant jar on the counter and went outside. The wind had picked up. We found us a shady spot in the crabgrass, under a peeling crepe myrtle. We tried hard not to move around too much while we finished our pickles, ’cause it was hotter than a jalapeño bathing in Tabasco, and muggy as all get-out. The wind wasn’t helping none, neither. It just felt like swirling hot oven air.
I noticed TayTay sitting there doing nothing while I picked through the grass trying to find a four-leaf clover. “Hey, are you okay?”
“Yeah,” TayTay shrugged. “Me and my dad had a huge fight.” She went to picking at the grass. “I love being around your mama and daddy.” She lifted her head, and the wind caught hold of the hair coming loose from her braid. I scooched over behind her and took her braid down so I could fix it.
“Someday I wanna marry someone who looks at me the way your daddy looks at your mama.”
“Yeah, I guess,” I said, trying to get her uneven ends to stay put up inside the braid. “But sometimes it’s embarrassing, y’know?”
She tried to turn her head to look at me, but I nudged her back around to the front so I could finish fixin’ her hair.
“So, what did y’all fight about this time?”
She shrugged again. “I don’t know. He just yells and screams. He don’t need a reason. He could start an argument in an empty house.”
“Yeah, he’s a mean ol’ snake, all right,” I said, tapping her shoulder in a way that let her know I was finished messing with her hair.
“And ugly too.” TayTay tried to hide a grin behind her hand.
“Yeah, an’ his breath smells like armadillo poo!” I said, with real attitude, sliding my head with my chest puffed out.
TayTay threw a handful of grass at me and smiled. She had the prettiest smile out of everyone I knew, and when she smiled like that, it spread all the way to her eyes.
“He’s not always like that, you know.” TayTay sifted through a clump of clover.
I raised one eyebrow and cocked my head. “Well, he sure is every time I see him.”
“Yeah, I know.” She shrugged and kept her eyes glued on the clover. “But most times he’s normal, you know, when he’s not . . .”
“Drunk?” I went on and said the word ’cause I knew she wouldn’t.
“Yeah.”
“Do you miss livin’ with your mama?”
TayTay lifted her head and looked me straight on. “No.”
We’d never ever talked about any of her family business before, and I was trying to think of a good way to change the subject so it didn’t look like I was meddlin’. But the truth was, I wanted to understand why my cousin was always sitting wrapped up in all that sad.
Right then, she got a little smile on her face and shook her head. “I remember one time when they had a fight about somethin’ stupid, and Mama threw a whole super-sized order of french fries at my dad.” She gazed off into the air, and the wind blew that same chunk of hair loose again. She smiled big and looked at me. “I’ll never forget that—seein’ all them fries flying through the air like that.” She reached up and tried to tuck the loose hair behind her ear, but it was too short and wouldn’t stay put. “Girl, it was like the sky opened up and let loose french fries!” She let out a quiet laugh. “It was crazy all right.” She was back to picking through clover. Without looking up she said, “I remember Mama slapping me hard, just ’cause I ate a couple fries off the floor.”
I ain’t trying to be hurtful, but I’d seen the inside of TayTay’s house when her mama was still staying there. I got a picture in my head of my cousin eating food off them disgusting floors. “Girl, that is nasty! You ate fries off the floor?”
“Yeah, but I was a little kid, you know? Don’t tell nobody.” We looked at each other in a way only real friends know how, and we knew I’d never tell.
We went to picking through the clover some more. “Mama was the mean one,” TayTay said, right out of nowhere.
“She was?” I barely got the words out. TayTay never talked about her mama—never.
“Yeah,” she said. “Lots of people think it’s ’cause of my daddy that she left, but it’s not. Mama left ’cause she wanted to, plain an’ simple. She was the mean one, Armani. She turned my daddy mean.”
I wanted to hug her and tell her I was sorry that anyone would ever be mean to her. But I kept looking at clover and crabgrass instead. I swiped at the beginnings of a tear in my eye.
TayTay let out a long sigh. “I wish he’d find someone like Auntie Katherine. It’d be nice to have a new mama.”
“Yeah,” I said, “but it would have to be someone who don’t mind kissin’ a man with poo-breath.”
TayTay tried to hide her smile, but it spread too big.
“And if your daddy an’ his new wife had a baby . . .”
“Oh my gosh, Armani! Look, a four-leaf clover!” Sure enough, the girl was holding a big ol’ four-leaf clover. I could barely believe my own eyes.
TayTay looked all cross-eyed at the little green plant. “That’s exactly what I’m gonna wish for—a new mama and a brother or sister!”
I sat smiling and nodded, not having a clue how to tell my cousin that a clover ain’t for making wishes. Everybody on the planet knew a four-leaf clover is for bringing good luck.
The screen door screeched open and Georgie popped his head out. “Hey, TayTay, your daddy just called. He says you need to come home.” His fat head disappeared and the screen door slapped shut.
TayTay’s smile slid off her face. So much for luck. She sighed and got up real slow, brushing herself off.
“TayTay,” I said in a deep, silly voice, “Poophead called an’ wants you home.” I fell out laughing.
She shoved a handful of grass and clovers down the back of my shirt and took off running for the screen door, laughing the whole way.
Memaw came huffing into the kitchen. Mama was braiding Sealy’s hair and I was washing more dishes. Mama had braided mine earlier and it was so tight my whole head throbbed. I could barely blink my eyes.
“Katherine, I’ve got a bad feelin’ about this storm.” Memaw picked up a towel and started drying the clean dishes. She looked over at me, covered all of her face with the towel except her eyes, and gave me a secret wink. I smiled, shook my head, and went back to scrubbing something dried and stuck on a sippy cup.
“Mama Jean, I think you’re just worrying too much,” Mama said. “The last weather report has the hurricane going east of here. Mr. Curtis says we’ll probably get some wind, and Lord knows we need the rain.” I knew why my mama called her mama Mama Jean—it was so us kids wouldn’t get all confused with too many mamas in the house. But I never did understand why she called Daddy Mr. Curtis, like they weren’t married or something.
“Well, I know what those fancy folks on the television are predicting, but I’m tellin’ you what my bones are sayin’! I have a bad feelin’.” Memaw set her dishtowel down and turned in a huff to face Mama.
I got a good look at her. I knew that look on Memaw’s face. She was worried.
I stopped scrubbing.
Mama shook her head with a smile and kept on braiding. So I shook my head too, and went back to washing and scrubbing.
After supper, me and Daddy were sitting outside on the front porch steps when ol’ Mr. Scott from down the road came over and told Daddy that the store was running out of water and we’d best hurry up and get some before it was gone.
After the man wandered off to go inform someone else about the disappearing water, I asked Daddy how come people were buying water when all they had to do was go to the faucet where, it seemed to me, there was plenty of water.
He took a deep breath, “We need to be prepared, Armani. Mother Nature can be unpredictable.”
“But Daddy, I thought you said that storm ain’t comin’ here.”
He looked up at the dusky sky for a minute, and I seen worry pass over his face like a dark cloud causing a shadow. Then he smiled his handsome smile and bumped his shoulder into mine. “We’re going to be fine, Armani.”
I giggled and shoulder-bumped him back. He looked at me with his milk-chocolate-colored eyes and shook his head real slow. “I can’t believe my little girl is having another birthday already.”
“I’m not little, Daddy. I’m fixin’ to be ten.” I wished he would realize I was practically grown and not a little kid no more.
“You’re growing up, all right.” He put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me in close for a big bear hug. “Too fast, if you ask me.” It was one of them cozy hugs that last a long time.
“I love you, Daddy.”
“I love you too, Armani. Now, stop worrying about that storm. Let your Memaw do the worrying. She worries enough for all of us.”
“I’m not worried, Daddy.”
“Good,” he said, and stood up. He grabbed hold of my hand, helping me to my feet. “Now run along and tell your mama I’ll meet her at the truck.”
“Yes, sir.” I headed for inside when Daddy called my name.
“Armani, you’ll always be my little girl, you know.” He winked and walked off to his truck.
I folded my arms up across my chest and stomped off to go find Mama.
CHAPTER 6
A hot breeze swirled through the air, strong enough to blow some Spanish moss off the neighbor’s huge oak tree. It plopped right down on top of me and Memaw’s bare feet that were pushing off the concrete, keeping the chair to swinging.
The moss was nasty and tickled. I kicked my feet in a hurry to get the stuff off me before a spider or some other creepy-crawly creature ran up my leg. Memaw didn’t seem to care one way or the other that the spaghetti-looking weed had made itself comfortable sitting on top of her foot.
I laid my head on Memaw’s shoulder and stared at the pillowy white clouds scooting across the blue-green sky, trying my best to ignore the kids running around the yard like fools.
“Memaw, can I ask you somethin’?”
“What’s weighin’ on your mind, baby?” She fanned herself with a flyer from the Pentecostals
who’d come knocking earlier trying to sell us Jesus, not realizing we already had Him.
“Well, TayTay says that her daddy used to be nice before her mama turned him mean.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, is that true?” I raised my head up off her shoulder.
She reached up and pushed my head back down. “Alvin Brown was a good boy till the devil’s juice took hold of him.”
“Yeah, but is it true that TayTay’s mama was mean?”
The slap of Memaw’s hand on the arm of the swing cut me off. She looked at the palm of her hand before wiping the bug guts on the bottom part of her housedress.
She stared at me over the top of her glasses, her eyebrows coming together in a perfect letter V in the center of all them wrinkles. “I’m gonna say this, and then I’m done.”
I sat on the edge of my seat.
A big ol’ clump of Spanish moss landed up on top of Memaw’s head. It took a seat up there like a cheap wig fell right out of the beauty shop in the sky.
Georgie went to hollerin’ and pointed a finger at Memaw. “Look at Memaw, y’all!” The boy was so full of stupid, it wouldn’t have surprised me none if he went and passed out just from being so full of it.
Sealy and Khayla were laughing and hopping and hopping and laughing. Memaw brushed a couple of the scraggly pieces of moss hanging in her eyes off to the side like she was adjusting her hairdo.
I stood up too fast and the swing went crooked, forcing Memaw to plant her feet down on the concrete.
“What is wrong with all of y’all?” I screamed and stomped my foot down. Both of my hands were knotted up in fists. “I am trying to have a grown-up conversation with my own Memaw, and you’re so pea-brained, Georgie!”
My brother was laughing harder than ever. I wanted to march over there and knock some sense into him. My sisters were acting about as simple as their big brother. “Y’all are so . . . so . . . immature.”
Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere Page 4
