in Florence’s face. “Don’t you never sass Brother Boatwright like this girl just done. Annette, shame on you for showin’ out in front of my gal here first time you meet her! I feel like a fraud after all the brags I done on you to Florence!”
“I’m sorry.” I finally smiled. I looked at Florence again. For a brief moment our eyes locked. A sad look appeared on her face. “Where are you from, Florence?”
“She from Cleveland, but she been shuffled all over the state, one home after another. Lord, when I think about all the abuse this girl done endured with them foster daddies, I go crazy. One thing about it—ain’t no man goin’ to molest this girl long as she livin’ in my house!” Scary Mary exclaimed, raising her fist over her head and shaking it “I’ll put somethin’ on him a doctor can’t take off.”
I looked at Florence again. There was a faint smile on her face, but her eyes were staring at the floor.
“Oh, we one big family ’round here. I’m gwine to do all I can to make Florence feel right at home.” Mr. Boatwright grinned bobbing that head again.
“Excuse me,” I mumbled. “Um…Florence, it was nice meeting you.” I rushed to my room before any of them could say anything else. As soon as I got there, I regretted being back in it so soon. My bed was still messed up from my latest romp with Mr. Boatwright. The sheet was damp, and grease from his hair was all over my pillow.
I changed the bedding, then crawled into bed, canceling my plan to eat dinner with Judge Lawson and Muh’Dear at the kitchen table like I’d planned to do. Oddly, I dreamed about Florence and what Scary Mary had said about her foster daddies abusing her. I felt bad about the way I had acted toward her. I made a promise to myself that I would get to know her as soon as I could. The more I thought about it, the more I decided it was important for me to hear about her abuse and how she had handled it.
Scary Mary was surprised to see me at her front door early the next morning. “What the hell you doin bangin’ on my door this time of mornin’, girl?” she hollered, then yawned in my face. She was in her housecoat, a yellow-silk one like one I’d seen Rhoda’s mother wear. “I don’t allow nobody but our tricks to be comin’ here this early.”
“Well…I just came by to see if Florence wanted to walk to school with me and Rhoda,” I babbled. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a white man in a gray business suit walking fast toward Scary Mary’s house.
“My gal done already got her diploma. She smart,” Scary Mary announced proudly.
“Oh? She’s graduated already?”
“If you had kept your tail downstairs last night, you’d know that.”
I moved so the man could get in the door. Scary Mary smiled at him, slapped him on the back, and motioned him down a hallway. Over her shoulder I noticed a half-naked woman grab the man as soon as he got close enough. Then Florence appeared. She was fully dressed but also had on an apron. She had that same strange look in her eyes that I had noticed the night before. She stumbled a few times walking toward the door.
“Hi, Florence.” I smiled broadly. “I was going to invite you to walk to school with me and my best friend Rhoda, but Scary Mary just told me you’ve already graduated.”
“Yes. I studied at home,” Florence told me gently. I was impressed because she spoke so properly. She was not ugly or fat, but she wasn’t really pretty either. I guess she was about as average as a girl could be. She just seemed unusually reserved for a girl of seventeen. She looked young, but she seemed a lot older.
“Oh. Well…uh…maybe you can go to the movies with me and Rhoda sometime,” I told her.
“This girl don’t go to no movies,” Scary Mary snapped.
“I’d like to, but I’m legally blind. I wouldn’t enjoy a movie much,” Florence said softly.
“Blind? Oh.” I felt so awkward. “I never would have guessed it.” That explained the strange look in her eyes. “Well, I better be going so I won’t be late.” I started backing off the porch. I bumped into another man, this one a Black man in a black suit, rushing toward Scary Mary’s house