or though? I mean, you can do … whatever it is your uber-radical group likes to do, and you can have petitions. Both might be effective in their own ways.”
“I’m sure that’s true,” Lila said, but her voice sounded a little tight. “But that’s just not our lane. We don’t color between the lines, we disrupt the lines.”
“Sounds like Tianna talking,” I joked.
But from the look she gave me, I knew I was probably at least partly right.
“You don’t even know her,” Lila said. “So …”
“I know. I’m just …”
“People like Tianna,” she continued, “are the people that folks roll their eyes at behind their backs and call ‘social justice warriors’ to be sarcastic. But people like her, they never get caught off guard when things like this happen. They’re the first to mobilize, the first to lead. They’re the ones who can get a thousand people on the streets to march with four hours’ notice.”
“Nah. I mean, yeah. I didn’t mean to …”
“It’s fine,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s … whatever.”
“Hey,” I said. I stopped walking, taking care that the tether didn’t pull us apart. It seemed very important that we not be pulled apart right then.
Lila stopped and looked up at me, but her expression was flat and long-suffering.
“I’m here though, right?” I said. “I’m one of the thousand people that ‘social justice warriors’ like your friend got out here. So, I’m definitely not knocking it. I was being funny. I didn’t mean to …”
Her face softened a little. “It’s fine.” This time it sounded like she meant it.
She sighed and looked around, taking in where we were.
“Maybe I should call my dad real quick,” she said. “D’you wanna call your folks, or …?”
“Probably not,” I said. “Far as they know I’m home studying.”
“Okay, well I’ll just …”
I waited while she pulled out her phone again and we moved closer to the side of a building while Lila placed her call. I watched as her face changed when someone answered.
“Daddy?” she said.
Girls who are older than thirteen and call their fathers ‘daddy’ are a different breed. The ones like Lila, whose faces open into guileless smiles just at the sound of daddy’s voice, are rarer yet. These are the girls who would never call a lover or boyfriend ‘daddy’, because to do that would be like sacrilege.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she said. Then she listened for a while. “I lost Tee. But I’m with my friend Kai. He promised he’s gonna look after me.” She gave me a wink. “Yes. Tell her I’m okay, really. Love you, too. Bye.”
She heaved a deep sigh once she ended the call, like you do when you complete an important task.
“I’m an only kid,” she said, blushing a little as she stuffed the phone away once again.
“I didn’t say anything.” But I was grinning at her, thinking again how cute she was. How I wanted to wrap a few of those braids around my hand, gently tug her toward me and kiss her.
“Are you?” she asked.
Again, with the distraction technique. Don’t look at me. Let’s look at you instead.
“Am I what?”
“An only.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I have a sister. Younger.”
“Wow, really?”
“Why ‘wow’?”
“You give off strong only-child energy.”
“What’s only-child energy?”
“I don’t know. I just know it when I feel it. Is she much younger than you?”
“Not much.” I started walking again, not really sure I wanted to talk about Taylor.
“Okay, so … where is she?”
“Home. She’s in college too, but in DC.”
“Really, where?”
“Georgetown.”
“And you’re not close.”
“Why d’you say that?” I looked at Lila and she shrugged.
“Your voice is tense,” she said.
“Is it?”
“Yeah. But, I mean, we don’t have to talk about her, I just wondered.”
I took a deep breath.
“Taylor …” I began. “Went another way.”
“What does that mean?”
“She … relates more to my mother’s side of the family, let’s just say.”
Lila’s mouth opened, like she was trying to think of a polite response.
“Oh,” was all she managed.
“This?” I said. “Out here? Taylor would never in a million years. Her mission in life is to be the least aggrieved Black woman in the United States.”
“Well,” Lila said. “If her mission is to not be aggrieved, she’s got her work cut out for her.”
I laughed. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her.”
We didn’t say anything more for a little while, but the crowds were getting thicker as we got closer to the parkway. There was an almost carnival atmosphere among some of the groups milling around. You could almost pick out the