I felt faint. After taking me through all this drama like she was a blue blood of black nobility, Tangela was just a wanna-be from down the way.
Figures.
“The question is,” the girl whispered, licking cocktail sauce off her fingertips, “did you get your man?” She shook her head.
I gulped down my glass of water to keep from choking. This girl was a t-r-i-p. Reminded me of Jericho. I smiled while she continued.
“My boyfriend? He ain’t nothing but a dog. I’ve got one for him though.” She lifted up her shirt a little—higher than I wanted. “I’m four weeks gone.”
My arm shot forward as I resisted the urge to slap her. Lord help me. I’m turning into Mama. All the nights trying to study and babysit Jericho while Rochelle was at work buzzed through my mind. What was this girl thinking? What were any of us thinking? I sighed, thinking of Sierra. She wasn’t much better off.
“Are you insane? Did you plan that? Your grandmother will—” All my cool auntie talk left me like air hissing out of a balloon.
Lord, make a way for this baby, and the one she’s carrying. Help me not to judge her because in all my sin and foolishness I could’ve been caught out there the same way.
The girl smiled, creasing the shiny plum dots of lipstick on her cheeks. I squinted at the identical smears above her eyes.
“Don’t be jealous, okay? I know you’re old and don’t have a man or no children. I didn’t expect you to understand.” She leaned a little closer. “But could you hook me up a little sumpin-sumpin for my wedding? I saw that white girl on the news talking about your shop.”
I sat stunned, listening to Tangela drone on about elbow exfoliation and kneecap lubrication or some other nonsense, while Shemika talked joyfully about throwing her life away to win some silly boy’s love. A boy who might not even acknowledge her, much less marry her. The wind drained out of me in slurping gasps, remembering how hard it had been for Rochelle.
Don’t give up. Step up.
My mind switched gears. Could I somehow make a difference in this situation? Had God planned for me to be here? I sure wasn’t batting a thousand with any of the other relationships in my life. Tangela stood at the front showing bridal accessories like an airline stewardess—in the event of an emergency, this will turn into a flotation device and buoy you right out of the church….
Though my ears heard Tangela’s craziness, my eyes rested on the little girl—that’s what she was to me—sitting beside me painted like a castoff doll head. Her natural twists hung below her shoulders. Earrings marched up her lobes like golden mountain climbers. Her lips, lined in red and filled with the same lipstick smeared on her eyes and cheeks, twisted into a frown. Her eyes looked past me.
What was she thinking so hard about? Being pregnant didn’t seem to faze her. I decided for a change of direction. “You know a lot about makeup, huh?” I was careful not to say whether she knew anything about applying it.
The girl squirmed in her chair, then took a sip of the pop in front of her, topped with a cherry. “It’s not so hard. You have to know how to pick the colors.” She nodded, staring at my plain face. “You’d look good in some of the neutrals. Warm colors would look nice, too. Come to think of it—”
“Uh-huh.” My lips twisted to the side then. Why did it always have to come back to me? “I was just thinking that maybe you could spend the night with me this Saturday and we could go to church together in the morning. What do you say?”
Shemika stuck out her tongue and made a gagging motion. “Church, church, church. You bad as Grandma. It’s so boring. And so fake. All those girls up there singing in the choir like they all holy.” She folded her arms. “I see half of ’em in the club the night before. Some of them don’t even change they clothes.”
I made a sour face, knowing it was the truth. How many times in years past had I done it myself?
“And those guys? Please. All dogs. Maybe when I’m old and lonely like you and candle man I’ll go to church, but I get more out of just praying to God myself. We got a thing, me and Him.”
Tangela cleared her throat and looked in our