PullMyHair (12 page)

Nor did she examine how she welcomed the way he drew her
away from Greg and to his side as he casually asked Greg how much longer he’d
be in need of her services.

“I’m…anxious…to have Ms. Nash all to myself,” he said with
just a half smile that managed to show his canine teeth only.

Renita suppressed a shiver as she thought flashed through
her mind, that once again, Gaynor reminded her of a wild jungle cat who hadn’t
eaten in a long, long, time.

And she was the sweet cream the big kitty wanted to lap
until he was nice…and …full.

“Liza, I’m so glad that you agreed to come with me! This
will be fun. Girl, when was the last time you’ve been to the old neighborhood?”
Karina asked in excitement as they pulled into the large parking lot in front
of the recreation center.

As they’d driven down Hub Street, Liza had alternately
listened and intermittently tuned Karina out. When Karina had asked her why she
didn’t take the interstate to reach the northern side of town, Liza had given a
nonanswer. She’d picked Karina up early and said they had plenty of time and
decided to take the long route.

She’d actually picked her up early just so that they
could
take the longer route.

The city was divided into several sections. There was West
Stanton, where she and Greg lived. Karina lived in this section also, as of
several months ago when she’d married her husband, Cooper. West Stanton was the
most affluent section of town and even within West Stanton there were layers of
wealth.

South Stanton was the section of town where many immigrants
lived in a community that, although close-knit, was poverty-stricken in most
areas. Midtown or Central Stanton held much of the middle, working class, and
North Stanton, where she and Karina had grown up, was similar to South Stanton
in many ways. It held the largest percentage of working poor and the
demographics were overwhelming in this.

South Stanton, like West Stanton, had layers. In the upper
end of North Stanton were the families who were quite middle class, and in the
lower end of the subsection were those who were living in the projects, or what
was the politically correct word for it?

Government, subsidy housing.

Whatever. Tomato,
to-mah-to
.

The projects were the projects in Liza’s book. No matter
what name you called them, it was the same.

Welfare.

She should know. She’d spent most of her childhood in one
“government subsidy housing”,or another.

It was incredible to Liza how it had all changed. As they’d
driven into the old neighborhood, she’d been amazed at the differences, both
good and bad. She averted her eyes, unable to look at one of the old
dilapidated houses that she instantly recognized as one that she and her mom
had lived in when she’d been growing up. She couldn’t believe it was still
standing.

“I can’t believe you agreed to not only bring me here, but
come inside. That’s great, Liza. I’m proud of you. Greg was right, I think this
will do you a lot of good,” Karina smiled without looking across the seat at
her best friend, as she unbuckled her seat belt.

She missed the look that crossed Liza face.

The look that would have warned her…

“
What
will do me good? And
what
does Greg have
to do with this?” she demanded and was extremely proud of herself when she
didn’t reach across the console and take one of Karina’s small dreads and wrap
them around her round little neck and strangle her with it.

She was so proud of herself. That she’d been able to
exercise restraint.

“Ohhhh. Umm…what I meant was that, um, it’ll be um, good for
you to get out of the house and have some, um, fun with me. I think Greg would
like you to have fun, don’t you?” she squeaked out, struggling to open the
door.

Karina tried to unlock the door, but Liza enabled the lock
on her door panel, which would not allow Karina to open the door without her
aid.

“Doggone it, Liza! Let me out!”

“Nope. Not until you give it to me straight, Karina. What
does Greg have to do with this?” she demanded.

Liza crossed her arms over her breasts and simply gave her
the best evil eye she could conjure, the one guaranteed to put the fear of God
in her friend. She wasn’t surprised when Karina gave in seconds later.

“It’s no big deal, Li, not really. When I called, you were
in the shower and he and I started talking,” she said nervously, looking everywhere,
but in Liza’s face.

“Go on.”

“Well…after that he asked me about Girls Unlimited,”

“What about it?” Liza insisted.

“Just if I still volunteered, what time and day…things like
that. He asked me if I’d ever asked you to go with me. I told him sure, all the
time. He just kind of suggested that I ask again. It was no big deal, Liza.”

“I didn’t say that it was. I don’t understand why he asked
you, and why he pretended he was surprised when I told him about it,”

“Probably because he didn’t want you to be angry with him.
Look, Li.” Karina turned in the low seat and faced her, her expression
thoughtful.

“Greg really loves you. You two have gone through a lot of
emotional things lately. You’re starting to really open up to him. He just
wants to help you. Girl, the man loves you. He wants you to get over this fear
you have of facing your past.”

“I don’t have a fear, Karina. I just feel nervous, that’s
all.” Liza felt an odd dread pool in her stomachs when she turned away from
Karina and looked over the building. They’d done quite a bit of renovation to
the outside of the building. She’d barely recognized it when they pulled into
the parking lot.

“You don’t have anything to be nervous about, Li. I’m going
to be right beside you. It’ll be okay. Let’s go,” she encouraged her.

Karina took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Karina was
right, there was nothing to be afraid of. She’d walked through those doors more
times than she could count as a young girl. “You’re right, let’s go,” she said
and at Karina’s pointed look, she laughed and unlocked the door for her.
“Sorry.”

“Thanks, mama!” Karina mocked and laughed as they exited the
car and walked to the entry of the building.

It was a nice fall day and several of the girls were outside
the building standing in groups laughing and talking and a few stopped when
they spotted Karina and waved a hello.

Karina laughed and stopped to speak to a few of the girls
and Liza felt a pang of jealousy with the easy way that she spoke with the
young women. She herself felt strange and out of place and was doing her
damnedest not to run back to her Mercedes, fire up the powerful engine and get
the heck out of North Stanton.

Her anxiety must have shown, because she felt Karina’s eyes
turn to her and she pulled her forward and introduced her to the young girls.
With a stiff nod, Liza plastered what she hoped was a semblance of a smile on
her face, before she and Karina left and entered the building.

“Girl, you have
so
got to loosen up! No one here is
going to do anything to you!”

“I never said they would, Karina! I just feel a little
antsy. I’m fine. Or I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it,”

“Good. Now take a look around, what do you think? Not the
same ole center that you remember from our childhood…huh?” Karina smiled at her
when she saw the surprise she knew flashed across her face as she took in the
new, clean club.

“Wow. It’s awesome,” she said as she glanced around. Every
square inch of the walls from what she could see depicted a scene from the
community.

There were murals of little girls in pigtails playing
double-dutch, there were young boys playing basketball, as well as a scene of a
young man and woman walking hand in hand down a crowded street licking ice
cream cones.

She allowed Karina to give her a tour of the renovated
building when a small girl came bursting out of a closed office, running top
speed and smack into Liza’s legs, almost buckling her.

“Angelica Rene Strong…halt right where you are, little girl.
Take one more step and I’m calling your father! Don’t take another step!” The
unseen owner of the voice issuing the demand was strong and loud coming from
behind the corner the little girl had just barreled from.

“Call him, Miss Cane, see if I care! He’s not going to spank
me, if that’s what you think. My daddy never spanks me! No matter what I do. So
there. See if I care if you call him! I’ll give you the phone number if you
want,” the small girl yelled back to the unseen woman, giving the woman so much
attitude, Liza felt like she was looking at a mirror of herself as a child.

The child rolled her eyes, had her hands on her nonexistent
hips and shook her skinny little neck so hard, Liza had to seriously stifle a
laugh. The child had more attitude than anyone she’d met, young or old in a
long, long time.

Damn if it didn’t bring back flashbacks to her own
rebellious days.

“Hey, little miss. I don’t think that’s any way to speak to
an adult, do you?” she asked automatically as she stooped down to the child’s
height.

“She started it! Always threatening to call my daddy for
every little thing I do! I can’t even pee without her telling my daddy!” The
child said, and although she said the words belligerently, her small mouth
poked out in anger, Liza saw the tears that swelled in her dark eyes. The
little girl was all eyes, it seemed. Her big, dark brown eyes, completely
dominated her solemn, narrow face.

She was patting the child on the back when a woman rounded
the corner, her small, shapely body finally catching up with her booming voice.
“Angelica Rene Strong…” she started, but was interrupted by the child.

“Why you always gotta call me by my full name?
Angelica
Rene Strong
,” she asked and once again rolled her little neck as hard as
she could, with a sneer plastered on her small lips. “You are not my mama! My
mama is dead, and you are not her. Only my daddy can call me by my name like
that!” she said and turned into Liza’s arms and burst out crying. Liza
automatically returned the child’s embrace.

“Baby, I know I’m not your mother. And if you don’t want me
to call you by your full name, then I won’t. But you still have to follow the
rules, Angel. I cannot allow you to do whatever you want, because you think
you’re old enough. That was a session meant for our teen girls. Your session
with the girls your age is going on right now in the blue room. Now, hurry up
and get to your session and we’ll forget about telling your dad about this,
okay?” The woman said and Liza didn’t miss the way her eyes softened when she
looked down at the little girl, nor the way the child’s mouth quivered in response.

“Fine. I’ll go,” she said and disengaged her arms from
around Liza’s waist and turned to leave. She quickly turned back around to face
the trio of women. “And besides, my daddy don’t like you anyway! He said you
were too young to try and give us girls advice here, and that you didn’t know
your butt, from a hole in the ground!”

“Your father said that to you, Angel?”

“Well, no…” she dragged out the word, “he was talking to my
Aunt Milly. And he didn’t say butt, either, “she giggled.

“It’s not nice to listen to grown people speaking in a
private conversation, Angel. That’s nosy and rude. It’s called eavesdropping.”

“Well…that’s not all he said! He said your skirts were too
short and your legs were too damn long! He said they made you look like a
spider. Aunt Milly asked what he was doing looking at your legs, and said
something about you catching him in your web or something…I didn’t understand
that
part,” she paused and scrunched her nose before she shook her head and blithely
continued, “But
I
think Daddy’s right. Your legs
do
make you look
like a spider with that short body of yours!”

“That’s enough, Angel. Your father and I obviously need to
have another…talk. I think it’s time for you to go to your session,” the
director said and Liza could clearly see the faint blush that ran beneath the
surface of her cocoa-brown colored skin.

“Fine, I’ll go…but, I’m not scared of you telling my
daddy…like I said, he don’t care,” she said and skipped off toward what Liza
assumed to be the blue room, leaving the woman to stare thoughtfully at her
small retreating figure before she turned around to face she and Karina, with a
forced smile.

“Hi, Karina! Thanks for coming. I’m sorry about all of
that.” She apologized and shook her head as though trying to shake off something
unpleasant before she continued to speak. “This must be your friend, Mrs.
Colburn? Hi, my name is Candice Cane. Most people just call me Candy. I’m the
director here at Girls Unlimited.” There was a forced note of cheeriness in the
woman’s voice as she greeted them.

Liza had carefully observed the entire exchange between the
director and the child and was curious to know what the deal was between little
Angel’s father and Candy Cane. There were definitely undercurrents there. She
glanced quickly at Karina and Karina gave a barely noticeable shake of her
head, and mouthed
later
.

“Please, Ms. Cane, call me Liza.” Liza extended her hand in
greeting and did a very feminine, quick visual appraisal of the woman standing
before her.

Ms. Cane’s head barely reached Liza’s shoulders, similar to
Renita and Karina in height. But unlike Renita, Ms. Cane’s figure was more like
Karina’s…
stacked
. Her breasts were large but appeared firm behind the
soft blue t-shirt that she wore. She’d tucked the ends of her t-shirt into what
looked like fabric that she’d simply wrapped around her body, outlining her
full round hips.

“Please, call me Candy,” she invited Liza and when she
smiled, the corners of her full mouth dimpled and her nose scrunched. “The
girls seem to get a kick out of my name, so I let them call me by my first and
last name,” she laughed. “My parents had the
strangest
sense of humor
when they named me!” Liza noticed the smattering of small freckles across the
small bridge, making her look more like one of the young girls at the center,
rather than the grown woman she was when she laughed and gave an explanation
for her name.

Her dark eyes were large and round with a slant in the
corners, denoting an Asian heritage somewhere in her genealogy, Liza guessed as
she took in Candy’s creamy brown skin and thick black, winged eyebrows. Her
thick, kinky-curly hair was coiled in one long braid that ended between her
shoulder blades. A few strands had escaped here and there, framing her oval
face.