This brought up a turmoil of emotions in Vanessa. Which was worse; peeing on yourself or finding a place to squat? What if someone saw her with her pants down trying to take a pee? Donald Miller was always up on the hilltop because his buddy Anthony lived one level up. The idea of the boys seeing her without the safety of her 'girls' brought a memory of something that had happened a while back when she had been in this exact same situation. She hurried back to her door and sat down in the nook trying to make herself small and invisible. The last thing she needed is for Anthony or Donald to see her outside alone without there being any where for her to run…
II
Mama had been late then just as she was now and hadn't left the key for her. Back then she hadn't been scared all the time. That was before the dead little girl, and Tino and what Donald had done to the little girl that he had caught behind the school trailer. She had been sitting on her stoop doing her reading assignment while she waited for her mother to come home.
"Whatchu doing?" So absorbed in her homework that she hadn't even seen Anthony Johnson approach until he was standing right in front of her, she jumped. He was in her class and had been since pre-school. She wasn't friends with boys but Anthony was smart and he never picked with her or pulled her hair like his friend Donald. He was also the blackest kid she had ever seen. Sometimes people would cap on him and joke about him being black like midnight or mistaken for his shadow. She could tell that it bothered him but he took it good-naturedly. She had heard the term 'gentle giant' and had instantly thought of Anthony because despite being big enough to beat up people he generally never fought.
"Sorry," he grinned when he saw that he had spooked her.
"I'm doing that homework Miss Kerns gave us." She went back to her reading but looked up a moment later when Anthony was still standing in front of her, moving nervously from one foot to the other as if he needed to pee. "Did you do your reading yet?"
"Nah."
"Do you want to do homework together?"
He looked surprised by her offer but nodded and then sat down next to her on the stoop. She passed him the book and turned it to the beginning of the chapter.
"You can start reading. I already read that part. Let's read out loud."
He was looking at her but he nodded and accepted the book. His smooth clear voice read the words with no hesitation. She listened to the story intently even though she had already read it just moments before. She liked the sound of Anthony's voice when he read. It was nearly like watching a movie or seeing the things happening.
He continued to read without stopping until he had read the entire assignment even past where she had stopped. He passed the workbook back to her and she turned the pages to the back where the questions would be listed.
Anthony cleared his throat. "Where's your mother?"
Vanessa had tossed one of her braids back over her shoulder where it had flopped down onto the book. "At work." She glanced at Anthony who was watching her hair as if something was in it. She reached up and scratched her scalp and he gave her a half smile.
She saw a Daddy Long Leg next to her leg and squealed and jumped up, dropping her book and ready to bolt. Anthony jumped up too. "What's wrong?"
"Daddy Long Leg!" She raised her foot to kill it.
"No, don't."
She gave him a look like he was crazy. You killed spiders or they would end up in your bed one night crawling in and out of your mouth, nose and ears! Everybody knew that.
Anthony reached down and picked up the little spider by one leg. It waved its remaining legs, which resembled tendrils of hair, and goose bumps ran down Vanessa's back and she had to suppress a desire to scream.
But Anthony didn't seem the least bit afraid of it. He dropped the bug into the palm of his hand and amazingly it sat there for a while. Vanessa peered at it … but from a safe distance. Anthony nudged it gently with one finger and the spider began to move across his palm. He turned his hand so that the spider wouldn't drop to the ground and soon it was on the back of his hand and Anthony continued to rotate his hand so that the spider stayed upright.
"You want to try?" He asked her.
She nearly shook her head, but she did want to try. She held out her palm but Anthony advised that she might want to first try by picking it up by one leg. She did as suggested and watched the little spider struggling in the air. She wondered if it hurt to be picked up like that, forgetting that bare moments before she had planned to flatten it with her shoe.
She allowed it to crawl over the back of her finger and she shivered at the feel of its tickly legs moving over her skin. She looked up to see Anthony staring at her and before she knew it he bent forward and quickly smashed his lips onto hers.
The force of the kiss caused her to take a step back as his teeth clanked against hers. Obviously he hadn't stolen a kiss from a girl on the regular. The feel of the spider moving up her wrist caused a shrill shriek to escape her lips and she jumped and shook her hand in disgust, ridding herself of the spider's tickly legs. Vanessa then blinked at Anthony, not in fear but in surprise. She quickly moved her tongue over the empty space that her front tooth had just been, only to discover a shallow and sore hole. She felt the missing tooth on her tongue as her mouth filled with the coppery taste of her blood.
She was just getting ready to laugh and to tell him that the tooth was finally out when she noted the horrified look on Anthony's face as his eyes took in the blood in her mouth and on her lips.
His mouth worked silently like a fish out of water and he took a stumbling step backwards before turning tail and running away. She watched him curiously before spitting the blood on the ground, careful not to spit out the tooth. She intended to collect her half dollar from the tooth fairy later that night.
As she saw the bloody spit on the ground her lip curled up in amusement. Anthony thought he'd knocked her tooth out—although he'd helped it along, it was going to come out in a few days anyways. However, after that Anthony never ever talked to her again.