Vanessa followed her cousin into the kitchen where aunt Callista was once again on the telephone, sitting in one of the kitchen chairs and smoking a cigarette with a plate in front of her that held the remnants of her eaten meal…and cigarette butts. Ugh.
Jalissa passed her a plate and while aunt Callista laughed raucously they quietly ate their meal of boiled potatoes and butter, hamburger steak with gravy and mushy canned peas. It was good, even the mushy peas as long as Vanessa hid them under the gravy and potatoes.
"Hey!" Aunt Callista called to them while covering the mouthpiece of the telephone when they made to leave after dinner. "Just because you're over here little girl, don't mean you're going to leave a bunch of mess, you understand?" Vanessa's aunt was staring at her and she opened her mouth to explain that she had no intentions of messing with or messing up anything but aunt Callista continued. "I expect you to wash your own dishes and clean up after your own self. So before you go outside get to washing."
Jalissa blew out an annoyed voice and then turned tail and headed right out of the room! Vanessa didn't dare disobey her aunt so she went to the sink and grabbed the dishcloth and dish soap.
"Vanessa! What in the hell are you doing?" Vanessa jumped as her aunt stood over her looking down at her incredulously. She returned to her phone conversation briefly. "Girl, I'm going to be watching this little girl and she thinks she's going to come up in here and waste my dish soap!" She returned her attention to Vanessa. "Run some dish water, Vanessa!"
Feeling nervous tension fill her, Vanessa did as requested although it made no sense to run water in the sink just so that she could wash one plate, one fork and one cup. After placing her washed dishes in the drain board aunt Callista stared at her with a frown so Vanessa washed all of the dishes including the one in front of her aunt with its ashes and cigarette butts buried in congealed gravy. She wanted to vomit at the sight of it but her aunt, misreading the look of disgust rattled off a list of insults that she perceived had been slung at her by 'this little girl' to her telephone partner. After the sink was drained, the dishes dried Vanessa quickly left the kitchen before her aunt could say anything else against her.
She was trembling when she met Jalissa who was waiting for her on the front stoop of the apartment complex. She sat down next to her cousin.
"Your mother is mean."
Callista nodded in agreement. "Forget about her. Let's go down to my friend Cherrelle's house. She has a Tiffany Taylor Townhouse with a pink Cadillac for her Barbies!" Vanessa nodded in agreement; anything to get away from her aunt's loud, mean voice.
Cherrelle's apartment was a den of activity. The 9 year-old girl had baby brothers and sisters who were loud but funny and cute. Vanessa wanted to play with the little babies more than the Barbie's. Cherrelle was nice and she oohed and ahhed over Vanessa's hair, begging to take out her two braids so that she could brush it. Vanessa hated when people asked to play with her hair but she allowed it or else Cherrelle might call her stuck up. Jalissa was content to play with the Barbies alone, making up imaginary dialogue that included one Barbie talking on the phone about her bad-ass kids.
The girls watched the Brady Bunch and then went outside to play Jacks—which had to be played outside or one of the babies might swallow them. Before long they were joined by other little girls and soon they were all lined up and dancing an impromptu soul train line. Vanessa was not generally shy about singing or dancing in front of Jalissa or her mother but these girls knew dances that she had never seen before. She watched them and only did a quick bump down the line when it was her turn.
When Cherrelle and her new friends had to go inside to eat dinner Vanessa felt sad. She liked Cherrelle's house and her brothers and sisters and her mother that left them alone and didn't have a loud voice. But most of all she liked having friends to play with.
Instead of going back to the apartment, she and Jalissa walked to the corner store for sunflower seeds and Bar-B-Q Grippos potato chips. Vanessa preferred the smaller bags of Grippos because those chips were coated with so much of the sweet and tangy hot spice that it left her smacking her lips.
On their way back Jalissa saw a group of girls that she knew and she introduced Vanessa to them. Vanessa quickly realized why Jalissa was so loud and why she hit so often. Between her loud mother and these girls that hollered instead of talked and who hit each other and dodged away in laughter, Jalissa had no choice but to be that way as well.
II
Mama was there to pick her up at nine so she didn't bother to put on pajamas or climb into the sofa bed with Jalissa. They were watching Charlie's Angels when aunt Callista answered the door.
"Hey sis," she said to Leelah in an animated voice.
"How did everything go? Hi girls."
"Hi mama."
"Hi aunt Leelah."
"Girl it went great. The girls ate, did their homework, played for a while and now they're watching some T.V. I think Vanessa had a good time, didn't you Vanessa baby."
"Yes, ma'am." Vanessa answered truthfully. It had been enjoyable despite the instances with her present.
Vanessa gathered her things and said goodbye to her cousin who was too preoccupied with Charlie's Angels to do more than say a brief bye.
"See you tomorrow, Van," Callista gave one of her braids a gentle tug and smiled at her warmly.