Page 18

"Brother. Okay, I have something that will help a little, a skin cream especially for after sun. There are some benefits to having a mother who heads a cosmetic company."

"Can you get me this great new lipstick?" Misty asked as we started back for the house. "The one that makes your lips look like neon lights at night?"

"Absolutely. I have a few tubes. I can get whatever color you want."

Misty squealed with delight.

"Aren't we lucky to have each other," she cried.

As I dried my hair in Jade's bathroom, she made comments about how I could improve my looks. I stared at myself in her vanity mirror and wondered if it was possible for me to even resemble any of them in terms of being attractive. Maybe I could, I thought. Maybe I could be a lot more like them than I had ever hoped.

Before I knew it, it was time to leave and the limousine was waiting for us in front of the house. Misty had to be dropped off first because she was the closest. The driver then decided I would be next.

"The same corner?" he asked.

"No," I said, and gave him my address.

"That a girl," Star told me. "Once she sees you're going to be your own person, she'll back off."

"I don't know," I said, unable to hide my worry. It was one thing to act so brave in front of her and the others, but to face Geraldine when she was furious ...I wasn't sure. She had a way of turning her eyes into gray, cold marbles and swelling her shoulders until she looked like a bird of prey. She had never spared the rod when it came to discipline either. I

remembered one time when she hit me with the fireplace poker and gave me a black and blue mark across my right thigh that remained for nearly a month. And that was only because I had watched something on television she had expressly told me not to watch!

As the limousine drew closer, I felt my insides tighten and tangle like a rusty old chain. It was actually hard to take a deep breath. My ribs seemed fragile enough to crack.

"Remember," Star said, "you've got rights. If you need help, you just call one of us. Okay?"

I nodded as the car pulled to the curb.

"So long. I had a great time," I told her. "Say hello to your granny for me."

"Don't worry, everything will be okay," she said and I closed the door. I stood there and watched the limousine drive off. Then I took a deep breath and headed for my front door.

When I opened the door, I was struck by the deep silence. There was no radio playing old music, no vacuum cleaner going, no water running. Perhaps Geraldine fell asleep in her chair, I thought as I stepped through the doorway.

The moment I crossed the threshold, I was hit with the straw end of a broom right across the back of my head. It caught me by surprise and off-balance, so that I fell forward, barely getting my hands out in time to stop myself from landing smack on my face.

Another swipe of the broom, however, caught me on the rear and I did sprawl forward.

"How dare you disobey me like this? How dare you!" she screamed. She hit me again, raising and lowering the broom with swift, sharp blows across my legs, my back, and my shoulders before I could crawl forward fast enough and get to my feet, screaming and covering my head.

"Stop!"

"Get up to your room. Get up there. I saw you get out of the limousine. Don't even try to lie to me."

She stood with the broom up on her shoulder like a baseball bat, her face flushed red, her eyes like two hot coals now.

"Look at your face, too. What were you doing there? Why are you so sunburned?"

"We went swimming," I said.

"Swimming? You don't know how to swim. Were there boys there, too?"

"No, no, it was just us and the girls taught me."

"Liar, filthy liar. After all I've been through with you to have you do this now. My heart is cracking," she said, shaking her head. She relaxed her shoulders and brought the broom around to serve as more of a cane than a rod. "Why did you disobey me? Why?"

"I want to have friends. They're my friends."