Page 21 of Quiet as Kept
The girls and I arrived at the Dorothy Jackson Community Center about twenty minutes before the class was supposed tostart. I checked the girls in at the reception desk where two pretty young black girls sat, wearing smiles.
“Hello,” I said. I held the hand of each of the girls. “I’m here for Music & Me. Today’s our first day. I registered Dakota and Destin Boudreaux.”
“Hi. I’m Teegan.” She checked the computer. “Got them. Today is only the second class of this session, so they haven’t missed much. And there will probably be a lot of new attendees today.” She waved at the girls. “Music & Me is in room number twelve. Follow this corridor to the end of the hallway and make a left. Have fun.”
“Thank you.”
I took the directions that Teegan gave me and found the room pretty easily. A black woman about my age met us at the door. “Pick an instrument, any instrument you like,” she instructed. “There’s some in the baskets along the back wall and some on the shelves.”
I walked the girls over to the baskets. Destin immediately started rummaging around in the basket.
“What do you think, Kota?” I asked her. “You want something loud or something quiet?”
“I want sometin’ loud,” Destin informed me, which came as absolutely no surprise.
“You want maracas?” I pick up two maracas and shook them. “Or you want something louder?” I picked up the cymbals and clanged them together.
Destin wasn’t impressed. She went to the basket, so I went back to Dakota. I picked up the triangle. I always thought of it as a classy instrument . . . if an instrument could be classy. It had decorum. You tapped it with the beater, and it gave you a little chime. I demonstrated it for her.
“Yes.” She took it from my hands.
I watched Destin ditch the basket and make her way around the room. Somewhere she found a drum and two sticks, which she brought over to Dakota and me.
“That tracks,” I mumbled to myself.
We found seats on the oversized fluffy rug in the back corner of the room.
“Your girls are beautiful,” the mom next to me said. She was holding a little boy about Destin’s age in her lap.
“Oh, I’m the nanny, but they are beautiful girls. Your son is absolutely gorgeous.”
“Thank you. We just moved here from D.C. We’re trying to figure out small town living and acclimate to living on an island.”
“Same. I just recently relocated from Kentucky. Living this close to the ocean is magical.”
“It is. Do you guys live nearby?”
“We live in the Harbor Mist area.”
She grinned. “We do, too I’m Amanda. This is Liam.”
“I’m Xarielle, but please call me Xari. This is Dakota, and this is Destin.”
It was day four, and I had already made my first acquaintance.
Kept got home about 5:00 p.m. just as he’d promised. The girls and I were on the deck. They were coloring while I did some research on my phone about an upcoming project that I wanted to do with them.
“Daddy!” Dakota shot up from the child-sized picnic table and wrapped herself around his legs.
“Daddy!” Destin followed suit.
He picked up one girl in each arm and plastered kisses on their cheeks. “Hey. Daddy missed you today.”
The girls returned the sentiment, Destin babbling about getting a chance to play the drums, and Dakota simply resting her head on his shoulder.
I couldn’t help but smile at the picture of love that the three of them created. Those were two very lucky little girls.
“Hey, Kept. I hope work was good.”