“Why?”
“Well, don’t you care that she didn’t show up? You need to let whoever is in charge know that—”
“I couldn’t just interrupt the event, Mom. Plus, Sabrina will know when she checks the sign-in sheet. I don’t need to say anything.”
“You have to start speaking up for yourself. I don’t know why you’re so shy. You need to—”
“Mom, it’s after seven already,” I tell her. This is my way of reminding her that if she doesn’t leave now, she will be late for work. It is my way of telling her I don’t need a lecture right now.
She kisses me on my forehead. “Love you.”
“Love you too.”
“Think about what I said, please,” Mom adds as she steps outside. She opens her umbrella and walks down the steps.
I go to my room and try to do my homework, but instead my mind keeps drifting off to what Mom said. The thing is, I don’t think I’m shy. I just don’t always know what to say or how to say it. I am like Mom in so many ways but not when it comes to things like this. She is full of words and bites her tongue for no one. I wish I could be that way.
10
presentar
to introduce
I am on the phone, talking to Lee Lee, telling her everything that did and didn’t happen at the Woman to Woman welcome meeting. “A name game?” she asks. “Do they think you’re in elementary school?”
“Right? That’s how I felt,” I tell her.
Lee Lee and I talk until her aunt tells her to get off the phone.
I hang up as E.J. comes out of the kitchen and into the living room to convert the sofa into his bed.
There is a knock at the door. I look out of the window and see a woman standing there. “E.J., I think someone is here for you.”
“Is it Trina?” He spreads a blanket over the pulled-out sofa.
I take a closer look. This isn’t Trina. And on a second look, I think maybe she’s lost and needs directions. She’s way too pretty to be here for E.J. Her hair is crinkled and wild, all over the place—but on purpose. She’s somewhere in the middle of thick and big-boned. I want to look like that. Instead I’m just plump. I open the door. “Can I help you?” I ask.
“Hi,” the woman says. “I’m here for Jade. My name is Maxine.”
Maxine. My mentor.
“I’m Jade,” I say.
I stand there, looking at her, wondering what she wants. Wondering how it is she can show up at my house in the middle of the night and not at the event earlier this evening. She must expect me to let her in, but there’s no way I’m letting her see my house. Not with the sofa made up as E.J.’s bed.
Maxine steps forward. I don’t move at all. “Nice to meet you, Jade,” she says.
I cross my arms.
“I’m really sorry about today,” she says. “A ton of stuff happened that was completely out of my control, and I couldn’t make it.” Her cell phone rings. She takes it out, pushes a button, and puts it back into her purse.
“It’s okay,” I tell her. It’s not, but what else am I supposed to say?
“Can I, ah, do you mind if I come in?” she asks.
I guard the door. “My uncle’s watching TV.”
“Oh.”
“But, um, well, hold on.” I close the door, leaving her on the porch. “E.J., my mentor is here. Can you go to my room for a sec?”
He looks out the window. “She is fiiiine. She looks— Wait. I know her.”
“You do not know her.”
“How you gonna tell me who I know?” E.J. says. “I was just talking to my boy Jon about her today.”
“E.J., will you please go to my room?”
He finally gets up. I pull the sheets off the sofa and toss them into his closet. I run to the bathroom and grab the can of air freshener and just about empty it, spraying the hallway and living room. E.J. starts coughing. “Is it that serious?” he yells.
I pick up his sneakers. “Yes. It is. Have you smelled these?” I throw his shoes into the closet too. And then I turn the lights out. I flick the lamp on instead, hoping the darkness will hide how sad the house is.
“You owe me,” he says. He walks down the hallway.
I open the door. “Come in,” I say. “Sorry to make you wait.”
“I just wanted to meet you and give you this.” She hands me a gift bag.
Is she trying to buy my forgiveness? I think about giving the gift back to her without even opening it, but then I stop being rude and remember how upset I was earlier today, how I wanted to meet her, and how now that I have what I want, I need to appreciate it.
I open the bag, taking the tissue paper out and neatly folding it before I dig in. It’s so fancy, I don’t want to mess it up. I look inside the bag. “Whoa, look at all this stuff!” I fan through the different colors of paper—some prints, some solid. Then I pull out the oil pastels and the sketchbook. “Thank you!”
“You’re welcome,” Maxine says. She lets out a sigh. We’re probably thinking the same thing: all is forgiven.
“I thought you could add it to your collage materials. Hope it’s useful,” Maxine says.
“I love it.”
“So tell me what kind of art you make,” Maxine says.
“Well, I like to take things that people don’t usually find beautiful and make them beautiful. Like, blocks here in the Villa, or sometimes people in my neighborhood. I don’t know. I get ideas from everywhere.”
“Can I see some of your artwork?”