I sneeze.
Granny Dee looks up and smiles. “What are you doing lurking in the doorway? Get in here, Wing.”
Aaron turns around and smiles too, but his eyebrows are raised. He’s surprised to see me. I can’t tell if it’s happy surprised or unhappy surprised.
“I knew you were coming here,” I say. I look hard at Granny Dee, my eyes narrowed. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
Her smile falters. “There’s nothing to tell. I don’t got much to do in the afternoon, and your mom’s mother, she’s helping at the restaurant… I figured I could help here.”
“And you?” I turn my gaze on Aaron.
“I thought Granny Dee might like some company,” he says, voice soft.
I want to ask him why he didn’t tell me, but I don’t. Marcus is his best friend. He doesn’t owe me any explanation. I would have gone with you, I want to say, but it shouldn’t have taken Aaron coming to get me to visit. I should have come anyway. I should have been here this whole time. But then the hospital air starts to clog in my throat like it always does, filling my nostrils with its stale sickly and simultaneously medicinal smell. I try to calm my breathing, but it’s too late. I have to get out of here. I have to get outside.
I shift on my feet. “Well … it’s good that you’re both here.” The bitterness comes out stronger than I mean it to, like tea that’s been left steeping far too long.
“Wing, honey, you can sit down,” says Granny Dee. “This isn’t a private party. You are always invited.”
“I know,” I snap. “I, um … I’ve got to get going.”
“Get going where?”
“I’ve just got to go,” I say as the hospital walls start to close in on me. I can’t get enough air in my lungs.
“Aren’t you even gonna say hello to your brother?”
I force myself to take in as much air as I can, as stale and sickly as it is, and take a step closer to the hospital bed.
“Hi, Marcus,” I say, my voice coming out all plastic-like. “I miss you.”
“Tell him about the running,” prompts Granny Dee. Aaron looks up at her, a question in his eyes. “Oh, Wing showed me what she can do. Lord, you coulda knocked me over. I can’t imagine what Marcus is gonna say when he wakes up and sees how fast she is. Heck, I can’t even imagine what her mama and other grandma are gonna say.” She narrows her eyes at me. “You are gonna show them, aren’t you?”
I shrug. “I guess,” I say. “But we can talk about that later. Not—”
“I’m sure your secrets are safe with him,” says Aaron as he squeezes Marcus’s shoulder. It’s more than I can do. I can barely force myself to hold his hand. “I’ve been telling him all kinds of things.”
“You’ve been telling him your secrets your whole life,” I say. “Y’all don’t have any secrets from each other.”
“Well, maybe I’ve got some new ones,” says Aaron with a look I don’t quite understand but that makes me hot all over.
Granny Dee cackles. “Well, this has been a much more delightful afternoon than I was anticipating. You two should join me more often. I’m sure Marcus would appreciate it too.”
Aaron drives us both home. Granny Dee sits in the front and chatters the whole way about how all she really wants is for someone to clear out the weeds in the pathetic patch of grass in front of our house she calls a garden so she can plant some roses. Aaron, of course, says he’ll come by this weekend to do it.
We’re home before my mom and LaoLao. Mom calls from the restaurant and says they’re both working late tonight and Granny Dee and I are on our own for dinner. Granny Dee gives me a wicked smile and orders a pizza. I don’t know where she got the money. We never have money for ordering takeout. Especially not now. But I don’t ask any questions, I just tell her that I want half pepperoni and half Hawaiian.
After we eat, Granny Dee makes me take the empty box to the dumpster at the end of the street. “Our little secret, Wing.”
I know she isn’t just talking about the pizza. She isn’t ready for my mom and LaoLao to know about her visiting Marcus.
CHAPTER 28
It’s been a week since I joined the track team, and I haven’t told my mom or LaoLao about the running. They both work in the afternoons now, usually later, so they don’t know when I get home. Granny Dee made jollof rice tonight. I don’t even know what kind of meat she put in it. Guessing it’s whatever was on sale. She made a big batch too, so I know this is what we’ll be having for the next few days. No more secret pizza deliveries for me.
I spoon the rice into my mouth as fast as I can. I’ve been so hungry ever since I started running.
“Wing,” my mom says lightly. “Slow down, you’ll choke. And please, get your hair out of your face.”
“Mmm-hmm,” agrees Granny Dee.
“Mmm-hmm,” echoes LaoLao, her intonation exactly the same. The two old ladies stare at each other over the dining room table.