Just South of Home

CHAPTER ONE

Red Velvet Miracle

It wasn't a mirage but a miracle. Two thick slices of red velvet cake sat on the table in front of us.

Ellis fidgeted on the couch next to me and struggled to keep his hands in his lap. My little brother knew he shouldn't make any sudden moves. No grabbing the fork on the linen napkin. No stuffing his face with cake. Not yet. For all we knew, it could be a trap.

Our grandma--who we addressed as Mrs. Greene--only made red velvet cake on holidays or for the Heritage Festival. Today was just a regular Sunday. This meant our grandma had baked the cake for us, which didn't make any sense. Mrs. Greene said I acted too much like Mama, and Ellis was a mannish hellion. I never thought in a million years I would get my grandma's county-famous cake served on her good plates for no reason.

Ellis and I sat frozen in Mrs. Greene's parlor, afraid to even breathe. Her fancy clock above the fireplace chimed four times and broke the silence. Mrs. Greene still wore her church clothes: a pale blue dress cinched at the waist and a strand of pearls around her neck. She didn't look like a grandma, which I guess was her intention. She was tall and slim with skin as bright as a sunrise, and her glossy black hair framed her face, which she had set in her trademark frown.

"What you two afraid of? It's cake not a snake. You can eat it."

Ellis jumped to the edge of the couch and grabbed his fork to take his first bite. Mrs. Greene didn't have to tell him twice. I scooted closer to the table and reached for my fork but stopped when Aunt Gina came into the parlor.

"I can't get over how big you two are getting! Growing like little weeds," she squealed.

Even though Aunt Gina now lived in Chicago, she was born and raised in Warrenville, so her voice remained slow and sweet. Aunt Gina was like a fun county fair that came to town once a year. Mama called her a free spirit. Today she wore red slacks with a bright blue blouse and funky purple shoes. Her hair was a halo of bouncy brown curls.

Several gold bracelets jangled on her arms as she pinched my brother's cheeks. Ellis grinned at her and then shoved another forkful of cake into his mouth. Red velvet crumbs fell into his lap. My brother had no worries. As long as his belly was full, he was happy. It didn't matter if he was eating in the lion's den. I knew better. Something weird was going on, and I had questions.

This morning Mama had told us we needed to come over to say good-bye to Aunt Gina and my cousin Janie. They visited every summer but never stayed long. A few days at most. This year wasn't any different. During every visit, Janie would constantly talk about Chicago. Bragging about the tall buildings and the bright lights. She called me backward country, but I didn't care. Who wanted to live in a place with so much concrete and not a stitch of grass? Janie claimed Chicago had plenty of grass, but that didn't matter to me. With all those city lights, I knew it would never get truly dark. I felt sorry for Janie. Nothing was more beautiful than a night sky so full of stars, you never felt alone.

Mama came out of the hall bathroom and stepped into the parlor. Her hair had puffed out from the humidity. Last night after she had flat-ironed it, she let me brush it in long strokes. I loved how some of her brown strands turned red in the sun. I wished I had Mama's dark skin, but I inherited Daddy's light tone, which got Mrs. Greene's approval. Ellis had Mama's deep complexion, but at least I had her brown-red hair.

In the parlor, Mrs. Greene, Aunt Gina, and Mama exchanged long and meaningful glances. Secret grown folks language. I couldn't tell if it was good or bad news.

"What's going on?" I finally asked.

Mama sat on the couch next to me. "Your aunt is taking a trip out west."

"You're not going back to Chicago?" I asked.

"No, pumpkin!" Aunt Gina was giddy with excitement. "I'm headed to California to do some more commercials."

"The ones where you play the fake dentist?" Ellis asked through his jam-packed-with-cake mouth.

Aunt Gina had filmed several commercials for Fresh Now! toothpaste. She played a dentist in a white coat who smiled too much and talked about tartar control and gingivitis. We even saw a couple of her commercials play down here on local TV. But Ellis was right--she wasn't a dentist. In the real world, she was a nurse.

"Yes, I'll be doing more of those but also some screen tests, too," Aunt Gina said.

"What's a screen test?" I asked.

"A bunch of mess," Mrs. Greene said. "Gina, you know nothing good is going to happen out there in Hollywood. You got too many stars in your eyes."

"I think it's great." Mama paused and touched my knee. "A screen test is like an audition for actors and actresses."

"You know California is where all the earthquakes happen," Ellis said.

Aunt Gina furrowed her brow. "That's true, but there haven't been any of those in a while."

"It only takes a big one to push everything into the ocean." Ellis wiped his mouth, leaving a trail of frosting across his cheek. "I once saw this movie where buildings crashed and people were out in the streets screaming--"

"Ellis," Mama interrupted. "Be quiet."

"Yes, ma'am." My brother went back to devouring his cake.

"Is Janie excited?" I asked.

Aunt Gina pulled a piece of imaginary lint from her pants, and her bracelets clinked together. She wouldn't look at me.

Mama cleared her throat. "Janie is going to stay here in Warrenville."

"Here at Mrs. Greene's house?" I asked.

"No," Mama said. "Janie will be staying with us."

"You know I still don't like this, Delilah," Mrs. Greene said. "These children need supervision. Especially Janie. Maybe if you stayed home instead of hemmed up at the Fairfield County courthouse, you could raise these children properly."

Mama took a deep breath. I knew she was counting to three in her head. Sometimes she did this before speaking to Mrs. Greene.

"Sarah is quite capable of taking care of things while I'm at work," she said.

This summer Mama had agreed to put me in charge and let me and Ellis stay at home by ourselves. I was tired of staying at Mrs. Greene's house. I would be turning thirteen at the end of September. I was mature and responsible. If my hair caught on fire or if Ellis broke a leg, I could get help from Mrs. Taylor, who lived next door. Our neighbor mostly stayed inside, watching game shows or her favorite housewives on reality TV. Mama probably knew this, but she agreed to let us stay home anyway, and it had been an easy summer so far. Nothing bad had happened, but that could all change if Janie stayed with us. Janie liked to get into trouble.

Mrs. Greene said an idle mind is the devil's workshop, and Janie would have a lot of free time. It didn't help she loved using her five-finger discount to take what she wanted. Janie carried what she called a purse, but it was just a pink backpack full of her snoop prizes. Today at church I saw her stash away an MLK church fan. If Mrs. Greene found out that her citified granddaughter had stolen an image of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Lord's house, she would put a switch to Janie's legs.

"How long is Janie going to stay with us?" I asked.

"Just for two weeks," Mama said. "Until your aunt wraps up her commercials and screen tests."

Maybe I could make this work, and my summer wouldn't be totally ruined after all. Plenty of time to recover from this ordeal. All I had to do was keep my cousin out of trouble.

"Okay. It'll be fun, Mama," I lied.

Mrs. Greene sucked her teeth but remained silent. Even she knew raising a child was a group activity in Warrenville. Grown folks took action first and asked questions later. Our town was small enough for word to travel fast about any trouble, but I knew there wouldn't be any. There hadn't been any kind of trouble in our town in a long time. I wasn't going to let Janie mess that up.

"Great!" Aunt Gina clapped her hands in celebration. "Janie is so looking forward to this."

"Where is she anyway?" Ellis finally finished his cake. His plate was spotless, as if he had licked it clean.

"Good question," Mrs. Greene said. "Sarah, go find that meddling girl. She's been too quiet."

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Excerpted from Just South of Home by Karen Strong
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