The House of Eve (7)

The last students trailed by as if I were nonexistent. But as their shoes echoed down the hall, I was sure of what they were thinking: How come she’s always late? I don’t have to worry about her nabbing the scholarship over me. Careless. Stupid. Not even a threat.

“Miss Pearsall,” my teacher called, in her firm voice. She’d seen me through the window in the door.

I pushed my bag over my shoulder and walked into the classroom while Mrs. Thomas got to work erasing the blackboard. She kept the shades up for the various gardenias, ferns and snake plants she had perched along the windowsills. A horn honked outside her window, and two dogs barked in succession. The room smelled of honeyed tea and the vanilla candle that always burned.

Mrs. Thomas closed the door behind me, and then took a seat at her long wooden desk. Her dark brown hair was rolled away from her face and pinned off her neck. She wore a string of pearls with a gold broach, and matching droplets hung daintily from her earlobes. She was the most proper Negro woman I had ever met, and disappointing her hurt like a hole in my tooth.

She motioned for me to take a seat. “Miss Pearsall, do you realize that there are many Negro students up and down the East Coast that would give anything to be in your position?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Then what is your problem? I warned you last week.”

“I know, but…”

“There are no buts.” Her voice bit into me as she leaned across her desk. “There are no second chances when it comes to us. If you want to escape your current circumstances, you have to work like your tail is on fire.”

My right knee shook, and I bit down on my bottom lip.

“Potential without focus and full commitment bears no fruit.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She leaned back in her seat, moving some papers around in front of her. “Instead of the field trip to Hahnemann Hospital next week, you will stay here and make up the work you have missed.”

“No, please. I can make that work up from home.”

“I’m sorry, Ruby. I cannot allow you to attend. It will look as if I am showing you favor to the students who are here every week on time. Now, go home and decide if attending college is really what you want.”

“It is, ma’am. More than anything.”

“Then show up and work like your life depends on it. Now you’re dismissed.” Her chair scraped against the floor as she stood up and pointed to the door.

I walked out feeling like a stone was lodged in the middle of my chest. The field trip had been planned for weeks. My class was going to shadow the medical staff as they made their rounds. It was my chance to connect with real doctors, and I had blown the opportunity.

As the door to the school building slammed behind me, I could feel Leap’s scaly fingers squeezing my breast and the memory made me walk faster up Lombard Street. Like I was trying to outrun a ghost. No matter how many times I had swallowed since the kiss, I swore I could still taste him. When I got to the traffic light on the corner of Broad Street, I coughed, then spit him out on the sidewalk, not caring that I wasn’t being ladylike and that someone might see me. All that nastiness had been for nothing.

I trudged north on Broad Street until my head cleared. It didn’t feel wise to go back to Inez’s fury—plus, Leap was most likely still there. I didn’t want to look at either of them, and I certainly didn’t want to hear the bed springs and moans that came after their fights, drifting through the thin walls as Inez gave up all her sugar. Instead, I hopped on the streetcar and then transferred to the bus that took me to 29th Street. As I walked over to Diamond Street, a breeze rustled through my hair and I pressed my bangs back against my forehead.

My aunt Marie’s apartment was two houses from the corner, a few feet from a paint store. At her front door, I glanced over my shoulder like she taught me to do before pulling my beaded key chain from around my neck. Her apartment was three long flights up, and I knocked twice to announce myself before twisting my key in the lock.

The old furnace burning in the middle of the room gave off a damp odor that was only partially masked by the cinnamon potpourri simmering on the stovetop. Aunt Marie’s eyes widened as she waved me in. She sat on the saggy sofa in her flowered housecoat, with the telephone tucked between her ear and shoulder. A pen and receipt pad in her hand.

“644, 828 and 757. And Joe? No jiving this week. Don’t make me kick your ass.”

Aunt Marie dropped the receiver back into the cradle and smiled, showing off the gap between her two front teeth. She was Inez’s older sister, though they were nothing alike.

“Your mother dropped your stuff off.”

“What she say?” I chewed my nail, and glimpsed three shopping bags by the wall that overflowed with sweaters and shorts, recognizing pieces that I hadn’t worn in years. It looked like Inez had swooped up everything I owned, regardless of size or season.

“That you been smelling your piss.”

Aunt Marie ran her hand over her short, gray-speckled hair, and asked me what happened. I loosened my shoes and told her about needing carfare to get to my program, and how Leap offered it to me.

“For a kiss?” She sucked hard on her teeth. “He a grown-ass man. That all he do?”

I nodded my head quickly, leaving off him pushing his thing against me. Aunt Marie was known to settle problems with the .22 she kept on the floor beneath the couch, and I didn’t want her troubled on my account.