What Lies Beyond the Veil(Of Flesh & Bone #1)(31)

“I found a dress for church,” I sniffle, “but I ain’t got enough money to buy it.” We’re still standing outside the store with the mannequin in front, wearing my dress proud like a flag. I look at the faceless figure and frown.

“Well, how much is it?” Granddaddy uses his cane to nudge me out the way of a group of boys who are making a bunch of noise and bumping into a bunch of people.

“Eighty-nine ninety-nine.” I avoid looking at Granddaddy when I tell him the price. I bet he’ll laugh. If Momma was here, she’d tell me that’s too much money to spend on one dress. We could go to the secondhand store and get ten dresses for that same amount. “This is all I have left.” I hand Granddaddy the change from the bookstore.

“Come on,” Granddaddy says, pocketing the change and hobbling into the store. Toward my dress. He finds it on the rack in the back, right where I left it. I grab the 10/12 and hold it up for Granddaddy to see.

“Like it?” With the dress pressed against me, I twirl around once, tiny. I think I see Granddaddy smile, just a little bit, as I spin. It reminds me of a moment I once pretended to have with Daddy, cept this one is real.

“Beautiful,” is Granddaddy’s simple reply. Without another word, he leads me to the cash register, where he pays $89.99 for the dress that makes me twirl.



* * *





Two hours later—cause it took us almost an hour just to find Nia, who I guess ain’t pay much attention to the whole meeting time and place—we pull into Granddaddy’s driveway. He pops the trunk, where Nia’s bags fill the whole thing from end to end. I think Granddaddy gon’ be mad that she spent so much money, but he don’t say nothin’. And seems like Nia’s happy for it, cause she’s been smiling at him all sweet since we left the mall.

As I search through the pile for my one bag, I think bout Granddaddy buying me that dress. Not only does he have a lot of money, but seems like he is also ready to give it to people, if that’s what’s gon’ make them people happy. It makes me feel special, knowing that Granddaddy cares bout making me happy. I’m not really used to anybody spending a lot of money on me. There was this one guy at church who used to buy me and Nia candy and give it to us after service, but Momma found out and yelled at him, so he never did it again. Other than that, the only time people ever really bought me stuff was sometimes on my birthday, most of the time on Christmas, and every once in a while, when I got all A’s on my report card—like I always did—somebody would give me a quarter or a dollar for the accomplishment. Even Daddy gave me that five dollars, once. But never Momma. Momma bought us food and clothes and took care of us and stuff, but she was not the type to just be giving us money all willy-nilly.

“KB,” Nia’s yelling, grabbing her bags, “don’t forget about our clothes.”

It feels like days ago that we went to the swimming pool, but my wet clothes on the floor of the car remind me of wrinkled fingers and Marco Polo. And Rondell. I grab my dripping clothes, my new best book, and the bag that holds my new best dress and head to the porch without waiting for Nia.

Granddaddy unlocks the front door and I head inside. I wanna try on my dress, twirl and twirl around the room til I can’t stand up straight. But as soon as I walk in the bedroom, Nia comes in behind me.

“I like your dress,” I whisper as I watch her take it out the bag.

Nia shrugs. “It’s okay, I guess.” She lays it out on the bed before rummaging through her other bags. From what I can tell, she bought jewelry, shoes, and makeup, too.

“You gon’ try it on?” I ask, pointing at the dress. Nia shrugs again. I can’t believe she’s acting like all this ain’t no big deal, when we ain’t never went shopping at the mall and bought so much new stuff like this.

“Remember that time Momma told us she was gon’ take us shopping for school, and we got all excited and circled stuff in that store ad from the newspaper?” I can’t tell if Nia’s listening, but she stops digging through her bags, so I keep going. “But then we found out that shopping just meant Momma taking us to a bunch of different garage sales, all in a row?” The memory fills my mind and I start to laugh. To my surprise, Nia laughs, too. Back then, it was more sad than funny, but for right now, it’s got me and Nia laughing together.

“The hilarious thing,” Nia says between chuckles, “is how we took the ads with us to the garage sales, thinking we might still find the same stuff there.”

“Momma was so mad when you asked that old lady if she could show you the brand-name section.”

“Oh my gosh, I forgot about that!” Nia buries her face in her hands. “She was fussing at us the whole way home.”

“Yeah,” I say, but then my voice trails off as I remember what happened after that. After a long, tense car ride, we got home and found Daddy passed out on the kitchen floor. I can still see the terror on Nia’s face as she ran through the front door, yelling Daddy’s name. Momma screamed at me to call 911 while she and Nia slapped Daddy and poured water on his face. Before I could dial the final 1, he was awake, and I knew to hang up, quick, before someone showed up.

Looks like Nia’s remembering that bad part, too, cause she goes back to digging through her bags with a faraway look in her eyes, her laughter a distant memory.