What Lies Beyond the Veil(Of Flesh & Bone #1)(42)

“Good question.” Granddaddy smiles. “Kenyatta, grab up as many of the greens as you can and hold ’em up against the sink.”

I do just as I’m told, gathering all the greens so that most of ’em are held tight against the sink in my clammy hands.

“Now, look at the water.” We all look and see that the water is dark like mud. “What do you see?”

“Dirt?” I ask, thinking I must be missing something.

“Dirt,” confirms Granddaddy. “We gon’ know our greens clean when ain’t no more dirt in the water. Let’s start again.” He removes the plug and drains the gloomy water from the sink. Then refills it with clean, cold water. I let the greens fall back into the water and start the process from the beginning, dipping and sinking and floating the greens. Once I’m done, we check the water again. Less brown now, but still some. We do it all again and again. That makes four sinks of clean water til we get clean greens.

We simmer the greens in a big pot of water overnight. Granddaddy says he gon’ come check on ’em while we sleep. We leave the corn wrapped tight in the fridge, cause it’s gon’ go on the grill tomorrow. Then we gotta clean up our mess. Momma always tells us that we can never leave the kitchen messy when we go to bed. Looks like she learned that lesson from Granddaddy. We wipe counters and wash dishes and empty the trash. Finally, we are done. Granddaddy turns off the lights and I follow Nia down the hall.

“Good night,” Granddaddy calls to us just as we make it to the bedroom door.

“Good night,” we say at the same exact time. Then both yell, “Jinx!” I ain’t played jinx with Nia in a while. We used to drive Momma crazy with all our loud games, but now the house is mostly quiet, with Nia doin’ her own thing and me tryna figure out mine.

“Owe me a soda,” Nia says with a smile. I don’t even fight to prove we said it at the same time. I want Nia to win.

In our little room, we get ready for bed. Nia wraps her hair; I braid mine. Tomorrow will be a good day, I think. Granddaddy says we gon’ go to a big barbecue with family and fireworks and lots of food. I’m happy not just cause we get to meet family, but cause it might get me closer to fixing Momma and Granddaddy. And even if it don’t, I bet it’s gon’ be fun to have a big, happy family like the kind I always see on TV. Maybe not perfect, but close.

I crawl into the covers, feel Nia’s knee against mine. Yeah, I bet tomorrow’s gon’ be a real good day. Maybe Nia will even play with me the whole time.





6





Granddaddy wakes us up early the next morning. So early that the little bit of sun I can see through the window still looks orange and pink, instead of its usual yellow. So early that I fall back asleep for another ten minutes, before I finally yawn and stretch, rubbing my eyes. It took me a while to fall asleep last night—for once, even counting didn’t help—cause I was too excited thinking bout today. I rub my eyes some more, then when I finally struggle to open ’em, Nia is right in front of me, already up and humming to herself as she gets dressed. I watch her for a while since she can’t notice me looking. If she saw me watching her, she would probably complain. She’s always telling Momma that I don’t respect her privacy.

Nia looks in the mirror, so I squeeze my eyes closed before she finds me in her reflection. Then I yawn and stretch again, pretending to wake up for the first time.

“Good morning,” I chirp.

“Get on up,” is Nia’s reply, “Granddaddy said we gon’ be leaving soon.” I get out of bed and find clothes to wear. I decide on a pair of jean shorts with white frilly lace at the bottom and a plain red T-shirt. Nia is wearing a flowing pink-and-purple sundress, but I don’t like to wear dresses unless I have to for church. Nia fixes her hair in a ponytail, then fixes my hair in a ponytail, just like I like. Once we’re all ready, she pulls me beside her so that both of us are in the mirror. One tall, one short. One in a dress, one in shorts. Both smiling Momma’s smile.

“Perfect,” Nia says, and it is.

I find Granddaddy in the kitchen, at the table with his mug of coffee, like always.

“Good morning,” I sing as I begin making myself a bowl of cereal.

“Good morning,” he responds without looking up. Soon, Nia joins us and gets her own bowl of cereal. We sit at the table in silence and eat and drink, like always.

But this morning is different, cause I’m too excited to stay quiet. “You think we gon’ meet a lot of family?” I ask Granddaddy.

He nods. “Oh yeah! Let’s see, it’s gon’ be a bunch of folks from the church, but also some of my cousins and they kids, then I bet—”

“Kids.” I perk up. “There’s gon’ be other kids there?”

“Oh yeah, plenty of ’em. Hope yawl girls ready to have some fun.” He winks and it makes both me and Nia smile.

I sit there quiet again, thinking bout all the fun we bout to have. But more important than having fun is finding out the truth bout Momma and Granddaddy. Seems like Granddaddy told me one story, but Momma might have a different one. And since neither one of ’em seemed ready to say more bout it, I know I gotta find some other people to fill in the gaps. Hopefully, my new family that I’m gon’ meet today will have the answers I’m looking for.