What Lies Beyond the Veil(Of Flesh & Bone #1)(54)

“Hey, Granddaddy.” I turn and smile like ain’t nothin’ wrong.

“What you doin’ back here, girl?” Granddaddy hobbles at me, faster than I’ve ever seen. “Come on back here nah!” I start walking before he can reach me and Rondell, scared what might happen if I don’t. I ain’t ever seen Granddaddy so angry. I don’t know if he’s the type to smack my face or swipe my bottom, or just talk to me real long and hard.

“Yes, sir.” I lower my head and walk away from Rondell without saying bye. Granddaddy don’t say nothin’, either. We just leave him standing there invisible. My heart is racing and I’m more scared than I been in a while, but the Nia noise is gone from my head. What I hear now is Rondell’s longing whine.

We get back to the empty booth and sit down. I look around and find Nia and Brittany together, sittin’ on top of a game meant for playing. Laughing with Pimple Boy and his friends. And I stop watching, cause now I just don’t care. I chip wood from the table with my fingernails to avoid looking up at Granddaddy.

“Kenyatta,” he says in a way that forces me to look up at him. “Who was that boy?”

“Just my friend from the pool. Rondell.” I keep it simple, cause I don’t know what he gon’ say next.

“What was you doing back there with him, all by yourself?” Granddaddy seems nervous to ask his own question. He keeps clearing his throat and rubbing his hands.

“We just went to look for the bathrooms,” I lie, tryna think quick. “Then we saw the red alarm on the door, so we was guessing if it would make noise if somebody touched it.” Granddaddy’s eyebrows dig deeper into his face, so I quickly add, “We ain’t touch it, though. We was just talking pretend.”

Granddaddy sits there without a word, but he nods. I can’t tell if he believes me or not. He’s just sittin’ there staring at me, like he can read my mind, so I try not to think bout unzipping my pants, or Rondell’s eyes once I did.

“Did your daddy talk to you bout boys, before he died?” Granddaddy’s question is not what I expected. I shake my head no. “You wanna talk bout boys with me?” I shake my head faster, no. I ain’t even sure how I feel bout what just happened with Rondell. But what I am sure of is that I ain’t ready to talk to Granddaddy bout none of it.

Granddaddy chuckles. “The one thing you need to know bout boys, Kenyatta, is that they always thinkin’ at least one step ahead of you.”

I scrunch my face, then say, “What you mean?”

“You said you and that boy was looking for bathrooms and playing with door alarms, right?” I nod, slow. “Well, maybe that’s what you was doin’, but that boy, he was at least one step ahead of that. Believe you me.” Granddaddy sits back and folds his arms, like he’s all done proving his point.

“But it was my idea,” I whisper, leaving out the part where it was me who was two steps ahead of Rondell; me who made the plan to show him my undies when all he wanted to do was play Skee-Ball.

“That’s the other thing bout boys,” Granddaddy says, leaning forward now. “They real good at makin’ girls think that somethin’ is their own idea, when really, it be that boy’s idea all along.”

I ain’t sure Granddaddy’s right bout this, but I don’t say nothin’. Instead, I give Granddaddy a small half smile that I hope says, You are right bout boys.

“It can be tricky,” Granddaddy continues.

“Boys?” I ask.

“Love,” he replies, looking right in my eyes now. “Bout your age is when it really starts gettin’ tricky. You start gettin’ all these new thoughts and feelings, and you just wanna act on all of ’em, all the time. But you gotta remember, don’t everybody got your best interest in mind. So before you go sneaking around with any of these nappy-headed boys, you gotta figure out what it is that you want. And then you do that, and nothin’ more.”

I smile again, but this time I mean it. “You got real good advice,” I say. Granddaddy smiles. “I bet you was real good at talking to Momma bout boys.”

Granddaddy stops smiling all at once and stares down at the table. Then, when he finally says something, it’s just a noise. “Hmph.” He folds and unfolds his hands, then looks back up at me.

“You know, I hated your daddy when I first met him,” Granddaddy finally says, “couldn’t stand him.” He chuckles, but I don’t, just cock my head to one side and scoot in closer. “Your momma was in high school. Think she was bout sixteen at the time. He was older than your momma by a few years. I remember he had a car, some old raggedy thing he used to blast loud music from. Then come tryna pick up my daughter.” Granddaddy shakes his head at the thought. I listen without interrupting. I ain’t even know Granddaddy knew my daddy.

“So when you start liking him?” I ask, pulling up another bigger strip of wood from the table.

“What makes you think I did?” Granddaddy asks with a serious face. Then he laughs, but I can’t tell if he’s making a joke or being for real. “Me and your daddy had a real tough time,” he says, looking down at the table. “I think mostly cause of your momma, cause she was still mad at me bout everything. But it had something to do with me, too.”

A splinter from the wood I been chipping sneaks through the skin of my middle finger. I look down and see it there, a tiny sliver of wood hiding in my skin. I pull it out, quick, then pop my finger in my mouth to quiet the sting.