What Lies Beyond the Veil(Of Flesh & Bone #1)(58)

“I hate you,” I finally whisper. Nia looks up at me and I think I see a tear in the corner of her eye. But then I think I made it up in my head, cause her face stays dry as I talk. “I hate you cause you let our new cousin touch you.” Do I hate Nia? Or am I mad at her for tryna act like a grown-up, when all that grown-ups do is hurt me? I shake the thought away. “I hate you cause you won’t play with me no more, and cause you laugh at me with your stupid friends. But mostly, I hate you for making Momma cry, and for not crying for Daddy.”

Holding on to the edge of the dresser, I get myself up off the floor and walk toward the door. I don’t wanna sleep in the same room with Nia no more. I wasted all our time in Lansing tryna make her be nice to me again. But now I see that ain’t gon’ happen, cause Nia has changed. She ain’t the same person she used to be and probably never will be again. Far as I’m concerned, I ain’t got a daddy no more and I ain’t got a sister no more, either.

“KB?” Nia calls as I turn the doorknob. “There’s something you should know.”

I pause, but I don’t turn back to her. I’m done with secrets, and I’m done with Nia. I walk out the door and shut it behind me, for good.





8





The hottest part of the summer is ending. The days used to scald like a fresh pot of boiling water, but now they feel like a lukewarm bath that you could soak in all day. Up in my tree, I look around at the neighborhood. Feels like my neighborhood now. The field behind Granddaddy’s house has gone from dull to bright and back again, with scattered flowers now leaning and gloomy. Up this high, at the right time of day, I can feel a little breeze through the leaves. Down below, the grass is greener cause it ain’t been burned by the scorching sun.

I reach up high to pluck a bright green leaf from above my head, then settle into my favorite spot with folded legs. Most days I read books and look for caterpillars or find rocks. Now I got seven white rocks, four brown, ten gray, two black, and one rock that’s so dirty I can’t tell what color it was to start. All those plus Bobby’s rocks makes twenty-seven. I look for more rocks every day, and whether I find any or not, I always count ’em again. I ain’t able to play with Bobby and Charlotte whenever I want, so I count my rocks to remind myself that I still got two friends here I can count on.

I nibble on the end of the leaf’s stem, one of my favorite things to do when I’m thinking bout a lot of stuff. I ain’t talked to Nia in five days. That’s four days longer than we’ve ever went without talking. Once Nia had some big paper due for English class and from the time she woke up to the time she went to bed, Nia worked on that paper with Momma. More like Momma was working and Nia was complaining. I tried to come in the room with them a couple times, but Momma would shoo me away. Before now, that’s the only thing that ever kept me and Nia from talking this long.

This feels different, too, cause now I’m the one that don’t wanna talk. Nia has tried to talk to me a bunch of times, but I always walk away. Most of the time I feel so mad at Nia I wanna fight all over again. I thought that first fight was gon’ make me feel better, but I only feel worse.

“Kenyatta!” Granddaddy yells from the house, so I drop the leaf from my lips, then climb down from my tree as fast as I can. Inside, I’m breathing hard and bend over to try to catch my breath. When I finally look up, Granddaddy’s watching me from his big recliner chair.

“You all right?” Granddaddy asks with a chuckle.

“Yeah,” I huff, “just outta breath.” In the kitchen I make a glass of water that I drink in one long gulp, then refill my glass and head back to the living room.

“I wanted to talk to you for a minute,” Granddaddy says, and I almost roll my eyes, like Nia, but I stop myself.

“I’m gon’ be leaving on a fishing trip with Charlie tomorrow, so you gon’ be here with Nia overnight.” Granddaddy leans back in his chair, crossing his ankles. I sit down on the couch too fast, spilling a couple drops of water that I try to wipe away before Granddaddy can see.

“Nia?” I ask, cause that’s the only part I really heard. I still don’t know if Granddaddy heard us fighting that day. He ain’t ever mention it, but I bet he can tell something’s wrong with me and Nia, since we not sleeping in the same room. We don’t even talk no more, and sometimes I make mean faces at her cross the dinner table. Either Granddaddy ain’t paying us no attention, or he’s pretending not to know. Either way, he gotta know leaving us alone together for a fishing trip is a bad idea.

“Yeah, Nia’s gon’ be in charge when I’m gone. That a problem?” Granddaddy looks at me with eyes that know everything or nothin’ at all.

“No, it won’t be a problem,” I mumble. “Did you already tell Nia?”

“I told her first, to see if she felt comfortable watching you that long. I asked your momma, too, and they both said it was gon’ be fine.” Granddaddy stares at me like he’s waiting for me to tell him different, but I don’t say nothin’. “Me and Charlie been goin’ on this trip fourteen years. I was gon’ cancel it this summer, if I had to. But they said it’s gon’ be fine.” I can’t tell if he says it again for me, or for him.

“Okay,” I eventually respond. I can’t say more than that, cause I know it would be a lie. Granddaddy gets to humming and straightening up the old magazines he keeps under the coffee table. I sit there for five more minutes, five quiet minutes, and pretend like I’m gon’ listen to my sister when she’s in charge.