What Lies Beyond the Veil(Of Flesh & Bone #1)(71)

After we barely pay attention to half an episode of Jeopardy!, Nia finally opens the door. I sit up and turn my head to look for her, but Granddaddy don’t move. She walks by, now wearing stretch pants and a T-shirt, with headphones on her ears, and walks straight out the front door.

“Should I go talk to her?” Granddaddy asks, but I don’t know what to do just cause Nia is my sister. I guess he ain’t noticed she don’t like me much no more.

“I don’t know,” I say.

Granddaddy hobbles over to the window. “I don’t even see her no more.” He’s turning his head left to right and then left again.

Granddaddy starts to panic, so I start to panic. But then I get an idea and jump straight up. “I think I know where she is,” I yell. “I’ll be back!” I run out the front door and down the steps, and I find Nia a few moments later, beneath the house in that spot where I found her before.

“Hey,” I whisper, hoping she ain’t gon’ be mad I found her, but when she looks up, she ain’t mad, just crying.

“Hey,” she sniffles, then wipes her nose with the back of her hand. Her headphones are laying on the ground, all tangled.

“Can I come in?” I ask.

“Sure,” she says, scooting over. I tuck my knees into my chest, and we stay together like that for a while. It feels good.

“Do you wanna talk bout it?” I finally ask. Nia shakes her head no. I wanna give her space, but my mind is filled with bad thoughts bout Nia and boys and Rondell. Before I can stop myself, I yell, “Did one of them boys do something to you again? Cause I can go and find ’em—”

Nia stops me midsentence, her hand raised in the air.

“No boy did nothing to me,” she says, then swallows hard. “No boy did nothing to me, cept tell me the truth.”

“What you mean?” I ask, but Nia shakes her head, then jumps up fast and runs off to the house. I clamber out and follow, yelling, “Nia, wait! What you talking bout?”

Inside, Granddaddy is still in his spot on the couch. “Is it true?” Nia yells at him as she slams open the door. “Is it true that that crackhead is the reason we lost our house?”

I’ve heard the word crackhead plenty of times, usually in the same fights when Momma would use that other strange word, fiend. The way Nia says it, and the way Granddaddy reacts, I know it’s bad. But I don’t understand the last part, bout Daddy being the reason we lost the house. Momma ain’t tell us everything bout why we lost the house, but what I know from listening is that Daddy owed some money to some people, and since we ain’t pay it back, we lost the house. But when I heard Momma say it on the phone, she said it like it was just the normal kind of thing that happens when somebody dies. The funeral is on Saturday at one p.m. We already have dinner for tonight. We lost the house because he owed some money to some people.

“Where did you hear that?” Granddaddy’s voice is stern.

“That doesn’t matter,” says Nia. “Is it true?” Granddaddy takes in a long, deep breath. I stand in the doorway still, not sure if I should move. I don’t want them to notice me or they’ll make me leave.

“Nia, this ain’t a conversation we should be having without your momma,” says Granddaddy, talking slow and careful now. “I ain’t sure what happened, but maybe we should call her and—”

“I saw our cousin Jesse,” Nia screams. “And him and some other boys got to laughing and saying my daddy was nothing but a crackhead. That he overdosed and died, and when I defended him, they said why am I defending him when he the reason I gotta live here now, since he sold our house for drugs?” Nia’s talking so fast I barely realize she said she been with Jesse again. I wonder how she got to him when she left here with Brittany, but ain’t no time to focus on that, with everything else Nia’s saying.

“Nia.” Granddaddy sighs. “You don’t understand—”

“You’re right!” Nia cuts in. “I don’t understand, cause everybody’s been lying to me. Including you!” And with that, Nia runs to the room and slams the door. Granddaddy drops his head, then just sits there all slumped over. I don’t know if I should go to him or Nia. I wanna ask Granddaddy a bunch of questions, but as I think bout Nia alone and hurting, I know that now ain’t the time.

I don’t knock on the door, just walk in the bedroom and sit down on the edge of the bed, where Nia is laying with her face buried in the pillows.

“God wants us to be together,” I finally say. Nia don’t respond but shifts on the bed, so I know she’s listening. “Me and Granddaddy read this chapter in the Bible earlier, E-cheese-e something, and it said we gotta stick together, even when it’s hard. That’s what’s gon’ make us stronger.” Still no response from Nia. “I think that part of the Bible is for me and you, more than anything. Cause who else we gon’ stick together with, if not each other?”

Finally, Nia turns over and looks at me. “E-cheese-e something?” she asks, then starts to laugh. So I do the same. We only laugh a couple seconds, but it’s better than crying.

Once the laughing stops, I ask, “What’s a crackhead?” I figure I should start there, with the easier question. Still, I don’t think she gon’ answer, but then she sits up and looks me right in the eye. Little lines of makeup are starting to run down her face.