Meadow swallowed. “I’m trying.”
“I know…and I’m proud of you.”
They sat in that stillness. Two Black women, two best friends, two tired hearts…holding space for each other like they always had.
Meadow exhaled. “I wish I could hug you.”
Tia smiled. “Hug yourself and pretend it’s me.”
Meadow did. She wrapped her arms around her own chest and squeezed with closed eyes.
Tia mirrored her on her screen.
They stayed like that for a moment.
Just breathing…just loving…just surviving together.
“Okay,” Tia encouraged. “Tell me again how fine that man is.”
Meadow snorted, wiping her face. “Girl…”
“No, go on,” Tia insisted. “I need it for my spirit.”
Meadow grinned. “He’s tall, he’s tatted, he sounds like hood trouble, dresses like a hood dream, and he smells…” she inhaled deeply. “Hella good,” she snickered at how she used his word.
“Ahhh yes,” Tia sighed. “That’s the medicine I needed.”
They both laughed through their tears.
Their friendship wasn’t perfect.
It was necessary…it was home, and it held them together even on the days they couldn’t hold themselves.
Meadow pushed openthe door to her parents’ room with her hip. “Alright Mama, story time.”
Magnolia was already tucked into bed, her small frame swallowed by blankets that used to feel too big for her. Tonight, she looked peaceful. Her eyes were half-open, blinking slowly like she’d been waiting.
Ray sat in the chair beside the bed, boots off, legs stretched out, exhaustion hanging off him in long folds. He smiled when Meadow entered. A tired smile, but it reached his eyes. “Whatchu pick tonight?” Ray asked.
Meadow tapped the side of her head. “The special one I make up just for Mama about the Black queen.”
“Oh, I think I’ve heard a little of this one,” Ray said, his head nodding, needing to hear it as much as Magnolia.
“Okay Mama,” Meadow whispered. “We left off with Marai going into the tall woods to find her way home…remember?”
Magnolia didn’t answer, but her eyes shifted toward Meadow, waiting.
“Alright…so Marai kept walkin’,” Meadow narrated. “She wasn’t a little girl anymore. She was growin’ up, turning into a woman before she even realized she barely had time to be a kid.”
Magnolia blinked, listening intently.
“Life got loud around her,” Meadow went on. “Her Mama got sick. Her Daddy got tired. Folks in town needed help, folks on their land kept askin’ for things she didn’t have to give and Marai…she just didn’t want anybody to fall apart on her watch.”
Ray closed his eyes, Magnolia’s hand twitched, and Meadow swallowed before continuing.
“So she put herself on the back burner…and every time she tried to pick herself back up, something else would happen. A new worry…a new bill…a new ache…a new reason to stay strong when she didn’t feel like she had any strength left.”
Magnolia blinked slower now, listening with her whole face.
