“All right. If Miss O does it, I guess I will, too,” Mr. Marvelle says.
I raise my voice so everyone can hear me over the fryer. “That’s everybody but you, Kadeesha. You in or out?”
“I already exercise,” comes a faint voice. That’s all she says. And for the record, no she does not.
“Mmm-hmm. And I bet you get a plenty of it, too,” Auntie mutters under her breath. “In the bedroom.”
FOUR
MISS PEARL
On my way out after supper, once the rest of the staff has clocked out and gone—without a single lap around campus, I might add—I find Fee in one of the folding break chairs outside the back door. I plop down beside her, put my pocketbook down next to hers. Then I strip off my hairnet, stuff it inside the pocket of my scrub pants.
She’s already got a wad of tobacco in her cheek and I can tell she’s whooped by the look on her face. The legs on her chair are tipped up, and she’s using the back wall to support her head.
“You look tired,” I say.
“I am tired. Been a looong day.”
“I know that’s right.”
Something I said must have triggered something else because she gets a sudden burst of energy. She sits straight up and leans in toward me. Outrage is oozing from every pore on her face. “What about that lady? Strutting into my kitchen, telling us all howluckywe are.”
“I ran into her earlier. Actually it was the other way around. She ran into me. For real. Whacked my nose with her cell phone.” I reach up to massage it. “Still sore.”
“She gone be trouble. You mark my word.”
“You think so?”
“I know so. Talking about us being theenvyof all our friends. It’s a nice job. But we don’t even have benefits.” She settles back against the wall, crosses her arms over her chest. “Shoot.”
I reach for my pocketbook.
“Where you headed?”
“Home. I’ve got bills to pay.” I sigh at the thought of all that work, then change my mind. I’m more tired than I thought.
“You got enough this month?”
“Not really.” I lean my head back on the wall next to hers. “Now that school’s back things will get better, though. How ’bout you?”
“I’m all right.” She folds her hands tightly on top of her big middle, like she’s feeling what’s on the inside. “I don’t buy much no more. Don’t even get my hair done.” She glances at my new weave with disapproving eyes.“Hmmph.”
I ignore her. It’s my head, not hers. “Summertime, I tend to fall behind. I haven’t made a payment on my college fund since April.”
She looks at me like she just heard a dog say hello. “You still doing that?”
“Every chance I get.”
“How much you got in there now?”
“Close to eight thousand, I believe.”
“What?”Fee rears back, bumps her head on the wall. Her eyes are big and round, like full moons. “You goteight thousand dollars!”
I nod. “You’d be surprised how interest compounds over twenty-five years.”
“You never touched it? Not even once?”
