“If you can’t go home, you don’t really have a choice, now do you?”
The sad fact was Willa was right.
“Then it’s settled. My parents won’t mind. We do it up really big for Christmas. Lights, eight-foot tree with all the trimmings, and a big feast. Oh, my mother makes a seafood gumbo on Christmas Eve that will knock your socks off. You’ll love every moment of it. You’ll see.” Willa moved her comforter back and slipped between the sheets. “Don’t forget to take those pills my father prescribed for you. Last night you were screaming like a banshee. I’m surprised the dorm mother didn’t think that I was killing you.”
Sophia had one last dime and pushed herself to make another call before leaving school for winter break. As a result, she had to run to catch Willa in the pickup line. When the shiny Cadillac Fleetwood arrived, Sophia was sweaty and out of breath. To her dismay, it was Willa’s grandmother, Rose Pride, who again emerged from the backseat. She was dressed in a navy and crème bouclé suit, a matching scarf tied at her neck with “Chanel” in big block letters. Rose bristled when her eyes took in Sophia; then she turned and opened her arms to Willa and kissed both her cheeks.
“My darling Wilhelmina,” she cooed.
“Hello, Grandmother.”
Rose turned up her nose. “Sophia, I’m surprised to see you still here. I thought you’d be gone by now.”
“She’s coming home with us,” Willa said brightly.
Rose took a step back, shaking her head. “Darling, she can’t come with us. Didn’t your mother tell you? We are going to New York City to visit Uncle Teddy for the holiday.”
“Really?” Willa shrieked.
“Yes, we have it all planned, and there is simply no extra room.” Rose turned to Sophia. “I’m sorry, but is there someplace that we can drop you off along the way, dear?”
Sophia knew the feel of a cold snub when she was slapped with one, and Mrs. Pride’s was downright icy. It was obvious in the way she eyed Sophia that she was eager to get rid of her like yesterday’s trash.Think,she said to herself. Sophia knew only two addresses by heart, and there was no way she’d have the Prides in their fancy Cadillac drop her off at their dilapidated farmhouse.
“Yes, ma’am. I do,” she said to Rose.
“But Sophia, you said—”
“The decision is final,” Rose cut Willa off. “Please give the address to Paulie.”
Once again, Sophia rode in the front seat with Paulie, the Prides’ driver. The Cadillac’s ride was so smooth that despite the symphony of worries playing inside her head, once they hit the highway, Sophia couldn’t stay awake. She slept until the city traffic slowed the car. When she opened her eyes, she recognized the Washington Monument. They had arrived in D.C., and her stomach churned with apprehension.
Through the rearview mirror, she could see that Willa was asleep in her grandmother’s arms. Paulie took East Capitol Street and then pulled onto A Street, where Ma Deary and Unc’s mother had left them a brick home that they’d turned into a rent-by-the-week tenement.Sophia hadn’t been to the house in over a year, but when she was younger, they had come often to collect the money on Friday afternoons.
As the car eased down the block, Sophia felt the weight of embarrassment pressing on her chest. They passed saggy porches, cracked cement stairs with missing railings, overgrown patches of weeds and grass, sidewalks littered with newspapers, shards of beer bottles, crushed soda cans, and fresh dog mess. Two alley cats dashed across their path as the car stopped in front of the house with well-worn green synthetic turf peeling at the edges on the front porch. Three plastic chairs pressed against the windowsill. A man dressed in a vintage wool coat stumbled in front of the car, then peered in the window. Paulie honked his horn, and the man continued on, clutching a brown paper bag.
Sophia’s face stung, and she couldn’t bear to look in the backseat at Willa or Mrs. Pride; no doubt both were wide awake and watching.
“Is this where you live?” Willa asked. “I thought you said you lived on a farm.”
“I do. But my family owns this house too,” Sophia said with a fake cheer that sounded hollow even to her own ears. “See you back at school. Thanks for the ride, Mrs. Pride.” She opened the car door before Paulie could come around and do it for her. Sophia didn’t want any more attention. She knew a big Cadillac like the Prides’ had already drawn the neighbors’ nosy eyes to the windows.
“Will you be okay for the whole break?” Willa asked, catching Sophia’s eye.
“Yes, of course.” Sophia made her lips smile. “Enjoy New York.”
Rose motioned for the driver to pull off. Sophia felt the wind from the car in her hair before she reached the top of the front stairs.
Placing her tattered train case at her feet, Sophia crossed her fingers and pushed the bell. She waited a few beats and then pressed the bell again. Finally, she heard someone shuffling toward the door.
“Who is it?” a woman screeched.
“Sophia.”
“Who?”
“Sophia.”
The front door dragged open far enough for the woman to peep her head out. “Who you?” She wore a raggedy mushroom wig that made her look like a poor rendition of a background singer.
