By Any Means Necessary by Candice Montgomery

Author:Candice Montgomery [Montgomery, Candice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Page Street Publishing
Published: 2019-10-07T18:30:00+00:00

17.

Walking up the steps to my house feels like a lie. The porch no longer sings memories or nostalgia. Instead it reminds me that I spent too many triple-digit afternoons sitting on the warm, weather-roughened surface alone all because Theo wouldn’t let me inside. It always happened after some supposedly effeminate thing I’d said or done. That was always the punishment.

Sit on the steps, legs crossed over the knee, and no talking. He’d say, “That’s the way a bitch should sit.” A display, not a noisemaker.

This house doesn’t feel like a home anymore. And as I think back to being a bony thirteen-year-old kid, I realize it never did.

Auntie Lisa’s in my face and in my arms, all wrapped around me, fussing the second I twist the knob and cross the threshold.

And then she hugs Emery, too, despite not having met before.

But that’s Lis.

“Hi, Lisa,” I say. “You owe me twenty dollars.”

“Negro, shut up and come inside,” she says, holding onto me like I’ll leave her and float away forever if she doesn’t.

“Twenty dollars?” Emery says.

“She bet me she wouldn’t cry.”

As she walks by, Lisa lands a swift swat to the back of my head. My shoulders kick up to my ears.

“Y’all ate?”

“We went to Daddy Mojo’s.”

Emery slips onto one of the bar stools at the counter. As a kid, I always remember them being a set of four. They’re still four now, but two of them don’t match, one of which isn’t even really the right height.

“How’d it go over with Mo n’ ’em? They sign your petition?” Lisa shakes ice from inside a large 7-Eleven cup into her mouth and chews louder than armageddon.

Also, sidebar: Lisa’s the best at codeswitching, I love it. Okay. Carry on.

“Mr. Jones signed, but everyone else over there was skeptical.”

Lisa nods. She knew it’d be an uphill battle. That’s what the nod says to me. “You’ll have a smoother time with the others.”

“Ms. Nettie’s gonna be a cake walk, she loves m—”

Lisa shakes her head. “They shut her down, T baby, the flower shop ain’t up there no more.”

My chest tries to twist its way off my body. “They closed it?”

“Took it. Closed it. Sold it. And then chopped it down.”

Emery and I glance at each other.

“What’s gonna happen with the land then?”

Lisa exhales. “Your guess, my guess, same difference.”

The feeling that hits me isn’t shock so much as … I don’t know, remorse, I think. Moms and I used to walk by there a lot. Ms. Nettie was always real nice to us. To Moms. That was important to me. Because not many people in the neighborhood were willing to do things like bring us half a pot of leftover spaghetti or give Moms a few days of work when cash was tight. Or when cash was just straight-up nonexistent.

“Torr,” Lisa begins. And I know she’s about to say something I won’t like. “Maybe we need to just figure out how to get through this shit, instead of trying to get from up under it.

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