Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson

Author:Jacqueline Woodson [Woodson, Jacqueline]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-101-01983-2
Google: JyjAcneoqUMC
Amazon: 0142415502
Publisher: PUFFIN BOOKS
Published: 2008-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

10

I asked Daddy to drop me off at the rec center after we finished grocery shopping. I wanted to watch Sean playing ball.

“You going there to play some games or you going there to bother your brother?” Daddy asked, pulling up in front of the gray building kids went to after school sometimes and on weekends. The building always smelled sweaty and the sound of kids running around the gym and game room echoed all over the place, then got all muffled—like the noises were drowning in their own sound.

“He won’t care,” I said. Once he got used to the idea that he’d have to walk home with me, I figured, he’d just have to accept it. It’s not like I followed him around that much.

Daddy rolled his window down and I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

“You two be careful,” he said, rolling up the window real fast so the snow wouldn’t blow in.

I shivered, pulled my hat down over my ears, and ran inside.

The minute Sean saw me, he frowned. Two of the guys he was playing with were deaf and one of them signed, Babysitting time.

Sean signed a curse back. One that a lot of hearing people knew.

He chucked the ball to another guy and took a time-out, coming over to me. He was wearing a pair of old blue shorts and a T-shirt that had this cartoon guy walking down the street in a long robe. Underneath the guy, it said KEEP ON TRUCKING. The shirt used to belong to Daddy but somehow Sean had inherited it. There was a big dark patch of sweat under his collar.

What are you doing here? he asked.

I shrugged. There wasn’t anything to do at home.

Sean looked at me. One of the guys was waving for him to come on and Sean signed for him to wait.

Can’t you see he’s talking, I said, and Sean gave me a look.

Sit down, he said. I’m almost done. He tapped me on the head and ran back over to his game.

The tap on the head meant he wasn’t mad at me for coming. I climbed onto the bleachers and sat down in front of some girls who were watching the game.

“That’s your brother?” one of them asked me.

I looked at her and nodded, then turned back front.

“He can’t hear anything?” I heard her asking my back.

I knew what was coming, so I didn’t turn around again. “Nope.”

“Dag,” she said. “That’s messed up.”

I heard another girl say, “And he’s a fine brother-man too.”

I rolled my eyes and felt my hands clinching inside my coat pockets.

“No wonder he’s not trying to talk to us.”

I wanted to say, “He’s not trying to talk to you because he’s not interested in you!” But I didn’t say anything. What was the use? Instead, I watched Sean and his friends play full court. Sean took a shot and missed, then looked over at me and shrugged. Then he looked at the girls behind me and ducked his head a bit before taking off down the court.

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