It All Comes Down to This by Karen English

Author:Karen English
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

When we reached the school auditorium and got out of the car, Nathan said, “Hey, Sophie, do you want me to teach you the Ghanaian handshake for good luck?”

“Yes,” I said eagerly.

“Well, it’s not really for good luck,” he said. “But it might give you confidence.”

“What’s Ghanaian?”

“Anything and anyone from Ghana.”

“What’s Ghana?” I asked puzzled.

He laughed. “It’s a country in West Africa.”

Lily had stopped to take out her compact and reapply her orange ice lipstick as if she’d already heard all about West Africa and Ghana and people from Ghana.

“I lived there for a school year,” Nathan said. “When I was a junior at Cal.”

“You lived in Africa?”

“Right.”

“They’d kill me if I went to Africa.”

“Huh?” Nathan and Lily said at the same time.

I was almost too embarrassed to explain—​especially to Nathan, who, because he was very, very dark skinned, never had to worry about Africans killing him.

“Because I’m light skinned and they don’t like light-skinned Negroes there.”

“What?” he said. “Where on earth did you get that?”

“Your mother told me.”

He gave a quick snort and rolled his eyes. “It’s not true,” he said. “You know what they’d really think?”

“What?”

“They’d know you were American and they’d think you were rich.”

I thought about this.

“Hold out your hand,” he said.

I held it out.

“Shake once, slide your palm just a little bit back and snap.”

I did as he said and giggled on the snap.

“Want to do it again?”

I nodded. We did it again and I still giggled on the snap.

“Now you know how to do the Ghanaian handshake. It’s a man’s handshake, actually,” he added. “But you can use it for good luck.”

My sister hung back a bit and whispered in my ear, “Nathan knows everything.” I thought she was joking, but her expression seemed serious.

I had to add that to my list. I wanted someone who smiled when I disagreed with him and I wanted him to know everything.

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