Maya's Choice by Earl Sewell

Author:Earl Sewell [Sewell, Earl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, People & Places, United States, African American
ISBN: 9781459215351
Google: DMivWFhNqrkC
Amazon: 0373229984
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-10-18T00:00:00+00:00

ten

MAYA

As my grandmother Esmeralda drove me back to her house she mentioned how overjoyed she was about my visiting her for a little while. Spending more time with all of her grandchildren was very important to her. When I was a little girl I was always at her house listening to her drone on about stories and events that I didn’t particularly care about at the time. She took me and my siblings to church on Sunday and often signed us up for activities there. She had me in everything from performing Mexican folk dances at the church to Bible study for children. However, when I turned thirteen and was able to have a little more say in how I spent my time, the first thing I wanted to do was stop hanging out with my grandmother and relax with my friends. Sunday afternoons at the mall replaced Sundays at church, and it was easy to get out of seeing her on Saturday because all I had to say was, “I’ve got homework to do,” and that pretty much guaranteed that I didn’t have to go visit. I wasn’t lying a majority of the time. I did have homework to do, but not as much as I led my mother to believe. When I wasn’t in school, I got out of spending time with my grandmother by attending summer school or getting involved in some other community activity near my home. Once I’d turned sixteen and was able to work, my job with Keysha at the swimming pool was another perfect reason to keep from visiting.

It’s not that I don’t like my grandmother. I really do love her, it’s just that she is so old-fashioned and loves tradition. I’ve heard her and my mother more often than not fussing about why my mom doesn’t come around very often. My mother would always point out how hectic things were at the office, and how tiring it was to raise three children. Of course my grandmother Esmeralda felt that there was always time for familia. Speaking of family, my grandmother had two movies that she could watch over and over again and never tire of. Those films were My Family, starring Jimmy Smits, Edward James Olmos and Esai Morales, and Forrest Gump. The movie My Family came out in 1995 when I was only a year old and Forrest Gump came out in 1994, the year I was born. I once asked Keysha if her grandmother or mother had a movie that they watched all of the time.

“I don’t know about my grandmother Rubylee,” Keysha had said. “But my mother, Justine, watched Purple Rain to the point that she knew all of the actors’ lines.” I remembered laughing at that.

My grandmother Esmeralda wasn’t a very tall woman, but she wasn’t too short, either. She had long black hair that cascaded down her back, and skin as soft as rose petals. Deeper and more pronounced age lines had formed around her eyes, nose and lips since I’d last seen her.

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