Girls Like Us by Randi Pink

Author:Randi Pink
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

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For the next few days, Ola and Izella kept turning over Mrs. Mac’s strange visit. Talking and fussing over it.

“That old fool,” said Ola. “She’s just talking. Ain’t no truth in her.”

“Ola!” Izella replied, frustrated. “You saw what she can do. The woman’s touched.”

“Touched by demons and not much else,” Ola said while clipping her nails and pretending not to give a care. “I’ll tell you one thing. I’m not taking her another bite of bread ever again. She can curl up in that bed and crumble for all I care.”

Izella couldn’t understand it. They’d been sitting around the same table. Watching and listening to the same things that night. Walter, Ola, and she had seen a woman send a baby on to heaven like a poof! Gone! And stupid Ola still doubted her.

Izella used to like Mrs. Mac. Never love. She was too smart to love such a potent woman. Loving Mrs. Mac would be like loving a vial of deadly poison. Petting it and sipping on it until it killed you. Never love, not even once. But she respected Mrs. Mac for what she was. Stupid, stupid, stupid Ola, she thought. Would she ever not be this stupid?

Izella sat back on their bed and watched her older sister get dressed and ready for the day. It was a strong Valdosta Friday—rumbling clouds and mean, biting rain. Izella would wear overalls in such weather, knee-scraped ones that nobody cared whether they got ripped or scuffed. But she watched as stupid, stupid Ola hummed through her pretty closet in her girdle, pulling out pastel skirts and button-down tops. Izella knew she would come home mad and muddy like always.

One time, a few months ago in the spring, Ola had to throw out a fresh pair of white stockings. On a day much like this one, she’d been standing in the same spot that morning. Picking out the stupidest possible outfit to wear on such a rainy day. Izella told her not to wear them. She’d warned her not to do what she was about to do, but no, no, no. Ola knew what she wanted to wear. Not too long after they left the house, a bus splattered a full puddle onto her pretty white legs. She came home covered in muck and scrubbed those stockings for hours, but it was no use. Stupid Ola had to throw them out. Just like she had to throw out her baby a few months ago.

Izella tried not to hate her sister. But it was getting harder.

Evangelist knocked on their bedroom door. “Girls,” she said in a voice of exuberance. “We riding up to see Mr. Melvin tomorrow! So we need to get all of our deliveries out the way today. Double Mrs. Mac’s bread. And y’all need to eat a banana and some figs on the walk. No time for breakfast. I’m heading on out!”

Izella heard Evangelist whistling her way down the hall. She whistled louder and stronger than anybody in Valdosta, especially when she was happy.

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