Put A Ring On It by Allison Hobbs

Author:Allison Hobbs
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Strebor Books
Published: 2011-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 32

1995

Eating a bowl of cereal, Harlow sat on the couch watching a cartoon that was out of focus.

Scratching her head, Jody stumbled into the living room. “Good morning. How you feeling, baby?” Jody asked in a pleasant voice.

Harlow gave her mother an odd look. Jody’s tone was too cheerful to be normal; especially at eight o’clock in the morning.

Jody sat next to Harlow, and stroked her daughter’s hair. “You okay?”

Harlow inched away from her mother. “Yeah.”

“Bleeding yet?”

“No.”

“Not even spotting?”

Spotting? What’s that? Harlow turned up her nose and shook her head.

“What about cramps?” Jody looked hopeful.

“I said, I feel fine.”

“Well, it’s been three days. How long did Miss Cakie say it’s supposed to take?”

Harlow didn’t have an answer. Miss Cakie had told her to expect clumps of blood, and Harlow wasn’t looking forward to that.

“Did you follow her instructions?”

Harlow shrugged.

Growing agitated, Jody sighed. “Look, I gave that old bitch a lot of damn money, and something needs to be happening right about now. Didn’t she tell you to move around…to be active?”

“I guess.”

Jody looked at Harlow, blinking impatiently. “You guess? What exactly did Miss Cakie tell you to do?”

“She told me to jump rope.” There was an edge in Harlow’s voice.

“Then jump some damn rope.”

Harlow rolled her eyes. “I don’t to go school anymore, so how am I supposed to jump rope?”

Jody gritted her teeth and took a deep breath. “I’m not in the mood for your shit, so don’t work my nerves. You don’t need a rope. Just do some jumping jacks, something like that.”

“Jumping what?”

“It’s an exercise. Don’t y’all do exercises in gym class?”

“We play basketball sometimes, but we usually do freestyle dancing or we watch a movie with a sports theme. I don’t know anything about that back-in-the-day stuff you’re talking,” Harlow said with a sneer.

“You better watch your mouth. I’m not one of your lil’ girlfriends; I’m your goddamn mother.”

“Well, act like one,” Harlow mumbled. Harlow was starting to see Jody in a different light. Her mother was as skinny as a twig, and always looked a hot mess. She wasn’t the scary, imposing figure she’d always seemed to be. Her mother was a pitiful, drugged-out wreck.

“I’ma slap the shit outta you, girl.” Jody’s voice trembled with anger.

Daring her with her eyes, Harlow boldly looked her mother up and down, and then stared in her face.

“See, you starting to act like you think you’re grown. Ever since you had that goddamn procedure you’ve been showing your ass. I’m not having it.” Jody reached into the pocket of her robe and pulled out a pack of Newports.

“I’m bored, Jody. There’s nothing to do all day. I wanna go back to school.”

Jody lit a cigarette and blew smoke in Harlow’s face. “Well, you can’t go back until you drop that load.”

Scowling, Harlow fanned the cigarette smoke away from her face. “Why not?”

“Because I said so.”

“This house is starting to feel like a prison.”

“Ain’t nothing I can do about that. Do what Miss Cakie told you to do and you’ll be back in school.

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