What's Mine and Yours by Naima Coster

Author:Naima Coster [Naima Coster]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2021-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

They took Noelle to the new barbecue place not far from the camp for dinner. It was on an otherwise desolate road, all trees and unlit houses. Hidden entrances to the state park were strewn between the trees, a creek snaking through them. This was the part of town where it was most common to find Confederate flags posted in the yards, but the barbecue joint was modern, all glass and neon lights. Nearly half the space was taken up by a wraparound bar in the center, the glittering bottles lined up in rows. It was a gastropub, or so the sign said: FINE BARBECUE AND FINER SPIRITS.

It embarrassed Diane how much she wanted her sister to like the place, to join in her life and approve of it. Noelle played along, oohing and aahing at the bourbon list. She ordered a fourteen-dollar shot and kale salad, while Diane and Alma got their usual: creamy draft beers and a towering plate of pulled-pork nachos. Noelle praised the food, too, but it didn’t make Diane feel any better. It was as if Noelle was indulging them, making do, although nothing was really up to her standards.

“I don’t know why it’s taken so long for a place like this to spring up,” Noelle said. “The university has always been close by. There have always been people here with money to spend. You used to have to drive to another city for a dinner like this.”

“Well, it’s whiter now,” Alma said. “Even in the time I’ve been here, it’s changed. The New Yorkers I used to meet were black women who moved down here in the nineties. Now the New Yorkers I meet are white women who just left Brooklyn.”

“Where are you meeting all these New Yorkers?”

“Book club. Yoga. Around.” Alma shrugged and drank her beer.

“Yoga? Your life is so cute,” Noelle said, and Alma answered her instantly: “I love it here.”

“I bet you do,” Noelle said, and sipped her bourbon. “I couldn’t picture you living in the suburbs. You’d stand out like a sore thumb.”

Alma went red and rose from the table, flustered. Diane watched her go. She hadn’t learned yet that Noelle didn’t mean to antagonize. When she was upset, she grew smug and started telling everyone who they were and who they weren’t.

“You know, for all your disdain for Mama, you can sure be a lot like her. You take out what’s bothering you on everyone else. You offended Alma.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Noelle said and gazed out the window, toward the black road. She looked almost penitent, although she had been icy since she arrived, as if she were bored by the whole ordeal: their mother’s cancer and North Carolina, the fact that they were back together. When they went to the hospital, Lacey May pursued her. She complimented Noelle’s hair, offered her fruit from her lunch tray, handed her the remote to the flat-screen. Noelle ignored her, reading or taking naps in the corner of the room with her sunglasses on.

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