The Pride – page 2
“I ain’t lookin’ in yo’ face,” Sonjie huffed.
“Where’da boys?” Angela looked hard at her daughter.
“The twins in they room playin’ some game they made up and Kelvin in my room watchin’ TV. I checked on them, Momma. I fed them, and I even re-braided all they hair. I’m bored.” Sonjie sat on the chair across from her mother with her elbows on her thighs and her palms against either side of her face looking down at the floor.
“I know you listenin’ to my conversation. Why don’t you gone somewhere?” Angela made an underhanded waving motion at Sonjie. “Go play or somethin’!”
“I’m on punishment, remember?”
“You don’t need to be sittin’ here tryin’ ta hear what I’m talkin’ about. You on punishment because you think you grown and you think you gone be runnin’ the streets like you gotta job and pay bills. Go read a book or something, Sonjie. Get outta my face!”
“I read all the books we got in this house. I’m bored.” Sonjie huffed again but didn’t move.
Looking toward the ceiling, Angela yelled, “SONJIE! GET OUTTA MY FACE! I DON’T CARE WHERE YOU GO! JUST GET OUTTA MY FACE!”
Sonjie sat up straight, dropped her hands from her cheeks and asked, “Can I go outside?”
“I DON’T CARE, SONJIE! JUST GO SOMEWHERE! UH! YOU MAKE ME SICK!”
Sonjie pretended to pout while she was facing her mother, but when her back was to Angela she grinned in triumph and hustled toward the front door. Before Sonjie could grab the knob, Angela’s next words stopped her dead in her tracks.
“Take the baby with you. He need some fresh air!”
Sonjie would rather have had a shoe thrown at the back of her head than to have heard those words from her mother. Why hadn’t she seen that coming? Why hadn’t she bolted for the door before her mother stopped yelling at the top of her lungs? Sonjie knew this was Angela’s way of trying to keep her from cutting too loose once she was out the door. Sonjie turned around and walked slowly back to the playpen that was sitting directly in front of the television, where her little brother was transfixed by some talking vegetables on the screen.
When Sonjie picked Marcus up out of the playpen, he began to wail. She blew hard through her mouth and turned toward the door. She caught a glimpse of her mother’s wicked smile and wanted to say “if I wanted to watch a baby I’d have a baby.” She kept her mouth close, though, because she wanted to get outside more than she wanted to risk making her mother even more annoyed.
“Don’t go too far, JiJi,” Angela cooed sweetly to her daughter as Sonjie and the baby disappeared on the other side of the closing door. From the other side of the door, Sonjie rolled her eyes at her mother as door met the frame.