The Pride – page 5
“Ma, there’s this woman comin’ down the street, and, Ma, she got a baby on her hip who look just like Marcus. Just like Marcus, Ma. Just like him. I…I…I swear t… Ma, I’m serious. I ain’t lyin’, for rea…”
Before Sonjie could finish her sentence, there was a knock at the door.
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The Cubs
William, 15
(Denise’s oldest son)
I can’t believe she’s tripping over something so stupid. Boys fight. It’s not like I’m going to be a criminal because I got into one fight. She’s the one who has me going to this stuck-up, stupid school, anyway. If she’d let me go to the school up the block from our house, I’d be around more people who look like me and know what I’m going through. These white folks don’t care nothing about me. Oh, God. I can hear her now, “Don’t care anything about me.” Uh. I can’t believe I have her voice in my head, sitting here correcting myself when she’s not even around. How square can you get? I want to go live with my father, but how do I tell her that’s what I want to do? There are too many people in this two-bedroom apartment, anyway; her, me, Benjamin, Sarah and Naomi. I could use that argument to get out from under her thumb, but how do I convince Dad to let me stay with him?
Naomi, 14
(Denise’s oldest daughter)
I cannot be pregnant. I cannot be pregnant. I. cannot. be. pregnant. Oh, God. What am I going to do? I can’t believe I trusted that Kenny-fool! “We don’t need a condom, baby. I can’t even have kids. I had an accident when I was little,” he told me. Mother will lose her freaking mind if I’m pregnant. Kenny’s mother just laughed when I told her: “Why you cryin’? I bet you wasn’t cryin’ when y’all was doing the do. Cryin’ ain’t gone help nothin’. It is what it is. If you pregnant, you pregnant. I’ll take care of it while you finish school.” She didn’t even act like it was a big deal. She said all that to me without even turning away from the television, like she honestly thinks it’s that easy. Doesn’t she know my mother is going to kill me if I’m pregnant?!?! Oh, GOD! What was I thinking?
Sonjie, 12
(Angela’s oldest daughter)
Let me not crease this magazine, or Momma will know I found it under her mattress. Um! Look at his thing. I wonder what it would feel like to have that inside me. Momma think I don’t hear her and Daddy in’nere at night. I hear them. They so nasty. She be moaning and calling his name, talking about, “Uh, that’s my spot, baby! That’s my spot! Right there, baby!” Tee-hee! I can’t wait to be with a boy. I like walking down the street in front of them high school boys. I don’t look 12. My friends are still flat in front and back, but I’m not. Plus, I’m tall like my Daddy’s people. They don’t know I’m only in sixth grade. They cain’t do nothing for me, though. If I didn’t learn nothing else from my Momma, I learned this: don’t ever hook up with a dude who ain’t got money to spend on you. Yeah, I cain’t wait to be with a boy, but he gotta have a car and some money before I give up anything.