The Pride – page 26
“Who is it, Naomi?” Denise and William were still eye-to-eye.
“Mother, she says you don’t know her, but she’s a friend of Dad’s.” Naomi rocked back and forth from her heels to her toes. She had a feeling this wasn’t good. This caused Denise to break her focal point.
“Excuse me. Did she give you a name?” Denise looked at Naomi.
“Za…Za…,” Naomi put the phone back to her ear and mouth to ask the woman to repeat her name. “She says her name’s Zavari, Mother, and she’s a friend of Dad’s.” Naomi realized her mother was now staring at her with the same gaze she had had trained on William; almost like she couldn’t believe this was her life. Without looking away from Naomi, Denise spoke.
“William, go to your room, and we’ll finish this conversation when I’m done with this call. Naomi, hang up the phone when I pick up in the kitchen.” Denise looked back and William who hadn’t moved. She gave him her best “you better do what I tell you to do and do it now” glare. After a few moments, he complied.
Once William was moving off toward his room, Denise moved toward the phone in the kitchen. She picked up the cordless phone unit and held it to her ear and mouth for a few seconds.
“Hang up the phone, Naomi.” Denise heard Naomi click off the line.
“Good night, Mother,” Naomi said quietly, with obvious disappointment in her voice, as she disappeared back into her room. Denise looked at the clock and realized it wasn’t Naomi’s bedtime yet. Her daughter knew her well enough to know that Denise wasn’t going to be in the mood for any more talking after this phone conversation was over.
“Yes, this is Denise. Zavari, is it? How may I help you?”
———-
Romina
“What’s this word?” Romina pointed to the word, so her ten-year-old daughter could tell her what it was. Romina was sitting at the kitchen table with all her children. She was sitting at one end of the table and Quantenerra was sitting at the other end of the table. Quantavianna sat on the left side of the table and the twins–Quantarius, a boy, and Quantevisha, a girl–sat side-by-side on the right side of the table. Her children were doing homework and she was filling out a job application. Quantavianna leaned over in her chair to look at the word to which her mother was pointing.