If I Were Your Boyfriend (10 page)

was standing at the kitchen sink with my head underneath the water faucet getting my hair washed by Grandmother Katie. She was massaging shampoo into my scalp and the strokes of her fingertips put me in such a relaxed state that I felt I was going to sleep.

  "All right, I'm going to rinse this shampoo out now," she said as she carefully and skillfully guided my movements so that all of the shampoo was washed out.

  "My grandmother used to wash my hair like this all the time when I was a young girl," she said. "I loved the feeling of her strong, soft hands."

  "What was your grandmother like?" I asked as I stood erect, and began the process of drying my hair so that Grandmother Katie could blow-dry and curl it for me.

  "Your great-great-grandmother Lorraine was a very tall woman. She stood around six foot one or two. She had a very difficult life, though. You see, her mother passed away when she was only twelve years old. And her father was as mean as a pack of wolves. When I was a little girl, he used to own a corner newspaper stand. He sold the daily paper, soda pop and candy every day. One particular day I'd found myself four pennies while outside playing. I walked to the corner where his newspaper stand was and asked for a piece of hard candy. I stood on my tiptoes and placed my four pennies atop a stack of newspapers and waited for my candy. Do you know what that low-down snake-in-the-grass man said to me?"

  "No, what did he say?"

  "He told me that hard candy costs five cents. I looked at him perplexed because I knew he'd let me get away with being a penny short. That mean man glared nastily at me and said, 'Now, git on-way from round here. And don' come back till you got all yo' money.'"

  "You're kidding, right?" I asked.

  "No. I'm not," said Grandmother Katie.

  "That was mean," I said. We went upstairs to her bedroom so that I could sit on a small stool while she blowdried my hair.

  "Why was he so mean?" I asked as I sat on the stool. Grandmother Katie draped a towel over my shoulders.

  "I think he'd seen a lot of things in Mississippi as a young man that made him very bitter and mean-spirited. As a result of his experiences I was told that he placed an iron wall around his heart so that he wouldn't have to deal with his pain. My grandmother told me one day, someone would come along and break through his iron wall and help him deal with all of the vaulted emotions he'd been hiding. For a long time I thought I could fix his broken heart, but I was wrong. He died an old, lonely and bitter man."

  "Don't you get lonely being in this big house by yourself? I mean, this is a big house for one person," I said.

  "No, not at all. I have plenty to keep me busy and from being bored. Besides, Smokey keeps me company. I was lonely and sad for a while after the passing of your grandfather. He would not have wanted me to stop living, so I grieved and moved on. I see life so differently now. I feel that my purpose is to help others any way I am able."

  "Well, lately I've been thinking about my situation," I said. Grandmother Katie turned off the blow dryer so she could hear me. I figured since she wanted to be of service, it couldn't hurt to share my thoughts.

  "Go on, I'm listening," she said.

  "I know that my friend Liz is behind what has happened to me. I know that she set me up but I don't know why. I don't know why she pretended to be my friend and then turned around and stabbed me in the back. It just doesn't make any sense," I said.

  "Have you talked with her since all of this madness began?" asked Grandmother Katie.

  "No," I answered. Grandmother Katie took in a deep breath and then exhaled. I could sense that my situation was heavy on her heart.

  "I'm going to find out, though," I said. "When I go back home tomorrow, I'm going to confront her and just ask her straight out. Why did you do me like this?"

  "Well, if you ask and she doesn't give you an answer, don't push it. The truth will come out in court," said Grandmother Katie.

  "But I don't want to go to court. I want her to own up to what she's done. I mean, setting me up like that was just low down." I started feeling myself get emotional about being framed.

  "Remember, Keysha, you don't want to get yourself into any more trouble, okay? You have your entire life ahead of you and I don't want things to spiral out of control."

  "But this entire situation is stupid. All of the charges can be dropped if she'll just admit to what she's done."

  "Maybe she won't talk because she's protecting someone," Grandmother Katie said. "I'm not defending her actions, I'm just trying to think of a reason as to why she'd do it."

  "If Liz is protecting anyone, it's her own self. But I don't care about her need for self-preservation, I just want my life back," I said to Grandmother Katie.

  "And you will get it back. I promise you that," she said.

  I was silent for a long moment because I was lost in thought. Grandmother Katie turned on the handheld dryer again as I continued to visualize my confrontation with Liz. If she didn't own up to what she'd done, I planned to beat her down until she did.