The Other Half of My Heart (21 page)

“Oh, that. I suppose I’ve done some standing up and speaking out over the years.”

“How did you—I mean, where did you find the courage?” Minni looked her straight in the eye.

“Honey child, when a wrong in the world gets inside the people you love most and starts making them think there’s something wrong with
them
, well, you have to act.”

Minni chewed on the woman’s words as she savored the taste of cinnamon and ginger on her tongue.

Starts making them think there’s something wrong with
them…

Keira had said she felt wrong at their school sometimes. But what was the wrong that was getting inside her exactly, and how could Minni speak out about it?

She picked up the napkin and stood. “Thank you.”

“Any time.” Miss Oliphant smiled. Her eye wasn’t so spooky, really.

“Oh! Billie Holiday took one of my grandmother’s gloves.”

Miss Oliphant laughed. “It’s her hunting instinct. I suppose I should try to break her of the habit, but it’s just so amusing!”

Minni grinned. “I won’t tell.” She walked back to Grandmother Johnson’s yard, finishing her square of gingerbread. Keira and the soda were gone from the steps, so she slipped inside and up to the attic.

Keira sat on her bed, sketching and listening to her mp3 player. Minni set the dessert next to Keira’s leg and lay down on her own bed. Keira glanced at the food but kept drawing. A while later, she picked it up, sniffed it and took a bite. Minni smiled, knowing what her sister was experiencing.

Keira obviously was trying not to show how much she liked the gingerbread, but she couldn’t fool Minni. The corners of her mouth twitched and her cheeks rose up a little, and Minni felt happy knowing she’d given her sister a reason to smile again.

K
eira barely said two words to Minni all the next day. Minni didn’t even try to tell her about sitting in Laverna Oliphant’s kitchen or the conversation she’d had with their new neighbor. Anyway, she wasn’t sure she wanted to. It seemed like something to keep to herself, at least for now.

She sat on the porch swing reading a book from their grandmother’s shelf,
Up from Slavery
, by Booker T. Washington. She thought it was interesting that Washington had a black mom and a white dad, just like her and Keira, although his mother had been a slave and his father a slave owner. Minni was
so
glad she didn’t live back then.

Between her bum knee and an upset stomach, Grandmother Johnson wasn’t feeling too well. She mostly stayed
in her room with the AC unit running. Keira practiced her tumbling routine in the side yard (Grandmother Johnson didn’t know she was outside without sunscreen); then she disappeared inside.

A while later, Miss Oliphant stepped onto her porch with a bag of cat food. “Good afternoon,” she called. “It’s a beauty of a day, isn’t it?”

“Yes, ma’am, it is.” The air felt soft on Minni’s bare arms and legs, as if she were soaking in a tub of warm water scented with flowers heated by the sun. Summer air in the South was different than summer air back home, with its smells of pine, pulp and salt water, and the cool breeze coming off the ocean, but she liked it all right. It was nice, actually.

“Got yourself a good book?”

Minni glanced at the cover.
“Up from Slavery
, by Booker T. Washington,” she said.

“An important work,” Miss Oliphant replied. She stooped to pour cat food into a dish. “Mr. Washington worked tirelessly for the education of black people at a crucial time in our history.” She stood again. “When you’re done with that one, make sure you read Dr. W.E.B. DuBois.”

“Doo Boyz?” Minni squinted.

“That’s right. DuBois.
The Souls of Black Folk
. That man put down in words what it is to be black in America, better than anyone I’ve ever read. He burned with a passion to rid this country of racism—devoted his whole life to the struggle.”

Minni was intrigued. “Thanks,” she said.

Miss Oliphant gave a nod and went back inside.

L
ater, when Minni went to see what Keira was doing, she found her holed up in the bathroom. Minni stood outside the door. She started to knock, then stopped. She rested her head on the door frame. “Are you okay in there?” she asked softly. Every few moments, something clinked against the porcelain sink. Keira must be doing her hair.

“I’m fine.”

“You want to play hearts or something?”

“No, thanks.”

“Speed?”

“No.”

“Two-person solitaire?”

Silence. “I just want to be alone, all right?”

“We should really do some more reading. You haven’t done any since Monday.”

“Leave me
alone
, Minni!”

Minni swallowed. It felt as if someone with an ice cream scooper had dug out half her heart. “All right,” she whispered, and went to the porch again, where she sat on the steps and watched ants come and go from a crack in the cement. Two ants approached each other, stopped and touched antennae.

Together
, Keira had said. They would get through this together.

So why was she insisting on going it alone?

*   *   *

T
hat night, after they were both upstairs, Minni pulled out the tape recorder she had hidden under her pillow earlier in the day. She had also gone looking for Dr. DuBois’s book on Grandmother Johnson’s shelves, but she hadn’t found it.

Keira sat on her bed filing her toenails. She had washed and blow-dried her hair that afternoon, then pressed it straight with her ceramic flatiron. Keira still wasn’t talking, but Minni had to at least try. “I’ve got another idea,” Minni said. “An idea for how we can get back at her again…for the stupid thing she said to you yesterday.”

Keira lowered her eyelids. “What?”

“You’re really going to like this one.”

“Great. What is it?” Keira leaned back against the wall and crossed her arms.

“But we’ve got to do it together.”

“Okay, okay! Tell me already!” Keira shook the emery board impatiently.

Minni lowered her voice and held up the tape recorder. “We’ll record her snoring.”

Keira’s face broke into a smile for the first time that day.

“I’m nervous, though,” Minni said. “What if she wakes up while we’re in her room?”

“You know she sleeps like a cow in a coma.” Keira slapped her bed, laughing. “Ooo, just think what she’ll do when she hears how she shakes the walls of this house!”

Minni grinned. For once, she couldn’t wait for Grandmother Johnson to start her log sawing.

When the snuffling and snorting began, they went into action. Minni stood and saluted. “Operation Silence the Saw—now in progress.”

Keira threw her pillow at her. “You’re such a goof.”

Minni smiled, glad that everything was finally back to normal between them.

“We’ll just get in and get out, okay?” Keira’s voice had turned serious, as if they were about to engage in a life-threatening mission and could end up prisoners of war or something.

“Okay.” Minni went first. She took the stairs slowly, trying to remember the spots that creaked and step around them. At the bottom, she let her eyes adjust to the darkness. Fortunately, the moon was putting off a nice glow that night. In the living room, light frosted the tops of the furniture. The light spilled into the hallway, helping her see where to put her feet. The end of the hall, however, where Grandmother Johnson slept, was pitch black. She’d have to let the sound guide her.

She walked toward the snoring with an outstretched hand. Keira followed close on her heels.

Get in and get out
.

Bang!
She ran right into Grandmother Johnson’s closed door. Keira bumped into her.

Grandmother Johnson slept with her door closed? Minni had been sure she must sleep with it open, the way they could hear her sawing two-by-fours all night long.

Keira giggled.

Minni put a hand over her mouth and pinched her nose to keep herself from laughing.

Fortunately, Grandmother Johnson’s snoring didn’t miss a beat. She really did sleep like a cow in a coma.

Minni groped for the doorknob. She twisted it carefully, holding her breath until she could feel her heart galloping between her lungs. The knob gave and she moved into the room, grateful for the moonlight oozing around the pulled shades.

Grandmother Johnson’s large body looked like a mountain range under her crumpled blankets and rumbled like a volcano about to blow.

“Phhhhht!”

Minni clamped her hand over her mouth and nose again and strained against the tsunami of laughter that swelled inside her. Grandmother Johnson was letting out air from both ends! She must have taken her antigas pills earlier that night.

Keira apparently couldn’t control herself any longer. She rushed out. Minni heard muffled laughter in the other room. She imagined her sister with her face buried in a throw pillow.

Minni tiptoed toward the bed, grateful that their grandmother was the kind of person who would never leave her clothes or shoes on the floor, as Minni was prone to do. She held her finger over the Record button, getting closer, closer…

The mattress creaked as the giant mountain rolled.

She dove for the end of the bed and crouched behind the footboard, ready to ditch the recorder if she needed to.
I had a bad dream…I had a bad dream
, she rehearsed. It would be her excuse for being in the room.

Any moment, their grandmother’s sharp voice would be
demanding to know who was there. But the voice never came—just a heavy exhale—and within two breaths, she was back at it again, snoring just as loudly, if not more loudly than before.

Minni didn’t wait. She pushed the Record button firmly (thankfully, the machine ran on batteries), then hurried back to the side of the bed. She held the recorder near Grandmother Johnson’s head. She stayed put as long as she could—until the fear of getting caught became greater than the enjoyment of gathering this evidence that would force Grandmother Johnson to face the cold, hard truth that she was indeed a
snorer
.

She slunk from the room and shut the door quietly, leaving Grandmother Johnson to her rest.

“Mission accomplished,” she whispered to Keira, and they crept back up the stairs.

Later, while Keira slept peacefully on the other side of the room, Minni tossed and turned, wishing that tomorrow—the first day of the dreaded pageant—would never come.

K
eira primped longer than usual before they left for the orientation, and though Grandmother Johnson fumed at her, she still took her own sweet time.

Once Grandmother Johnson finally got into the bathroom, Minni returned the tape recorder to the desk. She and Keira had listened to a little to make sure it had worked and then rewound it to the beginning. They would leave the tape in the machine for now so as not to raise any suspicions. Later, they would hide the recorder in a cabinet or the clothes hamper and push Play. The snoring was so loud and awful, their grandmother would probably think a rabid raccoon had found its way into her house.

They showed up at the Hotel Lamont later than Grandmother Johnson wanted, which of course she blamed on
Keira, although she had at least told her that her hair looked nice. Keira had given her pressed hair a zigzag part. Four small bear-claw clips held two flat twists in place in the front. She’d curled the ends under with her curling iron. As soon as they got inside, Keira ran to a bathroom to make sure her clips were still in place.

Minni gazed around the large lobby, awed by the huge crystal chandelier and the fancy red velvet furniture. A shiny black grand piano sat in a corner. Minni suddenly wished she knew how to play the instrument. A beauty like that shouldn’t be left standing quiet and alone.

“Let’s go. Your sister will catch up.” Grandmother Johnson pulled her down a red-carpeted corridor into the ballroom where the competition would be held. Long tables were set up at the back and a large stage stood at the front. Rows of chairs filled the rest of the space.