How to Knock a Bravebird from Her Perch : The First Novel in the Morrow Girls Series (9780985751616) Read Free Page B

hearing.
    “HE GOT SHOT IN HIS BED!”
    “Oh.” She nodded and went back inside her apartment, leaving me alone with Ricky.
    Ricky looked at me like he ain’t know whether to scream or sigh and I could feel the tears congregating in the back of my throat. I ain’t have a good story. I’d never told a lie before in my life. Not one that I hadn’t convinced myself was the truth first. But I could smile. Probably ain’t look no kinda natural, but that’s what I did. Smile. A train ran past our window as soon as my key went into the lock. Nikki was getting heavy and I wanted to drop the bags to give my arms a break, but I was afraid if I did that, Ricky would get a good view of how much I’d planned to take. So, I held on to everything.
    “Where were you going, Pecan?”
    The heater hissed in the corner, spewing lukewarm water into the air and I let it steal my attention. He yelled like a maniac for a good ten minutes and turned beet red. Sweating so hard it slicked down his hair over his forehead until it looked like he had a bang. I heard every one of his words but told myself he was just worrying about us. It was so cold out there he ain’t want us to freeze.
    “Answer me, Pecan! Put that girl down!”
    Me and Nikki was both sweating by then too. Our snow gear still on—scarves and hats and mittens. I dropped the bags and felt his eyes follow them to the ground. They had fell like rocks. He knew. I knew he knew. He knew and I ain’t even know. Not until that very moment did I know I wasn’t coming back. I was gonna leave and never come back. No note, no reason, just gone. He wasn’t a bad husband. He was funny and folks always liked him. They liked him before they liked me. But most of all he kept his promise to me. He took care of me and I wasn’t never alone. But still, there I was about to leave him. Ricky picked up one of the bags and tore through it, tossing the clothes on the bed. Then he went for another one, and cans of fruit cocktail landed on top of the clothes.
    “You leaving me? Huh? Where you gonna go? You ain’t got nobody! Who gonna take you in? Huh?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “You don’t know?”
    I hadn’t gotten that far. I hadn’t even known that I needed to be taken in. I was just going.  
    “You ain’t leaving me. You got it?”
    And I really wasn’t. Ricky looked friendly and talked real smooth, but if he wanted to, he could kill a man with his bare hands. So even though he’d never hit me before then I knew if I even looked at the door he’d make his move. So I stayed still. I tried to make Nikki stay still too. But she couldn’t wait to get down. Kept on wiggling and fussing, and fighting with her scarf.  
    “Take that shit off of her. She ain’t going nowhere. You ain’t going nowhere.”
    So I did. And she bounded around the room, happy to be free. I was watching her so hard I ain’t see him until he was right up on me. His fingers. Cold. Brushed up against my neck as he yanked and unwrapped my homemade scarf. His pretty eyes danced all over me—examining my face, my chest. Searching for something.
    “Where you was going?”
    “N-Nowhere.”
    Our apartment ain’t never want for no heat. Was always plenty to go around so when he finished unwrapping my scarf I got a little more comfortable than I should have. Let the heat tell me things were gone be okay. Ain’t matter that he was looking at me all crazy, like I was a lying cheating scandalous kind of woman. I ain’t wanna see it. Ain’t wanna see him stomping back and forth, thinking things I would never have imagined.
    “How you gonna go nowhere? Tell me the truth, Pecan. You going to meet somebody?” He chewed on the last word, turning it into something dirty. Somebody. The thought was tearing him up inside; I could see it plain as day. “You...You got some nigga waiting for you somewhere? Why you looking at me like that? Huh?” He paced from one end of the room to the other. Glaring at the floor boards