Seth and Samona Read Free Page A

think all kinds of bad things about you just ’cause you come from someplace different.
    “It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Fabiyi. I’m leaving, Samona. You can come if you want to.” I headed for the front door.
    Samona stuck her tongue out at my back. “You can throw soup at him anytime, Mrs. Fabiyi. Seth Michelin! Wait up!”
    “You are welcome,” Mrs. Fabiyi called after us. “And you right, Samona. Cat taste good as chicken.”
    Samona looked back at her with wide eyes before chasing me down the stairs. “See! I told you!”
    I didn’t pay her any mind. I started walking as fast asI could once we got outside. The bright sunlight hit me in the eyes and made me squint.
    Samona caught up with me, huffing a little and squeezing the life out of Nightmare. “What are you walking so fast for?”
    I stopped. “Look, Samona. I don’t have any time to be wasting with you.”
    She shifted Nightmare to her other arm. “Well, ’scuse me. Where’s the fire?”
    I glared at her. “I got places to go, okay?”
    “I got places of my own to get to,” Samona sniffed.
    “Like what?” I asked as scornfully as possible.
    “Well …” Samona bit her lip. “Matter of fact I have to go to the city hall today and register for the Little Miss Dorchester contest.”
    My mouth fell wide open. “You’re off your rocker. You can’t win that contest.”
    “Oh yeah? Wait and see.” Samona pointed to my open mouth, then turned and walked away. “Better watch out for them flies.”

S amona’s fool idea about entering the beauty contest went right out of my head later when I opened the door to our apartment. I had my nose all wrinkled up ’cause they had just mopped the hallway and it smelled like ammonia. I knew it would stink like that for days. Sometimes Manmi smelled like that when she came home from work at the hospital. When she smells like that, it means she got stuck washing the floors all day and she usually has to go straight to bed ’cause her back hurts so much. I was wishing for the hundredth time that we could live in a real house like my cousin Enrie when I walked through the door and knew something was wrong.
    For one thing, it was so dark I could barely see in front of me. All the shades had been drawn to shut out the sunlight. If it wasn’t for the tiny lamp lit up in the corner of the living room, I would not have been able to make out Tant Cherise, Tant Renee and Monnonk Roddie setting up a low murmur in Kreyol on thecouch. There wasn’t any sign of Granmè or Manmi, and that started to make me nervous.
    Then I smelled the spirits in the air and I knew Tant Renee must be drinking. I looked closer and sure enough, she was sitting in the pocket corner of the couch with her hair hanging down straggly-like and a large glass of clarin in her hand. Her face was starting to swell up like it always does when she takes to the spirits. Now, Tant Renee is a terrible drinker but she knows better than to be doing it in Manmi’s home. I knew something serious must have happened.
    Tant Cherise noticed me first and ran over to give me a hug so tight I could feel the bones sticking out of her body. Tant Cherise is almost as skinny as me, which is where I get it from, I guess. She’s a
grimelle
, though, like Manmi and Chantal—which means she’s really light-skinned. Jean-Claude and I are as dark as tree bark—like Papi.
    “What’s going on?” I kissed her on the cheek, automatically.
    Tant Cherise put her hand over my head and all of a sudden commenced to crying and moaning at the same time in her heavy accent,
“Priye avek mwen
, Seth. Pray with me.”
    Her words didn’t scare me as much as her crying did. Tant Cherise is about as holy as can be. She’s always praying for people’s souls and rejoicing overwho just joined the church. But I’d never seen her carry on like this before.
    Monnonk Roddie came and pulled her away from me. I could hear him whisper to her that I was just a kid, and that got me mad.