Shine (Short Story) Read Free

maple leaf poking out of the icing. The leaf was translucent, made of sugar, and was painted with some kind of edible paint so that it looked real. Ruth had never seen anything like it, and she wanted to show her mother and Rachel, so she carefully wrapped hers in a paper towel and tucked it into the pocket of her sweatshirt.
    Because it was Maia’s birthday, she was the leader of the recess line that day. Everyone fell into place behind her, snaking down the hallway. From her vantage point farther back in the line, Ruth could see that Maia was wearing her sparkling rhinestone headband. But now, Ruth realized, there were three other girls in the class who had matching ones. They looked like halos.
    Ruth turned away and focused her attention instead on the bulletin board that was on the wall. Ms. Thomas had hung up the family portraits they’d drawn on the first day of school, which felt like a thousand years ago. It was easy for Ruth to find hers, because it was the only picture with brown faces.
    Well, actually that wasn’t true. Ruth let her eyes hopscotch over the other drawings until she found Christina’s. There was Christina, front and center, with Ms. Mina and Mr. Sam. There was her little brother, Louis. And in the far right corner, much smaller than the other bodies, was a brown woman wearing an apron and holding a plate of cookies. Ruth knew it was supposed to be Mama. Her mama floated there like an untethered astronaut.
    Ruth imagined her swimming off the edge of Christina’s page, across the bulletin board, and settling into Ruth’s drawing, where she belonged.
    Ruth felt a shove in her back and realized that while she had been busy daydreaming the line had started moving. Ruth muttered an apology to Lola, who stood behind her, and hurried to catch up to the others.
    —
    To be honest, Ruth had never really thought about the fact that her mama had to cook dinner for Christina’s family and then come to Harlem and cook all over again for her own. Maybe it was Christina’s drawing that got her thinking about this, but that night at home, she found herself watching Mama cook chicken in the pan. As usual, Granny was dozing in front of the TV; she helped out where she could but that was less and less as she got older. “Mama?” she asked. “Don’t you get sick of doing everything twice?”
    “What do you mean, baby?”
    “You have to take care of Christina’s house and our house too,” Ruth said.
    Her mama smiled. “Well, now,” she replied. “One I do for work. The other I do for love.”
    Just then Rachel walked into the kitchen and snorted. “It’s still double the dishes,” she said.
    Mama gave her a sharp glance. “Then maybe you should start doing your share of chores?”
    It was at that moment Ruth remembered the maple leaf candy. “I have something to show you,” she announced. “They were on top of Maia’s birthday cupcakes.”
    She dug her hand into her sweatshirt pocket and unwrapped the paper toweling. The leaf, however, had broken into pieces, some so fine they’d turned themselves back into granulated sugar.
    “What’s that?” Rachel asked.
    “A leaf made of candy,” Ruth answered.
    “Okay.” Rachel laughed. “If you say so.”
    —
    After dinner, Mama told Rachel to take Ruth with her to play outside so she could sit down with Granny in the living room and put her feet up for a hot second. Ruth sat on the curb while Rachel and two of her friends giggled over the older boys shooting hoops in the lot across the street. “You see Joziah?” Denyce said. “He all that.”
    Nia popped a bubble with her gum. “I heard he’s strapped.”
    “What?” Rachel said. “That’s wack.”
    Sometimes it seemed to Ruth that Rachel and her friends spoke a different language.
    “He ain’t got no gun,” Denyce said. “He just like to tell people he do.”
    A gun? Ruth didn’t realize she’d spoken out loud until the girls all stared at her. “Oh, look,” Nia said. “We