To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis Read Free Page B

in front of her men, but being perfect all the time wasn’t any fun.
    I liked looking at the colors, though. Pale pink. Easter egg purple. Grass green and tulip yellow. Lots of blues, like the picture of a coral reef I saw in geography class. Blue was a brave color, the color of adventure. When I wore it, I was powerful in spite of the stiff lining and tight elastic. Mommy liked frills and everything clean. I wanted to wear Levi corduroys and play in the dirt. But Mommy always had to be happy, or she made sure I was miserable.
    I pulled out an especially flouncy one, the color of the late fall New Orleans sky. It reminded me of how good I felt when I fell at the zoo. I wrapped it around me. It had pearly buttons down the front and a Peter Pan collar edged with lace and pouffy sleeves with more itchy elastic.
    I sat down at my dressing table and studied my ratty blonde curls. A few squirts of No More Tangles and some tugging with my Marie Osmond comb, and I made my hair go back to the tight rings Mommy liked, the ones that framed my face like Cindy in those Brady Bunch re-runs.
    I licked some spit on my fingers and scrubbed a spot of dirt on my cheek ’til it was clean and red. Mommy said she could zero in on dirt like a spotlight followed a true performer. She was proud of it, too, especially when she shined her light on me.
    Three knocks rattled my door just as I finished. Bertie stuck her brillo pad hair through the crack, her lips already glowing their usual evening red. “Miss Nadine is chomping at the bit, Child. I stalled her as long as I can do. You need to hurry up.”
    “You didn’t tell her about my dress, did you?”
    “You think I want to see you beaten into next week? I told her some awful boy spilled his Coca-Cola all over you on the streetcar, and I ordered you to go straight up to your room and change to spare her tender eyes the sight.”
    My Sunday shoes echoed all through the house as we walked down two flights of stairs, clunk-clunk on wood and tap-tap-tap on marble. All six doors were closed on the second floor. Most of Mommy’s ladies rested during the afternoon, because they were up most of the night. Entertaining, Mommy called it.
    My stomach tied itself in a knot when I saw the black-and-white checkerboard floor at the bottom of the stairs. It was the only path to Mommy’s office, past pictures of almost-naked ladies from a long time ago. My face always turned red when I had to go that way. When I was littler, I got a chair from the dining room and drew more clothes on them, but Mommy got real mad. She made me stay in my room for most of a whole week that time.
    The door to Mommy’s office was open. Bertie took my hand. “Just let me make sure she’s ready for you.” Her dark skin jiggled as she went to the doorway and looked around the room. With a smile of relief, she turned back to me. “She ain’t here. Why don’t you wait for her? Sit there, and be real pretty when she comes back?”
    Bertie blew me a kiss and left me in Mommy’s office. I crawled into her cushiony chair and made it spin like the merry-go-round at school by pushing off the front of the desk with my hands. If I spun fast enough, maybe I could disappear.
    When I started getting dizzy, I sat still and looked at the things spread out on top of her desk. It was a roll top, almost always closed when I came in there. I picked up a black book with “Appointments” on the front and slipped Mommy’s big silver ring with the blue Indian stone on my finger.
    And that was when I saw Mommy’s special cards.
    My mommy liked to play rounds of cards with some of her men. Two nights a week, she’d set up tables in her parlor, get several of her ladies, and play her games. Aunt Bertie always put me to bed early, those nights. She had to play, too. Mommy’s rules.
    Mommy had different rules for me. Sometimes, Mommy or Aunt Bertie played Go Fish with me, or Old Maid. Mommy even let me yell when I told her to go fish. I got so