Page 97 - The Mending Season

nowhere near the playground. I took a sip of the cooldrink I had bought from the school tuck shop, my eyes still searching. KB took out a teenage romance novel and we sat there silently waiting for the bell to ring.When it did and everyone moved towards their classes, Beth was carrying her school bag and hurrying behind her parents. Her fathers face had turned red from rage.The three ofthem got into the car and drove away.I was walking home after school that day when two girls who were younger than me stopped me as I approached our gate.“You go to school in town, right? What class are you in?” they wanted to know.“What do the teachers call you?”“Do you have an English name that you use in school?”I stood there for about twenty minutes answering all oftheir questions.“Do you have a White friend?”one asked.“No,”I said.“Do you have White girls in your class that you talk to?” “Yes.”“What are their names?”they both asked, and I told them. “Have you ever, have you ever, umm, touched a White per­son? Like this?” one girl asked me, touching my skin lightly with only one finger.I laughed. “Yes, I think so. We play sports together.” “Do you swim?”“Yes.”“Do you like it?”“Yes.”“Im telling my mama I want to go to a school in town,”one ofthem said.“Me too,”her friend said, and they skipped away to play.97