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right … ” she forced the words out, though her stomach was fluttering and she was about to throw up. JC held onto her. She fought to get control over her body and her mind, which had seemed to go blank. “… Just … just don’t tell nobody else. No one else, please?” She was weak, but she struggled to get to her feet. JC lifted her.
    â€œWhatever you say, Hazel. I only thought that somebody in the family should know, in case …” he faltered. Hazel turned to look at him.
    â€œIn case what?” she asked, still unable to put all the information together and accept the real facts he had presented.
    â€œIn case something happens to her.” JC had lowered his voice, and Hazel was suddenly alert. Jurdine was living dangerously. “I don’t think you’re in the shape to go to the grocery by yourself,” he said. “Let me walk you over there and back. Maybe you ought to go home.”
    Hazel shook her head vigorously, and the twist of hair at her neck fell. Waves cascaded against her skin, making her feel feverish. She couldn’t go home. There would be questions, nosy questions. And she couldn’t leave Miss Clotille’s without putting things in order—there would be questions in that quarter, too.
    â€œNo, I can make it if you help me. When I get back to Miss Clotille’s I can sit a while and get myself together. I have to figure out what to do with what you told me … I know you did what you thought was best, JC.” She managed to smile.
    He lightly touched her hair. “Excuse me, Hazel Mozella Reed, but you are awfully beautiful with your hair down.”
    An orange school bus swung around the nearest corner and surrounded them with screeches and screams. Hazel straightened her back and started to walk.
    â€œYou’re excused, Johnson Caesar Johnson,” she said, reaching for his hand.

    When Hazel stepped back into her house later that afternoon, she remembered that on Tuesdays, Mama and Daddy went straight from work to their deacon and deaconess board meetings at the church. So she took a deep breath of relief as she crossed the threshold. Laughter and girls’ gossip floated from the kitchen to meet her, and the air was heavy with the smell of sizzling Royal Crown Hair Dressing. Hazel untied her shoes near the door and carried them toward the back of the house.
    â€œOuch! You singed me!” Baby George’s complaint was muffled by the fact that her chin was pushed down against her chest. Velma Jean sat on a high stool over her sister; one hand grasped a shock of tightly curled hair, the other was raised and holding the smoking hot comb. Miriam sat at the table, flipping the pages of one of Hazel’s borrowed
Half-Century
magazines
.
    Hazel shook her head and laughed, for a moment forgetting the awful news that she was holding. “What are y’all doing in here, messing up Mama’s kitchen?” She pulled out a chair and dropped into it.
    â€œTrying to make a woman out of this sister thing we got.” Violet appeared with an armful of dresses, sucking her teeth. “George, have you
ever
worn a decent dress?”
    George mumbled and scrunched even further down into the chair.
    â€œI’ma hit you in the head if you don’t sit still!” Velma Jean warned.
    â€œHazel, how come you got the words in this advertisement underlined with an ink pen?” Miriam was bending close over a page in the back of the magazine. Hazel swiftly snatched it away, but Violet’s keen eyes had already seen.
    â€œYou using
bleaching cream
?” Violet shrieked.
    The hot comb clinked onto the burner, and Velma Jean actually jerked George Ann’s head up. All eyes were on Hazel.
    Suddenly she felt accused and defensive. Her throat went dry.
    â€œOh no, Hazel.” Velma Jean’s eyes teared.
    â€œThat’s just crazy!” Baby George shook her head, and the smooth, already pressed