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she looks at him. Her eyes follow his every move. She wears her feelings for him right on her face. I sure can see why she likes him. My daddy is pretty cool-looking. He is not light-skinned, but he’s not dark-skinned, either. Since he cut off his mustache you can see his mouth and nose better. He’s got a great mouth, especially when he smiles. And I don’t care if he is a man, his nose is plain pretty. It’s good Sara Kate is too old to grow anymore. Right now she and Gaten are the same height. And that’s not real tall. My aunt says my daddy could stand to put on a few pounds.
    I like the way they are together. They are not all over each other, hugging and kissing like some courting people. Every now and again she touches him when he is near, her hand lightly touching his, or an elbow resting on his knee.
    Someone brings the cousin’s little baby inside. “Well,” the cousin says, dabbing spit on the tips of her fingers and wiping dried milk from around her baby’s mouth, “this Sara Kate must have what Gaten likes.”
    â€œOh, gross, Mary Kathyrn,” Ruby Helen moaned. “I do hope you never let Gaten’s high-class Miss Sara Kate seeyou do that. She’ll think all black women wash their kids faces with spit.”
    â€œSh-sh,” someone whispered, “here comes Merlee Kenyon. Poor little thing. She is sure taking it hard since she and Gaten broke up. I don’t know why she didn’t leave when Gaten drove up with his new lady friend.”
    Ruby Helen eyed Merlee’s tight white pants, red, red blouse and high-heeled red sandals. “Girl, you are looking bad, bad.”
    Miss Kenyon did look good that day, and she’s got a bad shape. The prettiest shape I ever saw.
    My aunt let Merlee know right off that she could not stand Sara Kate. Merlee and my aunt always were close friends.
    I couldn’t help thinking that it was halfway my aunt’s fault that Gaten ended up with Sara Kate in the first place.
    Not long after my daddy broke off with Miss Kenyon, he said he needed to get away for a while. So he had my aunt Everleen get me all fixed up and we took off to Maryland for a long weekend.
    It had been my aunt’s idea to go see the King Tut exhibition. Once we got there and saw the long lines, she changed her mind. We were getting ready to leave when she spotted one of her neighbors, a doctor at Howard University Hospital, waiting in line.
    While they chatted, the doctor’s beeper went off. I thought that was some kind of cool. I wished my daddy had one. Gaten volunteered to hold his place in line while he made his phone call.
    It turned out he was on call at the hospital and had to leave. Gaten said the position in line was too good to give up. So he stayed. My aunt and I went shopping.
    At breakfast the next morning, Gaten said he couldn’t believe that just by chance he had bumped into someone he hadn’t seen in years. “I mean I literally bumped into her,” he laughed. “When I turned to apologize, we recognized each other. We first met during my last year in college.”
    Ruby Helen looked at me. “So that’s the reason your daddy called to say he wouldn’t be home for supper. I don’t think he would have missed supper if he had known I’d baked a capon and made wild rice dressing.”
    I sure didn’t see what had been so special about the meal. Just another chicken dinner, as far as I was concerned.
    â€œWell,” she said to Gaten, “maybe I’ll see more of you up here now. It’s sad that it takes some woman to force a man to visit his people.”
    â€œThe woman you’ve mentioned doesn’t live in this area,” Gaten said quietly. “In fact,” he continued, “because of her work with the textile industry, she might temporarily move to the Carolinas. She’s a textile designer.”
    Gaten poured syrup over his pancakes. He smiled at