Read Shem Creek for Free Online Page B

so.”
    “Yo! You want to live with Patti?” Lindsey said. “Are you nuts ?”
    “Negative. No one’s moving in with Daddy and his wife,” I said. “The court awarded me custody and that’s how it is.”
    “Mom? We’re gonna have a big problem here if you try to force me to do this. I’m not kidding!”
    “A big problem?” I said with surprising calm.
    “Yeah! A huge one! Here’s the line and here’s you!” She drew a line with her fingertip and then stabbed at a point on the other side.
    I was not amused.
    “Are you threatening me, Gracie?”
    “I wish you wouldn’t use that tone with your mother,” Mimi said.
    Gracie was pushing her food around the plate, seething with anger. Lindsey stepped in.
    “Listen to your sister here, Gracie. Big deal. You get to spend the summer at the beach. You get the tan of your lifetime. You’re smarter than half the population here. You can dance with Charleston Ballet Company, which is professional! Let’s see if they teach modern dance. Who knows? You get to perform at the Gaillard Auditorium! In two years Juilliard will be licking their lips to have you!”
    “Yeah, right,” Gracie said. “They left a message this afternoon.”
    “You know, I am really not enjoying these implications about southerners. Northerners are no smarter than—”
    “God! Why is everybody so sensitive ?” Gracie said.
    “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded, Aunt Mimi. I meant that Gracie is smarter in the ways of the world. ”
    “And, that’s the problem, ” I said, unable to filter the sarcasm from my voice.
    “Well, I am not moving here!” Gracie said, in a low voice. “And, that’s final.”
    “You don’t get to pick final, ” I said. “You’re a minor.”
    “Never mind now,” Mimi said. “Look, I have an idea. Gracie? Why don’t you stay here with me while your momma and Lindsey make the trip to New Jersey? I’d like to spend some time with you and hear your side of things.”
    Gracie looked at me and I could see her mind at work. Which was worse? Two days of endless driving on I-95 and packing your life in boxes? Or, five or more days at the hands of the Taliban—make that Talibelle? Tough call.
    “You can stay if you want,” I said, with what I thought was a nonchalant delivery.
    Gracie looked from one of us to the other and then, after what seemed like forever, she spoke.
    “Okay, here’s the deal. I’ll stay with Aunt Mimi on one condition.”
    “Which is?” Mimi said.
    “That if I tell you my side and you agree with me that I get to go back to New Jersey in August.”
    Maybe Gracie did have her own point of view. Maybe I was making the wrong decision for her life. One thing was for sure. I wouldn’t miss her for the next week. No. I wouldn’t miss her one damn bit.
    “Nope,” I said, “quit campaigning because here’s the deal. There’s no bargaining. Period. I made the decision to move us here, for very good reasons and that’s it. I am sick to death of your fresh mouth and the million and one stupid things I have seen you do over the last two years. Your behavior is going to change!”
    “Mom! Stop . . .”
    Gracie pounded her fist on the table and my anger exploded. At this point my heart was pounding in my ears.
    “ No! You don’t tell me when to stop and you listen to me, Gracie. I mean it. Do you think that I enjoyed pulling you out of the police station? Do you think I have enjoyed all the phone calls from the faculty at Montclair High regarding your behavior in class? Your endless wisecracks? Your foul language? Your grades? No, no. Things are changed as of right now, this minute! Unless you want to spend your life making French fries or delivering pizza, you are going to do your homework, get good grades and behave yourself! You don’t have to come to New Jersey with us because then I would just be worried about what you’re doing anyway. No. You stay here with my sister and give me a few days of peace with Lindsey. And,