Page 4 of His Strings Make Her Legs Sing
There was only one response that Beverly could think of to give to her daughter. “My loyalty lies with my grandbaby and her wellbeing.”
A Lot Of Time Later. . .
“Miss Sundae and Wynsdae, what was the catalyst for the two of you to leave the in-school teaching profession to start your own educational business? What you have done here is amazing.” A reporter from a locally syndicated news station, Donna Davis, smiled wide and genuinely.
I took a moment to look around the main room in the building for me and my sisters’ tutoring service-after school care business, Brilliant Minds. We had come a long way from when we started our business five years ago. At twenty-seven, when my sister and I started our business, we were told that we were crazy. Me and my sister were Irish twins. There was two months of the year that we were both the same age since we were born in the same year.
I smiled, glanced at my sister, then at the reporter ready to answer. “Donna, the catalyst was seeing our babies struggle in schools that didn’t have the resources or the heart to truly help them. Unlike other tutoring services, our pricing speaks to the community that we service. My sister and I are both grant writers, so we utilize our skills there to reach out to companies for funds to offer scholarships and have a free, summer tutoring and reading program as well as sponsored meals.”
Donna listened to us attentively with a beautiful smile. “Yes, both of you graduated from Allen University right here in Columbia, South Carolina with degrees in elementary education. Sundae, you furthered your education with a MAT in Teaching with Emphasis in Special Education from Webster University. You, Wynsdae, with a MAT in Teaching with Emphasis in Middle School Education from the same university.”
“Yes, we did,” Wynsdae responded. She lightly giggled. “I believe that everything aligned perfectly for us to be successful. When we went to graduate school, we were strategic with our decision on majors. We both, on a whim, one day said hey, let’s take some grant writing classes. When we told others that this was what we wanted to do, we were told that we were crazy. Well, our parents didn’t feel the same and paid for this building as an investment into our dream.”
Our parents, De’Cymber and Samuel Jacobs, used some of their savings to purchase the building out right. They gave it tous as a Christmas present. I didn’t know my parents had that much in savings, but lo and behold, they did and more. It took my sister and I a year and a half to officially open the doors to our business. Our parents encouraged us to move back in with them to save our money to pour into the business since we both were still working as teachers. After three years in business, we turned enough profit to pay ourselves, and it’s been up from there.
“Wow, that is amazing! It is a blessing to have a support system like you ladies have. Your business has been a pillar in this community for a few years and has already shown proof of success by your students passing standardized testing that many thought they would never be able to pass.” She paused for a moment. “You two have been able to do what many told you that you couldn’t.”
Wynsdae clasped her hand into mine before she spoke. “We have and we will continue to do. Thank you to the community for trusting us with the brilliant minds of their children.”
“The community thanks you for having the heart to care about our children.” Donna turned to face the camera. “There you have it. Two phenomenal sisters in our community nurturing the brilliant minds of our children. I’m Donna Davis with the news that matters to you.”
It took a few seconds before the camera man said clear to indicate that the taping was complete. “Ladies, thank you so much for allowing my crew to come in to learn about your outstanding business. I loved every second of it.”
“No, thank you for reaching out to us. We are always excited to showcase our business to help the community know we are a resource for their children.” I still was shocked about getting the call from the station. “You guys are welcome back any time.”
We all spoke for a few more moments before they left. Our business was already closed for today, so it was just me andWynsdae in the building. “Girl, I can’t believe we just did an interview for the news station,” Wynsdae said.
When her arm went into the air, I knew what came next. My arm followed hers to the air and we both started to twerk. After our twerk celebration, we erupted into laughter. This was my best friend. I mean how could she not be? A lot of people thought that we were twins when we were younger, but nope. Our parents just couldn’t wait the six weeks after Wynsdae was born.
Our business serviced students that were in the second to the eighth grade. I focused on the second through fifth graders as well as those with special needs while my sisters focused on the middle school students. When I worked in the school district, I mainly worked with special needs children or children that were labeled special needs because they had behavioral problems. I came to find that often the children with behavioral issues had problems at home that no one wanted to really deal with to help resolve, or they were so intellectually advanced that they were bored.
Wynsdae started to hop between her feet. “Oh, I got an idea. After dinner tonight we should go do karaoke.”
Both of us loved karaoke because it spoke to both of our true loves, singing. We grew up singing in the COGIC church until we were sixteen. My mother was also a songbird, and my father could sing a lil bit. “Okay, we can do that. Are we going to our usual spot?”
“No! I don’t know how we never heard of this place, but there is a bar that does live music karaoke. It’s called Wicked Strings,” she said.
I smiled. “Oh, I’ve heard of it. Someone told me a while back that I should check it out. I forgot about it. Plus, I want to say that it’s on the other side of town. You know how I feel about long-distance travel.”
Wynsdae rolled her eyes before she moved to turn off the lights. “Girl, shut up. You act like you’re driving to a different city.”
“We might as well be. You do realize we live in Cayce,” I reminded her. “Our center is far enough.”
She laughed. “I’ll drive with your lazy ass. I’ll follow you to your house so you can feed those demons of yours and get what you’re going to wear. We’ll go to dinner, then the bar.”
I took the time to pull my crossbody purse over my head before I responded to her rude ass comment. “First of all, don’t call my babies demons. You mess with them, so they mess with you back.”
Her eyes bucked. “I mess with them? Coming to my sister’s house is messing with them?” Her finger poked into her chest. “Sis, fuck you and those cats.” I knew she wasn’t serious because of her laughter. She cursed me out at least once a week about my babies.
We locked up and were on our way to my house. Wynsdae was on my heels when I opened my front door. My two babies, Elvira and Pyra came to see me. They rubbed against my leg and meowed. I knew that it was more of they were hungry than they wanted to give me love. The interview caused me to come home later than usual. “You ladies ready to eat?”
When they heard the front door close, their attention went to my sister. They paused for a moment, then turned on their heels to head to the kitchen where their food bowls were. I loved cats because they had the I don’t give a damn attitude. To me, that made the love more genuine when they gave it.
“See what the hell I’m talking about? Why the fuck couldn’t I get a damn hello?” Wynsdae scoffed before she headed to my room. I was sure that she was going to pick my clothes out for tonight as well as hers, so we didn’t have to go to her house. Wewore the same size; however, her bra cup size was one smaller than mine.
My babies sat next to their respective bowls waiting for me to put food inside. Elvira was the most beautiful black cat while Pyra was my ginger baby. I used to have a feeder for them that ran on a timed schedule, but somehow, they learned how to press the reset button to make it dispense food outside of the set schedule. I had no idea how they did it until I placed a camera in that direction. Elvira used one of her toys with a tip to press the button.
When Pyra meowed at me in a high pitch tone, that was her way of telling me that I was taking longer than she would like. I spun on my heels with the food storage container in my hand. “Pyra, I promise you that I will give you an ounce less if you get smart with me again. You see Elvira sitting there patiently waiting. Take a note from your sister.”
