Page 6 of Pride and Protest
“I wonder if MLK wondered who would bail him out as he wrote his letters in a Birmingham jail?” Liza countered.
“You ain’t no MLK, and I ain’t going to jail so you can go viral.”
“Yes, live comfortably, Caller Thirteen.” Liza hung up the phone. “Many are called for the revolution, but few are chosen, folks. Meet me. Dare greatly.” Liza had read this somewhere, and it seemed appropriate now.
Liza looked at her face in the mirror. Tonight was the groundbreaking gala, and she hardly recognized herself. “Deya, you’re a magician. Where did my pores go? I did not know you were so good!” Liza’s dark eyes sparkled. The liner and mascara brought out the doll-like roundness of her eyes. Her lips were full and deep red, and her eyebrows were perfectly arched. Her skin was a glowing warm brown that looked inviting and lush. LeDeya had a gift of transforming anyone into a beauty, including herself. Liza sometimes wondered if LeDeya had left any time to work on the inside when she took such pains to craft her own facade.
Lizathoughtshe looked good... until she saw her oldersister. Taller, sweeter, prettier, better—Janae was all “-er” than Liza.
“You are so... gorgeous,” LeDeya and Liza said in unison. The word didn’t seem right for what Janae looked like in her green pageant gown with her hair all swooped up in a classic roller set. She looked like Dorothy Dandridge in Technicolor.
“You guys are on the payroll.” Janae blushed prettily. They all looked at one another for a moment and squealed. “Oh, Liza, I know how you feel about the politics of all of it, but I’m looking forward to the party. I just don’t get to dress up like this anymore,” Janae said.
“I know,” Liza whined. A stab of guilt pinged at her side. “I thought I wouldn’t want to go, but the more I saw you get ready, the more excited I became. I’m happy for you.”
“Not just for me, Liza.Youcould meet someone too,” Janae said.
Liza’s mother had always had a powerful belief that a beautiful girl and a lonely, rich man were an instant recipe for love, and Janae shared their mother’s penchant toward the fanciful. Liza thought it was endearing only whenshewasn’t one of the victims.
LeDeya snorted. “Fat chance. She’s still got dirt under her fingernails from gardening with Granny at the Harambee. She is not trying to meet anyone.” Her little sister’s false eyelashes swooped up and down like feathered fans.
“Liza...” Janae said warily. “That’s not dirt, that’s marker.” Janae folded her arms. “Whatever you’re planning, I’m not saving you from Mom this time.”
“What?” Liza said, trying to look innocent. “Janae, can you trust me for once? We’ll just go to have fun.” Liza looked away on the last part. They would only try to dissuade her if they knew.
“Go wash your hands, then,” Janae scolded.
“You two are elitist swine,” Liza said while the faucet waterran. “My man will love my dirty hands. ‘I love a woman who can get filthy,’ he’ll say.” She hugged herself tightly and gave the impression that dirty hands were groping her back. Her dress was one of Janae’s early pageant dresses before she’d shot up three inches in six months, a black lace halter with a short, ruffled tulle bottom. It was backless, all the way to the base of her spine. It was a bold look to be sure. But she was too short to pull off a gown like her sisters, who had gotten their mom’s height.
She was most proud of this hair, though. Liza’s hair was in an immaculate twist-out that sat in rich brownish-red curls out to her shoulders. She had to immortalize it now before it turned into a ball of fur in ten minutes. When she pulled out her phone, her two sisters immediately went into a duck-face-hot-girl pose, and they must have snapped forty pictures between them.
“Off we go, Bennett sisters!” Liza said and snapped two more filtered pictures of her and her sisters.
“Are you going to post these on your Insta account?” LeDeya smiled into the camera.
“Not with those boobs out, I won’t,” Liza said.
LeDeya shrugged in her borrowed salmon taffeta gown. Even at sixteen, LeDeya filled out the chest much more than her sisters.
Janae pulled at the back of LeDeya’s dress nervously. “I guess I let it out a little too much,” she said while holding a sewing needle between her teeth. Liza laughed as LeDeya tugged, pulled, and protested against her oldest sister’s modest revisions.
Liza scrolled to the best photo of all three of them and posted it with the hashtags#offtoBabylon #Bennett2winit.
Her feed exploded with exclamations and thumbs-up emojis. If her plan worked, she’d be a household name. Her followers were itching for a confrontation.
MERINO WOOL
From: [email protected]
Just double-checking on the security parameters we set up for tonight. No one gets in with heavy coats, bandanas, signs, or weapons. I only plan to be there for the first 45 minutes. So let’s make sure I have a detail in case people want to swarm me or pick my pockets.
D.F.
Dorsey Fitzgerald was in a terrible neighborhood. On purpose.
He leaned against the back doors of the Fort Stanton Rec Center. Tonight, he was supposed to be all smiles and graciousness. This was his first real showing as CEO, and he supposed CEOs had to do stuff like this all the time. He had struggled in business classes. His father wouldn’t hear of him majoring in anything other than civil engineering. So he did what he always did—what was expected. He could see Longbourne Gardensfrom here—a battered condominium community next on his company’s list to redevelop. He thought a vegan bakery and possibly a pet-grooming spa would do well there. They were the type of terrible trendy shops that signaled to old inhabitants:You don’t belong here anymore. For the hundredth time, he asked himself if this was worth it.Be smooth and smiling. Deliver Netherfield Court on a silver platter.
