Page 44 of Leave It to Us
Tami sighed. “No, we can finish this.” Then she tilted her head. “And it’s notthatcrooked.”
Yvonne reached out and cupped her hands around Tami’s face; then she moved her head so that it was straight.
Tami sighed and then gave in to a small grin. “Okay, it’s crooked. But we can fix it.”
Lana shook her head. “If you say so.” She stepped away from the vanity and then grabbed the edge of the last strip they’d hung and tried to pull it away from the wall.
Because it was still wet, it came up almost painlessly, and they were able to hang it straighter this time. It was on the next round that things got a little sticky. Yvonne marked off the paper in the correct places while Tami held it against the wall. Lana did the cutting and moved the excess paper to the side of the vanity that was out of their tiny amount of workspace. Then Tami handed the paper to be hung off to Yvonne,and she turned to scoop a bunch of the adhesive out of the two-gallon jug they’d purchased. She smeared it on the wall the way she’d done twice before, and then she turned to Yvonne to grab the paper from her.
“I gotta pee,” Lana said. “Move over there while I go.”
“What? You’re just gonna pee while we’re all in here?” Yvonne asked as Lana put her hands on Yvonne’s shoulders and eased her forward so she could get past her to the toilet.
“It’s a bathroom, isn’t it? Besides, Tami never gave any of us any bathroom privacy when we were living with Mama,” Lana said. “And it’s not like we’re outside and I said I was gonna take a squat.”
“Oh, like you used to always do when we were swimming in the creek,” Tami said. She was bent over, putting more primer at the very end near the baseboard because that’s where the other paper had kept popping up before.
“Oh, no, babyface, that was you,” Lana said. “Oh shoot, is there toilet paper in here?” she asked just as Tami heard her stream begin.
“Wait, I think it’s in the bottom of the vanity,” Yvonne said. But when she attempted to move toward the vanity, her butt bumped against Tami’s, and Tami lost her balance, falling into the wall.
Her left shoulder, arm, and her entire right hand pressed against the wet primer, and she screeched, “Dammit, Yvonne!”
“What?” Yvonne asked, and turned to see what had happened.
Tami was turning then too, showing her sisters the gooey mess on her arm and hand.
“Oh well. Wait a minute—let me get this toilet paper, and then we’ll find some towels or something to get you cleaned up,” Yvonne said.
She got the toilet paper out of the vanity and then turned, tossing it to Tami. “Here, take this, and I’ll run out real quick to find some of those work towels. I think there’re some in the hallway.”
“Wait!” Lana yelled. “Don’t open that door while I’m sitting on the toilet.”
“Here,” Tami said. “Take this toilet paper and get your butt up.”
She tried to toss the toilet paper that Yvonne had just thrown to her to Lana, but some of it stuck to her hand while the rest of the roll clumsily fell forward.
“Girl, how am I supposed to get that?” Lana asked.
She leaned forward to attempt to pick up the roll just as Yvonne opened the door.
And Frank was on the other side.
“Oh, hey, I was looking for you ladies to—”
Frank’s words were cut off by Lana’s yell.
“Yvonne! I told you not to open that door!”
Tami was still trying to get the toilet paper off her hand, but she snickered at the confused look on Frank’s face—a look that quickly turned to interest in Lana’s bare ass.
“Oh shit!” Yvonne said, as if finally realizing what was happening. Then she slammed the door in Frank’s face and turned back to see Lana finally grabbing the roll of toilet paper. “Sorry.” But the apology was drowned out by the chuckles that followed.
“Not sorry!” Lana said after she ripped off the toilet paper she needed and then threw the roll at Yvonne.
“It’s been forever since we had a pajama party,” Tami said at midnight, when they were all sitting on the floor in the formal living room.
It was one of the only rooms in the house where they weren’t pulling up floors, taking down wallpaper, or moving out furniture. The three of them, along with Deacon, had decided to keep the furniture, paint the walls, buy new curtains, and polish the original wood floors. But for now, the furniture was all covered with tarps; the books that had been on the built-in shelves were packed into boxes; and all Grandma Betty’s knickknacks, lamps, and other stuff had been stored in plastic bins that they needed to decide what to do with.
