The Pact Read online

  “I thought you might need to be rescued.” Uncle Keith smiled and then kissed my cheek, making a farting noise. He tickled me until I begged for mercy.

  “How did you know I needed to be rescued?” I asked.

  “Uncles know that kinda stuff.” He winked. “What you been up to, girl?”

  “Nothin’ much,” I said.

  “I want you to meet Debra.” He wrapped his arm around the shoulder of a vanilla-colored lady who was standing nearby. “Debra, this is my niece, Indigo.”

  “It’s very nice to meet you, Indi. I’ve heard so much about you.” She smiled. “And Little Keith has been waiting for you all day.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, too,” I said, and knew that she wouldn’t be around long. Ever since Uncle Keith had gotten a divorce, he always brought women to family gatherings—and always a different one. You never saw one twice. “Where’s Nana?”

  “She’s out back,” Uncle Keith said, and then took a drink from his bottle of beer.

  I headed for the back patio, where loud music was blasting from the speakers—different music from what was being played on the porch. The people on the front porch listened to old-school tunes, while the folks in the backyard listened to hip-hop. Voices were raised to speak over the music. I took a look around the kitchen at the pans filled with barbecued ribs, chicken, fish and spaghetti. Through the back window, I spotted Nana in the middle of a crowd of people, shaking her hips to the music. She was dancing with my cousin Jimmy, who was teaching her how to do the latest moves. I smiled as I watched her. She had on an outfit I’d rarely seen her in: a pair of blue jeans hugging her hips, a huge T-shirt that read WORLD’S GREATEST GRANDMA across the front and a pair of white Reeboks. She was jazzy, I thought as I crossed my arms across my chest and watched her get jiggy wit’ it.

  “Indi, what’s up?” My cousin Sabrina approached, a toddler attached to her hip. The little girl had a bottle hanging from her lips and a teddy bear pressed tightly against her chest. “You finally made it.”

  “Yep, I just got here,” I said and smiled at my cousin, whose hair was in microbraids and pulled back into a ponytail. When we were little, people thought we were sisters because we looked almost identical. Sabrina had always had the life that I wanted…. She had four brothers, so her house was always lively, with lots of kids to play with. There was always a party at her house. Loud music, drinking and card playing—that was the way I remembered Sabrina’s house. And she could literally do whatever she wanted. If she wanted to stay up late, her mother didn’t care. If she wanted to stay outside long after the streetlights came on, that was fine, too. She could even have boys over and go places with them before she was twelve years old. That was the life I envied back then. I loved spending the weekends at their house.

  My parents were exactly the opposite. There were rules at my house. I wasn’t allowed to stay up as long as I wanted to. I actually had a bedtime, and I wasn’t allowed to stay out past dark, except on special occasions like the Fourth of July. And as far as boys were concerned, my father was still adjusting to the idea that I had a boyfriend. I had a boyfriend, as in past tense. I instantly thought of Marcus. We were officially broken up for the summer, and I missed him already.

  It was hard to believe that Sabrina was now a mom at the age of seventeen. Being a mom didn’t seem fun at all, especially when you had to take the kid with you everywhere you went. And not only that, Sabrina had to work just to pay a babysitter, and she couldn’t go places and do things like she used to—not without finding someone to watch her baby. She didn’t even graduate from high school, because she had to get a job when she was in the tenth grade. She was a grown woman inside a teenager’s body. I felt a little sorry for her. Not to mention she looked older than seventeen—more like nineteen or twenty.

  “Indi, meet my little girl, Brittany,” she said. I couldn’t help but stare. Brittany was beautiful, with hazel eyes and huge dimples in her cheeks. Her hair was thick and curly. “Brittany, say hello to your cousin Indigo.”

  “Hi, Brittany.” I smiled at the little girl as she laid her head on Sabrina’s shoulder, pretending to be shy. “How old is she?”

  “She just turned two last month.”

  “She’s so cute.”

  “She looks like her daddy,” Sabrina said. “He’s supposed to be coming by here to pick her up. We’re not together anymore, but we try to be civil for Brittany’s sake. I have a new boyfriend now. You see that guy over there playing dominoes with Uncle Charlie and them? That’s my new boo….”

  She smiled and pointed toward a card table on the patio, and the guy wearing a red fitted cap with a do-rag underneath looked our way. He smiled and waved and kept staring at me, so much so that it made me uncomfortable. I looked away in order to break the stare.

  “His name is Dugan,” Sabrina explained, unaware that her so-called new boyfriend was still staring at me. “That’s not his real name, though. His real name is John, but we call him Dugan. Come on, I’ll introduce you.”

  I wasn’t really up for meeting Dugan, but I followed her across the lawn anyway. Nana spotted me walking that way and saved me.

  “Indi!” She stopped dancing long enough to give me a big hug. “I’ve been waiting for you, sweet pea.”

  I missed Nana and couldn’t wait for all the guests to leave so that we could catch up on our gossip. I had lots of things to tell her—about school, and about what had gone on in Atlanta since the last time she was there. Nana had become one of my best friends, because she was a good listener and had so much wisdom. I could talk to her about anything, and she always had the right answers.

  “When will you be done shaking your groove thing?” I asked.

  “Right now,” she said. “Excuse me, Jimmy. My special guest has arrived, and we have to go in here and make some corn bread to go with dinner.” Nana locked arms with me. “Let’s go, sweet pea.”

  We headed into the kitchen, sat at the old wooden table—the one where I had eaten a million bowls of Froot Loops and Nana and I had talked about everything under the sun. I loved barbecues at Nana’s house, and the loud music and laughter that came along with them. I loved catching up with relatives I hadn’t seen in ages. But what I loved most of all were the quiet times spent talking with Nana.

  Chapter 4

  Marcus

  With my back toward the water, and my eyes toward the sky, I bounced…not once, not twice, but three times on the diving board before plunging into the cool water backward. I did the backstroke across the Olympic-size pool, turned a flip and then ended up at the edge of the pool, face-to-face with the lifeguard. I wiped the excess water from my face and focused.

  “What’s up?” I asked her, flashing my pearly whites.

  “Nothin’,” said Rena, and pretended to look away.

  “So you work here, huh?” That was a stupid question, I thought after it escaped from my lips. Of course she worked here; any idiot could see that. I tried to redeem myself by asking, “You been a lifeguard long?”

  “This is my third summer,” she said.

  “Cool,” I said, and then a long period of dreadful silence followed. I stood there, looking kind of stupid.

  “You’re a pretty good swimmer,” she said.

  “Took lessons at the Y when I was younger.” I smiled again. “What’s your name?”

  “Rena. And yours?”

  “I’m Marcus Carter,” I told Rena. “You live in the neighborhood, right?”

  “In the building across from the tennis courts.” Her dimples were deep and nice, and I found myself staring into her light brown eyes. “You play tennis, Marcus?”

  “No.” I frowned. “That’s a game for chumps.”

  “And you say that because…”

  “Because I’ve never seen anyone cool play tennis.”

  “I play tennis…and I’m very cool,” she boasted, “and that’s a pretty narrow-minded thing to say, anyway. Usually when people don’t know anything about somethin
g, they put it down. It’s called fear of the unknown.”

  She sounded like my mother, like she was scolding me or something.

  “Is that right?”

  “Yes, it is.” She looked me square in the eyes. “I can show you how to play.”

  “Not interested.”

  Rena climbed down from her lifeguard chair, removed her whistle from around her neck and stuck it in her pocket. “In case you change your mind, you can meet me at the court at seven o’clock.”

  “You mean tonight?”

  “I mean in the morning. Before it gets too hot outside.” She removed the clasp that held her ponytail in place and her hair fell to her shoulders. “Will you be there?”

  “I doubt it,” I said. It wasn’t often that I was even awake at 7:00 a.m. during summer vacation. “I’ll just be getting my sleep on at seven o’clock in the morning.”

  “Suit yourself, Marcus,” Rena said, and then headed toward the gate. “That’s where I’ll be in the morning, just in case you change your mind.”

  Before I could say another word, Rena was gone. I watched as she disappeared through the gate of the pool area and into the parking lot. Part of me wanted to chase her—ask her where she was going, and if she had plans for this evening. I wanted to get to know her, find out what she liked to do, what type of music she liked. I wanted to just look into those light brown eyes a little longer. She had the perfect body—round hips and a nice set of legs, pretty brown skin and perfectly white teeth. Her hair was long and sort of curly. She was the best-looking girl I’d ever seen besides Indigo. And this had been the first time in a long time that I hadn’t spent every waking hour thinking of Indigo Summer. Someone had taken my mind off her: Rena was the perfect remedy for a lonely heart.

  Suddenly the bass from a bumping 50 Cent song seemed to shake the sidewalk, and I turned to see where the loud music was coming from. A silver Monte Carlo with red leather interior, twenty-twos and tinted windows slowly crept across a speed bump. The driver, sporting braids in his hair and a gold grill at the bottom of his mouth, stuck his head out the window and smiled at Rena. A few words were spoken between them, and then she ran around to the other side, hopped into the passenger’s seat and gave the driver a kiss on the lips. He pumped the music louder, turned the car around and then sped out of the parking lot.

  “That’s Cedric.” Michelle was suddenly in my ear again, answering questions, and I hadn’t even heard her walk up. “Rena’s boyfriend.”

  “Seems like a nice dude.” I grabbed my towel, dried my face and hair. “It was nice to meet you, Michelle. I’ll see you around.”

  I headed toward my mother’s building. Took two steps at a time to the second floor, unlocked the door and went inside. After showering and changing into dry clothes, I fixed myself another bowl of étoufée and a tall glass of Cherry Coke. I grabbed the remote to the television, turned to SportsCenter and caught the latest sports news while I ate. My mother’s Creole cooking was something that I’d missed. Her New Orleans roots put her in a class by herself when it came to cooking. My stepmother, Gloria’s, cooking couldn’t compare to my mother’s.

  New Orleans was a place that I visited in the summertime when I was smaller, and sometimes during Mardi Gras. My grandparents still lived there, even though their home was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. They moved away to Mississippi just until the city was somewhat rebuilt. It still wasn’t complete, in my opinion, but many of the older residents were anxious to get back to the place they considered home. My grandparents refused to call anywhere else their home.

  Mom wasn’t so quick to move back, but instead had decided to make Houston her home. Houston—a place where a girl named Rena lived. Unfortunately, she had a boyfriend, Cedric, who didn’t even seem like her type. Yet she was so comfortable with him. He didn’t seem good enough to have a girlfriend so beautiful, but he was the one who drove off with her in the passenger’s seat of his Monte Carlo—a very nice Monte Carlo, with nice wheels and a bumping system, I might add. I didn’t stand a chance with Rena. She was just a beautiful girl who had temporarily taken my mind off Indigo. I should’ve known that she was too good to be true.

  Chapter 5

  Indigo

  “Crankdat Superman Dance!”

  Every teenager at the barbecue moved to the music of Soulja Boy, doing the Superman Dance in unison. Sabrina, my cousin Kenny and I were in the front row. Little Keith, Bridgette and Shawntay were in the middle and on the back row were my cousin Anjelica, who had just turned twelve, and Uncle Keith. As the other grown-ups looked on, I was surprised to see that Uncle Keith could actually keep up with the rest of us. He knew how to do the Superman Dance just as well as Sabrina and Kenny, who were the best two in the bunch.

  I knew the dance very well, because we had rehearsed it in dance practice and had actually talked Miss Martin, our dance coach, into letting us perform it at halftime at one of our games. Not to mention Jade and I had practiced it a million times on my front porch, even when it was cold outside. Everybody had their own way of doing it and incorporated just a little piece of their own style into it. Some could do it better than others, but everybody was doing it. It was the dance of the century, and if you didn’t learn it, then you had to be from Mars or another country.

  With a raised shot glass, Cousin Benny tried to mimic our steps. Cousin Doreen raised her can of Colt 45 into the air and cheered us on. Daddy clapped to the music off beat, and Nana just stood by watching with her head cocked to the side. For a minute, I thought she might join us in the middle of the back lawn, but she didn’t. She just stood there, with a smile on her face—a smile that let me know she was happy at that moment. Nana was always happy when she could bring the family together for a good time and the police didn’t have to come and escort anybody away. I was glad for that, too. Sometimes family gatherings ended in cussing and fighting, or someone drinking too much and causing a scene. But here it was, the sun had gone down—just about dusk, the streetlights were already shining and the crickets were chirping. Lightning bugs were floating through the air, and no one had been arrested. That had to make Nana very happy. I wanted to hug her as I moved my shoulders to the beat.

  Later, after everyone had gone home, Sabrina and I moved about the backyard collecting empty beer cans, plastic cups and paper plates and loading them into a huge trash bag. The place was quiet now, except for Daddy and Uncle Keith laughing and talking to each other in lawn chairs on the back patio. They were catching up on old times. It wasn’t often that Daddy got to spend time with his brother, considering we lived in Atlanta and only visited Chicago occasionally. At thirty-nine years old, Uncle Keith still lived with Nana. After his divorce from Aunt Pauline, Little Keith’s mother, Uncle Keith had moved in with Nana and never left. He’d been depressed and had spent several months trying to recover from the divorce. But even after three years, he was still there, claiming that Nana needed him. However, Nana would have preferred that he get his own place. He drove her crazy most of the time, bringing a different woman home every time she turned around. And he never cleaned up after himself, Nana once told me. It was like raising him all over again, and as far as she could tell, Uncle Keith was a grown man.

  As Sabrina and I stood in the kitchen and washed dishes by hand, I noticed that the music had changed from hip-hop back to the oldies. Nana didn’t have a dishwasher, only a sink with running water. I covered the huge pan of ribs with aluminum foil and placed the bowl of potato salad into the refrigerator.

  “You wanna go out with me tonight, Indi?” Sabrina asked. “I sent Brittany home with my mama and daddy, so I’m as free as a bird.”

  “Go out where?” I asked.

  “There’s a club on the South Side of town, and it’ll be on and poppin’ at about ten o’clock. I can get you in if you wanna go.” Sabrina dried her hands with a dish towel. “So what’s up?”

  “My daddy’s still here. And he’s not leaving to go back to Atlanta until tomorrow morning. I don’t know
if he’ll let me go,” I said. “Nana might not let me go, either.”

  “Just leave it up to me.” Sabrina stood about five feet eleven inches tall—the perfect height for a model. Her shoulder-length hair brushed her bare shoulders, and her halter top hugged her small breasts. Her short denim shorts revealed her long, smooth vanilla legs, and she wore wedge-heeled sandals. Everyone had always compared Sabrina and me to each other—especially when we were smaller. Said that we could pass for sisters. I had to admit, we did favor each other, but I didn’t have half the body that Sabrina had. And my legs were nowhere near as shapely as hers.

  “What you wearing?” I asked.

  “I’m wearing what I got on,” she said. “It’s a very relaxed environment. You might wanna wear something a little sexier. Don’t put it on yet, though. I don’t want Nana trippin’ before we leave. You can change at my place.”

  “Your place?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “You got your own place?”

  “Shoot, yeah! I thought you knew,” she said. “I’m almost grown now, Indi. I’ll be eighteen in a few months. Plus, I got my own kid, so that makes me grown anyway.”

  “I can’t believe you have your own place.” I was in awe of my cousin, who I’d always looked up to.

  I wanted to be just like Sabrina, wanted to dress like her and wear my hair the same way. And I’d always wanted to act just like her. She seemed to handle things very well, and was smarter than most, with a high grade-point average all through school. The cute boys always wanted to date her, and everybody wanted to be in her circle. She had her own little following when we were little. Sabrina was popular, smart and pretty—all the things that I wanted to be.