Free Mama by Terry McMillan Page A

it!"
    "What will we do with Prince?" Money whined. "He don't like hot weather. And what about my bike? How I'ma get it all the way to Arizona? Where is Arizona anyway? And what about Chunky, and BooBoo and Big Man and Little Man? Ain't gon' have no friends in Arizona."
    "What I tell you about saying ain't, boy? You'd thank they didn't teach you how to speak English in school."
    Bootsey, Angel, and Doll went along with their older sister and brother. "Yeah, we don't want to move to no Arizona. People die in deserts. How long does it take to get there? Probably weeks," Angel said. The other two huddled near her.
    "What's wrong with this house?" asked Freda, crossing her arms and making a huffing sound. "We like this house. We don't want to go nowhere and I only got four more years till I graduate."
    Mildred had figured as much, but it didn't matter, because her mind was made up. She clenched her fist and started gritting her teeth—this always scared the kids and made them see things her way.
    "Look, I know what y'all likes to do too. Freda. Girl, you can cheerlead in Arizona. Don't you think they play basketball and football no place else besides Point Haven? They got better high schools than that little rinky-dink one on Twenty-fourth Street. And Money, you can always make new friends, boy, so stop acting like a sissy. And them little hoodlums you hang around with ain't worth a pot to piss in noway. Meet some civilized kids in Arizona. And Prince ain't never told you he didn't like hot weather, did he? Dogs go where their owners go. Look at it this way, most of the colored people in this town ain't never been no farther than Detroit, and it'll give your cousins and friends a good reason to go somewhere new for a change. They can come visit in the summer. Look, I'm trying to thank this thang out and I thank it's gon' be the best damn move I've made in thirteen years, and regardless of who don't like it, I'm the mama and daddy in this house, and we going, as soon as I can get myself situated."
     
    Two weeks later Freda made the cheerleading squad at Chippewa Junior High School and Money ran away from home. Mildred had just come in from work.
    "Where's Money?" she asked, kicking off her white hospital shoes in the middle of the dining room floor.
    "He ain't, I mean, hasn't come home from school yet," Bootsey said. None of the other kids seemed to know where he was either, and since Money didn't participate in any after-school activities Mildred knew something was wrong. The kids were supposed to come straight home from school and had to do their chores and homework before they were allowed back outside. She said she'd wait a half hour, and as soon as he walked through that door she was going to snatch a knot in his behind.
    Mildred was having a nicotine fit. She didn't want to send one of the girls to the store since it was getting dark, but she sent Freda anyway. "Get me two packs of Tareytons, would you? Ask Joe if I can have 'em till I get my check day after tomorrow. If he says yes, then get me three packs." What Mildred didn't know was that the reason her cigarettes had been disappearing so fast was because Freda had been smoking them at home and with her girlfriends after school when she went over to their house to watch "Dark Shadows."
    Freda came back with the three packs about ten minutes later. Mildred told her not to take off her coat. She made the other girls put theirs on. "Go find that boy. Look everywhere. Check the Pattersons and the Howells, but don't come back in this house without him."
    They were gone almost an hour, and when they returned they were all out of breath. They told Mildred they couldn't find him and no one had seen him.
    "That's impossible. Y'all can't tell me that in a town this damn small ain't nobody seen a little nappy-headed colored boy." Mildred called over to Curly Mae's, who sent her boys to look for him. They went straight to the White Rose gas station, which had a pond behind it where