Free After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson Page A

out soon.
    Jayjones was sitting directly across from him. He just kept looking at Tash and grinning, like he couldn’t believe he was getting to be right across from his big brother.
    “Mama, when you talked to the lawyer, he ain’t tell you about them reversing it?”
    Miss Irene chewed her chicken slowly and swallowed. “Tash, you know I don’t understand half the things that man be saying. Only thing he seems to know how to say so real people can understand is how much to write his check for!”
    Tash smiled, lowering his eyes slowly and waving his hand at Miss Irene. “Hush, girl!” he said. “Don’t we know that for a fact.”
    Miss Irene nodded. She glanced over at Emmett and Albert, then back at Tash. Miss Irene didn’t like Tash acting sissyish around the boys. Tash saw her look and tried to sit up a little bit straighter. Emmett and Albert didn’t seem to care, though. Mostly they grinned when Tash talked.
    “Well, it’s all working out,” he said.“And the way I’m thinking, I should be out of here by the end of summer. But you know we won’t know till we get there. And when I get out of here, first thing I’m gonna be working on is finding a way to pay you and Daddy back for all these . . . these legal fees.”
    This time, Miss Irene waved her hand. “Just work on coming home, Tash.”
    “I’m for real, Mama. You know how many more rich Negroes there’d be if we wasn’t all the time trying to pay off some lawyer or bailing a brother out. That’s one thing I’m truly guilty of—giving hard-earned money to the man. One person mess up, legal system got the whole family on lockdown.”
    Tash looked around the room and rolled his eyes.
    “Ain’t just black folks either,” he said. “Look at us.”
    We all looked. There were people everywhere.
    “Puerto Ricans and white guys,” Tash said. “Indian brothers over there and some Chinese guys over in the corner there. Most people stick with they own kind, but we all in the same place—doing the same thing— time. And I’m telling you, time is a bee-atch .”
    “You really coming home, man?” Jayjones asked. He shook Tash’s arm and made him turn back toward us.
    “Yeah, man!” Tash said, deepening his voice to imitate Jayjones. “I’m really coming home, man.”
    Jayjones grinned and took a big bite of his mac and cheese.
    Tash ate delicately and laughed whenever one of us did or said something halfway funny. A long time ago, he’d started locking his hair and now the locks were long and he’d pulled them back into a ponytail. His eyebrows had always been tweezed perfectly when he was on the outside, but they’d grown in now. He and Neeka had the same dark, big eyes. The same long lashes. The same long straight nose and pretty lips. I stared at Tash. When he caught me staring, he winked at me and smiled. When we were little, we’d beg and beg until Tash did our nails or hair, and when me and Neeka walked out onto the block, seemed everybody we came across had something good to say about how we looked.
    “You and Neeka sure are growing up before a sister’s eyes.”
    “Tash . . . ” Miss Irene said.
    “Before a brother’s eyes,” Tash said.
    “And you getting skinny,” Neeka said. “You okay?”
    “Heck no, I ain’t okay,” Tash said. “I’m in jail and I’m a queen . You know that means a sister’s gotta fight for her right to party. But no, I don’t have the Monster—this body is HIV free and staying that way. Don’t be a gay boy and get skinny—people start giving you the death look.” He made a terrified-looking face, then smiled. “I’m still walking and talking and eating Mama’s cooking. That’s all you gotta worry about, Miss Neeka!”
    “Tash, you know I don’t like—”
    “Mama, I’m in jail. Give me little bit of joy. I ain’t hurting nobody. I ain’t never tried to hurt nobody who wasn’t hurting me first. I know who I am and you know who I am and every one of these kids knows who I