Free Between Madison and Palmetto by Jacqueline Woodson

straight face. “First you have to run with me in the morning, though.”
    Maizon scowled. “I hate running.”
    â€œI’ll go slow.”
    â€œI’ll ride my bike.”
    Margaret thought for a moment, then smiled. “Deal.”
    Maizon took her hand again, leading her toward Palmetto. “Feel like we’ve walked this strip a trillion times.”
    â€œTrillion and one easily,” Margaret said.
    Maizon took a deep breath. The air was cool against the back of her throat. “You still kissing all over Bo?”
    â€œNot all over, just on the lips, sometimes.”
    â€œYuck!” Maizon said, making a face. “Spit swapper.”
    â€œHe actually kisses all right.”
    Maizon rolled her eyes. “As if you have something to compare it to.”
    Margaret giggled. “You know something, Maiz?”
    â€œYou’re going to say this is the happiest you’ve felt in a long time.”
    Margaret stopped, raising her eyebrows. “How’d you know that?”
    â€œâ€˜Cause it’s the happiest I’ve felt in a long time.”
    â€œHonest?”
    â€œHonest!”
    â€œThis is what Ms. Dell knew, and probably Li‘l Jay,” Margaret began wonderingly. “That we would be all right after all. That all this stuff would happen to us, but in the end we’d be okay.”
    Maizon nodded. “None of them—Ms. Dell, your mom, my grandma, Li‘l Jay, even Cooper and Hattie—none of them would ever let anything happen to us, Margaret.”
    â€œWe’re their favorite girls.” Margaret laughed.
    â€œWe are. I came back from Blue Hill and it was like they were all waiting for me, ready to take me in like a prodigal daughter.”
    â€œBut you didn’t feel like you belonged here then.”
    Maizon was thoughtful. “I still don’t. I mean, I still feel like a part of me is somewhere else—like I live between two worlds.”
    â€œYou think that feeling’s ever going to go away?”
    Maizon shook her head. “I doubt it. But it’s okay. I feel so good today. And Cooper coming back is like a new beginning to returning to Madison Street. You get what I’m saying?” She looked at Margaret, searching her eyes. Margaret nodded.
    â€œEven you and me walking today,” Maizon said. “Us together with nobody else, they way it used to be—this is a new beginning of us the old way.”
    Maizon smiled in a way that Margaret recognized from a long time ago, before Blue Hill, before her father died, before everything started changing.
    â€œMargaret and Maizon!!” Maizon yelled, waving a fist into the air. “Friends forever!!”
    â€œYeah,” Margaret said, feeling happiness warm her all over. “We’re going to be two old ladies together,” she said. “Sitting in rocking chairs on my stoop.” She linked her fingers into Maizon’s.
    â€œTalking about what used to be,” Maizon said. “Clicking our false teeth, drinking tea, pulling our shawls up over our shoulders ...”
    â€œRemembering,” Margaret said, squeezing Maizon’s hand. “And these two little girls will come up and sit on the stoop and we’ll tell them how much they remind us of ourselves at their age.”
    â€œAnd those girls will probably laugh and yell about how they’re going to be friends forever.”
    â€œThey will be,” Margaret said, knowing it would happen like this to other girls. Believing it would happen a million and one times more ... somewhere ... between Madison and Palmetto.