Free What We Learned Along the Way by Nadirah Angail Page A

like her mother, but she still didn’t tell him about
Isaiah. Telling him would have been the same as telling her mother.
They told each other everything. If you closed your eyes and
listened to them talk, you’d swear her parents were two gossiping
teenagers.
    “What are you going to get mama for your
anniversary? You know it’s a week away.” Malikah wasn’t good
remembering special days, but she always remembered her parents’
anniversary because it was exactly two months before her
birthday.
    “Don’t remind me,” her father said. “Your
mother is the hardest person to shop for. No matter what I get, she
either already has it or doesn’t want it.” Malikah and her father
laughed, thinking about all the gifts her mother had sent back to
the store.
    “Yea, she is pretty hard to please,” Malikah
agreed.
    “Who’s pretty hard to please?” Her mother
interrupted their conversation.
    “You are,” her father said.
    “So what is this, mama, 24, 25 years?”
Malikah asked?
    “Oh, girl, I don’t know. Something like that.
After the first 20, all the years start running together. Did you
hear about Brother Abdul’s son? He’s having another baby. That’s
number three.” Her mother shook her head. “I don’t know what’s
going on with these kids these days. That’s why I’m trying so hard
to get you married. You better not bring no babies up in this
house.” Her mother looked Malikah straight in the eyes.
    “You don’t have to worry about that, mama.
Remember these?” she said, pointing at her hips. “I’m sure no guy
would want me, big as you swear I am.” She left the kitchen and
went to her room. Kalimah was lying in her bed.
    “Kalimah, what are you doing here? You know,
if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you moved back in.” Kalimah
let out a soft laugh. “It’s only 8 o’clock. The night is young. Get
up,” Malikah said as she pulled the cover off her sister. Kalimah
wore a long pink nightgown, which had been scrunched up in the
covers, leaving her legs exposed.
    “What happened to your thigh?” Malikah asked.
She leaned over to touch the big, purple bruise on her sisters’
leg, but Kalimah pulled the covers back before Malikah could touch
it.
    “Adam bought one of those fancy treadmills
and I fell off of it. I think I was trying to go too fast.”
    “I never heard of anyone falling off a
treadmill and getting a bruise on their thigh. It seems like it
would be on your knee, or maybe your shin.”
    “Yea, I know. Crazy isn’t it? I don’t know
how that happened, but I’ll tell you one thing. I’m not getting on
that treadmill anymore” Kalimah laughed, harder than usual.
“Anyway, where have you been?” she asked.
    “On a date,” Malikah said nonchalantly.
    “A date? That’s exciting. With who?”
    “He is gorgeous, Kalimah. His name is Isaiah.
He’s 24 and works at Bertino’s. Mariam hooked us up.”
    “That was nice of Mariam. Wait, did you say
Bertino’s? Isn’t that that little Italian restaurant with the
yellow flowers out front?”
    “Yep,” Malikah said as she changed into her
robe to take a shower.
    “I hope he’s at least a manager, because you
know mama’s not going have you talking to a bus boy.”
    “He’s not a bus boy,” Malikah said firmly.
“He’s a waiter, and I don’t care what mama says. Daddy was a bag
boy at a grocery store when they got married.”
    “But you know mama. She wants better for us,”
Kalimah said.
    “What’s better than daddy, Kalimah? Yes, he
was a bag boy. So what? He went on to open his own business and
look at him now.” Malikah’s father had a very successful
construction company. He’d built a lot of houses for people in the
community and business was going so well that he was in the process
of opening another office in Dallas. “So daddy was allowed to have
potential, but no one else?” Malikah asked.
    “Hey, I agree with you. I’m just trying to
let you know what mama’s going to