Free Someone to Watch Over Me by Michelle Stimpson

been?”
    â€œGood, good.” Cassandra had been one of the few girls in Bayford to befriend me while I was pregnant. The rest of the young ladies mostly stayed away from me for fear that pregnancy was contagious or because their parents told them I was a “fast girl.” Cassandra’s parents might have told her that same thing, but she didn’t heed their warnings. She said she’d done “it,” too, already, and the only difference between me and her was I got caught but she didn’t. I guess that made us bad girls together. Funny how people bond sometimes.
    Cassandra and I lingered in an embrace for a moment. “You look great, Tori. Got your hair all kinked up. I see plenty of people on TV with their hair all kee-kee-kee.” She created a sound that, apparently, represented the ring of natural hair. “Like what’s her name, Whoopi Goldberg?”
    â€œKinda.” I smiled as she took the liberty of tousling my twist-out. “These aren’t dreadlocks, though.”
    â€œI haven’t been able to wrap my mind around the new thinking yet,” she said, laughing. “Perms and flatirons are my best friends.”
    â€œI heard that,” Joenetta added her two cents. “‘Specially if you got a bad grade of hair and a way-back hairline, right?”
    Always could count on my other aunt to share her unwarranted opinion.
    Cassandra waved off Joenetta. “I didn’t mean no harm by it. I’m just sayin’, it’ll take some getting used to. It’s cute-rootie though, Tori. Don’t worry about it. You go on and do you, girl.”
    A spark of harmless jealousy peppered Cassandra’s tone. She and I were the same age and had gone down such different paths. I’d moved out of Bayford when I got the partial college scholarship. I could only assume she had stayed in this town and was making a living working at Aunt Dottie’s store. Couldn’t be much of a living, I knew. She had predicted I would go off to college and get rich while she, hopefully, married Baron Williams, the boy she’d been crushing on since middle school. When she and I met, we were entering tenth grade and Baron hadn’t noticed her. He still hadn’t seen the light by graduation day.
    Cassandra and I stood side by side now and exchanged a bit more small talk, then she asked, “So, when are we going to bust Aunt Dottie up out of here?”
    â€œWell, right now we’re trying to figure out who’s going to care for her when she gets dismissed.”
    Cassandra raised her hand as though in a classroom. “I can check on her in the evenings, when I’m not watching my nephews.”
    â€œThat would be great,” I sighed, linking arms with Cassandra instinctively. Right about then, I was ready to link up with anyone willing to prove their love for my Aunt Dottie.
    I waited a moment for other volunteers to step forward and pledge to Aunt Dottie’s care. “So, is there anyone else who can help out?” Everyone present was just as quiet as Kevin when I initated one of those state-of-the-relationship talks. Dead silence.
    My brain scrambled for a solution. “Okay, how about hiring a nurse? Does anybody know someone we could trust to help Aunt Dottie around the house?”
    â€œI could do it, like, part-time,” spurted out of Joenetta.
    I fired back, “You just said you couldn’t help.”
    â€œWell, if you gon’ pay somebody, might as well pay family.”
    â€œHow much you thinkin’ ’bout payin’?” from Uncle Billy.
    Okay, how is it that the Lesters were interested in money while the church folk and an employee were willing to give of themselves freely? I could have bopped myself on the head for thinking I had missed out on something in Bayford. The Lesters were still triflin’. As I stood there watching their gazes hit the floor, I recalled the few times they’d