Chavis

A Tribute to a Summer

“I believe I used to be a ginger, I just took all the souls from other gingers. That’s why they’re so light, that’s why I’m so dark,” said the girl hanging upside down from a branch on a tree. “You’re not that evil Carter,” said the boy looking at her upside down hazel eyes that were slightly turning greenish gray. “Ori, I would sucker punch the living crap outta Sarah, if I didn’t have to hear his mouth. He always lets her get away with anything”. “I can tell, you’re eyes are turning again.” Carter with a dead look on her face looked at Orion, he had been the only source of calm for her in the last three months. She was 17, and in her last year in high school. She couldn’t wait to escape off to a campus and live for herself. She needed something far different from the memories of all the white kids calling her a white spotted jaguar, because of her curly and unruly reddish burnt orange hair and the caramel skin with freckles and her “funny” colored eyes. She had loose long limbs but she was of a healthy size. She was a B cup and she had a high round behind, but she hid it underneath slouchy straight leg jeans and small men’s t-shirts thrifted from around the corner. “Why did I have to move? New Orleans was where I belonged, not dry ass no culture having Arizona”. “Hey!” said Orion chucking a piece of bark at her. “Sorry, I forgot you’re sensitive about your bone head ancestors over there in The Camel,” she said chuckling as she pointed her head in the direction of the cemetery. “Shut up, you could take a few pointers from those bone heads”. “Yeah, you’re right. They can arise from their fate, I can’t”. The Camel was the only grave of it’s kind, in Arizona at least. It was said that the reason that the land in the cemetery was so hilly was, because there were lost souls that had unfinished business and they were trying to find their way back. The sun was going down and Carter knew that her mother, would be calling her for dinner soon and sending Orion home, like she usually did. She didn’t like him and Carter didn’t know why. “Carter, come on in here and eat girl!” said her mother the spiting image of Carter or Carter being the spiting image of her. “Ugh, aight check ya later man,” said Carter. “Aight, man. Kick it,” said Orion. “Kick it”. Carter walked slowly to the painted over cement steps kicking dirt with each foot that slid over the ground. “Hurry up, Carter”. Under her breath with lowered eyes, “whatever”. Walking to the dining room table she plops down heavily onto the stained vintage flower chair and puts her head down on the table. “Get up girl and wash yo hands, you know betta.” Carter thought about not getting up, but then she thought about her grandmother Annie who had passed away and how close they were. She thought about how her grandmother always got on her about washing her hands after she had came in outside from playing. Carter smiled while she lathered the soap on her hands, and looked in the mirror in reminiscence of happiness. The clank of the porcelain serving plate sounded against the wood table as Carter’s mother, Willow placed the meatloaf down with an oven-mitted hand. The meatloaf was burnt all across the top, and Carter’s stepfather, Keith has his eyes locked on the meatloaf as she placed all the other dishes on the table. The family settles and Keith looked at the ash-ridden piece of meatloaf on his plate. “Why in the fuck is this shit burnt!” he screams at Willow. “I was folding clothes and I forgot that I had the meatloaf in the stove,” she says as she gets up out of her seat to pick up the broken porcelain. Seconds later the back of Keith’s hand goes across Willow’s face, the other side of her face smacks the wall with the force and she lands in the corner. As Keith is rising out of his seat to hit her again, Carter takes the fork placed firmly in her balled fist and sends it flying down onto Keith’s hand that lay resting upon the table. Keith yelps and grabs his hand in pain with the fork still stuck inside him. Carter, quickly grabs her little sister, Sarah from her seat and runs outside to the shed. A few minutes later after the sound of chairs being kicked around, the screen door swings open. “You’re hiding now, but I’ll find your ass, you little bitch”. The screen door shuts and reopens after a couple of stomps, with Keith struggling to put his flannel on in the presence of the dull porch light. He leaves, leaving mumbled curse words in the coming darkness. Carter walks in with Sarah’s hand in her’s, Sarah lets go and runs to her bedroom. She finds her mother, chairs spreaded like peanut butter on bread across the floor, cleaning up the broken dishes again. Carter stops a couple of feet from her mother and says, “If you want me to clean you up again, I’ll be in my room”. Willow looks up at her daughter blankly and goes back to cleaning up the mess. Five minutes later Carter’s door opens and she gets up as her mother goes to the bathroom. She cleans her up and her mother looks at her tears riding the lines of her eyes and tries to hug her, but Carter pushes her away. Start [|Summer Madness by Kool and the Gang] here and listen to the end of the paragraph. In her room, pushing the door closed slowly with her back, she reaches behind her body and locks her door. She plops down on her bed, but it feels slow. She falls down through the air, her hair flies across her face, her arms lift from the force of falling backwards, and a blow escapes from her mouth. Her pillows and her covers fly up from the laws of gravity as her body lands on the bed. Her mind drifts off on it’s gondola again and she thinks of New Orleans, her grandma Annie, and how much fun she used to have in the swamps looking at the trees blow in the warm wind. She thought about what her grandmother would say if she knew that her mother was letting this man, no this coward do this to her. She thought about all the times she and her grandmother had fried chicken with what they had called their “sweet herbs” and how she would run cold water over her burns when the grease popped on her. Then she would cover them with smut and Vaseline. Her grandmother’s smell came and she breathed deeply and closed her eyes. She felt the presence of her grandmother at that moment and she felt a wind over her shoulders that was none other than her. She feel asleep with a smile and a little bit more hope in her heart. Two months had gone by and Keith hadn’t been back. Carter was expecting him back at the end of the week of the incident with the usual single rose and bon bons, her mother’s favorite. And, as usual her mother would accept and they would go in their room and fuck like two dogs. Sadly, Carter didn’t wonder why her mother continued to stay around she had gotten used to the idea that her mother was stupid. Instead, she thought about why he always brung a rose. A single red rose was symbol of love; at least that is what she had perceived. Her grandmother would always go to her husband’s grave and place one red rose on top of his tombstone. And, she knew the way Keith treated her mother wasn’t that. He could have brought her any other flower, tulips, lilies, even a dozen roses would have made more sense. At least that seemed like a lousy way to get her attention, but one rose was stupid. This wasn’t the bachelor. But, he hadn’t come and Carter was really starting to believe he wasn’t coming. But, deep down inside she knew better. He was a ruiner. He had ruined her life when he walked into her grandmother’s home all nice and proper-like, like he was really about something. He had ruined her life when her mother announced that she was going to have a new sibling, and they were moving to a new place. He ruined her life when her mother chose him over her grandmother when she had said something wasn’t quite right about Keith. Willow moved the then ten-year-old Carter to Arizona and let grandmother Annie die alone without a word form her daughter or her daughter’s daughter. It was one of the warmer spring days in Arizona, but of course it went unnoticed. Carter was walking from the bus stop back home, dust rising from under her Carolina blue chucks. Her mother was at a doctor’s appointment with Sarah and had said she would be coming home afterwards. Carter’s day had been surprisingly good, and she remembered that A Different World marathon was coming on tonight. This made her walk up the path a little bit faster. Plopping down on the burgundy velvet couch, she turned on the television to find that the marathon has started earlier than she expected, she must have gotten the time wrong. Suddenly realizing that her throat was cold with dryness, she thought about the lemonade in the fridge. Pushing herself up to go to the kitchen, her eye caught a glimpse of a dark figure. There he was sitting in the lazyboy, his head rested lightly upon his balled up fist which was wrapped in what looked like gauze. He arose from the chair with a calm look in his eye it scared Carter. Immediately, she dipped for the door. But, as soon as her foot hit the last step he wrapped his arms around her, she yelled but the unfortunate privilege of living miles apart from the next house left her unheard. He struggled pulling her uncontained body as her shoes squeaked against the floor. He pulled her down the hallway and kicked open the door to her room. He pushed her onto the floor and locked the door behind him. Carter scuffled to get to the window but he grabbed her legs and pulled her back. Grabbing her by the back of her shirt, he threw her up against the railing of the bed making a cracking noise as it made contact with her back. In pain, Carter flipped over on her stomach her face to the floor. Picking her up by her stomach, he threw her upon the bed. Although, he had placed her on her stomach she quickly turned over and kicked, aiming for his nose. She missed and caught him under the eye. Carter realizing that her plan to run was going to be a lot harder than she thought, her back was slowing her down and before she could get out of her room good he snatched her back. This time, the anger was in his bulky eyes there was no more calm. He tore the pocket of her shorts off as she tried to crawl away from him. Her shorts came down, her pink underwear ripped. A force, thick and uninviting entered her. In and out, uncomfortably. She felt blood in two places, one dripping on her back from his face, somewhere. Everything was slowing down again. He palmed her head and pushed it down into the comforter with a grunt. Her face was turned towards the window; the sun was showing through the trees. She felt herself fading away, but a whisper said, “Orion”. She suddenly thought about the knife he had given her for Christmas, a Navajo carved ox bone knife. “Keep this taped somewhere on your bed, just in case that bastard tries something,” his voice rung in her head. Keith’s gauzed hand landed in front of her face. //Knife, hand.// She thought, she reached for the knife, quickly flipped it out and stabbed the wounded hand. “AHHHH!” He jumped up and Carter followed through with a swift slice diagonally to the face. From the tip of his left eyebrow over his eye across his nose onto the corner of his mouth. Coming towards her he fell on the knife as she pushed it forward to his chest. “Chooo”. Not looking back, Carter ran to Orion’s. Her back sore, she ran up the road. Out of breath, she banged on the glass screen door. Coming around the corner, Orion looked at the hurting Carter and immediately dashed for her. “What did that son of a bitch do to you? I’ll kill him. I swear I’ll fuck him up,” he said with a cry in his voice. Laying on the floor with her in his arms, him crying and Carter slowly drifting off. Red and blue lights, and sirens followed. Carter awoke to a white ceiling and her mother sitting across from her, her face in her hands. “Oh, Carter,” Willow said with a scratchy voice. With a pause,“ You know, I just didn’t want to be wrong. I know that you think that in a way I didn’t want anything to stop. But, who did we have Carter? You’re grandmother died, and we’ve never had any other family. You’re father died when you were two. We weren’t gonna have anything if we left him. I was devising a plan, to get away. It was just too late. I just thank God he never got to Sarah. I believe he would have”. Carter looked at her mother, “I’m leaving. I’m going to New Orleans.” Walking over to her favorite tree, her Carolina blue chucks climbing over the bark. Light piercing through her upside down curls from the center of the universe, she closed her eyes and rocked. When she opened them up, there was Orion again looking in her eyes. “I hang on this tree around the same time everyday, and I think about the same thing every time. I think about why the speed of living and life moves so fast. I think about how these 7 years here slipped from under me. I think about how much I’ve disintegrated since I’ve been in Arizona and how much I left behind in New Orleans. Time is truly a gift. I wish God hadn’t been an Indian giver”. Orion pushed himself forward and kissed Carter on the forehead, “I guess that’s what happened to the souls in the Camel”. “Yeah, but their fate is not mine. Not anymore. You always seem to save me Orion“. Kick it,” said Orion with a slight nod and understanding eyes. “Kick it”.