Growl Power! by Deborah Gregory Read Free Book Online Page B

met?” I ask.
    Now Angie throws me a look like, “Why you wanna bring that up when you know Ma and Daddy are dee-vorced!” I decide maybe I’d better not tell Ma, but she eggs me on.
    “Why’d you stop talking? Tell me the story,” she says, amused.
    “Well, they met through the
New York
magazine personals ads.”
    “Really?” Ma says, and now she seems real interested.
    “Yes. Mr. Garibaldi’s ad said, ‘Lonely oyster on the half-shell seeks rare black pearl to feel complete,”’ I say, laughing out loud, and even Angie joins in. I don’t care how many times I hear that, it just tickles me silly. “I
saw
the ad, Ma—they have it in the family photo album!”
    Ma bursts out laughing. “That is funny. Is he Eye-talian?”
    “Yes, he is—and he cooks, too! Weren’t those chocolate cannolis dee-licious?” I ask.
    “Yes, indeed,” Ma says wistfully. “Maybe that’s what I need to be doing.”
    “Making cannolis?” Angie asks, puzzled.
    “No. Answering personal ads like Ms. Gari-bodi,” Ma chuckles.
    “Ma—her name is Ms. Gari-baldi—and you’d better not be doing anything foolish like that!” Angie exclaims.
    “I don’t know how foolish it is—y’all seem to like those people, so they must be nice—’cuz I know we raised you right. But do you know what the chances are of a black woman over forty finding another man?”
    “What?” Angie and I ask in unison.
    “Less than the chances of getting hit by a plane falling from the sky,” Ma says.
    We both laugh, relieved, because Ma is obviously joking.
    “You laugh? One in forty thousand—that’s what it said in
Sistarella
magazine,” Ma says, getting out of the car and shutting the door. “Y’all want me to go inside with you?”
    That’s just like Ma, changing the subject when she’s talking about something serious. I’m not gonna let her off the hook that easy. “Those statistics don’t say anything about a beautiful woman like you, Ma,” I say, giving her a hug.
    “Well, I guess your Daddy didn’t think I was so beautiful.”
    We are stunned, so we don’t say anything. We are definitely not telling Ma about Daddy’s new girlfriend!
    “Don’t think I don’t know your Daddy is up to something, either,” Ma says, shoving the keys into her purse and zipping it up. “He’s been awfully nice these past few months.”
    “Well …” Angie begins.
    “Nettie Two, don’t open your mouth before you know what’s coming out of it. You never were good at lying—so don’t think you’ve suddenly improved overnight.”
    I was gonna get Angie back good myself, but Ma beat me to it.
    “That’s all right—if I was your daddy, I’d be careful of any woman fool enough to put up with him. That’s all I’ve got to say,” Ma huffs, then looks at the thousands of people descending on the Boardwalk like locusts. “Boy, they sure have a lot of tourists here for the holidays, don’t they?”
    “I guess so,” I mutter.
    As we walk closer, we see that all the people are concentrated in one area, making it impossible for us to get by. That’s when we hear the man with the bullhorn, saying, “Everyone is going to get to audition. The line will go a whole lot quicker if you stay to the left of the railing.”
    Ma looks at us and says, “Well, I guess we should have brought our lunches—’cuz it looks like we’re gonna be here all day!”

Chapter
7
    W e can’t believe how people are pushing and shoving out here on Kemah Boardwalk. It’s just like in New York!
    “All this commotion for a gig that’s not paying one red cent,” grumbles an older man with several missing front teeth. He is standing on the out-of-control line directly in front of us, with his somewhat younger crony, who is a good-looking man wearing a red baseball cap and dark sunglasses.
    “Don’t get me wrong, though,” the toothless man says. “It’s not often old-timers like us get the opportunity to show our chops. Everybody wants to see you young