Just Wanna Testify by Pearl Cleage Read Free Book Online Page B

sunshine, and struck a pose as effortlessly strange and graceful as waterbirds taking flight over the Okefenokee Swamp. The crowd of students and onlookers, which had grown now to about one hundred, let out a collective gasp and fell back, heads tilted upward, eyes glued.
    Regina knew that Aretha had intended to start by posing them at the base of the two-story King sculpture out front, but like any good artist, she recognized an opportunity and she took it. Instructing the models to simply walk among the young men without making any contact with them resulted in a wonderful series of shots that fully exploited the contrast between the students and their very ordinary environment and these frizzy-haired Amazons who seemed tohave wandered in from a planet even more bizarre than this one. Without touching a single person, the girls cut a wide swath through the adoring assemblage, leaving in their wake besotted admirers who never spoke a word.
    Once again, Regina was struck by the silence surrounding the women. As she was watching from just across the narrow street, she could hear the soft click of Aretha’s camera shutter and her almost whispered instructions.
    “Yes. Stop there. More with your arms. Yes. Just like that.”
    If Aretha harbored any ill will toward them based on their being bad body-image role models, you couldn’t tell. The models obeyed her commands while incorporating the unique gyrations that had first made them lust objects for these same hormone-stuffed guys who had now been literally struck dumb by the women’s physical presence. They were close enough to touch, but not one boy lifted a hand in their direction. Most of them were too intimidated to even make eye contact.
    Aretha was moving through and around the crowd, snapping pictures and murmuring encouragement. The models didn’t need it. Their languid posing seemed to have a life of its own. When she stopped to change cameras, they stood where they were without changing expression.
    The blanker the better
, Regina thought.
And whose idea of beauty was that?
    “Do you follow high fashion?” Serena’s voice at her elbow seemed to answer the question Regina had just asked herself. It was a phenomenon she was used to since her husband and her aunt were both inveterate mind readers, although she had made them promise not to do it without her permission. She had no such agreement with Serena.
    “Not so much,” Regina said.
    “Then how do you come to be representing a fashion photographer?” Serena’s head moved very slightly in Aretha’s direction like a weather vane on a day without much wind.
    “She needed some advice and I was in a position to give it to her. Our arrangement is still fairly informal.”
    “I see,” Serena said. “So should I be talking to you about what we hope is a very exciting opportunity, or should I wait and talk to Aretha directly?”
    Regina looked at Serena’s smoothly unreadable face and was glad their first negotiation had been on the phone. Trying to read her emotions like Regina could with most people would only be distracting and, ultimately, useless. Serena’s expression never changed. If Aretha was going to do business with these women, she still needed all the help she could get.
    “You can talk to me.”
    “Good.”
    Regina and Serena watched Aretha across the street, checking the lighting for the next shot. The models watched her, too, offering no opinions, while the ever-busy stylists stood on tiptoe to touch up the blush on a sharp cheekbone or gently dab a bit of color on a pair of pouty lips, outlined in crimson.
    “She’s a natural,” Serena said in her breathy half whisper.
    Regina nodded without turning toward her. It was easier to talk to Serena when she couldn’t see her. “Yes, she is.”
    “I hope you weren’t offended by Scylla’s abruptness,” Serena said, not turning around either. “She’s responsible for the other girls on the road and sometimes, they can be a real