Promise Me A Rainbow by Cheryl Reavi Read Free Book Online

the kitchen, coming out only when someone knocked on the door. Fritz sighed. From the sound of the knock Della must be really mad.
    But it wasn’t Della. It was Joe. And from the look of him he hadn’t been working. Fritz wondered how grown-ups knew these things about each other, that Ms. Holben wouldn’t understand about the business card, and that Joe wouldn’t be working if he thought she was lost. He said a few words to Ms. Holben, then came into the living room. She put Daisy and Eric carefully into the newspaper and back into the box before she got up.
    “Get your coat,” Joe said, his voice making her want to shiver worse than being out in the rain ever had. He was tired and dirty and he smelled like sweat. She wished he smelled better here in Ms. Holben’s apartment.
    “I gave Catherine the card,” she told him, using Ms. Holben’s first name so he would know that her visit had gone well.
    “I don’t care about the card! Get your coat!”
    Ms. Holben was holding the yellow poncho. Fritz walked across the room, and she let Ms. Holben help her put it on.
    “Good-bye, Fritz,” she said. “I enjoyed our visit.”
    “Good-bye, Catherine.” Fritz knew she should say thank you for the hot chocolate, but she didn’t trust herself to do it. She tried never to have Joe mad at her, and his anger was a lot harder to bear than she remembered.
    “I’m going to put the card on the bulletin board by the telephone. Come and see me again—when you have permission.”
    “There’s not much chance of that,” Joe said.
    “I really would like for her to visit again if she—”
    “What you would like doesn’t count for shit,” Joe said, and Fritz cringed. He jerked open the door and she went out ahead of him, looking back at Ms. Holben once when she reached the bottom of the first flight of stairs.

Chapter Three
     
    “Cherry, who’s your baby’s daddy?”
    “I already told you. I told you three times. Maria, you don’t listen to nothing.”
    “I listen. I know what you said . What I want to know is, how come I never heard of him?”
    “’Cause he ain’t from around here, that’s why you never heard of him. Who’s your baby’s daddy, you so smart?”
    “Sweet Eddie, that’s who.”
    “Girl! You lying! Ain’t no way in this world Sweet Eddie Aikens is going to have anything to do with a ugly girl like you. ’Cause he’s cool, and he can have any girl he wants. Tell her, Beatrice. Tell Maria about Sweet Eddie.”
    “There’s no way Sweet Eddie would have anything to do with either one of you,” Beatrice said, “so both of you can shut up. I’m tired of hearing it. Ms. Holben’s tired of hearing it, too.”
    Beatrice Delcambre was the recognized leader of the group, her authority secondary only to Catherine’s, though Catherine hadn’t decided why. Abby was the likely one, Catherine thought. She was the A student among them, the smart one, the “brain.” But then, Maria was bigger and more quarrelsome, and she had the prestige of already having had one baby. Cherry—Cherry was feisty but new, and therefore at the bottom of the pecking order. And Sasha. Sasha had the good sense to stay out of the way of all of them.
    “Aren’t you tired of hearing this, Ms. Holben?” Beatrice asked.
    Catherine rolled her eyes upward and declined to comment. She had learned early on that there was no way she could dispel the mystique of having, or even pretending to have, a baby fathered by a young man the group held in high esteem.
    “Ms. Holben?”
    “What, Sasha?” Catherine responded to the pulling on her sleeve. Sasha was her “little one,” the thirteen-year-old who still watched Saturday morning cartoons. Unlike the others, she never mentioned the father of her baby, even in the most general of terms—or perhaps she was too young to be impressed by a Sweet Eddie-type status symbol. If Sasha was impressed by anything, it was a world championship wrestler with bleached blond hair. She was