The Heart Does Not Bend by Makeda Silvera Read Free Book Online Page B

dresses and dolls, games and books full of fairy tales. Uncle Freddie sent nothing. My grandmother gave Monica money for little Freddie Jr. She took it from the money orders that Uncle Peppie and my mother sent. Each time she gave Monica money she cursed Freddie again.
    Uncle Mikey had new dresses made for me, Mama, Grand-aunt Ruth and Cousin Icie, and he gave Aunt Joyce a lovely hand-embroidered linen dress as a going-away gift. Christmas left us fat with cake and pudding, turkey and ham—more food than we could finish. I danced and ate until my eyes couldn’t stay open. Mama gave the leftovers to people in our neighbourhood who were less fortunate.
    We didn’t see Myers over the Christmas holidays, and not even Mama knew where he had disappeared to. I came home one evening after school and found him in the garden working.
    “Myers, Myers,” I greeted him, “where yuh is all holiday? You miss pudding and cake and everything.”
    “Ah went to de country, mi had some family business to tek care of,” he muttered over his shoulder.
    “Ah didn’t know yuh had family. Who is dem, yuh mother?” He didn’t answer, and a long silence hung about the vegetable garden.
    Petal called me from next door, so I crawled under the fence and up into the treehouse. I felt uneasy about Myers’s response and was glad to get away. Petal had two matchboxes with two grasshoppers in each waiting. We chewed on them, savouring the juices. “Don’t swallow,” she said to me, “ah want to taste yours.” She squeezed my lips open and we exchanged grasshopper juices. She held on to my tongue and I did the same with hers. Then she pressed her body against mine and lay on top of me. She pressed me hard and let out a sigh. We stayed close together and I played with her dundus face for a long time. It made me feel better, especially after Myers acting strange. When I heard my grandmother calling, I hurried down the ladder and back under the fence. Monica had come to visit with Freddie Jr., who was almost three and a half now. He was going to be tall like Uncle Freddie. “Him is de dead stamp of him father,” Mama said, smiling. “Come here, little man.”
    “So yuh don’t hear from him at all, Miss Maria, yuh don’t have a address for him?” Monica was almost pleading.
    “Girl, tek mi advice and forget him. Him nuh good, him is a wutliss son of a bitch. Count yuh blessings, yuh have a nice little boy, look after him and try to better yuhself.” I could see by the look on her face that Monica was disappointed with my grandmother’s advice. Mama didn’t tell her that he had fathered another child in Canada.
    Myers appeared at the back door after he had finishedgardening and asked if I wanted to go for a ride on his motorbike. I quickly forgot I was vexed with him and ran to put on my shoes.
    “Bring back some grape-nut ice cream!” Mama shouted.
    We rode up to the Hope Gardens where he worked, and he named the plants that were new to me. Before we left, he took me through the maze. I got lost a few times, taking wrong turns, but Myers was right behind me. I forgave him all at once for that afternoon. On our way back home, we stopped not just at the ice cream parlour but at Shady’s, where he bought a flask of rum. He and my grandmother sat on the verandah and shared it. I sat with them, eating ice cream, counting fireflies and listening to the croaking frogs and Punsie’s mother shouting for her to get off the street.
    “Ah hear yuh have a nice Christmas,” Myers said to Mama.
    “Yes, whole heap of food and drinks. Ah did tell yuh dat Molly mother was getting married?” She smiled, happy at the thought.
    “Yes, yuh did tell me.”
    “Well, when ah get de photographs, ah will show yuh.”
    He sipped his drink slowly, looking as though he had something on his mind, but he said nothing.
    “So how your Christmas?” Mama asked. “How everything in de country?” He fingered his drink, looked at the glass, then in a quiet,