The Kid by Sapphire Read Free Book Online

this morning, I can’t stop.” She looks at my envelope, then hands it to the lady, “Miss Lillie, this is Mr Jones, Jamal Abdul.”
    “Howdy, honey.”
    “Say hello,” she tells me.
    “Hello,” I say.
    “Miss Lillie is going to be your foster mother.”
    One of the dogs plops down by Miss Lillie’s feet, the other is dancing around shaking himself, his tongue is hanging out. The one laying down is looking up at me with nasty eyes with snot in ’em.
    “Well, come on in, honey. You ain’t scared of dogs, is you?”
    I shake my head no.
    “Well, come on then.”
    Mrs Render sets my bag down inside the door and I step inside the apartment next to it. Then she turns her back and rushes away, it’s like her giant legs and blue veins is what’s saying, “Bye, bye now, I’ll be back to see you, OK?” as she hurries away.
    “Come on in, you can call me Miss Lillie, or Mama, whatever. You like dogs?”
    “He looks old,” I say. I don’t say his eyes look like some kinda disease.
    “He is, honey, he’s fourteen if he’s a day. You know how much that is in dog years? That’s almost a hundred! How old are you?”
    “Nine.”
    “You gonna be a big one, yep you is. Well, don’t just stand there, pick up that bag and git on in here. Don’t none of us bite.”
    I don’t like her.
    “Fox,” she touch the dog laying down with her foot. “He’s part collie. This one,” the one dancing around, “is all collie.”
    I don’t like these dogs.
    She closes the door. “Come on in here. OK, let’s see what these here papers say. What you got in the bag?”
    “Clothes.”
    “I figured that, big talker, but what exactly? I need to know so I can make sure you got everything you need.”
    “My suit and stuff.”
    “OK and stuff, let’s take a look in this envelope and see what we got here. Hm, uh huh Jamal A. Jones, nine years old alright.”
    “My name is Abdul Jamal Louis Jones.”
    “Well, sweetie, it say Jamal A. Jones here, and on your Medcaid card it say Jamal Jones. So I guess we gonna go with Jamal Jones, what you say J.J.! Hey, I like that, how about we call you J.J. here on out to save confusion.”
    The dancing dog is sniffing at my feet wagging his tail.
    “Come on out the doorway. That old dog ain’t gonna hurt you. You ain’ gonna make it here being no scaredy-cat.”
    “I ain’t scared.”
    “Well, that’s good. You had any breakfast yet?” I shake my head no. “Well, come on, I got some Chinese fried rice from last night. They serve breakfast and lunch up at the school, so most of the time the boys eat there during the day. Come on, let’s put your stuff up and get you something to eat. Batty Boy stayed home sick today, so he back there in bed, you can meet him. The others be here as soon as school’s out. Come on.”
    I follow her down the hall and she pushes open a swinging door. “That’s the kitchen, y’all don’t really need to go in there ’cept dinner. See back there.” She points to a door in the back of the kitchen. “That door is my room. Don’t come in there ’less I call you. OK, that’s the bathroom, I keep a little light on all night, no excuse not to get up and use the bathroom.” Going down the hall, she opens another door. “This here is the living room.” Pretty. The white and gold couch is covered in shiny plastic, white marble coffee table, gold curtains. “You boys don’t need to go in there for nothing, really.” She pulls the door shut hard.
    “Watch yourself!” I look down in time to lift my bag and sidestep a newspaper with dog doo-doo on it. Wonder did somebody save my goldfish. At school we was doing reports, mine was due but that’s when my mother died. I step around another piece of newspaper yellow and wet, no dog doo-doo. Miss Lillie stops all of a sudden, I almost walk into her pink polka dots. I jump back from her. Mama, my mother would never wear nothing like that.
    “This is y’all boys’ room.” She opens the door and a boy