Last Summer with Maizon Read Online Free

morning, the clouded-over sky made the day dark. The empty lot on Palmetto Street looked like a black hole big enough to swallow whole anything that came close enough. Margaret wondered when she had been this afraid.
    The bridge was dimly lit and seemed to sag beneath the load of the drizzling rain. No trains were in sight. Margaret leaned against the window and thought about waking Li’l Jay.
    â€œWhat if Daddy dies?” she said out loud. She saw clearly the picture on the mantelpiece behind her of her mother, father and herself before Li’l Jay was born. They were sitting beneath a tree in Prospect Park and her father had a puppet on his hand. She closed her eyes and saw her father’s hand. It was big and dark and strong. There were a million wrinkles on the palm. A hand like that couldn’t die, she thought. She felt it brush the hair away from her eyes. She felt his chin resting on her head, then felt a cold spot again where it had been. The chill made its way to her bones.
    Margaret opened her eyes and saw Maizon’s green poncho halfway down the block, then heard Ms. Dell opening the front door and Maizon’s footsteps on the stairs. She waited by the door until Maizon darted in.
    â€œYou okay?” Maizon asked, pulling out of her poncho.
    â€œYeah ...” Margaret’s eyes were red-rimmed from crying. She wanted Maizon to hold her while she cried, but they had never done that.
    â€œDid you hear anything from anybody?”
    Margaret shook her head and sniffed. Maizon followed her to the couch. Her sneakers made squishing noises. She sat on the small patch of rug in front of the couch and began to untie them.
    â€œThey’re soaking wet.” She peeled off one yellow sock, then the other one, and draped them from the coffee table.
    â€œMs. Dell was right,” Margaret said hoarsely. “She said it was going to rain hard for a long time and it’s been raining for a week now.” She slouched further down into the pillows. “You ever feel alone, Maizon? Like there’s nobody left in the world but you that matters?”
    Maizon played with the toe of one sock. “Sometimes. Sometimes I feel like I don’t really matter, because if I did, my mother wouldn’t have died and my daddy wouldn’t have left me.”
    â€œBut you have your grandmother ... and Ms. Dell has Hattie and Hattie has Ms. Dell and Mama has Daddy.”
    â€œYou have your father and your mother and Li’l Jay. You have a whole normal family!”
    â€œJust ‘cause it’s whole doesn’t mean it’s ‘normal.’ Last year we did a project in social studies on families, and my teacher said there were all kinds of families and it’s not right to say only some things are normal and all other things aren’t. Anyway, Daddy’s sick and Mama works and Li’l Jay’s too little. He can hardly talk. That leaves me. And sometimes I wish I had a grandmother all to myself or Ms. Dell all to myself or Hattie even. Just someone all to myself. I feel so stretched out. Like I’m broken in a million pieces or something.”
    â€œWhat about me, Margaret? You have me. We’re best friends, remember?”
    â€œYou’re going to go away.” Tears slid down her face and Margaret wiped them away with the back of her hand. “And my daddy’s going to die.”
    â€œMargaret, don’t say that. Maybe I won’t go away, and your daddy’s not going to die.”
    Margaret stared at Maizon for a moment, then closed her eyes. There was too much uncertainty in Maizon’s voice.
    â€œYou falling asleep?” Maizon asked.
    â€œNo.”
    Maizon came over and sat beside her.
    â€œWhat are you doing?”
    â€œLooking at the colors I see on the inside of my head and trying not to think of Daddy.”
    â€œWhat colors?”
    â€œGrays and blues and greens.”
    Maizon leaned back and closed her