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it angered her that she could barely budge. She was pinned down due to Mia’s sweaty, wet thigh being draped over her body. “Move, Mia!” she said, hitting her leg. She knew it would never work, because Mia slept harder than a bear hibernating for the winter. “Get off me!”
    Mia didn’t budge, so with one hard shove, Mia’s leg fell off of her body. Since she was sleeping in the middle, she hopped over her baby sister, Chloe, who was fast asleep on her right. Sharing a bed with her sisters was uncomfortable, but the fact that Mia was getting bigger each family meal made her sleeping arrangement unbearable.
    Out of the bed, Farah grabbed her pink robe off of the chair, and stepped over Shadow, who was sleeping on the floor next to the bed. Since they all shared an apartment with their grandmother, Elise Gill, in Southeast Washington DC, they had to get in where they fit in. Elise’s tiny projects apartment had three bedrooms that could easily be mistaken for walk-in closets because they were so small. But Elise didn’t care. She came from the age where family did what they could for one another, even if it meant putting themselves out. So when her daughter said her family needed help two months back, she accommodated them. Her grandchildren shared one room, Brownie and Ashur shared the other, and she had the master bedroom. The living arrangements worked fine for the kids on the nights they didn’t hear Shadow jerking off to the Janet Jackson swimsuit poster on the wall.
    With the robe wrapped around her body, Farah eased out of the bedroom so she wouldn’t wake up her siblings. She didn’t know how much cereal was left and wanted to pour as much as she wanted into her bowl.
    Right before Farah cut the corner into the kitchen she heard her grandmother talking to her mother, and she stopped dead in her tracks. “Brownie, you know she don’t mean nothing to that man,” Elise said. “But you gotta give mens enough rope to wiggle. You can’t hold ’em hostage. Otherwise, they’ll just leave you.”
    Brownie smacked her tongue. “So I’m just supposed to let him fuck who he wants to in front of me?” Brownie was so disrespectful, she didn’t care about cursing in front of her mother, and Elise was so hood, she was used to it. “I’m his wife, Mamma. That shit ain’t gonna fly no more.”
    “Did you see him fucking Dinette?” Elise asked. “With your own eyes?”
    “No, Mamma! But he was always at her house, and whenever I call over there, mysteriously nobody answers the phone. We were best friends and now she’s closing me out of her life.”
    “So that’s what this is about. You miss her.” She shook her head. “Just go apologize, child.”
    “I didn’t do nothing wrong!”
    “Brownie, y’all beat her child where he can’t play football no more? You better be careful about the message you showing your children, especially Farah, because she is taking notes. That girl don’t wanna do nothing but be like you.”
    “Mamma, that ain’t what I’m talking about! I’m talking about my husband!”
    “Listen here, child, don’t lose your man on account of something stupid. Now, you got the man. He belongs to you, else he wouldn’t have made you his wife. Be happy for that and leave the rest alone.”
    “It’s not that easy!”
    “You sure you don’t still love that other man? I heard you been running around town with Jay every now and again. You better be careful ... If your secret gets out, it will destroy your marriage.”
    Brownie remained silent and Elise knew she struck a nerve. “Mamma, you think Jay left me because I’m dark? It just seemed like we were so good when we were alone.”
    “Who knows? ... Anyway, you married now.” She shrugged. “Could’ve been a lot of reasons it didn’t work, if you know what I mean. As far as your complexion, I been told you all your life, you black. You that blue black like my mamma, and her mamma before that. Everybody not blessed with