Read Online The Improper Life of Bezillia Grove by Susan Gregg Gilmore - Free Book Online

sleep.
    A cloud moved in front of the sun, and the sudden dose of shade left my body feeling chilled and exposed. I opened my eyes and found Samuel sitting in the grass by my side. He was holding his hat over my head, staring down at me.
    “What are you looking at?” I asked, now feeling very out of place by the creek I had known since I was a little girl.
    “Your face. It’s all red.”
    I touched my cheeks with my fingertips. My skin was hot and tender.
    “That’s funny. How your skin can go from white to red in no time at all?” Samuel said. “You really ought to wear a hat,” he went on, and he pointed to his own tattered blue ball cap.
    “Guess so,” I quipped. But Samuel just sat there, shading my face.
    “Daddy said there was some water here along the tree line where I could clean up a bit. Said he used to fish down here when he was a boy. We’re heading straight to the bus station to pick up my grandmother. She’s coming up from Birmingham.”
    “Nathaniel’s mother?” I asked, feeling more and more surprised by the discovery of Nathaniel’s very own family tree.
    “Yep. Nana comes up every summer for two weeks.”
    “Nana? Huh, that’s funny. That’s what I call my grandmother.”
    “Why’s that funny?”
    “I don’t know, just seems funny. Besides, I didn’t even know his mother was still living.” The way Samuel looked at me I figured he thought I was saying more than I was, and I didn’t care for that either. “Didn’t you come here to clean up? Well, go ahead. Help yourself. It’s not my creek.”
    But he just sat there, staring at me, holding his hat over my head. I looked down and saw that my shirt was still damp, and my bra was showing as if I wasn’t wearing any shirt at all. I crossed my arms over my chest and sat straight up. Samuel politely smiled, understanding that he had taken in a little more of me than he should have. I really didn’t think it was right for any boy to be noticing my breast size. Mother would definitely not approve, and yet I found myself puffing my chest out as far as I could to convince Samuel that there was more to see than he had first thought.
    He smiled again, and his forearm grazed my hand. He leaned forward and tugged off his tennis shoes and socks. Then he rolled up his blue jeans to his knees, revealing strong, muscular calves. He grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked it over his head, exposing his bare back. And now I felt like I was taking in more of Samuel than I should have.
    He tossed his cap on the ground next to me and walked to the edge of the creek. He stepped into the water and sat down on his bottom, just like Adelaide had. I could hear him exhale, the heat and sweat of a long day pouring out of his tired, hot body. He leaned back on his elbows, the cool water rushing past him, and stared up at the sky.
    “Hi, Samuel,” Adelaide cried from behind a curtain of branches. “Look! Look at my baby. I made her a crown, just like a real princess. See?”
    “That’s real pretty, Adelaide,” Samuel answered, as he turned his body around so he could admire my sister’s handiwork. “Hey, why don’t you make your sister a crown while you’re at it? She’s kind of a princess, too, you know.” He looked back at me and smiled, but I didn’t feel like this boy was paying me much of a compliment.
    “Adelaide!” I yelled. “C’mon now. We better be heading back to the house.” I jumped to my feet and straightened my blouse.
    Adelaide started fussing and telling me that Baby Stella was not good and awake yet. I told her she’d be sitting in a tent somewhere in North Carolina if she didn’t pick that baby up right now and come with me. I was feeling anxious and clumsy, queasy and light-headed, and I was certain that the only other time I remembered feeling this way was when I was standing behind Mrs. Dempsey’s coatrack and waiting for Tommy Blanton’s lips to find mine. But a white girl doesn’t kiss a black boy, just