Read Online Where Do You Stay by Andrea Cheng - Free Book Online Page B

get the hose and water the four o’clocks and the vegetable garden. I spray water on my face and take a long cold drink.
    The bag of cement is leaning against the front door. I dump some cement mix into the bucket, add a little water, and stir it around with the trowel. Then I start putting stones on the wall the way I’ve seen Mr. Willie do it, bigger ones near the bottom. You have to work fastbefore the cement sets. My part doesn’t look as good as Mr. Willie’s, but it’s standing pretty solid. If we can get this wall done, they’ll see the beauty in it. Nobody would tear down a wall like that.

23
    After dinner I’m washing the dishes and Monte’s drying when the doorbell rings. Aunt Geneva’s talking real low, Uncle James too. “Yes, I understand. We’ll be there. Yes, sir, in a few minutes.” There’s a police car parked in front of the house.
    Monte drops the towel on the floor. “I told you,” he whispers.
    “Stay here with Monte,” Aunt Geneva says to me, taking off her apron.
    “Where are you going?” I ask, but they are already out the door.
    Monte’s doing his shaking thing again like he does when he’s scared, so I get him a blanket even though it’s summer and he wraps all up in it like a cocoon.
    “Damon’s in jail,” he says.
    “He’s probably just at the police station.”
    “How-how-how do you know?”
    I want Monte to stop his trembling. “Listen, Monte, we’re starting your piano lessons,” I say.
    “Without a piano?”
    “You’ll see.”
    Mama said when she was small they didn’t have enough money for a piano, so they made one out of paper and she practiced like that. But there was no sound. Sure there was, Jerome. The music’s in your heart and in your hands.
    I get four pieces of paper and tape them together. Then I take a black marker and a ruler and I draw a whole row of piano keys. I give Monte a marker too and show him which notes to color in to make the black keys between the white ones.
    “Okay, this one here is middle C,” I show him, humming the note. “So you put your thumb on there and start your scale. One, two three, thumb under, four, five, six, seven, eight.”
    Monte puts his hand on the paper just the way I show him and plays the notes. I sing the scale as he moves his fingers. Then I show him how to come back down, putting his third finger over on the E.
    “Okay, now we’re playing a duet,” I tell him. We play the scales together, Monte singing high and me singing low. His voice is quiet but it’s right on pitch. We go on playing all different scales and singing so loud we don’t even hear the door open.
    Damon’s shirt is ripped under the arm. He’s just standing there, not going upstairs or into the kitchen or anywhere, staring at our paper piano like that is about the dumbest thing he’s ever seen.
    “Go get cleaned up,” Uncle James says.
    Damon starts to say something, then turns and heads up the stairs.
    “Jerome’s giving me piano lessons,” Monte says in a small voice.
    Aunt Geneva’s eyes are all swollen up. She kneels down on the floor. “Let me see, Baby.”
    Monte plays the scale.
    “Very good.” She turns to me. “I haven’t forgotten about your piano, Jerome,” she whispers. “I hope you know that.”
    I stare at the paper piano on the floor.
    Aunt Geneva sits on the sofa and Uncle James is beside her. She is crying without making any noise, but we can see the tears running down her cheeks. “It’s okay now,” Uncle James says. “He got good and scared now.”
    Aunt Geneva nods.
    “You heard what they said. He’s young yet. First time in trouble. He’ll come around.”
    Aunt Geneva covers her face with her hands. “I tried my best,” she says. “I tried to raise these boys the right way.”
    Uncle James is rubbing her back. “You did a fine job,” he says. “There’s just lots of trouble out there, that’s all.”
    “I tried,” she repeats.
    Then all we hear is sobs.
    If Mama was here,