yellow walls, either, or tell her how it was my bad luck color. I just said that everything looked fine with me, and I wouldn't mind staying there someday if she didn't mind having me there. (I tried not to sound too hopeful, you know, because hope will get you nowhere.) Aunt Asia gave me a surprised look and said she hadn't made up her mind just yet—that there was still a lot of paperwork to do.…
But maybe yellow was my good luck color after all, because Aunt Asia didn't wait very long (like one or two days) before she decided to go ahead with applying to be my foster mom.
And when I thought about those yellow walls later, and how Aunt Asia loved looking at them, I wondered if maybe my Gram was trying to tell me something. Maybe by sending me to a place that was the same color as the flowers I brought to the hospital when she died, she was finally saying thank you to me and telling me it was time to move on.
AUNT ASIA
We talk all the time at the Style R Us hair salon. You know how it is with women. The other stylists are always asking me about Sharice and how she's doing since coming to stay with me at the beginning of May. She into boys yet? they ask. She talk about her past life at all? She adjusting okay to being with you?
I keep a snapshot of her and Rhondell taped in the corner of my mirror. “Those two are my girls,” I tell my clients. “That's Miss Rhondell, my sister's girl,” I say pointing at Rhondell, who's looking serious in the picture, as usual. “And that's Miss Sharice,” I say, pointing at the girl with her hair done up fancy and a wide smile on her face.
I'm not saying we're nosy people at the salon, but once the other stylists hear how the girls are trying to break a math record with their class at school, they all want to help. Especially after finding out what happened to their first project.
But I have to confess that we have our own sense of style here and we each like to do our own creative things. So after Sharice and Rhondell show us how to make the little pyramids, we can't help giving them a few special touches, like painting them with sparkle nail polish, or giving them purple stripes and gold dots and silver zigzags, or gluing on some rhinestone nail art—just extra little things like that. Sharice says the president of her math club probably won't appreciate our originality. We just laugh and tell her that's all right—most people don't.
My clients are always noticing the pyramids on my counter and asking if they are Christmas tree ornaments. Every time they ask, I have to look at the little piece of paper where Sharice has carefully printed the math word for what they are.
“Tetrahedrons,” I explain. “It's something that the kids are studying in math now.” Then I bring over Kyra, our nail tech, and show them how she's painted little gold pyramids on her nails, in honor of the kids.
My clients always shake their heads and say, “Math sure has changed. We never learned words like that when I was in school. Your girl must be real smart, if she's already learning words like that—”
And whenever they talk that way about Sharice, I always feel proud for one quick minute, as if she's my own daughter. And then I remember who I am and I answer, “I don't know where she gets all her math talents from, to tell you the truth. But she's a real hard worker, just like her cousin Rhondell.”
Sometimes when Sharice is at school and I'm at home, I slip into her room and look at the photograph of the pretty woman in the lavender dress that she keeps on the little table beside her bed. Sitting there on her bed, I wonder to myself what her mom might have been like and if I'm doing a good job in her eyes.
MR. COLLINS
An important fact to remember about tetrahedrons:
As the tetrahedron structure grows larger and larger, the empty spaces within the tetrahedron grow larger and larger, too.
JAMES HARRIS III
I'm seeing tetrahedrons in my sleep. One thousand eight hundred left to
But maybe yellow was my good luck color after all, because Aunt Asia didn't wait very long (like one or two days) before she decided to go ahead with applying to be my foster mom.
And when I thought about those yellow walls later, and how Aunt Asia loved looking at them, I wondered if maybe my Gram was trying to tell me something. Maybe by sending me to a place that was the same color as the flowers I brought to the hospital when she died, she was finally saying thank you to me and telling me it was time to move on.
AUNT ASIA
We talk all the time at the Style R Us hair salon. You know how it is with women. The other stylists are always asking me about Sharice and how she's doing since coming to stay with me at the beginning of May. She into boys yet? they ask. She talk about her past life at all? She adjusting okay to being with you?
I keep a snapshot of her and Rhondell taped in the corner of my mirror. “Those two are my girls,” I tell my clients. “That's Miss Rhondell, my sister's girl,” I say pointing at Rhondell, who's looking serious in the picture, as usual. “And that's Miss Sharice,” I say, pointing at the girl with her hair done up fancy and a wide smile on her face.
I'm not saying we're nosy people at the salon, but once the other stylists hear how the girls are trying to break a math record with their class at school, they all want to help. Especially after finding out what happened to their first project.
But I have to confess that we have our own sense of style here and we each like to do our own creative things. So after Sharice and Rhondell show us how to make the little pyramids, we can't help giving them a few special touches, like painting them with sparkle nail polish, or giving them purple stripes and gold dots and silver zigzags, or gluing on some rhinestone nail art—just extra little things like that. Sharice says the president of her math club probably won't appreciate our originality. We just laugh and tell her that's all right—most people don't.
My clients are always noticing the pyramids on my counter and asking if they are Christmas tree ornaments. Every time they ask, I have to look at the little piece of paper where Sharice has carefully printed the math word for what they are.
“Tetrahedrons,” I explain. “It's something that the kids are studying in math now.” Then I bring over Kyra, our nail tech, and show them how she's painted little gold pyramids on her nails, in honor of the kids.
My clients always shake their heads and say, “Math sure has changed. We never learned words like that when I was in school. Your girl must be real smart, if she's already learning words like that—”
And whenever they talk that way about Sharice, I always feel proud for one quick minute, as if she's my own daughter. And then I remember who I am and I answer, “I don't know where she gets all her math talents from, to tell you the truth. But she's a real hard worker, just like her cousin Rhondell.”
Sometimes when Sharice is at school and I'm at home, I slip into her room and look at the photograph of the pretty woman in the lavender dress that she keeps on the little table beside her bed. Sitting there on her bed, I wonder to myself what her mom might have been like and if I'm doing a good job in her eyes.
MR. COLLINS
An important fact to remember about tetrahedrons:
As the tetrahedron structure grows larger and larger, the empty spaces within the tetrahedron grow larger and larger, too.
JAMES HARRIS III
I'm seeing tetrahedrons in my sleep. One thousand eight hundred left to
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