How to Knock a Bravebird from Her Perch : The First Novel in the Morrow Girls Series (9780985751616) by D. Bryant Simmons

tell me?” She slammed on the brakes for a yellow light. She was more mad about the second part than anything. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “I don’t know. I’m sorry.” And I was. The light changed and we got moving again. Helen relaxed and I came down off my Heziah-high. “I think I ain’t wanna believe it. But he’s real nice.”
    “Mmhmm.” She steered us through a turn.
    “He works at a carpet store on State Street. He’s a salesman. He reads a lot and he’s got two kids but he’s divorced...Don’t be mad at me, okay?”
    She took a deep breath and tapped her fingers along the steering wheel. “Well does he make you happy? I mean...really happy?”
    “Yeah.”
    We kept still the rest of the ride. Still all the way to my house. Nikki saw us park and lifted Nat out of my rose garden like I wouldn’t notice the dirt stains on my toddler’s knees. Nikki was the oldest but the younger ones had more of their own opinions about things. Nikki was the easy-going one. Not really knowing what to do with herself if they weren’t with her. It bothered me more than it bothered her I think.
    Helen sighed and turned around in her seat, just looking at me. “Alright, Pecan. I ain’t gonna say anything.”
    “I know, because you my friend.”
    “Mmhmm. Just don’t do nothing stupid. Ricky ain’t the type to be nobody’s cuckold.”
    I ain’t need her to tell me that. I got out the car and met the girls in the front yard. Mya was lodged on her favorite branch in the big tree in our front yard. So, I ain’t see her right away. One of her legs swung free and she looked me right in the eye and waved. “Hi, Mama!” Her ponytails waved with her. At times she had more hair than I knew what to do with. It grew faster than I could keep it braided.  
    “Come down from there! And be careful!”
    Last thing I needed was her to fall and break something. But she just kept right on smiling that bright kinda smile that looked like it ain’t belong to her face. It wasn’t her fault really. She couldn’t help who she looked like. If I ain’t know her I’d probably think she was more like her daddy than she was. It was mostly the outside stuff they had in common. She was real quiet on the inside, peaceful like. Maybe she was more like me than I wanted to see. Maybe that’s what kept us from being real close. I ain’t want no more of me to rub off on her.  
    “Mya, I mean it.”
    “Okay...” She wasn’t happy about it.
    Seemed like it took forever for her to reach the ground but once she made it in one piece I realized I could breathe again. “How many times I gotta tell you to stay outta the trees!”
    “I’m careful.”
    “I don’t wanna hear that.”
    Jackie and Nikki were into it over a game of hop-scotch. I was still in somewhat of a daze so I didn’t get most of what they were arguing about but by that point all their arguments sounded the same. Gimme this...Do that...Let it go...all the same. I probably should’ve wondered why the kids were out but not too far away. I didn’t. Later on I figured out that they were keeping watch. Aunt Clara had given them orders to stay outside while she had a talk with me and to make a serious racket when they saw their daddy coming.
    I found her in the kitchen. And the kitchen was sparkling clean, like ain’t nobody ever lived there. She’d been cleaning. That was her thing to do when she was real nervous. She even had a load of clean laundry sitting on the kitchen table that she must have been in the middle of folding when I came in.  
    “Where you go, Pecan?”
    I went through the motions of starting supper and she just looked at me real hard like. “Just...around. Helen and me went for a drive.” I tore the plastic from around the chicken and went looking for the meat cleaver.
    “I ain’t see her pick you up.”
    “I took the bus to her and then we...why?”
    “That man called again this morning, didn’t he? Who is he again?”
    “Just a