The Heart Does Not Bend by Makeda Silvera

dat?” she screamed at me. She had never talked to me like that, and I was quite taken aback, as were Sid and Mama. Luckily the others hadn’t arrived yet.
    “Glory, is what happen?” Mama asked, coming out from the kitchen. Sid was in the living room drinking a Guinness.
    “Nuh dis gal, look pon what she have on fi sit down round de table,” she said, pointing at me.
    Mama looked at me.
    “What is de problem, Glory?” she asked again, this time looking at her daughter as if she had gone insane.
    “Yuh don’t see de top dis girl have on, Mama?”
    My grandmother focused on my halter top, but there was no alarm in her eyes.
    “Glory, ah don’t see anything wrong wid de blouse,” she said.
    “Mama, you call dis a blouse, dis little piece a cloth dat barely cover up her tittie dem?”
    I stood there, half-frozen with embarrassment.
    “Glory, what yuh getting so upset ’bout? Yuh expect de girl fi dress up like old woman? Yuh nuh know seh she is fourteen? De top look fine to me. Yuh acting like Molly is some gal dat run up and down and catch man. Nuh bother tek no liberty wid her for me raise her proper.”
    Sid got up from the couch and looked in our direction. He shook his head in disgust. The look was not wasted on my mother; she ran into her bedroom and slammed the door on us. Sid sucked his teeth and went back to his Guinness and baseball game.
    “Leave yuh blouse on, girl,” Mama said as she turned back into the kitchen.
    I went to our room and sat on the bed. My mood had turned sour. Freddie and Joanne arrived, and Glory came out of her room to greet them as if nothing had happened. I hated that about her, the way she could so easily move from one mood to another.
    “What happening, brother, how yuh doing? How yuh doing, Joanne?” she greeted them cheerfully.
    I sat in the bedroom stewing. Another knock at the front door and I heard Justin’s voice, then Eileen’s.
    “Molly!” Mama called out. “Come help mi.”
    “A so we look nice. Yuh really growing into a looker,” Uncle Freddie greeted me. Everyone turned in my direction and smiled—Glory just barely—as I went to the kitchen to help Mama.
    Uncle Peppie and Aunt Val were the last to arrive, and it was clear that they’d been quarrelling. Uncle Peppie was even more low-key than usual, and Aunt Val wore a guarded look all through dinner, but that didn’t take away from the food or the enjoyment for everyone else. Mama seemed oblivious and kept a running conversation going with her sons and the rest of the men, all the while encouraging them to eat more. Uncle Peppie and Aunt Val left a short while after dinner, she saying she had some work to finish.
    Eileen was the next to leave.
    The men were in the living room drinking rum and watching boxing. The women, me included, were in the kitchen washing and putting away the dishes. The weather was the topic of conversation. Mama kept saying that she couldnot believe that a place with so much snow and cold and ice in winter could get so hot and humid come summer.
    Joanne lowered her voice and said, “I have something to tell you and I need your advice.” Everyone looked in her direction. “I’m pregnant.”
    “Congratulations, girl,” Glory cheered.
    “Shh,” Joanne said with a finger over her mouth. “Freddie is not too happy.”
    Glory looked at me with those eyes that said adult talk, so I busied myself and took the garbage to the side door where I could still hear but not be seen.
    “What yuh mean?” Glory asked.
    “Well, he wants me to have …to have …”
    “Him want yuh throw it away?” Mama finished.
    “Yes,” she whispered, “but I really want this baby.”
    “Well, maybe yuh should wait a little,” Glory cautioned.
    “So yuh suggest dat she dash it away too?” Mama sounded angry.
    “No, Mama, but is two of them in it together …”
    “Him will never be ready. Look pon little Freddie in Jamaica.”
    “Shh …shh …” said Joanne. I felt sorry for her, because