"I got all these little children. And This I think is my grand baby." said Mable. "This big one look like tupac, don't she?"
"Oh... for real. She kind of do look like tupac." the strange woman with brown hair and bumpy skin put her fingers through the cage. "Hey!"
Sheila backed away from the bars. "Oh..." the woman frowned, what about this one?" she pointed at Cedrica, Alexis. "She so pretty."
"Guess where I found her?" said Mable. "At church. I said I think she my grandbaby."
"She so pretty. Who is she?"
"I said mine, goddang it, Marleena."
"Oh... hey little girl." The woman named Marleena waved." she dipped her head to look into the cage. "What are you doing?" Mable laughed. "I'm trying to get a good look at them. They so far back in the cage like they scare of somebody." she put her hands on her hips.
Sheila sneered. She thought about how both women stood at an angle. Were they going to sell them on the black market? There was another girl in the cage and she looked shaken. "Why they in a cage?" asked Marleena. She chewed on her nails which Sheila thought was very childish for a grown woman.
To her, adults had they shit together. She should be in the position of crying, but she didn't. To Cedrica Marleena was on drugs. Her mother told her about that, drugs make people crazy. It's as if they have a spell on them and they going after it even though it hurts them. Like her dad who snorted powder. She better then to touch it and her mama evicted him from the house.
He came back anyway. Marleena was definitely an addict, she leaned like the broom stick in the kitchen against the wall. When her dad got high, he ate all her food. The chocolate cookies, the juice boxes, and sometimes the popcorn.
She told her mama to buy popcorn a lot because he didn't eat it. And his teeth were dirty. Hers were jagged.
"Girl, they crawled in the cage." Mable scoffed. They all knew that wasn't true. Cedrica and Sheila were tossed in the cage and the other girl? Well, she was already here. "You had another girl, right?"
"I can't find her. But this one, that one in the corner? She's good. She don't talk or nothing." said Mable.
"What about yo boyfriend?"
"You mean Winston?" she clicked her tongue. "You know he steal trying to find a house? But, guess what?"
"What?"
"I started talking to my old boyfriend. You remember Curtis?"
"He got a cousin, right?"
"Right! So, me and Henri started talking again on this website. He look good..."
"How is he? Because in school, he was sick."
"He got glaucoma."
"Really?"
"Yeah... and you know glaucoma is another name for cancer."
Marleena covered her mouth, "You kiddin'"
"No it isn't..." said Sheila. Mable clicked her tongue. "Don't listen to her. You kids just be talking. Let me show you my new livingroom."
"Speaking of, Mableline, yo' furniture cute."
"Girl, thank you. And Henri said he was gonna get me some new curtains. And my asthma been actin' up with the ones I got, they don't keep out the dustout and I got me a yard man that work the grass and that make dust come in my livingroom through vents."
"And it's hot out." they exited the basement, but they still hear their foolish conversation. "I got me a niece, you should meet her. She got asthma too."
The girls looked at each other. "Hey," Sheila asked the girl in the corner of the cage. "What's your name?"
"Yamina. Yamina Green."
"How did you get here?" Sheila jabbed the hard floor. "My brother went to a party so my sister was babysitting me." said Yamina. "What happened to your brother?" asked Cedrica.
"You her child?" she pointed upstairs. Cedrica shook her head. "My mama name Shiloh. She keep changing our name."
"Why?" asked Sheila. Cedrica shrugged, "She said we shouldn't talk to strangers..."
"I don't know her!" the top floor boomed. "She shot my sister through the window!" Yamina screamed. "I was at church--"
"I don't go to church! I don't know you or you!" she pointed at them. Yamina cried hysterically. "We don't know you..."
"I wanna go home!" she hollered. "I want my sister Keeshana!"
The girls stared at each other awkwardly. Yamina was loud, she sobbed so hard she started coughing. Though Sheila wasn't mean and completely understood. She believed she was faking it. Yamina wiped her slob, tears, and shot on her designer top. Cedrica noticed she had an outie belly button. She turned to sheila. "Are you in or out?"
"Out?"
She pointed at her belly playfully. "Oh, I'm in."
Yamina cried louder and coughed up a storm. The roof thundered and she screamed. The girls that remained calm could hear feet move. "You need to check them kids down there."
"Girl they just making noise." said Mable. "If you don't check, I will."
"Fine..."
Cedrica patted the floor for Sheila to come sit next to her. They both knew crying wouldn't help. Soon they heard feet stomp down the stairs and the door opened. Mable sped to the cage and unlocked it. She crawled through the entrance and grabbed Yamina by her feet.
The child kicked and slapped her hands away but to no avail she pulled by her ankles. She screamed and cried harder, her throat weary and even more strenuous with a pair of hands over her throat. Sheila got closer to Cedrica and Cedrica watched Mable, her grandma, cut the air away from a child.
Her name was Yamina.
When it seemed silent, Mable let go. "Why was she crying?" she yelled. "We don't know." they said as Mable's lips mouthed, 'you better act.'
Sheila buried her face in Cedrica's shoulder and lowered her voice to mimic Yamina's squeaky tone. "I thought I saw a roach!"
"You can't be crying over ever little ass bug you see! Doing all that goddamn crying. Do roaches bite?"
Technically, they did. Sheila's father even told her that they flew. It that was the second most terrifying thing compared to now. "Is they ok?" called Marleena. "Girl, they alright. They just down here actin!"
She glared at the girls. "Now, I gotta get me another..."
Could she not see that they were related?