I don't know how long I've been in the bath but like Beulah said, she came back for me and my leg was a leg again. With toes, I think I'll paint them.
Beulah got me out the bath and Clayton brought me a sandwich. "All we have is soup and sandwiches." he said. "It's fine."
I saw Karolina in the kitchen as Beulah was escorting me to my room. "I'm out!" I tell her passing by. Karolina looks to the side at me. She smiles, "She got two legs working!"
"Thank God that man let's us have a bath…" I hear Beulah breathe. I get dressed in a pair of gray shorts and dark pink string blouse. "the only shoes you get here are sandals." she says and directs to a box in a broken closet I hadn't noticed. Inside the box is a pair of black gladiator sandals that go to the foreleg. "Do you wanna do your hair?" Beulah asks.
"If I were you, I'd be bald. I saw a girl that was bald and she had cute earrings." says Raquel still here. "Um," I look at Beulah. "Can I have my afro out?" Davea never let us do anything with our hair. We got perms. Everytime her hair got frizzy, she went and took us to this salon. The woman there always gave Torielle clothes she could wear and I never could. She even bought Torielle a lunchable.
I was like, why she like you so much? She told me, because I'm fat; I could die young.
I don't know if she had a point or not.
Beulah does my hair. I had it in a ponytail and she brushed it out. She split my hair with the rat tail comb down the middle, brushed the left side and tied up the right with a band. She split the left again and brushed another section. She did this until my hair was all brushed out and she left it alone. "There."
"Thank you Beulah." This would be a time to ask what this place is. I think about it and just sit in the bathroom. Beulah went back to the baths and I was with fucking Raquel.
"So like, when you took a bath, did you die?"
"What?"
"When people take baths, they die." she said that so clear yet I'm still confused. "Why?"
"Because they fill the tub up with lean. But…" she squints in thought. "It works like this. If you live a week in it. You immoral or some shit. If you don't, you die for real and somebody else can claim a body or come out. But people who come back have to fight like a devil."
"Really? Have you died?"
"No. I'm fucking Mexican." she exclaims. "You know how I know Mexicans can't die?"
"Uh…" please stop.
"Because we still here." she states factly. "Wait you mean like y'all went extinct?" I make a face in shock at how stupid she is. "Yeah, but we came back."
"HOW?" I didn't mean for my voice to get that loud. "The Asses."
"Asses?" a breath comes out of me like a balloon just popped. "Yeah, the Asses was like the first Mexicans."
"Bitch they was not the Asses!"
"They were called Asses!"
"They was called…" I can't even remember. "They wasn't the Asses!"
"You just made cause yo whole country is slaves."
"What!"
"You a slave that where black people come from!"
"Why are you so fucking stupid? Quick, what's two plus two?"
"Four, you just learned it!"
"What's two times two?" I purse my lips. She thinks I didn't notice her looking at the door for a second. "See that's a trick question. Because two times two is actually two plus two plus two plus two."
Bitch say eight.
"You really dumb…" Clayton comes into the room and stand by me. "I'm not stupid. That's real math." she puts her hands under her knees and rocks back and forth. "Because you talkin' about the x sign. That means multiple."
"Right," we both look at each other.
"So! Two is multiple by two which is basically cloning the same number."
"But you don't multiple a single two." explains Clayton. "Two times two is four."
"No it's not!" Clayton stresses. "Shouldn't you be with yo mama?"
"My mama dead! I came in here to touch her chest!" I turn to see his finger. "What!"
"I mean, like you got nice nipples."
I say again. "What!" I get up. "You touched me in the tub?"
"Because I never saw a girl naked except for Beulah." he doesn't understand how fucked up that is.
"Clayton, I was naked!"
"I know. You ok too, like, ya body shape doesn't have a lot a curve. I've seen other women naked but I never saw a girl naked."
"Bitch a woman and a girl is the same thing." I punch him in the arm and go for the chest. "Stop!" he yells. "You not a woman yet until you get titties! Stupid!"
"Oh my god!"
"It's not bad because you flat chested anyway." Clayton sneers turning to the door. "Stupid ass fucking bitch."
"Damn he mad you hit him." snickers Raquel.
.
.
.
So today I learned, I don't count as a woman because I'm flat chested which still boggles my mind. I found out there are 8 kids and 19 adults. Teenagers are classified as adults pass 16 so I'm a kid.
I can't believe I have my leg back.
Karolina said we could play outside in the sandbox. I met Raquel, Clayton, Uma, Wayo, Shuja's son Janna, and Jesse.
Jesse don't talk to anyone, he isn't deaf, he's retarded and Adonijah said he would get a new body. Uma is nice and kind of looks after Jesse. HE always has his four fingers in his mouth.
Apparently, his dad died in war.
So, we in the sandbox and Uma is building a castle with Jesse. Shuja's son is… fine. I mean, he technically grown. Like sixteen but he fine. He's a light skin black child with tattoos on the side of his face.
There is this palm tree in the sandbox, it's good size and the tree you can blow up. It's inflatable. "Do you want a square castle or a round castle?"
Jesse claps repeatedly, "Draw it in the sand." Uma directs. He does as so, "You want a round castle. Ok, remember, we use the buckets."
Jesse nods and grabs a red bucket behind him. I go over just to look. "What are y'all doing?" I ask.
"Oh, you're the new one. Jesse likes castles so… he does this everyday or at least when we can come outside. He's white so…" Uma traces over Jesse's cracks. "Black people can be in the sun but white vamps crack easier than us and I try to keep him in the shade. I'm middle eastern."
I look at Jesse playing in the sand, piling as much sand as he can in the bucket. "How old is he?"
"Ten."
"Really?"
"He's ten."
Jesse pats the sand in the bucket upside down. "No, Jesse. Turn it the other way."
He whistles with a creased brow. "Ok, it's gonna waste into a pile again."
She has so much patience. I just stand there and watch Jesse. I look at the tree that isn't a tree and I here Jesse whistle again. He turns blue in the face. Now he's just blowing spit.
"Um, Cedrica?"
"Yeah…?"
"Can you leave? Jesse doesn't like the company."
I part away and stand idly. Wow, I'm that kid. I have no friends. I'll be damned if go to Raquel.
Janna is sitting by himself outside the box. I go behind him, "Hi…" I'm a dumb ass. Oh sure, talk to the high yellow bitch. Just because he look good. I have no morals.
He jolts, "I'm a pedophile."
What the-- "I just wanted to say hi…"
"I'm a pedophile. An insertion pedophile." he looks so disgusted with me. I move away and buckle down next to Wayo and Clayton.
"I'm gay." says Wayo. "No you aren't…" grimaces Clayton. "Hi Cedrica."
"Hi… I still hate you."
"It's all good. You got nice nipples." he says while squatted down. "You just got done talking to Janna?"
"He don't like me…"
"He said he was pedophile. But I found out from Lucant that he's actually celibate." he begins to whisper. "Don't take that the wrong wrong either." says Wayo.
"What you mean?"
"Uma took out her teeth along with him. He also cut off his thing-thing."
My eyes get big, "His thing thing?"
"He's scared his father is trying to breed him."
"What?"
"Appearently, when the females get a certain age you get to be a wife. Which means you finna have a kid." states Clayton. "Some women had a baby, some didn't. And most of the time it's Joella now."
"What is this place?"
"It's the workshop. You get the works here. But everybody who was here, left." he points at the sand. "They ran?"
"Evetually you get sent to…" he trails off. "Somewhere. The last boy that was here? He was like eighteen or nineteen years old. He had a baby."
That's sick. "But like, why us?"
"I ran away." says Wayo. "Vampire picked me off."
"Kidnapped." says Clayton. "My dad…" he sighs.
"Yo daddy kidnapped you?"
"We live in Virginia beach. My daddy on child support, and a restraining order." he counts on his fingers. "My mama drowned. He put her head in the toilet and I told her to breathe through her nose."
"Damn, sorry man."
"It's cool… all dad made me do was run numbers. He had a church in the closet." Clayton shared.
Where the fuck am I?