Mirika Mayo Cornelius: Secret Excerpts
….Secret Excerpt Number 1….
In the middle of the night, I feel something on my stomach, so I fling my whole body up thinking that it might be another water bug.
“Secret.”
I don’t respond, but I see Mister Sam crouching down right over me.
“You’re awake, I see. Remember me?”
I grab his hand and push it off of my stomach. Why’s he in my room and touchin’ on my stomach?
“Will you please leave out of my room, Mister Sam, because I have to go back to sleep for school in the morning?”
“Your aunt told me to come and check on you before I let myself out. You know she loves the mess out of you.”
That’s a lie! Aunt Janie doesn’t check on me her own self. I don’t feel good about him in my room because he must be trying to do something wrong. Never be alone with a man, ever. I remember those words Aunt May said, and she don’t lie. He puts his hand back on my stomach, and, this time, he presses harder than he did before. His fist curls up on my stomach. I’m so scared, my heart is jumping, so I punch him in his head trying to get out from around him and out of the bed, but he throws me back down on it.
“Why you pushing me away, Secret. I have a present for you. A nice one, too.” His voice gets deeper and scratchy, and he starts breathing really hard. I can count every single breath he takes.
“I don’t want your hands on me, Mister Sam. I’m gonna call my Aunt Janie if you don’t leave me alone,” I warn him while trying my best to move his hands off me.
He takes his hand away. “Well, if you don’t want my hand here, then maybe you’ll want it here.”
…..Secret Excerpt Number 2…
I don’t know whether I should go or stand still right here by this door. I hope whatever she has to give me is about Jocelyn. She’s acting like, well, everybody acts like I’m not supposed to know anything about my own mother. Nurse Mitchell looks serious, too. She’s not even cracking a smile to me. Something’s hanging out of her hand that looks like an excuse back to class. There is something else in her other hand though. She put it in a long envelope and she already done licked it shut.
“What you got to give to me?” I ask with my throat feeling as dry as the back of an orange peel.
She shakes her head and lets it hang down for a second. “It’s your excuse,” she says getting up from her desk, “To class, and I want you to take this home witcha. Now, go on out of my office. You can either go home, or, if you feel better now, stay, but if you stay, you have to go to class.” She hands me the excuse and the envelope without even looking at me.
“What if I put on a pad wrong, Nurse Mitchell?”
“I guess I’ll see you in about two hours.”
“Thank you, but. . .” She points her hand toward the door, and I don’t say another word. I just leave. Maybe I shouldn’t even look inside this envelope. And I hope she doesn’t think that I am actually going back to class with this OPTIONAL school pass either. That’s a lie. Ha. I’m taking myself right out the school door with my period right along with me. Holding the envelope up in the air so the light can shine through it, I try to see the inside, but there is something dark covering them up. I try to shake whatever it is around, but it won’t move out of the way. It must be just some extra pads. By the time I get to my locker, it’s almost time for class to let out. Should I go ahead and stay in here or just leave? I sho’ don’t want to go home with Janie. I’ll stay. My stomach doesn’t hurt as bad anymore, so I shouldn’t be on the floor anytime soon, but “Nurse Mitchell,” I return back to her office. I don’t see her in there, so I walk on in. The toilet flushes, and I almost back out of the office, but my feet won’t move. Why am I so scared? As she comes out of the bathroom, I turn to shut the office door behind me. Before turning back around, I already feel her eyes burning up the back of my body.
“I thought I told you to go to class, young lady.” She closes her bathroom door. “And I’m not writin’ you another pass.”
She just don’t know. She doesn’t have to write me another pass because I have white out in my locker, so all I have to do is change the time. That don’t take much brain power either if you ask me. School nurses swear they know it all when they don’t. Not this one anyway. I’m not leaving anyway until she tells me what I want to know.
“That’s okay, Nurse Mitchell, I don’t mind getting in trouble today. I haven’t been in trouble all year yet so today it won’t be a big deal.” She looks up at me like I got some nerves telling her that. Well, it’s the truth. The only time you start getting in trouble is when you cause trouble too much. Other than that, you’re just a sweet student until you do. “I want you to tell me, Nurse Mitchell, about what you know.”
She walks to the paper towel holder at the sink to fill it with more paper. “Whatever you think I know, I don’t.”
“You’re lying.” Watch she slap me in my mouth. It won’t matter. I’m used to it.
