Plenty Good Room Page 8

  “Hey, girl! Look at my pants!” yelled the woman. “Ain’t no cause to act like that—I was just trying to wake you up before you tumbled over into your food.”

  The girl didn’t hear one word the woman said, though. After one look at the mess the brown stew gravy had made on the woman’s pants, she took off for the door, barely missing a man.

  With two hands she shoved the double doors of the big Community Center doorway hard, and with one furtive look to the left and one to the right, she headed in the direction of where her belongings were.

  Running again.

  14.

  Stormy Weather

  “Well, aren’t you gonna say something?” asked Sienna haughtily while looking at Tamara out of the corner of her eye. The two of them were on the way home from the meeting with the dean at her school, and the deep silence in the car was becoming too much for Sienna to bear.

  Tamara was preoccupied, though, still thinking about the meeting that she’d just attended about the girl’s behavior. Dean James was neither mean nor unfair, as Sienna had described her more than once. Instead, the dean, a short, attractive brown-skinned woman, had an extremely pleasant demeanor and took the time to carefully explain that Sienna had been extremely disrespectful to a teacher, and that was why Tamara had been called.

  Sienna had been asked to stop talking a number of times, because her persistent chatter was disrupting the classroom, and instead of complying, the girl had laughed raucously and began to talk about the teacher in a rude manner. Other students had joined in the laughter, with the escalating situation threatening to get totally out of control. Finally, when she called the teacher a “trick” and a “ho,” Sienna was sent from the room with a referral to see the dean.

  Well aware that she’d been out of line, Sienna knew there was little Tamara could say to defend her behavior, and was not surprised when Tamara just listened quietly as the dean talked. Once Dean James finished speaking, Tamara turned and asked, “So, Sienna, do you have anything you’d like to say?”

  Though not usually at a loss for words, Sienna felt so flustered as she gazed back into Tamara’s calm brown face that she didn’t want to speak at all. So she just mumbled, in an intentionally bored tone, “Whatever she said.” She shrugged her small shoulders in a nonchalant way. The dimples showed in Tamara’s brown face as she pursed her lips, clearly upset, turning away from Sienna without further comment.

  The two women had sent her into the hallway, and there she’d sat in a chair watching Tamara through the open doorway, attempting to read the young woman’s reaction to the dean’s news as she studied her erect posture. She’d soon given up, though, because Tamara was perched on the edge of the seat, with her back straight as an arrow, unmoving and revealing nothing to Sienna that would help her figure out what the woman was thinking.

  Sadly, Sienna thought, This is it . . . I bet she’s probably gonna make me move now, and no tellin’ where I’ll be tomorrow. Continuing her morose self-talk, she began to make plans, telling herself that she didn’t care if they moved her or not. In fact, she decided, if they move me and I don’t like it, I’ll just run away again!

  Moments later Tamara had emerged from the dean’s office and, without glancing at her once, said quietly, “Get your things together. Let’s go, Sienna.” Scared to say a word, Sienna swallowed hard, grabbed her book bag, and walked behind her out the brown double doors of the school.

  Even now as they were riding home together, each time she dared to steal a glance at Tamara, Tamara still refused to look her way but instead kept her eyes on the road ahead.

  Again Sienna asked Tamara, “Ain’t you gonna say somethin’?”

  After what seemed an eternity to the girl, Tamara spoke in a faraway tone. Instead of sounding angry, as the young girl had expected, Tamara’s voice was calmly professional and even quieter than usual. “What, exactly, do you expect me to say, Sienna?”

  “I don’t know. Just somethin’, I guess,” the girl said, sullen with frustration at Tamara’s nonresponsiveness.

  “Sienna, I will ask you again, exactly what happened today? I cannot really comment on the situation if I have not heard your side of the story.”

  Suddenly, Sienna replied loudly in a voice that was hard and rough, “That teacher don’t like me! She asked me a question and I answered it. That’s all!”

  Through tightened lips Tamara responded, “From what I understand, it is the way you answered the question that caused a problem with the teacher. After asking you several times already, your teacher again asked you to please be quiet, and somewhere in your response to her you called her a derogatory name or two. . . . Did you or did you not call her a ‘trick’?”

  “No! I was saying something to my friend Rick! She just thought I said that, and she don’t like me no way! You could go and ask anybody in the class and they will tell you that teacher don’t like me! Really, Tamara, she don’t like nobody, and nobody likes her, either!”

  They sat at the red light silently. Tamara knew that the girl was lying, and this was intolerable to her. Rick? What kind of dummy did she think she was to believe such a see-through excuse?

  Without warning, booming bass sounds emanated from her car’s speakers, shattering her thoughts. Startled, she glanced at Sienna, who was now nodding her head to the loud rap beat blasting through the car, while smiling at a group of teenage boys who were stopped next to them at the red light. Sienna had taken advantage of Tamara’s distractedness and, in an instant, slid some vile CD into her car stereo. Now it was blaring loudly for the world to hear, from her car.

  “Give it to me, baby,” Sienna sang suggestively, clearly unconcerned with Tamara while she busily flirted with the boys in the car next to them.

  “Sienna, you stop that!” said Tamara forcefully. But the teen, ignoring her, sang even louder. Aware that she had a captive male audience in the neighboring automobile, Sienna grew even more boldly suggestive in her facial expressions and began to dance even more wildly.

  A honking horn from behind alerted a distracted Tamara that the light had changed to green. Reflexively she pressed the accelerator much harder than she intended. The car responded with a screeching of the wheels as it lurched forward jerkily, and they took off down the road fast.

  “What the heck are you doing?” shouted the girl at the top of her lungs as she looked at Tamara. Then she rolled her eyes and asked loudly, “Don’t you know how to drive this stupid car? If you don’t, then pull over and let a pro get behind the wheel!”

  Shaken now, Tamara seemed to be unraveling fast. Unused to losing her cool this way, she ignored Sienna’s rude comment and struggled to focus on driving. The loud, jarring music, coupled with the girl’s provocative moves toward the boys in the nearby car, had her rattled, and now she needed a quiet moment or two to relax. “Calm down, Tamara,” she said aloud to herself while ejecting the vile CD. “Just don’t say anything.”

  Sienna gave her a sideways glance. “Who you talkin’ to? Please, don’t tell me they got me livin’ with a crazy lady who talks to herself.”

  “Sienna, you need to stop talking,” replied Tamara in as calm a voice as she could muster.

  “Sienna, you need to stop talking,” the girl repeated mockingly as she laughed to herself.

  The tires of the automobile screeched even more loudly this time as Tamara suddenly turned the vehicle into a parkway area. She pulled the Toyota Corolla adjacent to the curb. She could feel Sienna’s questioning gaze on her. Breathing in deeply through her nostrils, she turned to face her. Though Tamara’s dark eyes were flashing with anger, she spoke in an even tone.

  “Don’t ever, ever mock me,” she said to Sienna as she pointed one perfectly polished pale pink nail at her. “Your behavior in this car has confirmed what Dean James told me about your attitude today. You have a nasty, nasty mouth, little girl, and you need to start behaving much more respectfully to adults.”

  Clearly, her sudden move with the car had taken Sienn
a by surprise. The teen’s eyes were open very wide, and her freckles stood out in the paleness of her heart-shaped face. Sienna was clearly shaken. Though she tried to appear nonchalant, her apprehension was apparent to Tamara. Meanwhile, Tamara was overcome by her own distress. “Now, you are kicked out of school for three days, and I have to find something for you to do over that period of time, or someone to care for you. I clearly cannot leave you on your own while I am at work. Not after what I just saw with those boys back there.”

  Sienna, seeming to toss her previous anxiety aside just as quickly as it had come over her, murmured under her breath through turned-up lips, “You just trippin’ ’cause you old. This is the two thousands, and all kids act like this.”

  Tamara, though taken aback at the teen’s quick recovery, maintained her equilibrium and replied in the same carefully controlled tone, “You are a little girl, and you need to start acting like one. That type of behavior could get you in a lot of trouble.”

  “Ain’t no trouble I ain’t already seen,” said the girl before making the impudent clicking noise with her tongue that Tamara found so irritating. Sienna’s quick reversion to her insolent habits informed Tamara that now the girl was fully back in her attitudinal saddle once again and ready to petulantly ride that argumentative pony to a gallop once more.

  Tamara was tired now, and she had no desire to spar further with Sienna. With a sigh, she turned from the girl and started the car. As they pulled away from the curb, she heard the girl add saucily, “And I don’t need no babysitter, either.”

  Moments later, when she dared to glance at Sienna again, the teen was calmly looking out the window as if nothing at all had happened. Sienna might be right about one thing, Tamara thought. I must be one real crazy lady, because it seems I’ve really got myself a big load of trouble here wrapped up in a deceptively cute, small package. Then, with one last long, silent sigh, she turned her attention back to the matter at hand and forced herself to focus on the short drive home.

  15.

  Building Bridges

  That night, after tiptoeing lightly into Sienna’s room and hearing the girl’s soft, rhythmic breathing, Tamara went into her own room and shut the door behind her. From the nightstand she retrieved the now-worn manila folder containing Yvette’s information and sat on her bed, and after kicking off her slippers one by one, she pulled her legs under her. With all of Sienna’s drama at school and in the car, it had been an exceptionally long day, and Tamara was grateful to be able to relax at last.

  Leaning back on the gold satin pillows, she stared into space before abruptly sitting up and opening the folder in front of her.

  The ring of the telephone interrupted, and after a quick glance at her watch, Tamara picked up the telephone and answered hesitantly, “H-hello?”

  “Tamara? Is that you?”

  Tamara immediately relaxed once she recognized her friend Denise Jackson’s voice at the other end of the line. In fact, after the day that she’d had with Sienna, she was actually happy to hear from the woman tonight.

  “Hello, Mrs. Jackson, I’m so glad you called,” Tamara responded.

  Denise chuckled deep in her throat before saying, “Uh-oh, that little girl must’ve been clownin’ on you today. You not too much of a talker, Tamara, and normally when I’m callin’ you, it’s somethin’ wrong on a case, and I know you don’t want to have that problem this late at night.”

  “You’re certainly right about that, Mrs. Jackson, please, please don’t tell me it’s a caseload problem. You are also right that Sienna had a hard day.”

  Denise Jackson added knowingly, “See, I know what I’m talkin’ ’bout, baby girl; in fact, I know you better than you think! If you happy I’m callin’ this time of night, God must’ve sent me yo’ way ’cause he knew you needed somebody to talk to!” Then, chuckling again, she asked, “Now, you said she had a hard day? From what my little daughter Sabrina, who is the same class as your Sienna, told me, Sienna was clownin’ today, so I’m sure you had a bit of a hard day yourself, girl.”

  Next time I’ll unplug my telephone after Sienna gets in trouble, since she’s gotta tell everyone about it, Tamara thought peevishly. But aloud she agreed somewhat grudgingly, “Okay, you’re right, Mrs. Jackson; I guess I had a rough day, too.”

  “Tamara, baby girl, why is it so hard for you to ever admit you have a problem? Ever since I known you, you always actin’ like everything is just fine. Nobody’s life is as easy as you make yours out to be, and once you brought that child into your house, I told you to expect that yo’ whole life is gonna be turned upside down.”

  “What do you mean exactly when you say ‘upside down’?” Tamara asked worriedly. Even though now it seemed a little unrealistic, she’d been hoping that today was the worst and that from this day forward it would be smooth as silk between her and Sienna.

  Sensing Tamara’s seriousness, Denise Jackson answered in a gentle but firm tone, “Tamara, baby, don’t think that today was the worst. You will be fooling yourself if you do. These kids are in the system, baby, and they have been through a lot, and some of them truly don’t know how to act.”

  “Mrs. Jackson, I guess I just find it hard to believe that Sienna doesn’t know any better. Are you telling me that she doesn’t know that she’s being thoughtless and rude when she speaks to people like she does?” asked Tamara with much more emotion than she’d intended to let slip.

  “I’m telling you that she may not know what she is doing. And then, it could be that she is doing it on purpose and her behavior may be her way of preventing people from getting close to her—she may try to attack them before they attack her. Or it could just be them hormones. She is a teenager, and from what I understand from you all, she’s naturally feisty.”

  Tamara ran her hand through her hair while thinking about the events that had occurred during the trip home today.

  She replied resolutely, “Oh, Sienna is feisty, all right, Mrs. Jackson. In fact, now that I think about it, ‘feisty’ is a bit understated, actually. It’s a little too low-key to describe her accurately.”

  Try as she might, Denise Jackson couldn’t keep from laughing loudly at Tamara then. It was more than a little ironic that the young woman was one of the instructors of the classes designed to train foster parents; and yet obviously she had not really listened to her own instructions. Denise could picture the serious look on Tamara’s pretty brown face now as she sat pondering Sienna’s bad behavior while still struggling to be professional and remain calm about it all.

  In between gasping laughs, the woman said, “Tamara Britton, only you would say it like that: ‘feisty is a bit understated, actually.’ Baby girl, what you really tryin’ to say is, that girl is baaad!” Mrs. Jackson continued to laugh heartily at the other end of the line.

  Tamara’s dimples deepened in her cheeks, and she could not help but smile as she pictured Mrs. Jackson holding her hand over her generous mouth, trying to stifle her laughter. Then she remembered how Sienna was talking to her earlier in the car, all the while moving her neck back and forth while she pointed her little finger with emphasis. One small giggle erupted from Tamara, and then another and another, and in a minute she was laughing right along with Denise Jackson.

  “M-M-Mrs. Jackson, you-you-you should’ve seen how she was looking at those boys! And better yet, you should have seen how they were looking at her—it was like they were in shock to see such a small girl behaving so wildly—and I honestly believe she thought they were looking at her because they thought she was attractive or something.”

  Between gulping laughs, Denise Jackson said, “And I know they was looking at you like, ‘Can’t you control your daughter or sister or whoever she is to you?’ I know ’bout that, baby girl, ’cause I been there, done that—seen that look many a time myself, you know?”

  “Exactly!” said Tamara, holding the telephone tightly under her ear with her shoulder while rubbing her favorite cotton pajamas back and forth with a brown, slim-fing
ered hand as she talked. “I was pretty embarrassed. In fact, the truth is, I was embarrassed all day, even at the school.”

  Denise Jackson exhaled loudly before saying, “Now, in all seriousness, Tamara, let me give you a good piece of advice. Baby, now that you are in this foster care thang, you might as well put your embarrassment away. You are helpin’ this girl, but it will take time before everything smoothes out. It don’t matter none what other folks think, long as you know what’s going on.”

  In her heart Tamara knew what Denise Jackson said was true, but Tamara had lived alone so long now that she was set in her ways, and she abhorred standing out in a crowd, preferring to mesh into the background. That was going to be hard to do with Ms. Sienna around, since behaving in a low-key manner was hardly her style!

  “Are you there, Tamara?”

  “I’m here, Mrs. Jackson. I’m just thinking, that’s all.”

  “Well, Tamara, I’m gonna tell you what I think. I think you are some great young lady to take this little girl in like you have. You are a pretty young woman, and you could be busy dating and partying and doing all that stuff that young folk do nowadays. She’s blessed to have you in her life.”

  The woman’s comments caught her off guard, and she replied shyly, “Thank you. I hope that I made a good decision.”

  “Be assured that you did. God put it in your heart to do, and that’s why you did it. I just called to check on you, and I can see you are just fine. You get yourself a good night’s rest, Tamara. Tomorrow’s another day.”

  “I’ll do that, and thank you for calling me, Mrs. Jackson. You’ve really made me feel better.”

  “You’re quite welcome, Tamara. Remember, call me anytime, and you both have an open invitation to come visit my church. That little girl needs to learn about the Lord, and you might find that you like it, too.”

  While not opposed to religion or God, Tamara tensed at the idea of attending church. She knew there would be many people there that might try to talk with her, and get to know her, and she just wasn’t that type of sociable person. But thinking of Denise Jackson’s kindness and supportiveness toward her, she answered genuinely, “Okay, Mrs. Jackson, maybe sometime soon we’ll take you up on that offer.”