“Okay,” Alexis said, glancing at her twins, but not noticing the up-to-something look on their faces as she continued to vent to her friend on the phone.
Zakia and Zachary figured they would be back before their mother got off the phone. They walked to Miss Mavis’s house. They knocked on the door. Miss Mavis answered.
“Hello, twins,” she said in a sweet, friendly voice.
“Hello, Miss Mavis. Is our baby sister here?” Zakia asked matter-of-factly.
Surprised at the child’s question and not knowing exactly how much Zakia knew or understood about the situation, she said, “Yes, would you like to see her?”
Both twins lit up like Christmas trees because it was true that they had a baby sister.
“Yes, ma’am!” they shouted in unison.
Mavis opened the door wide and stepped aside so that the twins could enter. She led them into her bedroom, where their half sister was amusing herself in her crib. Zakia fell instantly in love with the baby, a real-life doll, and wanted to pick her up and play with her.
“What’s her name?” Zakia asked.
“Raquel, but we’ll call her Raquie,” Mavis answered.
Zachary thought the baby looked just like his daddy and was still puzzled about how Miss Mavis had his baby sister living with her.
“Is she gonna come live with us?” he asked.
“No, baby, Raquie is my daughter,” Mavis explained.
“But she’s my sister, right? Zakia is my sister, and she lives with me,” Zachary responded in total confusion.
“Ask your mother to explain it to you, baby. You can come see her whenever you want, okay? Now, does your mother know where you are?”
“No, ma’am,” Zakia said, playing with baby Raquie’s feet through the crib rails.
“Well, you better go on back home before you get into trouble. You know how your mother is.”
“Yes, ma’am. Can we come see her tomorrow?” Zakia asked.
“Yes, sweetie, but make sure it’s all right with your mother first.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Zakia said.
From that moment on, when Zakia went outside to play, she visited her baby sister. Alexis eventually found out by overhearing her twins talking. When she questioned Zakia about her visits, she realized Mavis may have been a man-stealer, but she would never harm the twins. Alexis allowed the visits. Zakia loved Raquie so much. They grew to be very close.
Their old neighborhood, by Richmond’s James River, was built at the turn of the century and was fondly referred to as the village, even though it was considered lower-class. Many of the houses were more than half a century old and were not very sturdy. Some of the houses were single-family dwellings with a small yard, but most of them were attached. There was a buzz of excitement about the city building a housing project to be occupied by neighbors known as the villagers.
Some of the villagers dreamed of making enough money to move to a nearby suburb of Richmond. In fact, most of the villagers who were fortunate enough to get good government jobs or steady factory work immediately bought nicer homes in other parts of the city as a sign that they had “arrived.” However, some of the villagers loved the neighborhood where they grew up, and stayed on even though they could afford to leave. Some maintained homes that had been in their families for years. Others stayed because they did not have the money to move.
Everybody in the village knew one another, and many of the people were related. The number of homes with a married couple could be counted on one hand, as could the number of homes with no children. The village was the type of inner-city neighborhood that bred issues that would follow its inhabitants wherever life took them.
As the years passed, Raquie grew closer to Zakia than to the other children Mavis bore after her. Mavis, who never married, received aid for her three other children by three different baby daddies, but Rahlo took care of Raquie. Alexis also saw to it that Rahlo took care of their twins, never hesitating to remind him of the consequences if he didn’t.
Rahlo would take Zakia and Raquie for rides, for ice cream, school shopping, and all kinds of fun events. They loved their bachelor daddy and often had sleepovers at his apartment. He would get up and cook breakfast, and they would eat and watch cartoons together. He enjoyed having them. As the three of them sat around eating and playing, he would tickle them. They would laugh and try to get away or lie all over him, relaxing on the floor, watching TV, just having a wonderful time.
Zachary would sometimes ride with his daddy and sisters, but he’d rather hang out with his friends Micah Robinson and Eli White, who regarded Zachary as their leader. They had a club, the Execs, short for Executives, and never got into any real trouble. The club was mostly for organizing business ventures to make money. They went door-to-door trying to sell things such as bouquets they made from stealing flowers from the neighbors’ gardens when they couldn’t get Zakia to bake cookies for them to sell. They’d use the money for candy or the movies and later, as they grew up, concerts. As they got older, they began to venture out to other neighborhoods, going door-to-door to raise funds for what they said was camping equipment for their Boy Scout troop. None of them had ever been near a Boy Scout, but the scam netted them a fifty-dollar profit.
Eventually, they made most of their money hustling on the basketball court. They were all good athletes, and each of them made it onto the Booker T High School basketball team.
Zakia was a cheerleader and didn’t have a lot of time to spend with Raquie as she grew older. Boys took up a lot of her time, but Raquie didn’t mind. She adored her sister and was very proud of her. She told everybody who would listen, “My sister is a cheerleader and gets straight As.”
Zakia was an excellent student because Alexis demanded good grades from both her children. She was proud when Zakia graduated from high school and earned a full scholarship to Manna State University. She also insisted that Zachary study so that he, too, could get into college. He tried, but his entrepreneurial spirit and short attention span interfered with his studying. Frustrated, Alexis began focusing less on Zachary and more on Zakia. She was determined that her daughter would never have to depend on a man to take care of her. She would be able to get whatever she wanted for herself. College was not optional for Zakia.
Being a brainiac rubbed off on Raquie, and she, too, excelled under her sister’s influence.
I
n high school, Zakia had been focused, to say the least. She had felt her mother’s wrath when she brought home a B in conduct despite the fact that she had earned As in everything else.
“If you can get As in your studies, surely you can behave yourself, and you will,” Alexis had said. “No phone for a week, and you can’t go out with those boys this weekend either.”
The phone was the worst thing Alexis could have taken from Zakia. She was on it with one boy or another every night. Zachary didn’t like talking on the phone, and Alexis was glued to the TV in the evenings, so Zakia owned the phone. Her mother sure knew how to hit her where it hurt. Zakia also loved hanging out with the Execs. She was an honorary member, since it was a boys’ club and girls were for getting with, not doing business with. But they treated her just like one of the boys, not taking it easy on her, ever.
When they snuck into a football game by jumping a barbed-wire fence behind the stadium brush, Zakia was the only one who landed on her feet without a scratch. Micah ripped his pants, while Eli sprained his ankle and walked with a limp for a week. Zachary’s leg was bleeding from a gash he obtained by not completely clearing the barbed wire when he jumped. The Execs carried him into the men’s room to doctor his wound. Zakia rolled on the ground laughing hysterically once she was sure he was all right. Some girls from school walked up on Zakia, who was still laughing to herself. Nikki Harris, Sheba Spencer, Eboni Black, and Pam Pierce were cheerleaders with Zakia.
“What’s so funny, girl?” asked Pam, who was in love with Micah.
“Girl, those scrubs said I had to jump the fence if I wanted to hang with them tonight, and I said, ‘Bring it on.’ They all got hurt and I didn’t. Now they’re in the bathroom fixing Zach up because he hurt his leg, but he’ll be all right.”
“Oh my! Are you sure he’s okay?” a concerned Sheba asked.
Zakia nodded, still laughing.
“You be hanging with those brothers,” Sheba said in amazement.
Sheba had a serious crush on Zachary, who messed around with her, but never officially.
“He’s suffered worse and survived. And they be trying to hang with me, ha ha!” Zakia said, still tickled.
“I know that’s right, girl,” Nikki said to her fellow cheerleading captain. Nikki and Zakia had led the cheering squad together for three years and had seen their friendship grow.
“Did Micah get hurt?” Pam asked.
“Naw, he just ripped his pants,” Zakia said.
“Whew, I didn’t want to have to go up in the men’s bathroom to take care of my man,” Pam responded. “Who else is in there?”
“All of the Execs,” Zakia said.
“With their fine selves,” said Eboni, who dreamed about having three babies with Eli, all of whose names would begin with the letter
E
.
“Zakia, when are you going to ask your twin about making us official, girl? He knows he’s my man, he needs to just go on and admit it to the world,” Sheba said.
“Never, girl. I stay out of the Execs’ business, and they stay out of mine. You need to handle that.”
“Fine. Consider it handled,” Sheba said.
When the guys came out of the bathroom, the girls ran over to them oohing and aahing, asking if they were all right and if they could make them feel better. Zakia thought it was hilarious—pitiful but hilarious—and she fell back into another fit of laughter.
Zakia was part tomboy, part princess. She had a beautiful, delicate exterior and a tough-as-nails interior. She could make you feel like you could fly and then thoroughly beat you down every which way if you crossed her.
When Zakia was in princess mode, she hung with her fellow cheerleaders, who were the Execs’ girlfriends. When she was in tomboy mode, she liked hanging with the Execs. And hang she could. She often worked out with them. She had a die-hard competitive spirit with which women just couldn’t compete. She had to win, and when she lost, she just got more competitive. Even in the dating game, she had the advantage because she was privy to the Execs’ conversations about their flock of female admirers. They knew she could keep her mouth shut—after all, she was almost one of them—so they didn’t monitor their words and said exactly how they felt about girls, what they did to girls, and what girls did to and for them. If she asked, they would explain things to her that she didn’t understand. They schooled her to be able to handle herself when she went off to college. She listened and learned.
A lot of the guys at Booker T High School wanted to be Zakia’s boyfriend but were concerned about the Execs. She knew everybody but wasn’t interested in dating anyone at Booker T, until a new tall, dark, and handsome star basketball player transferred in from Dunbar High School. Xavier Slade was admired by more than half of the females at Booker T. It was love at first sight for Zakia. After a game where Booker T had just embarrassed the competition, she waited patiently for Xavier to receive all of his congratulations for scoring thirty points before she walked up to him. She looked him deep in the eyes, then whispered in his ear, “Great game, Mr. Slade,” as she ever so softly and sweetly kissed him on his cheek. She turned and walked off, then glanced back at him, knowing he was watching her walk away in her short little cheerleader uniform. She smiled, winked at him, turned, and subtly swung her hips as she walked out the gym door. He was putty in her hands from that point on. It was only a matter of time before he was her official boyfriend.
Xavier was the point guard and the star of the basketball team, so it was written in the stars that he and Zakia would be the most popular couple in high school; however, they were popular as individuals first. Zakia’s other suitors didn’t stop calling her just because she had an official boyfriend, and she didn’t stop talking to them, although everybody knew Xavier was her man.
The Execs had taught her well. She just had to manage her social schedule. When she spent time with other guys, she made sure it was a group setting—at a party, burger joint, or game—with plenty of her girlfriends around to cover for her in case Xavier’s spies were on the lookout. The only private time she spent with anybody besides Xavier before they broke up was on the phone. She thought she was well prepared for whatever college had in store.
Ruby Glass was Zakia’s college roommate. She was from a wealthy Long Island, New York, family. Her father was an attorney, and her mother was a social worker. Ruby fascinated Zakia with her footloose and fancy-free attitude. Ruby wasn’t concerned about making good grades and, unlike Zakia, was even less concerned about what her parents thought. Ruby didn’t have to worry about maintaining her grades to keep a scholarship. She didn’t have one. Her parents paid her tuition. Her main reason for coming to college was to meet men and party for as long as it lasted. She was Daddy’s little girl. He would take care of her.
Ruby had come to the right place. She was always trying to get Zakia to loosen up and take a hit of marijuana or a drink of beer. She thought her roommate was too uptight and wanted to help Zakia alleviate her stress about books and men.
Although it was more difficult to maintain an A average in college, Zakia was more concerned about the bold forwardness of the men, particularly a star basketball player named Malik Jackson. He openly had a girlfriend, yet he begged Zakia to be his girlfriend and promised to dump his sorority sweetheart the minute she said yes. Even though she was attracted to Malik, Zakia wanted no part of him, knowing that he would dump her just as quick for the next cute, young coed that came along.
“Why doesn’t Malik just back off, Ruby?” she asked her roommate one day after taking the long way back to their dorm room in order to avoid Malik.