“Hey,” he says casually, in a voice almost deep like a man’s, but not quite. He’s so tall I gotta turn my neck up to look him in the eyes. When I do, his eyes surprise me. They are a light brown that’s almost golden, with little flecks of green scattered here and there. I ain’t ever seen nobody with eyes so pretty, especially not a boy.
“Hey,” responds Nia, just as casually. I wonder if she noticed his eyes, too, cause now she’s picking at her nails to avoid looking at his face.
“Hi, I’m KB.” I smile at Jesse while he smiles at Nia.
“I’m Jesse,” he finally responds, but I ain’t sure if he’s talking to me or her.
“Nia,” my sister finally says. This conversation’s gettin’ too slow and weird for me. I shift my weight from one foot to the other and see that Javon’s doin’ bout the same.
“We met your daddy,” I say. “We ain’t ever known none of our uncles before, or our cousins.”
“Oh, we cousins?” Jesse asks. Nia nods. “Well, more like step-cousins. I got a different daddy.” He avoids looking at Javon when he says this part.
I look at Nia for an explanation, but she just lowers her head and plays with the end of her ponytail. “Cool,” she finally says, so I repeat, “Cool.”
It’s always been just me and Nia, even though I secretly wanted a brother. Having a brother just seemed like it would be more fun than having a sister. I look at Javon, imagine us playing stuff together like racing and football. Then I imagine Jesse carrying me around on his shoulders. These cousins might be one of the best things that’s happened since we’ve been in Lansing.
“Hey, wanna play hide-and-seek?” Javon asks. He jumps up and down, so I jump up and down. I think bout all the secrets, but I’d rather play with my cousins now than talk. The secrets gon’ have to wait. Nia and Jesse look at each other, like they need to know each other’s answer before they can decide.
“Sure!” I respond, then look to Nia. I hope she gon’ play, too.
“Okay,” Nia says, at the same time Jesse says, “Sure.”
“All right, I’ll be it!” Javon presses his face against a tree and starts counting, loud and slow. I guess they’re done playing basketball, even though the game is back in full swing. I peek over as red-faced Skeeter runs back and forth up the court with boys twice his size.
“Seven, eight, nine . . .” Javon continues to count. I gotta find a place to hide. While I was busy watching Skeeter, Nia and Jesse disappeared off somewhere. I run past the basketball courts, gettin’ farther away from the picnic tables, which are now the size of twigs. I spot a plain-looking building, maybe a bathroom, and run in that direction.
Turns out it is a bathroom but looks like it’s closed for cleaning. There’s yellow tape all around it to block people from going inside. I think bout ducking under the tape, but I’m too scared, so I crouch down by the back door instead.
“Ready or not, here I come!” I can hear Javon’s yell from cross the park, and it sounds like he’s heading in my direction. Sure enough, it ain’t long before I hear quiet footsteps, then giggles. “Found you!” Javon yells, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind.
“Dang!” I yell, laughing. I thought bout saying that bad word at first, the one that starts with D, but I guess I still care bout making Momma mad at me. Soon as I think bout Momma, I remember that I’m s’posed to be doin’ more than just playing.
“You ever met my momma?” I say to Javon, right before he takes off.
“Nah.” He turns around. “But my daddy talks bout her all the time.”
“Really?” I lean up against the tree, so Javon leans up against the tree.
“Yeah, he’s always talking bout his super-beautiful little sister who could read whole books by the time she was four.” Javon chuckles and I do, too. Sounds like Momma.
“So how come you never met her, then?”
“Well, you know, all the drama and stuff.”
“Drama?” I peel a piece of bark off the tree and try to act casual.
“You know,” Javon says, “all the stuff with her and Granddaddy.”
“Oh, you mean the headshot?”
Javon nods.
“But ain’t that a silly little reason to never see your family again?”
“You think what Granddaddy did to her after that was little?” Judging by the way Javon tilts his head to the side and squints his eyes, seems like he knows something I don’t know.
“What you mean?” I whisper, afraid to ask.
Javon sighs. “Come on, KB, we gotta go play. Nia and Javon prolly lookin’ everywhere for us by now!”
“But—”
“You’re it!” Javon tags me and takes off running. Just when I was so close to figuring out what happened between Momma and Granddaddy. Which, according to Javon, was a lot more than a silly argument. What really happened? I sigh, then lean against the building and count.
“One, two, three.” As I speak the numbers out loud, I count all the things that might’ve happened between Momma and Granddaddy, to match. “Seven, eight, nine.” He kicked her out the house. He grounded her in the basement for weeks. He . . . abandoned her? “Eighteen, nineteen, twenty.” I finish counting before I come up with anything that makes sense.
“Ready or not, here I come!” I run off in the direction where Javon went, then remember that Nia and Jesse are somewhere hiding, too. I ain’t seen them since Javon was it. I scan the park quickly—basketball court, picnic tables, parking lot, water fountain—but don’t see none of ’em nowhere. I decide to run back to the picnic tables to see if they might be over there.
I get there and look at all the faces I don’t recognize, to try to find the few I do. I look under tables and behind trash cans. No Nia, no Jesse, no Javon. I do see Granddaddy, though, standing at the grill with the cigarette man. I run over.
“Granddaddy, you seen Nia?” I ask, tryna act the same instead of thinking bout the new mystery stirring in my mind.
“You done lost your sister?” Granddaddy asks, turning his head around to look.
“Nah, not like that,” I quickly reply, before he gets mad, “we playing hide-and-seek with the boys.” I pull my fingers, anxious to get back to looking.
“Oh, well then. In that case, I ain’t seen her.” Granddaddy winks. I can’t tell if he knows where she’s at or not, but either way, don’t look like he gon’ help me.
“Thanks, Granddaddy!” I take off running, even though I ain’t sure which way to go. Then I hear a noise that makes me run back the way I came. Sounds like somebody’s laughing, maybe Javon. I peek behind a group of three tall climbing trees. No Nia, no Jesse, no Javon. I check back by the basketball courts, in the parking lot under the cars, under the benches. No Nia, no Jesse, no Javon. Hide-and-seek ain’t that fun when you can’t find nobody. I think bout giving up, but then remember the yellow tape by the bathrooms where I hid before.
I look around the building, but ain’t nobody outside. Maybe they crossed the yellow tape and went inside. All three of ’em must be in there together, probably laughing at me. I look around to make sure ain’t nobody watching. Then lift the middle of the tape just enough so I can duck under.