“Hey Vickie.  I was just about to call you girl. You must have heard me thinking about you long distance.”

“Maybe, maybe not Tommie.  I figured since you won’t pick up the damn phone and holler at me I’m go have to do the calling, the checking in, the seeing about my best friend and why I ain’t heard from her ass in so long.  What’s the story Tommie.  What’s going on.?

“V.  You just don’t know.  Shit, I don’t even know what’s going on – not really.  I’m just so confused and got so much stuff going on right now.  You know I’m leaving for Alabama tomorrow?”

“You going where tomorrow T.?

“To Alabama.  I told you about…..”

“Girl (Vickie interrupted).  You ain’t told me know such thing. What you talking about you told me?  When! When did you tell me Ms. Thomasina that you were going to Alabama?  I don’t think that’s something I would have forgotten. But you tell me Ms. T.  When did you inform me that you was coming down south?

“Oh my God V.  Oh my God!  I meant to tell you. I meant to tell you.  I’m going so crazy that I thought I told you what was going on. I was telling myself I was go call you the last time I talked to Miss Love in…..

“Miss Love, Miss Love. Who in the hell is Miss Love Tommie. Is that somebody I’m supposed to know?

“I’m sorry Vickie. Miss Love is my daddy’s friend in Akron, Akron Ohio.  She knows my mamma too, she knows both of them. She’s Bud’s friend, but, she knows my mamma too. She from Alabama. She from Alabama and so is her little sister Lizzie.”

“Her little sister (Vickie screamed).  What!  You been to Akron lately?  When did you go to Akron and meet these people, huh.  Who went with you. Did your parents take you to Akron to meet this woman and her sister?

“No.  I talked to her on the phone.”

“She called you?

“No. No Vickie.  She called my daddy.”

“She called your daddy and you talked to her?”

“Yes. I mean No. I mean, she called my daddy, I was at the house, at my parents house. The phone rang, the phone was ranging and my daddy, Bud, was asleep in his lazy boy. I hollered at daddy to answer the phone, I hollered but he didn’t hear me, he was sleeping, so, I answered the phone. My mother wasn’t home, so, I answered the phone.”

“OK T.  You answered the phone and she told you what?”

“She thought I was mamma.  I told her who I was. I asked her if she wanted to leave a message.”

“What was the message Tommie?”

“The message was for Bud Vickie.  She told me to let my daddy know that the pecan harvest was good this year.”

“Pecans, pecans don’t grow in Ohio. Do they?”

“I don’t know V.  I don’t think so.  I’ve never been to Ohio. Actually, as a matter of fact Vickie. I’ve never been out of Michigan.”

“I always wondered about that T.  All while we were growing up in Highland Park. Me and you, it seems like we’ve always been friends.  We’ve been knowing each other since, since we were babies.  I’m not sure who lived in the flat first – my family, or yours.  I just remember that every time we went out of town for something – my parents and me – that you and your family stayed home and kept an eye on our upstairs flat. I use to ask mom and dad – “why can’t Thomasina come with us – why can’t her and her mom and dad go down south with us?”

“Vickie.”

“Yes T.”

“Do you remember where you went down south when you were little?”

“Yeah girl.  We went to Alabama.”

“Where at in Alabama V.?”

“Tuscaloosa.”

 

B. Knox

To be continued.