Towelhead (32 page)

“Jasira?” Melina said again. Her voice was closer and more nervous-sounding. A couple of seconds later there was a knock at the door. “Hello?” she said.

“Yes?” I said. I was already dressed, just buttoning up the top of my shirt. Thomas was still pulling his jeans on.

“What are you doing?” Melina asked.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Why is this door closed?”

I waited for her to open it, but she didn't.

“I was just taking a nap,” I said.

“Did Thomas go home?”

I was quiet for a second. “No.”

She opened the door right away then. Thomas had just pulled his sweater over his head. “Hi,” he said.

“What's going on in here?” Melina asked.

“We were taking a nap,” I said.

Melina looked at the bed, which was still made, but rumpled, then down at the floor. I worried that maybe Thomas's condom wrapper was there, but if it was, she didn't notice. “You're too young to be alone in your room with a boy,” she said. “If you're tired, Thomas should go home so you can rest.” She looked at Thomas then. “Should I take you home?”

“Do I have to?” he said.

“Are you still tired, Jasira?” Melina asked me.

I shook my head.

“All right,” she said to Thomas. “You can stay. But you guys need to go downstairs. C'mon. We'll all go downstairs.”

“Did you finish your nap?” I asked her.

“Not really.”

“You could finish it now,” I said. “I promise we'll go downstairs.”

“It's okay,” she said. “I'm not that tired anymore.”

“I just need to go to the bathroom,” Thomas said.

Melina stepped out of the way so he could pass by. After he left, she looked at me. I was still standing at the foot of the bed. “I'm sorry I shut the door,” I said.

“Why did you yell?”

“What?”

“I heard you yell.”

“Oh.” I tried to think of something to tell her that wouldn't be embarrassing but that also wouldn't be a lie. I couldn't.

“Were you having a bad dream?” she asked.

“No,” I said.

Just then the toilet flushed, and the bathroom door opened.

“Okay,” she said. “We'll talk about this later.”

“Sorry,” I said again.

We all went downstairs and had snacks. Thomas told Melina about how he had to eat a big plate of spaghetti the night before he had a swim meet so he could carbo-load. He laughed and said all the blond kids' hair turned green from the chlorine. Gil came home at around six and Thomas asked him about the pictures in the living room. They went to look at them while Melina and I stayed in the kitchen, eating. “He's a nice kid,” she said.

I nodded.

“A little bossy, but nice.”

“He's a really good guitar player,” I said. “He likes Jimi Hendrix.”

“Well,” Melina said, “he has good taste.”

We started to cook dinner, which was two homemade pizzas. Melina had made the dough while I was at school, and now she took the mounds out of the refrigerator and we each stretched one out on a cookie sheet. We spread sauce on top, then cheese, then pepperoni on one and low-salt ham on the other. They both had peppers, mushrooms, and onions. After putting them in the oven, we went to sit in the living room. “
Marhaba,
” Thomas said when we walked in.

“What?” I said.

“That's how you say hi in Arabic. Gil taught me.”

“Oh,” I said.

“You didn't know that?” Thomas asked.

“I don't speak Arabic.”

“It's a hard language to master,” Gil said.

“Dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes,” Melina said.

“Great,” Gil said.

“Do you need to call your mother?” Melina asked Thomas.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “I guess I better. Where's the phone?”

She pointed toward the kitchen. “On the wall by the pantry.”

Thomas nodded. As soon as he left, the doorbell rang. Melina had already sat down, so Gil got up to get it. “Oh,” he said, “hello there.”

“Good evening,” I heard Daddy say. It was the first time I'd heard his voice in days. He sounded like he was trying to act pleasant.

“Um, come in,” Gil said.

Daddy, who was wearing a navy blue suit, stepped inside, followed by his girlfriend Thena, I hadn't seen her since the morning she'd put makeup on me, though sometimes we spoke briefly on the phone when she called to talk to Daddy. Now that she was here, I'd forgotten how pretty she was, how shocked it made me feel that she would want to be with Daddy. Tonight she was dressed in a silky dark green dress and a pearl bracelet. Her eye makeup was swirly greens and coppers, and she had pale peach nail polish on her fingertips. Her hair looked like it had just been brushed. I was certain that she must smell good, though we were standing far apart. She was carrying a bottle of wine with curled shiny ribbons around the neck, and Daddy held a rectangular glass baking dish. I knew he'd made baklava, since that was his specialty. He'd tried to show me how to make it once, saying maybe I could surprise him with a batch when he came home from work, but I never did.

“This is my friend Thena,” Daddy said to Gil.

“Hello,” Gil said, shaking Thena's hand.

“Pleased to meet you,” Thena said.

“We're here for the dinner,” Daddy said. “To celebrate the end of the war.” When nobody said anything, Daddy handed Gil the baklava and said, “This is for you.”

“And this,” Thena said, handing Gil her bottle. “Sparkling cider,” she added, looking over at Melina.

Gil looked at Melina, too, like he didn't know what to do. In the silence, I could hear Thomas's low talking in the kitchen.

“Good evening, Melina,” Daddy called across the room. “This is Thena.”

Melina nodded. “Hello.”

After a moment, Daddy said, “Hello, Jasira.”

“Hi,” I said.

“Say hello to Thena,” he said.

“Hello,” I said to Thena.

“It's good to see you again, Jasira,” she said.

I nodded.

“Okay,” Thomas said, walking into the living room. “My mother says I can stay.”

Daddy turned to look at Thomas. Everyone did.

“Hi,” Thomas said. He was standing in the wide doorway leading from the living room to the kitchen. He had reached his arms out so that a hand touched each side of the door frame. He wore a T-shirt, and when he did this, you could see his biceps. Swimmers, he had once told me, were not buff, just cut.

Daddy was still staring at Thomas. I tried not to feel sorry for him that I was going against his rules and there was nothing he could do about it. It was hard, especially now that he was here in his suit, trying to make a good impression. “This is Thomas,” I said finally, figuring that since he was my friend, Daddy would at least want me to be the one to introduce him to Thena.

“Hello, Thomas,” Thena said, and she stepped forward to shake his hand. “I'm Thena.”

Thomas let go of the door frame and stepped forward, too. “Nice to meet you,” he said. Then he looked at Daddy and said, “Hello.”

Daddy didn't say anything.

“It's Thomas,” Thomas said, prompting him.

Daddy nodded. “I remember.”

There was quiet for a moment, then Thomas turned to Melina and said, “My mom says I can stay.”

“Good,” Melina said.

“Well,” Daddy said, “I guess you forgot about our dinner tonight.”

“It's not just that,” Melina said. “I mean, yes, we forgot, okay. But circumstances have changed, don't you think?”

Daddy shrugged. “The war is still over.”

“You know what I mean,” Melina said.

“May I say something?” Thena asked.

“Of course,” Gil said.

“Thank you,” she said. She smiled a little and took a breath. “We don't want to intrude, do we, Rifat?” She looked at Daddy. When he didn't answer, she continued, “It's just that I think Rifat would like the chance to visit with Jasira and let her know that he misses her.” She looked at Daddy again.

“Yes,” Daddy said. He looked at me and added, “This is what I'm interested in doing.”

“So even if we don't stay tonight,” Thena said, “perhaps we could make plans for another night?”

“Sure,” Melina said.

“There're only two pizzas,” I blurted out.

“It's okay,” Thomas said. “I'm not that hungry. I had a lot of snacks.”

Nobody said anything then. It was hard to know what the decision was, or who was going to make it. I was nervous for a second that Melina would say I had to, but she didn't.

“Well,” Gil said, “why don't you both at least come in and sit down for a few minutes?”

“Thank you,” Thena said. “That would be very nice.”

“Let me take your coat,” Gil said, and he helped Thena off with hers. As he headed for the closet, Melina motioned Thena and Daddy into the living room. Daddy took Gil's chair, and Thena sat at one end of the couch. I was still standing in front of the middle seat, while Melina had long ago settled into the other end. When Gil came back, he took the chair nearest to Melina's end of the couch. It hardly ever got sat in since it was too close to the TV.

“Come and join us, Thomas,” Gil said.

Thomas nodded and took a seat on the floor in front of the coffee table.

“That pizza smells good,” Thena said.

“Thank you,” Melina said.

“It's homemade,” I said. “Even the crust.”

Thena nodded, like she was impressed. “May I ask when your due date is?” she said to Melina.

“Officially, April twenty-third. But it feels like it could be any day now. She's already dropped.”

“Dropped?” Daddy said.

“They reposition themselves in the uterus as the birth gets closer,” Melina told him.

Daddy looked embarrassed then, like he wished he hadn't asked. “Oh.”

“So you know it's a girl?” Thena asked.

Melina nodded.

“How exciting,” she said. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” Melina said.

“Girls are so much more fun than boys,” Thena said.

“Why?” Daddy said. “How do you know?”

“Everyone knows that,” she said. “Girls have more personality.”

Daddy raised an eyebrow. He probably wanted to say something like I didn't have much of a personality, but he didn't.

“I agree,” Thomas said. “About girls.”

Daddy glared at him. “Excuse me,” he said, “but may I ask what you're doing here?”

“I'm a friend of Jasira's,” Thomas said.

“Uh-huh,” Daddy said. “Except Jasira isn't supposed to be seeing you.”

Thomas shrugged.

“Why not?” Melina asked.

“Because I'm black,” Thomas said.

Daddy didn't say anything.

“Is that the reason?” Thena asked Daddy.

He didn't answer.

“My God,” Thena said. “That's ridiculous.”

“First of all,” Daddy said, “she's too young to go with boys—that's the first thing.”

“I agree,” Melina said.

Daddy looked at her. He was quiet for a second, then said, “And second of all, it can be very hard for white women in interracial relationships. It was hard for Jasira's mother, for example.”

“Jasira's not white,” Thomas said.

“Oh, yes she is,” Daddy said. “On the forms, Middle Eastern is considered white. Caucasian.”

“What forms?” Thomas asked.

“Any forms!” Daddy said. I could tell he didn't think Thomas should be speaking to him in that way, and that was the real reason he was getting mad.

Just then, the oven timer rang. “Time to get the pizza,” Melina said, getting up from the couch. “Come and help me, Jasira.”

“Sure,” I said, following her into the kitchen.

When we got there, Melina said, “Take down six plates, would you?” I nodded. I felt the heat of the oven on my legs as she opened the door and took out the two trays. While they sat and cooled on the stovetop, she went to the silverware drawer and got out a bunch of knives and forks. She didn't think there would be enough sparkling cider for all of us, so she filled six glasses with lemonade and put them on a tray, along with the silverware and some napkins. I kept waiting for her to say something about what she was thinking, but she didn't. She just worked, cutting the pizza with a round roller and putting a slice of each flavor on everyone's plate. Finally, she sighed and said, “I guess they're staying for dinner.”