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Chapter 16
ASHA
Saundra came over after work. Although we both have pretty faces, looking at the two of us, no one would guess we were sisters. She is tall and dark skinned and while I prefer my sleek page boy hairstyle, she wears hers in shoulder length dreadlocks. But it is the way she dresses that makes me want to run screaming from the room. If she isn’t draped in a caftan with clogs on her feet, it is handmade dashikis with sandals or boots.
As she walked into my apartment, the foreign scent she was wearing threatened to overwhelm me.
My nose wrinkled. “What kind of perfume is that?”
“It’s cocoa-mango oil.”
She sat Indian style on the floor and gave me a beatific smile. It was the kind of grin usually seen on the faces of Moonies, Branch Davidians or other cultists. While I dashed around get
ting rid of my work gear, she just sat there totally absorbed in knitting something. The needles clicked and some green yarn slowly coiled itself out of her huge handbag. The work caused her many silver bangles to jingle. The folds of her long black cape formed a beautiful umbrella around her and was the perfect base for a forest green and yellow dashiki that she proudly wore with an elaborate matching headwrap. When I dropped my briefcase on the sofa, she lifted her head and exposed her gorgeous set of straight white teeth in a one hundred-watt smile.
“What’s up, girl?”
“Randy bought me a dog.”
“Aw, that’s nice; where is it?”
“I locked him in the bathroom.”
“All day? That’s horrible!”
“Whatever. That mutt is not tearing up all my shit.”
“You’re awful.”
When I opened the bathroom door, a series of weak yelps indicated my pet had anxiously awaited my arrival.
Saundra immediately snatched him. “He’s so cuuute! What’s his name?”
“I don’t know.”
“You gotta give him a name,” Saundra declared. “Look at him . . . he’s so precious.”
“You think of a name while I feed him.”
When Saundra gets around animals, she goes nuts. Her house is a combination of Noah’s Ark and the botanical fucking gardens.
I couldn’t help but smile at the puppy as he scampered around anticipating his meal. “How about Sparky?”
“That’s too hard. I want something soft and feminine.”
“But it’s a boy dog, Asha.”
“I don’t care. I’ve just decided that his name is Peaches.”
Saundra’s mouth twisted in disapproval.
I decided to change the subject. “What are we having for dinner tonight?” I asked.
“Indian, Thai? . . .”
“Chinese. Let me wash up first.”
“Can we go to West Fourth Street first?”
