Born Blue by Han Nolan Page A

word
quark,
which I knew for sure were a made-up word, but they all ganged up and said it weren't.
    I said, "Ain't no word
quark.
Get the dictionary!"
    And Harmon grab the book all excited to prove me
wrong, and he flipped through and shouted, "Hah! Here it is!" when he found it.
    I shoved my hand over the stupid board, messing up his damn
quark
and all the other words, and stood up. "Ain't no real word," I said. "That be a fake dictionary and I ain't playin' with cheaters. Y'all are cheatin'!"
    I flipped the board off the table and run out the room.
    A few minutes later Mr. James and Mrs. James come up to my bedroom and they say they be sorry 'bout what happened downstairs, and even though it were wrong of me to flip the playing board off the table, they was wrong to make me feel bad. They sat on the bed on each side of me and patted my back and hugged me, and I cried long past my hurt feelings gone away so they would keep hugging me. Then I asked where Harmon be at, and they said he were downstairs cleaning up. I hid my face back in Mr. James's chest like I were still upset, but really I were smiling to myself. Harmon were downstairs cleaning up and I were sitting in the middle of his mama and daddy.
    Next morning we all ate breakfast together, and Mr. James and Mrs. James acted so lovey sweet to Harmon and Samson and just real polite to me, like I be company come to visit. Harmon stood at the stove making eggs and grits and bacon, and Mrs. James bragged on him to me 'bout how Harmon were such a great chef.
    I said, "I can make eggs and grits better 'n him, any day."
    Mr. James said, "I'm sure yours are delicious. We'll have to try them sometime." Harmon set my plate down hard, and Mr. James said, "Now, have a taste of that and see what you think."
    I took a bite of the eggs and spit it back out on the plate. "Yuck!" I said. "Too much butter." Samson laughed and spit out his Cheerios.
    Harmon took away my plate and divided it up between him and his parents, and Mr. James and Mrs. James spent the rest of the breakfast saying how every single bite were just delicious and scrumptious and other big words that meant yummy. I ate some bread, but Mr. James said I couldn't have it with sugar 'cause I wouldn't concentrate well in school.
Since when?
I wanted to know.
    When we went up to brush our teeth, Harmon asked why I were acting so mean to him.
    "Me? You the one always showing off at me. You waving how great it is you got a mama and daddy and how you get to cook the breakfast Ain't you just a wonder?"
    "I ain't showin' off," he said, and I smiled 'cause he talked like his old self and that made me feel better.
    I went to school by myself 'cause I went to the public school. Weren't special enough, I guess, to go to no Christian private school with Harmon. He rode to his school in a car pool. I took the bus. The kids on the bus wanted to know where I come from, and I told everyone how I been kidnapped five years ago and were living in Birmingham and that I only just returned to my real family two days ago. That made me popular right away,
so taking the bus weren't as scary as I thought it were gonna be.
    Some white girls in my class asked me how come I talked the way I talked, and I said it were how I learned. One girl called me stupid, and a black girl called me "wigga," and I didn't know what it meant. Harmon told me later it meant I were a white girl who be into the African American culture. He said it weren't a insult, but I said it were 'cause I weren't a white girl, my skin just be real light. "I even got African American parents now, so that prove I be black," I said.
    Harmon said I be crazy.
    Wednesday night Harmon had choir practice at his church.
    I told Harmon I wanted to sing real bad, and he said I could join the junior choir, 'cause the adult choir were for eighteen-year-olds and up. I weren't gonna sing with no baby choir, but I said I'd go with him, anyway. Seemed to me he just didn't want me getting in on his