Birthday Blues (4 page)

"There's my girl," Miss Ida says, throwing open her front door. "Ooh, we gonna have a ball." She scoops up Deja into a big squishy bear hug. Deja almost can't breathe.

Deja tries to smile, but she can only manage a tiny one.

"She's got her clothes, Miss Ida, and I packed her lunch for school tomorrow. I should be back by Friday afternoon."

"Take your time. We'll be fine." Miss Ida squeezes Deja's shoulder. Deja wishes she could be sure she'll be fine. Her birthday is just five days away. What if Auntie doesn't get back in time?

Auntie bends down and kisses Deja's forehead. "I'll be home before you know it." She turns to head down the steps. "Be good," she calls over her shoulder.

Deja feels a frown plastered across her face. She stands at the door and scowls at it even after Miss Ida closes it.

"Come on, darling. I bet you're hungry."

No, she isn't hungry. Not even a little bit.

"I'll take your things, and you go on in the kitchen and have a seat. I'll be there in a minute."

Deja walks down Miss Ida's long dark hallway toward the kitchen. Something smells funny. It hits her as soon as she enters the room and sees the table set with two place settings. She takes a whiff. It's a horrible smell. She just can't eat anything that has a smell like that. She hears Auntie Dee's voice in her head:
It's impolite to turn your nose up at someone's food. You must always try to eat a little bit, just so feelings won't be hurt.

"Now, these are my favorite vegetables, Deja," Miss Ida says as she comes into the kitchen and goes to the stove. "You like turnips?" She dishes out a plate and places it in front of Deja. Deja looks down. Fried chicken (that's good), green beans, a piece of white bread (Auntie Dee never buys white bread), and a smelly blob of turnips with watery edges. Deja swallows hard.

Miss Ida sits down across from her. She bows her head, and Deja bows her head, too. Miss Ida says a quick blessing and Deja joins her with "Amen." She is grateful to have food, as Auntie Dee always reminds her, but it is hard to be grateful for the nasty stuff. How is she going to get it down? Will she have to eat it all?

While she is thinking, a loud ringing fills the room. Deja looks over at the old-fashioned telephone with the funny dial. She remembers the first time she visited Miss Ida's. She and Auntie Dee had come to bring chicken soup. Miss Ida had been sick. Miss Ida's funny-looking telephone had caught Deja's eye. It had a round thing on the front with holes in it. Miss Ida had to call her friend to cancel a dinner. Deja couldn't figure out how she was going to use that funny telephone. As she watched Miss Ida dial the number, she wondered what would happen if someone was in a hurry. It was the slowest dialing phone she'd ever seen.

Miss Ida gets up to answer it and, quickly, before Deja can stop herself, she is spooning half of her own turnips onto Miss Ida's plate. She mixes them around, then looks at them carefully. Miss Ida finishes up with her niece, who is calling just to say "Hey."

"That Lilly is a real doll. Always calling to check up on her old aunt."

Deja says nothing. Miss Ida takes her seat across from Deja, and Deja waits to see if Miss Ida is going to say anything about her turnips. She doesn't.

In fact, that's just what she dives into first: a heaping spoonful of mushy turnips.

Deja takes a tiny spoonful of what is left of the turnips on her plate. She holds it in her mouth. She can't bring herself to swallow. She tries to, but feels a gag rising at the same time. Quickly, she takes a sip of milk. That's what she'll do. She will get the nasty turnips down with a sip of milk after each bite. But she has to rest first. She can't just dive in. She has to wait. She takes a bite of fried chicken. That helps get the yucky turnip taste out of her mouth. When she has her courage up, she does the turnip-milk thing again. It could work. She just has to go slow.

"I knew I forgot something," Miss Ida says suddenly. "I put up some pickled beets last fall. Delicious. I meant to dish you out some. But you know what? We can have some of those tomorrow." She smiles over at Deja as if she's waiting for her to look happy about beets.

"Oh, yummy," Deja says. She hates beets almost as much as turnips.

"Miss Ida?" Deja ventures after helping with the dishes. (By hand. Miss Ida doesn't have a dishwasher. She's even swept the floor, since Miss Ida says a floor should be swept every day.) "Can I watch television?"

There are certain shows Deja watches on Monday night that she doesn't want to miss. Just because Auntie Dee had to go and leave her doesn't mean she shouldn't be able to watch her favorite shows.

"Well, Miss Deja ... that depends."

Deja wonders what it depends on.

"That's kind of a temperamental television. I never know if it's going to work good or not. Sometimes I get to see my stories, and sometimes I can only hear them."

Stories? Oh, Deja knows what stories are.
Soap operas.

Deja feels a moment of panic. No TV? What about all her favorite programs?

"Come on," Miss Ida takes Deja by the hand. "Let's see what we can do."

The television does come on. After a lot of snow, the reception clears to show a news program in black and white.
Black and white!
Miss Ida is adjusting the rabbit-ears antenna sitting on top of the TV (Auntie Dee explained what it was on their first visit to Miss Ida's), but Deja is losing interest. She's seen old TV programs in black and white, and they just don't look right.

"What do you want to see?" Miss Ida asks.

"My favorite show is on Channel Ten."

Miss Ida turns to Channel Ten, but the screen goes all snowy again.

"Looks like we don't get Ten." Miss Ida turns to another channel. "How about some music?" She sits on the couch and pats the place beside her.

Deja is going to be stuck watching Miss Ida's boring old music program on Miss Ida's old black-and-white television. Someone is playing the accordion and two women in funny-looking clothes are singing a song that Deja doesn't even like.

"Everyone loves music," Miss Ida says.

Later, Miss Ida shows Deja the room where she'll sleep. It is small and drafty and has a single bed with a nightstand and a dresser. She shows her the bathroom with the tub on legs and the basin with no cabinet or counter. Everything is strange and doesn't feel right. Nothing is the way it is at home. Deja doesn't like being at Miss Ida's.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. That's four whole days. It's going to be like being in jail or something.

Auntie calls before bedtime, and Deja has to answer her questions nicely, since Miss Ida is standing right there.

"Are you having fun?"

"Yes, Auntie Dee."

"Are you being good?"

"Yes, Auntie." Auntie Dee asks to speak to Miss Ida, and Deja hands her the telephone.

"Don't you worry about a thing," Miss Ida says. "We're having a ball over here. You can take your time getting back."

Deja's eyes get big hearing that. She remembers Auntie Dee saying she'd be back before Deja knew it. What if she did decide to take her time? How could Deja bear it?

"I put most of my turnips on her plate when she wasn't looking," Deja says to Nikki on the way to school on Tuesday.

"Turnips? Who eats turnips? My mom never cooks turnips."

"I bet you all Miss Ida's friends eat turnips."

"Maybe it's something only old people eat."

Deja thinks about this. It sounds right to her.

"Are you going to be at Miss Ida's on your birthday?"

"No! Auntie Dee's coming back on Friday. And my birthday is Saturday. You know that."

Nikki had been with Deja when she picked out her invitations at the stationery store in the mall. She liked that they were in the shape of a big pink birthday cake. She thinks about how much fun it's going to be when she hands them out to each girl in her class, even Antonia. Who will probably be surprised, but Auntie Dee is making her invite
all
the girls. Maybe she should just put the invitations in their cubbies. That way, everyone will be surprised.

Auntie had told her to give them out last week, but she kept forgetting. Anyway, Deja didn't think it mattered all that much. She'd been talking about her upcoming party for weeks.

As soon as they walk through the school gates, they stop. Across the yard, a group of girls are clustered around Antonia. She is handing out small white envelopes to each reaching hand. All the girls from Room Ten, from Mr. Beaumont's class, and from Mrs. Miller's are there.

The first bell rings, and everyone freezes. Beatriz holds her hand in the air in mid-reach. Antonia grins as she holds the white envelope inches from Beatriz's hand. The bell rings again, and everyone bursts into laughter. Antonia hands Beatriz the envelope, then skips to the line where Ms. Shelby is already waiting for the class.

"They're for my party," Antonia whispers to Deja as she passes by. "I was going to invite you, but I know you're already having your own party."

"What's in those envelopes?" Nikki whispers to Deja as they take their places.

"They're for
her
party," Deja whispers back.

The class marches into the school in line order. At the cubbies, while everyone is getting things out of their backpacks before they put them away, Antonia reaches over Deja and hands one of the small envelopes to Rosario.

Rosario slips an invitation out of the envelope, and she and Deja and Nikki look at it together.

Just Because...

Come to my Just Because party on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.

...Just because.

There's going to be a roller rink, a trampoline, and a tetherball (in the ground).

We're going to decorate our own cupcakes and make our own sundaes.

It's going to be fun, fun, fun and you're invited!

Please come.

Deja stares at the invitation.

"I don't believe it," Nikki says.

"What?" Rosario asks.

Deja reaches into her backpack and pulls out one of her birthday-cake invitations.

"Look."