My GIF to You
Download December starts this weekend (Dec 14th and 15th). New excerpts in several genres will be available for free on Amazon. In preparation I’m creating a number of GIFS that readers can use, which will also post on Saturday. Directions on how to save a Wikkid.Sexy.Cool GIF to your computer and using them in either an email or your own personal blog will be provided.
With every GIF you take (and use) you help promote Wikkid.Sexy.Cool. Where multicultural romance rules!
One more “gift” is an excerpt from a section of RUSH:
She made the first move.
I was replacing the spring plate on my bike’s kick stand when the wrench was blown clear outta my hand by a half flattened soccer ball. I got up from a squat, ready to do some serious butt kicking when I saw Aaliyah in the middle of the street.
“Sorry about that. Can you give us back our ball?” she said, not looking the least bit sorry. I don’t know where her father was, but she sure wasn’t wearing a headscarf or a long skirt. It seemed like she’d borrowed a pair of her brother’s shorts.
The ball was wedged between my bike and the clubhouse wall. When I bent over to pick it up, I caught her checking out my ass. Instead of throwing it back to her, I walked it over. We met up in the middle of the street and I kept inspecting the ball, wondering why it was more oblong instead of round. “I’ll put some air in it for you, if you can wait a minute.”
She put her hands up, signaling a time out. “I’m getting air put in the ball.” Her brother and sisters saw her walking next to me, and they said “ooh.” To which she whipped around and told them to keep silent.
“Air pump’s in here,” I said, pointing to a far wall near an empty beer keg. The pump was propped against the wood paneling, right under the confederate flag. I looked back at her, and all I could see was her silhouette against the bright sunlight.
“Your air is only for whites too?” she asked, not missing a thing.
“If it makes you feel any better I’ll wheel it outside like I usually do for my bike.”
She nodded, turning sideways. Once she saw Boner napping on the bar, I knew she wouldn’t be bold enough to come in. I sorta wished I’d taken a wet mop to the dingy red and white tiled floor, just because.
“What the hell are you doin’?” Boner demanded. Only one of his eyes was open. “She cain’t come in here. None of them can.”
I held up the soccer ball. “Calm the fuck down. I’m just filling up her ball with air. I’ll be done in a few.”
Boner rubbed at his beard, yawning while looking her over. “Ask her if she wants to make a couple of dollars.” By this time he was sitting up. “Hey sweetheart-”
“Let her alone.” I said it so fast that he got startled.
“What the hell’s wrong with you?” he snarled, and I remembered when he used to scare me with that look, back when I was real little. Over the years alcohol had dulled him so he wasn’t half as frightening.
“That’s somebody’s daughter you’re talking to,” I said.
“They’re all somebody’s daughter at one time or another. I don’t give a shit.”
“Females ain’t put on this earth just so you can pull out that dick a yours,” I said, fighting with the pump, since the wheels were rusted something awful.
“That ain’t what your momma said last night.”
I stopped in my tracks, leaving the pump in the middle of the floor. When I walked up to him he tried laughing it off. He’d used that line more than once, but never with me. “When I get back, you better have a damn good reason for mentioning my dead momma.”
“Aw, I was just . . . hey Ghost, you know I was only fooling.” By that time Boner was talking to my back. “You cain’t even take a joke no more,” he whined.
When I got outside Aaliyah had her head down, acting like she hadn’t heard a thing. “Don’t pay him no mind,” I told her. “He talks like that about every female.”
“What about you?” she glanced up, then quickly lowered her eyes as if she really didn’t want to know my answer. “I’m glad you didn’t let him get away with what he said.”
“Some things is off limits,” I muttered. My face felt red enough for the both of us.
She nodded, as if that was good to know. “My mother’s deceased too.”
Deceased. I thought about the word, filing it away for future reference as I filled the ball with air. Deceased sounded a lot more dignified than saying my momma was just dead. “That woman your daddy’s common law wife?”
“They are married. As soon as my mother died he started going with her. He says it was what she would have wanted. Now he’s got a bunch of short kids by a very short woman.”
I laughed cos it was funny. Wasn’t sure I should have though, because I got a strange look back.
“You should smile more often,” she finally said, peeking up at me from under her lashes, acting as if she was suddenly shy. I stood up, balancing the ball on my knee until it fell, then I tried to catch it with the side of my boot heel. When it hit the sidewalk it was fair game, so she swept it away in a deft move, and hell, we was just being kids, laughing and pushing on each other, both of us determined to get at the ball.
“May we get our ball back?” Aaliyah’s little sister’s face was angrily scrunched like Mama Bear’s always looked. “Just wait until father gets home.”
“And I’m telling that you cursed. So there,” Aaliyah warned, throwing the ball across the street. She turned to me with an apology on her lips. “I’m sorry, I must go. Thank you for fixing our ball.”
“Aaliyah, do you know my name?”
“Yes, of course.” She looked over her shoulder, checking on where the kids were. Now that they had the ball, we were forgotten. “They call you the Ghost.”
“Yep. That’s what they call me. Only without the word ‘the’ in front. Just Ghost is fine.”
She took it as an invitation to start introducing her siblings. “The one who is so angry is Amelle, my little sister. The one next to her is my brother Abdi, and that’s . . .”
I pretended like I was listening, but the whole time I was watching her mouth, wondering what it would feel like on mine. Besides, there were too many names to remember and they all started with an A.
She finally ended with “And the baby is called Charles.”
Whoa. Charles? Now that was different. “Why’d y’all name him that?”
She gave me a knowing grin. “My father thinks with an American name Charles will be rich and successful.”
“All of us got American names. Ain’t none of us living in a mansion.”
“But you could, if you choose to.”
I wanted to tell her that it didn’t work like that. To some folks we were considered poor white trash and criminals to boot.
Boner came out but he took a couple of steps back when he saw me and Aaliyah still talking. “I didn’t mean to butt in . . . I just wanted to say I’m sorry about mentioning your ma, Ghost. And what I said to you too . . . Miss”
Aaliyah smiled at him, and the middle of my chest felt sore. Not like someone had punched it, but like my heart was full of something. I don’t know how to describe it. I don’t think it’s something a person can really describe. Me and Boner watched her walk across the street. I waited for him to say something, especially since he had a big, shit eatin’ grin on his face.
“You like her,” he said.
“Boner, just shut the hell up.”
“No, I don’t mean nothin’ funny by it. I’m just trying to figure out why.” There was real anguish on his face. It must be hard tryin’ to think without a brain. “I met this girl once,” he told me. “Her car had broken down. She was like that little girl, only lighter. I don’t know why I stopped. But I did. I changed her flat, and the whole time she talked and talked. Yeah. She talked a lot. I always thought about how I shoulda took her number, but – where would we go? That was back before we had our own clubhouse. Before Turk was in charge and your daddy-”
Boner must’ve realized he’d said too much. My momma was a sore subject, but mentioning my dad was grounds for a death sentence.
“Don’t tell Turk I brought up your dad. Or your momma. Okay?” There was actual fear in his voice.
“Long as you don’t go blabbing about me using the air pump just to help out those kids, we’ll be straight,” I warned.
His eyes flared, like he wanted to challenge me on my reasoning. We both knew I hadn’t done it for those kids. But that was my story and I was sticking to it.
~~~~~
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