Hidden Valley (D. SWING)

XI. The Other Brother

Sighing, Cynthia intensely stares at the jacket that brings back all of the terror her previous night had brought to her on a platter. With a slight shutter, she picks up the jacket and exits Big Mama's laundry room.

She'd never imagine in a million years that something of the nature would happen, especially not to someone like herself. The shame she felt was to a degree of which something within her had told her that she should have been able to control her uterus. All night, she kept telling herself: You should've been more prepared! How could you let this happen? What about Don's jacket? The jacket really beats her up. It's a $200 dollar jacket gifted to Don last year for the fact that he'd made it to nationals with a special thanks to his butterfly stroke. She'll never live this night down and she knows it.

Don doesn't.

Marlene sits on the living-room's couch with her hands in her lap, she's awaiting Cynthia's call out to leave.

"I'm ready," Cynthia says re-entering the space. She double taps Marlene's shoulder as they head on out the door, feet making contact with Hidden Valley's old, gravely, cracked up concrete. "So, you guys going out tonight?" Cynthia asks the question though she knows the answer. She can not tell you why she has done this, maybe you can tell her.

Marlene's head curves from the east to the west as she declines a question that Cynthia did not need to be clarified. "No, he's got to help with something at the church... he said you'd be there." Cynthia's mind settles with an unfamiliar set of thoughts. She cannot seem to figure if she is proud to have heard Marlene's confirmation or if she is upset. "What happened yesterday? Why'd you change dresses? I hate to sound gullible but what happened to Don's jacket?" Cynthia swallows a lump in her throat as Marlene stares down at the jacket on a hanger that Cynthia is carrying. "That's the jacket... what's going on, Cyn?"

When Cynthia has zero idea of what she could possibly say to make Marlene's question cease, she smiles to the heaven's as The Boogie Boys snatch the attention from Don's jacket. "A fly girl is a girl who wants you to see her name,  her game, and her ability. Two gold teeth and cold cash money. The guys are on her strap, she tends to act funny. She's got Gazelle and a B-bag too. Fly girl, I want to be with you." Outside on her porch, Paulette's dancing her ass off to the beat pounding out of her boombox. Her thirteen-year-old sister stands directly beside her mimicking every twitch of her older sister's muscles while their even younger sister sits in the rocking chair, that their grandmother usually occupies, directly beside the boombox. For, she is in charge of rewinding the tape.

"Ayo, Paulette!"

Feeling warn out after their seventh run through, Paulette points at her little sister to cut the music as her friends come approaching. "Gone and get you some water if you're tired," she signals to her out of breath sister. Her sister runs inside and the other quietly rocks in the seat with a babydoll in her lap. Tying up her shirt in the front, exposing a product of constant cheer conditioning and dance that is glazed with sweat. She is stunning. "Cynnnn, Marleyyyy!"

"What's goin' on, Paulette?"

Her shoulders bounce with her nonchalant attitude. "Nothing... teaching Kitty this routine." Her younger sister was birthed as a Katherine, thus, leading to the kind of nickname that sticks forever. The family knew Kat would've been too simple. The moment Paulette said Kitty, it was written in stone. "You heading over to Don's?" Paulette motioned toward the jacket discretely.

With the exception of Dalvin, Don, and Cynthia, of course, Paulette had known exactly what happened. She saw the entire thing play out before her eyes. Why else would she have been that annoyed when she knew Don lied to her about knowing where Cynthia was? She turned her head for a single second and her friend had disappeared. Even though she is sure she is the only one to notice, minus Don, Paulette thinks it would've been a little less harsh of a blow if she approached Cynthia instead of Don approaching her.