It was early summer and cousins Cara and Shaia Williams sat at a picnic table in their backyard planning a birthday party for a classmate. They had their book bags and papers placed across the red wooden picnic table in front of them. Twelve year old Cara was in charge of of the decorations and her thirteen year old cousin, Shaia was in charge of the guest list and the invitations. Their classmate was, Erica Stevenson had been saving her money to have a roller skating party and she had asked for their help.
On one particular afternoon the girls had been outside for almost two hours going over the details of the party when Cara's mother Felicia called both of the girls inside for dinner. Felicia Williams worked twelve hour shifrs at the local hospital four days a week as an Registered Nurse and on the days she had off she tried to spend as much time as possible with her niece and daughter. Tonight as she put dinner on the table she was preparing to share with the girls some news that would change their lives a little. For as long as Cara and Shaia could remember it had only been their mothers in their lives. They all lived in the house that their grandfather had willed to them when hoe passed away. "Go wash your hands girls." Felicia instructed when she heard the girls come into the house from the back door. Felicia placed a wooden bowl of salad on the dinner table beside a plate of garlic bread. She had cooked spagetti. A simple dish that she knew both of the girls loved. While she placed dinner on the table her sister Connie came down stairs. Connie was her older sister and the mother of her neice Shaia. Connie was a part time social worker and owner of a boarding house for women and also a community soup kitchen. Felicia had told Connie that she was going to share the news with the girls over dinner.
When the four of them were seated at the table they all held hands to pray over their dinner. Felicia led the prayer as they all bowed their heads, "Our Dear Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this food. Feed our souls on the bread of life and help us to do our part in kind words and loving deeds. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen." Felicia, Connie, Shaia and Cara all said Amen in unison and then they picked up their forks and began to dig into the food.
Felicia looked at her sister Connie as she gathered her thoughts about what she was going to share with the children. "Girls do you remember your Aunt Pamela who lives in Florida?" The girls looked at each other and then Cara shook her head slowly yes but, Shaia shook her head no. Connie was quiet. "Well your Aunt Pam is going to come sometime this week and she is going to bring her daughter Terra. Terra is going to be staying with us." Felicia looked around the table to gauge everyones reactions. The girls continued to eat quietly, Connie didn't offer up a word so Felicia continued, "Pamela also told me that she will be arriving on Terra's birthday so maybe you girls can do your decorating, party thing for Terra. You know get some balloons, cake and some ice cream and welcome her with a party." The young girls looked at each other. They were up for the challenge. Shaia began planning a party in her head as she smiled at her cousin Cara. Cara asked when they could go out to get the decorations.
Felicia smiled at her daughter as she looked down at her watch, "We can go as soon as we finish putting these dishes away if you like?" Cara liked that idea. She was excited about meeting her cousin for the first time. Connie never said a word, and Felicia tried not to let it bother her. She had tossed and turned all night for the last couple of nights thinking about the way Connie acted when Felicia had told her that their sister Pam had called asking if they would help her with her daughter. Connie had been sitting in her bedroom reading a book when Felicia tapped on her bedroom door. After Felicia told her that Pam had called, Connies only response was, "Okay, so when is she coming because I know you didn't even think twice about telling her no." Felicia didn't know why her sister would even think about telling her sister no when she was in a position to help her. Connie was still holding onto things that had happened between her and Pam in the past. All three of the women were in their late thirties, life was too short to dwell on the past. Felicia hated that her sister just wouldn't let the past go. Her sister knew that life was just too short.
Felicia was hurt that her sister was stuck in the past, she was going to do whatever she could to help her sister. After they finished eating and put their dishes away Felicia grabbed the keys to her Honda Accord and she told her neice and daughter, "Let's go."
An hour later Felicia and the girls were back in the house. She left the girls to decorate what they were going to decorate and she went to her room. The girls were eager to impress their cousin though they had never met her. They decorated the kitchen and they even went outside to decorate the picnic table in the backyard. While they were decorating one of the little boys from down the street came to over to speak to the girls. Ahmad A.J. Ealy was a tall, handsome and smart. He was popular around the neighborhood and school. Some of the kids would call him "Candy Man" because he was always carrying around a pocket full of now and later candy. He walked over to the picnic table that the girls had covered with a plastic pink table cover. He pointed to the decorations the pink streamers that were now wrapped around the banister, "Whose birthday is it?" Shaia acted like she didn't hear him. Cara had gone inside of the house to get some balloons. She intended to tape them to the plastic table cover. Shaia pursed her gloss coated lips together while she gave A.J. a look that her mother had given her when she was asking questions that she shouldn't ask. He shook his head to himself because he didn't know why she was always giving him so much attitude. He ignored her looks until Cara came back outside holding a small bag of balloons in one hand and some tape in the other. She smiled when she saw him standing beside the picnic table with his hands in his pockets. "Hey A.J. what are you doing tomorrow?"
When Shaia heard what her cousin asked him she placed her hands on her narrow hips and looked at her cousin. Shaia knew what Cara was going to ask him next, and she didn't agree with him being invited to their cousins party. "I'm probably just going to be playing some ball with my friends at the gym." He looked at Shaia who looked like she was going to have a stroke. She had her hazel eyes open wide and her neck craned forward trying to get Cara's attention with her body language. "You should come over, we are having a birthday party for my cousin. She is coming from Florida tomorrow." Cara could see her cousin looking at her from the corner of her eye and she turned her back to her. She didn't know why Shaia was always acting so mean. They couldn't have a party for their cousin Terra without guests so they had to invite people. A.J. and his friends were cool she thought. A.J. interrupted her thought when he said, "Wow Florida? I didn't know you had relatives in Florida. I wonder if she has ever been to Disney World." A.J. recalled a time when her father had planned to take him and his little sister Margo to Disney World. They didn't get to go because his father had an emergency at his company. "I don't know, you should ask her when she gets here." Cara smiled at him as A.J. excitedly emptied his pockets onto the table. There were different flavors of Laffy Taffy and Now and Laters. "I will be here tomorrow then see y'all." He left the yard. When he left the yard Shaia began rolling her neck at Cara asking why she had to tell him everything. Cara crossed her arms and looked at her cousin, "We have to invite somebody? What kind of party can we have for Terra if there is nobody here except us?" Cara wanted to say more but instead she just picked up a watermelon Now and Later from the picnic table and she started to blow up the balloons. In Cara's opinion A.J. never bothered anyone with his simple questions. Cara hoped that her cousin Terra didn't have an attitude like Shaia. Sometimes her attiude could be a little too much. The girls finished decorating and then they went to bed excited about meeting their cousin who would arrive at two a.m. the next morning.
Pamela Williams-Baxter had nade the hardest decision that she had ever had to make in her life. She had to call her sisters to ask if they would take care of her child. Her husband was on deployment and she didn't feel like she had any other options. She knew the moment she stepped into her childhood she would be faced with a lot of memories that she had tried so hard to forget over the years but again she didn't have a choice. She pulled up into the yard of the five bedroom home that she had grown up in with her parents and two sisters after driving non stop for eight hours. Her fourteen year old daughter slept in the backseat. It had been hard to explain to her daughter why she was telling her to pack her belogings so that she could go live with people she had never met before and she knew that it would be even harder to drive back home without her only child, but it was something that she had to do. Pam turned off the car and she slowly got out of her car. She called her daughters name softly. Terra was a light sleeper, she stretched and then she sat up on the backseat. She rubbed her eyes and then she looked around. She wasn't home anymore. Terra had begged her mother not to make her stay at a place and with people that she didn't know but her mother told her over and over that was the only way she could take care of what she needed to take care of. Pam told her daughter that she needed to know that her daughter was safe and being properly looked after. "Baby trust your mother okay. These are your aunts and your cousins. You are going to be okay."
Pamela rang the doorbell and as if she were already at the door Felicia opened the door and she pulled her sister Pamela into her arms. They hadn't seen each other in over twenty years. She had only spoken with her sister over the phone. Felicia couldn't contain her happy tears; she let go of her sister long enough to usher Pam and Terra inside. Once they were inside Felicia hugged her neice that she hadn't seen since the child was almost four years old. "Come on upstairs with me sweetheart , I know you are tired." Felicia led Terra upstairs to the bedroom that had once belonged to her mother. When Felicia flipped on the light to illuminate the soft pink walls, and the canopy bed covered with pink and yellow plush pillows on top of a pink comforter. "I did some updating of the furnishings in here but this room is just about like your mother left it." Felicia looked back at Pam who had followed them up the stairs with Terra's bags. Pam had tears in her eyes because she couldn't believe that the room looked the same as when she was a teenager. Terra looked at the pictures of her mother when she was a teenager displayed on top of an oak dresser. There were pictures that she had never seen of her mother. "Get some sleep okay baby?" Pam kissed her daughters forhead and then she left the room behind her sister Felicia. As they went back doen the stairs Felicia asked out of concern for her neice, "How is she taking this move?" Pam sighed, "I don't know Felicia, I explained to her that this is something that I had to do. To keep her out of harms way and to make sure she is taken care of properly this the only option that I have, I don't have anyone else that I can turn to." Felicia nodded trying to understand where her sister was coming from. Pam never told her what it was that she had to take care of. She didn't know what her sister was facing at all but she knew that she was going to be there for her sister and her neice. "If I can help in anyway Pam please let me know, because you sound like you are going off to war." Felicia tried to make it sound like a joke, but she wasn't joking at all. "Just take care of my baby." Felicia nodded as she led her sister down the hall to the room that she would be sleeping in. The room had once belonged to their parents. Both of the women tried to hold back tears as they entered the room. Just like the room upstairs the room looked just like it did the last time she was in the home. Their parents had a big queen sized sleigh bed, with a chest at the foot of it. They had an old oak dresser with double mirrors and on top of the dresser was their mothers old fashioned jewelry box. Pam touched everything that she could touch in the room and she remembered everything about her parents that she missed. Neither of the women could hold back their tears. They had both spent many a nigt comforting each other as they did at that moment. "I am going to let you get some sleep now okay." Felicia left the room.
The next day Pam and Terra slept until one o'clock in the afternoon. Pam found her way to the kitchen. The door way of the kitchen was decorated with a big pink and yellow banner that read Happy Birthday. She sat down at the kitchen table and on the table was a cake in the middle of the table. "Happy Birthday Terra," was written in pink with pink, white and yellow roses around it. "Oh, how pretty. Did you all do this for my baby?" Pam asked as she sat down at the table. Felicia smiled as she handed her sister a mug of coffee. As Pam picked up the mug to take a sip, Felicia answered, "The girls did it. We thought that that would be a good way to welcome her." Pam nodded. Her little sister Felicia still had the biggest heart. She loved her sister so much. "Let me go upstairs to wake my sleeping beauty." As Pam went up the stairs she thought about all the time that she had climbed those stairs growing up. There was absolutely no place like home. She gently pushed the bedroom door open. Terra was sitting at the side of the bed just staring at the wall. Pam wished she could do things differently but she had thought of everything she could only to come up with no way that she could take her daughter back to Florida with her. She had to leave her only child behind. "Good Afternoon, you should be getting dressed Terra." Terra was still wearing the shortset that she had worn the day before. Her only answer for her mother was, "I know." After sitting there beside each other on the bed in silence Pam finally broke the silence, "You are going to be okay Terra. I promise you." Terra wanted to believe in her mother's promise. She wanted everything to be normal in her life, but she knew what had always been her norm was no more. She got up from the bed and then she went to her suitcase that was on the floor beside the bed. She picked it up and then she put it on the bed. She opened it to pull out an outfit. It was time to start her day.
When Terra went down the stairs, she looked at all the pictures of her mother and aunts on the tables and on the walls. As she walked through the living room she saw the Happy Birthday banner over the kitchen door and as she continued to walk she saw her Aunt Felicia and two girls that she assumed were her cousins picking up bowls of chicken wings, potato chips and ice cream. As she stood there observing Felicia noticed her first. "There she is the Birthday Girl. Come on outside sweetheart." The two girls gave her shy smiles and they said hello, as they opened up the back door. Terra could see balloons and streamers and more people standing around a covered picnic table. Her mother Pam turned on some music and the other kids began to dance as they recognized the music. When the girls had put down the bowls they came back to her side and they introduced themselves. "I'm Cara." Cara held her hand out to Terra. Terra shook her hand. "I'm Shaia." Terra shook her hand. "Let me introduce you to some of our friends." Shaia and Cara embraced their cousin, and they went out of their way to make her feel welcome. Their friends had brought her gifts, they competed against each other in a dance contest and they had a good time.
When Pam was satisfied that her daughter would be okay, she told them that she had to get back on the road. She joked with Cara about A.J. and his friend Tim. "I thought you said that you didn't have a boyfriend." Cara blushed and looked at the boys that were basically their neighbors. "They aren't our boyfriends Aunt Pam, they just live down the street." Pam nodded her head with a smile as if she didn't really believe them and then she went back inside. Her sister Connie stood at the kitchen sink washing a glass. Pam hadn't seen her sister in over twenty years. "Hi. I didn't know if I would get the chance to see you before I headed back." Connie breathed a cool hello and then she acted like she was preoccupied with the glass she had been washing. When Connie didn't say anything else, Pam left the kitchen in search of Felicia. She couldn't deal with her sister at that moment, she had enough on her plate. Connie could hear Felicia asking Pam to spend one more night, because she didn't want to see her sister go so soon. Pam missed her sister but she had to go. Felicia knew that Pam was hurrying off because of Connie's cool reaction to her. She hated that they couldn't have a better relationship than that. She silently prayed that now that their children were together that they would get along much better than their Aunts had growing up. She decided that she would make sure that she did.
The three girls grew so close; they did everything together. While the girls were growing up, next door A.J. was growing up too. He wasn't that much older than the girls but he acted like their big brother. He had grown taller, he had begun to work out so he had muscle. It seemed like all of the girls that went to their school or lived in their neighborhood had a crush on A.J. and his best friend Tim. A.J. didn't give into the attention he was receiving from all the girls though. He worked hard to stay focused on his studies and his sports just as his father tried to instill in him.
The summer before A.J. started high school, he and his best friend decided to play a game Truth Or Dare before their parents came home from work. The girls sat on the red picnic table in their back yard as A.J. and his best friend Tim stood a few feet away from them, Tim rubbed the peach fuzz that was growing under his chin. "I bet you won't ask the Williams' girls if they want to play Truth Or Dare. Tim knew that he could always get his friend to rise to a challenge. A.J. looked at the girls sitting on the picnic table, he looked at his friend and he shook his head, "Why would they want to play Tim? Truth or Dare requires willing participants." Tim nodded. "True, but how do you know that they aren't willing to participate unless we ask them." Before A.J. could object any further, his best friend Tim clasped his hands together and then he approached the picnic table where the girls were sitting. "Yo, who wants to play Truth Or Dare?" Tim was bold and he didn't hold anything back. Shaia frowned just as Tim and A.J. suspected that she would. Terra and Cara looked at each other and they agreed to play by saying in unison, "Okay." The teenagers played the game. At first they played it safe by only asking questions of truth. Tim got bored and he decided to change the game, "Okay A.J., I dare you to kiss one of these girls." A.J. was shocked that his friend had just dared him. He looked at his friend with his eyes wide open until he noticed everyone at the picnic table looking at him. He cleared his throat and then he said, "Alright, do I get to pick which one?" Surprisingly Shaia piped in, "No, I get to pick." Her hazel eyes sparkled with mischief as she looked at both her cousins Cara and Terra. She knew without a doubt that Terra would do it with out thinking twice. She looked at Cara as she always played the role of Miss Goody Two Shoes, she decided to put her on the spot. 'I double dare you to kiss Cara." Now it was Cara to look wide-eyed at her cousin. When she looked at A.J. Cara knew what this was about, and she knew that her cousin thought she would back down. She wasn't going to back down today even though she had never kissed anyone before. When she looked at A.J. he stuffed his hands in his pockets and then he asked if they had to kiss in the open. Shaia told them to go to the back porch. "We will watch to make sure you do it from over there by the tree." Shaia pointed to the group of trees at the edge of their property line. Slowly Caa and A.J. walked to the back porch of the house. Cara was nervous. She looked around to make sure their parents hadn't pulled up into the driveway. A.J. saw her looking around so he leaned down to whisper in her ear, "You know you don;t have to do this if you don't want to, I can just call it off." Cara shook her head no. If she backed down she thought she would never hear the end of it from her cousins. When they reached the back porch, Cara took one last look around. Shaia, Terra, and Tim all stood by the tree looking on. They didn't believe that the two of them were really going to kiss. Cara stares at A.J.'s black Patrick Ewing basketball shoes, and then she looked at his broad chest in his basketball jersey. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She had daydreamed of this very moment, but she had to confess to him that she had never kissed anyone before and she really didn't know what to do. A.J. had to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat. He swallowed hard, he knew that Cara was innocent and he never imagined that he would be the first person that she kissed. "That's okay, I'll show you."
A.J. had just turned sixteen, and he had kissed a girl or two. He looked down at Cara's innocent face, thinking that she had always been so cute to him with her big, beautiful hazel eyes and her long hair. He touched her chin and then he slowly lifted her chin so that he could lean down and kiss her lips. Her lips were warm and soft against his, and he could taste the flavor of bubble yum that she had been chewing. He kissed her softly at first, and then he paused to give her a chance to pull away if that is what she wanted to do. She surprised him when when she lifted her lips to his so that he could kiss her again. This time when he kissed her, he held the kiss a little longer and when she kissed him back they got lost for a moment as he slipped his tongue between her lips, she timidly touched his tongue with her own. Cara liked kissing him, and they kept kissing until they heard Tim say that a car was coming. They hurriedly stepped off of the porch and went in their seperate directions.
Cara couldn't explain the feelings that she had spiraling through while A.J. kissed her. She was in a daze as she walked back to the picnic table with her cousins who started asking her what it was like. While her cousins grilled Cara, Tim put his arms around his best friends shoulders as they walked away from the house. "Wow you two were going at it man! How was it?" A.J. touched his lips with his fingertips as he reflected on the dare. He had always liked Cara the most out of all the Williams' girls. She always had a smile on her face and she was always willing to go that extra mile to help someone. He knew those were good qualities in a person, he knew that Cara was speacial.
That was the only time they all played Truth or Dare. The kiss between A.J. and Cara didn't go any further. They all remained good friends throughout school. After high school, Cara and Shaia went to college to major in Business Management while Terra went off to modeling school. The girls became strong, independent women......
Stay tuned for Ten Years later, All Grown Up. Chapter 2.