Piecing Me Together

by Renée Watson

I realized how different I am from everyone else at St. Francis. Not only because I’m black and almost everyone else is white, but because their mothers are the kind of people who hire housekeepers, and my mother is the kind of person who works as one. Lee Lee would get that. She’d look at me, and we’d have a whole conversation with only our eyes.

Lots of people can’t find beauty in my neighborhood, but I can. Ever since elementary school, I’ve been making beauty out of everyday things—candy wrappers, pages of a newspaper, receipts, rip-outs from magazines.

Like me. I’m ordinary too. The only thing fancy about me is my name: Jade. But I am not precious like the gem. There is nothing exquisite about my life. It’s mine, though, so I’m going to make something out of it.

logo in the center of their shirts is a Native American with four feathers in his hair and paint on his face. I wonder how a people’s culture, a people’s history, becomes a mascot. I wonder how this school counselor and her three grandsons can wear a stereotype on their shirts and hats and not care.

“Well, I like to take things that people don’t usually find beautiful and make them beautiful. Like, blocks here in the Villa, or sometimes people in my neighborhood.

I think about all the travel words and phrases Mr. Flores has taught us, how ready I am to use them. ¿Qué hora es? What time is it? ¿Dónde está la partida? Where is the departure? ¿Dónde está la salida? Where is the exit? ¿Cuánto cuesta? How much does it cost? ¿Tiene un mapa que indique las paradas? Do you have a map showing the stops? I know Mr. Flores thinks he’s preparing us for surviving travel abroad, but these are questions my purpose is asking. I am finding a way to know these answers right here, right now.

I love my Spanish class.” “What do you like about it?” Dad asks. He never lets the first answer be the only answer. “It makes me feel like I’m learning a secret code or something. I don’t know. It’s powerful.” “Powerful? Really?” “Yes, all language is. That’s what you used to tell me.”