One Crazy Summer (Gaither Sisters, #1)

by Rita Williams-Garcia

Mother is a statement of fact. Cecile Johnson gave birth to us. We came out of Cecile Johnson. In the animal kingdom that makes her our mother. Every mammal on the planet has a mother, dead or alive. Ran off or stayed put. Cecile Johnson—mammal birth giver, alive, an abandoner—is our mother. A statement of fact.

Mommy gets up to give you a glass of water in the middle of the night. Mom invites your friends inside when it’s raining. Mama burns your ears with the hot comb to make your hair look pretty for class picture day. Ma is sore and worn out from wringing your wet clothes and hanging them to dry; Ma needs peace and quiet at the end of the day. We don’t have one of those. We have a statement of fact.

I felt some shame, but I wasn’t about to wear it.

I decided she was fussing and that I couldn’t go through my life afraid of what my mother might do next. I shrugged and ate my cereal.

It was a strange, wonderful feeling. To discover eyes upon you when you expected no one to notice you at all.