Page 60 of Scars Like Wings
Maisie snapped me out of my thoughts, and I smiled at the dolls in her hands. “Fuck yeah, I did! Mom refused to let me play with a white doll, so when she couldn’t find black Barbies easily, she started buying me Bratz dolls. Sasha and Yazmin were always easier to find in Toys R Us than Chloe and Jade.”
“Aw, look at this picture of baby Byrdie!” Simone pulled out a few framed pictures from the box and pointed at little me in the first one. I had to be about seven in the picture with my cute little red gingham pattern dress and matching bows in my plaited hair. Mom, Pops, Uncle Everett, and Aunt Max kneeled behind me at one of Aunt Max’s summer cookouts. The tablewas set behind us with Auntie Max’s mouth-wateringly delicious barbecue, but we figured it was best to get a picture before our fingers and hands required wet wipes.
“Oh, my gods! That’s us at one of Auntie Max’s cookouts. The food used to be so bomb there!”
“Yeah, she used to marinate that meat for days in advance,” Uncle Everett said from behind us. Without even turning to look, I knew his eyes were glistening from happy memories past. I could hear it weigh on his voice. “Man, she used to be able to workmagicon that grill. The meat would be so flavorful and fall off the bone. You can’t get food like that anywhere else but from Max.”
“Y’all would have loved her. She was awesome,” I said, caressing her face as if I could reach out and touch her. After all this time, I had forgotten so many tiny details about her, like how her gold piercings glittered in the sun or how her smile was so gorgeous. I couldn’t remember her laugh anymore or some of her mannerisms. Gods, I wanted to be like her so bad. I thought she was so cool—no wonder I’m as pierced and tatted as I am now with locs going down my back.
“The best,” Everett agreed.
I set aside the picture to put in my room later before moving onto another picture. I immediately laughed. “This is me at my first ever ballet recital.”
“Ohmigod, are you alily pad?” Simone asked through her hands over her mouth.
“I wasfour,and it wasSwan Lake?—”
“And she was the cutest lily pad up there!” Uncle Everett said. “She was so adorable even as she was tripping over her own feet. She almost made the whole ensemble fall off the stage?—”
“Oh, look at this picture that isnotan embarrassing memory!” I interrupted. Uncle Everett chuckled while I rolledmy eyes. Still, I took a picture and sent it to Quinn before going to the next one.
This one was of Mom and Pops alone. They were under an apple tree on a beautiful fall day. The leaves had turned and were falling already among the beautiful bright red and yellow fruit. Mom wore a stunning lacy dress with a veil pinned in her curls, while Pops wore a white suit with red accents. Their outfits were very eighties and products of their time, but their smiles as they danced under the tree was eternal. Every time I looked at the picture, my heart ached and hungered. For what, I didn’t know exactly. But the picture was always so beautiful it made me teary-eyed, even when I was younger and would look at it on Mom’s dresser.
“These are your parents, aren’t they?”
I nodded to Simone’s question, unable to say anything around the lump in my throat. I had so few pictures of them. This was one of only a couple I knew of, the other being of us on vacation to Disney World when I was four that sat framed on my desk.
“They are so beautiful, Byrdie,” Simone said, wrapping her arms around me. “You look just like your mom.”
“Except for your eyes and skin, that’s your Dad,” Maisie noticed. “Oh, but you definitely don’t have their fashion sense. A white suit? Gross.”
I let out a chuckle and sniffed. My friends always knew the right thing to say to break me out of a funk.
“Hey, cut them some slack! It was the late 80s back then. No one knew how to make good fashion choices,” Everett argued.
“Oh, yeah, I can tell from that windbreaker outfit in your hand. Dude, I can hear that from miles away,” Maisie said.
I glanced back and, sure enough, I saw a neon green and purple and blue windbreaker jacket and pants in Uncle Everett’s hands. I grimaced. “We aren’t keeping that, are we?”
“Y’all are haters. This is coming back in!”
“Yeah, Everett, so is the flu. I think we need to revisit your keeps and your giveaways,” Simone said, letting me go and rising from the floor. Maisie followed.
The three of them started to argue behind me about the meaning of vintage and fashion history and how much pieces were worth if you kept them in pristine condition. I ignored them as I received a text notification:
QUEENIE ♥?
You were so stinking cute, baby, and you still are! You were the most adorable flower!
QUEENIE ♥?
Also, is that Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?! I had that growing up! I never got to finish it! I had all the Freddi Fish games growing up, and I did finish those! I used to love computer games. I still love a good Mario or Crash Bandicoot game.
ME
Oh, we are going to have so much fun together, babe. Careful, you might make me obsessed with you.
QUEENIE ♥?