Can't Stop the Shine (30 page)

“Jackson. I met a guy with Asha's mama named Jackson,” Mari shouted. “And you know what? He is VP at Fire. I heard them talking about it.”

“When was this?” Elaine asked.

“At the meet where I whooped Asha in the one hundred. He was there, and it was so strange. Roxie never introduced him to me.”

“Maybe 'cause she knew she was doin' some dirt.” Kalia snickered.

“Well, whatever. That's enough to confirm it for me. So did JD say anything about who was gonna be the winner now? Are they gonna have another winner?” asked Mari.

“Nope. He said that's what he was trying to find out, too. So we just gotta wait,” said Kalia. “I don't even want to go to school.”

“Ooh, yeah, me neither,” said Mari. “Ma, can we stay home from school today? It's just like a holiday, and what if we miss hearing whether Kalia is the winner? We need to be close to a radio or a TV or something.”

Elaine turned around, shaking her head. “Don't you both have text messaging on your phones? You better use it 'cause if you're not deathly ill, you're going to school.”

Kalia walked to her room, listening to Mari coughing theatrically down the hall. She stood in front of her closet and picked out the brightest thing in her closet, a fire engine-red sundress. Yeah, it was a little early to break out the summer gear, she thought, but she was feeling fire, and everybody was going to know it.

 

When Kalia and Mari stepped in the house that evening, her mother was sitting in front of the television, watching the news.

“Come in here,” she called. “Fire's on the news.”

They rushed into the family room just in time to see Jackson Trane's picture on the screen. A well-coifed black anchorwoman detailed how Fire Records was accusing Jackson and Asha's mother of conspiring to rig Who's Got That Fire? As they talked about how long Roxie and Jackson had been dating, they ran clips of her in infomercials for the Wright Touch.

“Wow, I haven't even seen these,” said Mari.

“Shh!” Kalia and her mother hushed.

The anchorwoman reported that Asha's recording contract had been nullified, Jackson was on administrative leave from Fire, and he and Roxie were being called people of interest in investigations both Fire and the police were conducting.

“Woo-wee,” said Mari as the segment ended.

“It's on the news,” said Kalia. “I guess it's real then. Oh, and I forgot to tell you, Mari, guess who left me a voice mail today?”

“Who?”

“Malcolm.”

“For real? What did his tired butt want?” Mari asked.

“He wanted to congratulate me, talking about how we should get together and do a track now that we were on the same team.”

“K, you betta not even think about it,” warned Mari.

“Please,” said Kalia. “I am so done with that boy.”

“Umm, hmm,” said Elaine. “He's trying to be down now that he thinks you're the winner.”

“You've got that fire, that fire, that fire,” Mari sang, dancing around the room.

“Oh, yeah, you got a call from Fire today, too,” said Elaine suddenly. “They want you to call them immediately.”

“Ma! Why didn't you tell me this when I walked in the door? It's after six,” said Kalia, picking up the cordless phone in the kitchen.

“Well, Fire was on the news and I don't know, I thought you might be home earlier,” said Elaine, following Kalia into the kitchen.

“Oh, crap. All I'm getting is voice mail,” Kalia said, pacing.

“Oh, you need to dial extension 243,” Elaine remembered.

“Ma,” Kalia said.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” said Elaine, flexing her hands. “I guess I'm getting old.”

“No, this is just comedy,” said Mari, walking into the kitchen and sitting down at the table.

“Hello, this is Kalia Jefferson. Someone left a message for me?” they heard Kalia say into the phone.

“Travis Howard,” said Elaine, grimacing.

“Travis Howard,” Kalia said into the phone, rolling her eyes. Mari doubled over in silent laughter.

“Okay…yes. Hi, this is Kalia…yes, I've heard about it, of course…Oh, they aren't sure…well, okay…yes, I understand…and thank you…okay…that's okay…Thanks for letting me know…okay. Bye.”

Mari and Elaine's hearts sank as they watched Kalia lean back against the refrigerator.

“They said they didn't know how far the investigation would take them and they couldn't be sure who all was a part of the conspiracy, so right now they're not going to name another winner,” she said quietly. “They may revisit the contest in the next few months, but that's going to depend on how many people were in on it.”

“So how many more people were involved in it? Were Jackson and Asha's mother running Fire or something?” asked Mari, beating her fist on the table. “I mean, how come you just can't be the winner? This really sucks.”

Elaine got up and walked over to her elder daughter. “I'm so sorry, Kalia,” she said, embracing her. “I wish it was in my power to never have you feel this type of disappointment. I want you to know that watching you practice hard these last couple of months has really been an amazing experience. I'm very proud of you. You did your best, and you won. Even if nobody else wants to admit it. You won before you even went out on that stage.”

“Yeah, K, I'm proud of you, too,” said Mari, walking over and hugging both her mother and her sister. The phone rang, and Mari reached over to pick it up off the counter.

“Hey, Daddy. All right…Yeah, she's right here,” she said, handing Kalia the phone, just as her sister's cell phone started ringing. Seeing that it was Colby, Kalia handed her cell to Mari, who walked off into the living room. The Jefferson women didn't get a break for much of the rest of the evening. Everybody was calling to find out what was happening with Kalia and whether she was the new winner of Who's Got That Fire?

By the time she'd spent an hour and a half telling three people the deal, Kalia got tired of talking about it. She let her mother and Mari inform the rest of the callers. A few minutes later, she found herself in her parents' bathroom, standing over their Jacuzzi. She closed the door, turned the water on full blast and poured in entirely too much rosemary bubble bath. Sinking into the hot water, she tried to let the heat melt her cares away, but it wasn't working.

Kalia closed her eyes and let the tears fall. “Why? Why? Why?” she whimpered. “Why couldn't I win? Why can't I catch a break?” She let it all out, splashing the water, hitting the tile on the wall, even letting out a frustrated howl she just knew would bring her mother rushing to the door.

She calmed down when no one came. Her mother was right. She'd done her best, and she knew it. If she had to, she was going to force herself to be proud of herself. She just had to trust in her talent.

 

Mari couldn't believe she was going to have to accept the baton from Asha in the four-by-one in the livest meet in the metro area. Teams came from all over the city and the suburbs to compete in the East Moreland relays. Mari never got to see so many black people at her school as she did during this event. With more than a dozen teams in the competition, those from mostly black schools did well, and all of their fans came to watch them slay the few mostly white teams.

Cursing Coach Little, she jogged down to the stadium, trying to mentally prepare herself for her races. She ran past Asha, who was stretching with the rest of the team, then stopped and looked up, searching the stands for her people. She spotted Kalia and her mother then saw Dewayne and JD, arms filled with drinks and snacks, scooting past people to get to Kalia and her mother. She smiled and waved. Kalia waved back as her mother was busy trying to help unload the guys.

Stretching out, Mari heard the announcer read the times for the last race. He then announced that the four-by-one would start in ten minutes. She stood, pulled off her lightweight athletic pants and walked over to Asha.

“You ready?” she asked.

“Are
you
ready?” Asha shot back, her three braided ponytails flapping in the wind.

“I wasn't even sure if you were going to show up. You haven't been in school all week.”

“Gee, I wonder why,” said Asha, jumping up and down and wiggling her arms.

Mari looked intently at Asha as she pulled one arm across her chest with the other, then reversed the stretch.

“Look, I just need to know if your mind is on this race,” she said. “I'm sorry about your drama, but I just care about this race right now.”

“And that's all I care about,” Asha said.

“Good.”

Asha turned to walk away, but changed her mind and walked up to Mari.

“Listen, I don't know if this is going to mean anything, but I didn't know what my mother and Jackson were doing.”

“Umm, hmm,” said Mari, looking at her skeptically.

“For real,” said Asha. “I found out about it probably the same way that you did. Someone called me and told me they were talking about me on the radio, asking me if my mother was dating a guy from Fire. I didn't even know what he did at Fire until after the fact.”

Mari just looked at Asha.

“You don't have to believe me. Just please tell your sister that I'm sorry and that I didn't want to win like that.”

As Asha walked away, Mari noticed she didn't have her chin in the air as usual. She started to call her back, but the announcer began reading the lineup for her race. When he said Asha's name, several boos came from the stands. For some reason Mari felt bad for Asha as she walked to her starting position for the last leg of the four-by-one.

The gun went off, and Mari watched her teammate run the first leg of the race. They were in second place by the time the baton was passed to their second leg runner. As she approached Asha, they were tied for third. Everybody in the stands was on their feet as Asha came out of her start like she was shot out of a sling. “Go, Asha. Come on, come on,” Mari chanted, turning her body forward while reaching behind her. The minute Asha touched the baton to her hand, she lunged forward and didn't think about anything else but the finish line. The race was so close she didn't know who won. Everyone was pointing and screaming.

“Ladies and gentleman, it appears we have a…Oh, I was about to say we have a tie, but I've been informed we do have a winner,” boomed the announcer. During his pause Asha and Mari exchanged hopeful glances, walking toward each other.

“And the winner of the girls four-by-one is East Moreland with a time of 50.04 seconds.”

Mari and Asha were so overcome with excitement they hugged each other before they even knew what they were doing. Pulling back, they smiled at each other, then hugged again. Mari looked up in the stands and saw her sister pointing to her and talking to her mother. Her arm still around Asha, Mari knew it looked like she was snuggling up to the enemy, so she threw the okay sign up to her sister and pointed at Asha. She saw Kalia tilt her head to the side, raise her hands and shrug.

“I'll be right back,” she said to Asha, motioning for Kalia to meet her behind the stands, then she changed her mind, grabbed Asha's hand and dragged her toward the stands.

“What are you doing?” Asha asked, trotting behind her.

“You gotta tell Kalia yourself. It'll be more believable coming from you,” said Mari.

“Oh, my God,” said Asha. “She's not going to believe me.”

“Well, you gotta tell her anyway,” said Mari, leaping up the steps two at a time.

“All right, all right,” Asha said, huffing, a half step behind.

Dewayne, JD and Kalia were waiting for them when they got to the back of the stands. Asha and Kalia walked off, talking.

“Congratulations, speed demon,” Dewayne said to Mari.

“Yeah, you guys were flying around that track. I thought you were going to sprout some wings for a minute there,” said JD.

“Thank you, thank you,” Mari said, bowing deeply.

JD nodded in the direction of Kalia and Asha. “So what's up over there?” he asked.

“Asha said she didn't know what her mom and Jackson were doing. She said she was completely out of the loop,” said Mari.

“For real?” said Dewayne.

“I can believe that,” said JD. “This is the music industry, and stranger things have happened. Money and celebrity bring out the worst side of people sometimes.”

“Do you believe she's telling the truth?” Dewayne asked.

“Yep, and I think Kalia does, too. Look,” Mari said. Asha and Kalia were walking back toward them with smiles on their faces.

“I guess I'm not going to have to duck any claws around here,” said Dewayne as they walked up.

“Shut up, Dewayne. No. All is cool. We're cool,” said Kalia, looking at Asha.