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Charm School
By Jerhretta Dafina Suite
CassieJo Person was something else.
CassieJo musta been six feet three inches
tall with lots of makeup on her face. My father said it was
tastefully applied. It was too much for me, though.
CassieJo person was my Charm School teacher.
Charm school. Why in the world I needed charm school, I didn't
know. My father thought they could teach me to be a lady.
"Smooth those rough edges," he'd say. Though I didn't
know why. It was hard enough just being a girl. And besides, I
like my edges.
CassieJo Person, tall and black with
"tastefully applied" makeup, glided into the classroom
and introduced herself as she looked over the class. She looked
my way and nodded. I almost smiled back.
Anyway, I didn't learn a thing from CassieJo.
Well, she did teach me how to do my nails, of which I had not
one. Fingers all bit up.
CassieJo Person was tall, black and comely.
Comely. That's a word I learned from the bible. Bet that
surprised you, didn't it? I might be a little "rough around
the edges," but I read a lot. Anyway, CassieJo taught me
how to paint my nubs. They did look a little better. CassieJo
said it was a 1000% improvement. I guess painted nubs are better
than just plain ones.
Oh, I almost forgot, CassieJo taught me how
to sit in a chair without looking back to see where the chair
was placed. You know, to back into a chair. Just place the back
of your right leg flush with the seat of the chair, balance and
gently sit. I used that move to impress relatives, when they
flew out to "sunnycalifornia" to visit us, by backing
into the back seat of the car. "Look how nice that child
got in that car," my godmother would say I was good.
CassieJo had big feet, too. And she wore the
right size shoe. I mean her feet weren't all curled up at the
tip of the shoe like some long-feet ladies I knew. I was amazed
because we lived around a lot of little fee people. And here's
this tall black lady all made up and wearing bigass high heels.
Oh, excuse me. I should say long, high-heeled shoes. Very long.
Six feet three and wearing heels. CassieJo person was something
else.
CassieJo said I didn't always have to say
what was right on the tip of my tongue. I just liked to cuss
every now and then to see adults' eyes get wide or slit and
watch their lips go slack. CassieJo said, "People who cuss
lacked the necessary vocabulary to express themselves." I
didn't know what she was talking about. I had a bigass
vocabulary. Read more books than anyone in my class and used the
words in the right places, too. Shoot!
CassieJo wasn't skinny, like the white girls
on TV. CassieJo had "land" behind her. That's what my
fresh-mouth brother said when he came to pick me up from class.
"CassieJo has a nice landscape and lots of land behind
her."
But CassieJo didn't wear big ol' too loose
clothes or blouses that tried to cover her posterior, like I did
when the white boys at school laughed during earthquake drills
because my behind stuck out from under the desk. CassieJo was
not even ashamed of her shape. And around all those inverted
butts. CassieJo's clothes flowed with her.
CassieJo Person was something else.
But what surprised me the most, what really
gave me pause, (I bet you liked that word "pause"
didn't you?), was that CassieJo wore her own nappyass hair. Boy!
What nerve she had. I mean, I didn't press my hair. My father
would not allow that. But I greased, watered, and brushed it
till my naps listened. And they never listened for long.
CassieJo told me our hair was like that for a reason. It
protected our precious brains. She said that God put a high
value on our cerebral mass (I learned that phrase reading our
medical dictionary).
She said that the Creator offered us the
ultimate protection by making our hair like it was. A blessing
she called it. I don't know what kind of blessing that was when
everyone else had blow hair. My hair only moved when I did. Umph!
But, since she was right about my nails
looking a little better, I thought I'd try wearing my hair
un-slicked for one day. Charm school day.
So, I washed, picked out and patted my hair
to a perfect circle. I did like the way it framed my face and
showed off my, as CassieJo would say, "Nubian nose."
CassieJo said I had a Nubian nose, like our ancestors in Africa.
I told her we'd have to talk about that.
I was kinda excited about going to class that
day. I just knew CassieJo would say something wild like,
"you look just like a little queen, Melissa Ruth." She
always said crazy stuff like that. CassieJo person was something
else.
But when I got to class, CassieJo wasn't
there. Some blow hair lady had taken her place. I don't remember
her name. I just remember her eyes skipping over me when she
looked around the class and introduced herself. It was almost
like she didn't see me.
After class I overheard the school director
saying that there had been some kind of administrative problem
concerning Miss Person. And, that she wasn't quite the match
that they'd been looking for. I wondered with whom they were
trying to make her match. I mean, though we were starting to
match. * * * *
*
update 16 June
2008 |
