CHAPTER

Eight

Mildred spent all of Saturday and Sunday milling around her apartment, flipping through her beloved travel magazines and watching the clock, counting the hours and minutes until Monday morning.

She'd put on her best outfit, a pink and brown checkered wool skirt suit, even though it was late May and the weather was too warm for it.

Mildred didn't own a pair of heels; she couldn't walk in them anyway. Whenever she'd make an attempt, by her fourth step she was toppling sideways, falling over like a diseased oak. Mildred's shoe collection was made up of loafers, two worn-out pairs of Nikes, and a pair of pink galoshes.

She never wore makeup, but this time she had made a special trip to Rite-Aid to buy a tube of strawberry-flavored lip gloss, and she'd done one other special thing for herself that she hadn't done in a decade.

Sunday afternoon, she sat on her bed, an old issue of Essence magazine open on her lap as she followed the instructions for a hairstyle that she thought would suit her natural hair. Mildred had a standing press and curl appointment at the neighborhood beauty salon, which was patronized by bent old ladies and kindergartners. For the first time in twelve years she'd canceled her appointment, opting to follow the instructions in the magazine, which required the person to thoroughly wash her hair and then part it into quarters, generously applying protein gel to the locks before braiding them tightly and then pin rolling the hair before sitting under the dryer until it was dry.

Monday morning, Mildred rose at five o'clock, un-braided her hair, and was horrified to find that it was a stiff mess. A bird's nest!

She looked like one of those Africans who swung through the trees in the old black-and-white Tarzan movies.

Crying, she poured cup after cup of water over her head, softening it as best she could before greasing it and then pulling it back into a ponytail.

Black penny loafers spit-shined and gleaming, she straightened the hem of her jacket, lifted her head high in the air, and started out of the apartment and toward her destiny.