2.The times Imani would wake up in the middle of the night and stand at my bedroom door, whispering, You awake? You awake? until she woke me, how she’d come into my room and we’d stay up talking all night long.
3.The times we’d make french toast on Saturday mornings and watch classic cartoons till noon and promise each other no matter how old we get we’ll always make time for The Flintstones.
4.The times we’d do our best to control our laughter at the dinner table, at church, at school, at any time when we are supposed to be serious and something funny happens. All the times she laughed when I laughed, cried when I cried.
Imani disappears to her room, then comes back down and says, “So, I’m going with you when you get your hair braided.”
I grab her and hug her and tell her thank you over and over—half playful, half serious.
She just shakes her head at me. “When are we leaving?”
“Ready when you two are,” Sadie says.
The three of us go to a beauty supply store on 125th to buy the hair.
“Let’s stop here first, though,” Sadie says. She stops in front of a corner store. “I need some chips in my life.”
“I need a beef patty and some coco bread,” I say.
“Me too.” Imani opens the door, and we all file in.
We each go straight to the food we want. Sadie gets two small bags of chips and orders two patties—one beef, one chicken. No coco bread. “Not all of this is for right now,” she tells us.
“Even if it was, this is a judgment-free zone,” Imani says.
Imani and I order our beef patties and coco bread. As soon as we leave, I go into the bag and start eating. I sink my teeth into the golden dough. It is thick and flaky, and the savory filling has the perfect amount of spice. All this deliciousness is sandwiched between the sweet coco bread, making this the best decision of the day. My taste buds are so happy right now.
We finish our food before entering the beauty supply store. The first thing I notice when I walk in is the Korean man sitting up high in a space that looks over us all. He is not smiling or frowning, just a plain-faced man watching shoppers sort through hair oils, shampoos, barrettes, blow-dryers, and combs. At the front of the store there are shelves of nail polish against the wall on the right. The colors are stacked in order of light to dark shades; some of the bottled liquid looks so similar, I have to look up close to see the different tint.
“Hair is in the back,” Sadie says. She walks down the aisle of oils and shampoos. There are so many to choose from, and it seems like every shampoo and conditioner is mixed with something: shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil, argan oil. Aunt Ebony always laughs at us, saying she can’t believe that we’d spend so much money on something that she can make at home.
When we get to the back, Sadie walks up to the counter and dings the bell. “I hope Ji Son is here.” As soon as she says it, a woman comes out and smiles when she sees Sadie.
“Hello, my friend,” Ji Son says. “How can I help you today?”
“Do you carry something similar to this?” Sadie holds her phone out, zooming in on a photo.
“Yes, yes. Right over here.” Ji Son walks us over to the section where packs of hair are sold.
“Perfect,” Sadie says. She browses through the options of color, holds a pack up to me, and says, “Yeah, I think you’re a 1B.” She grabs packets of hair, passing them to me and Imani so we can carry them.
“What about adding some color?” I ask.
“Oh yeah—you’d look good in any of these.” Sadie points to the shades of brown. I choose a color that’s close to what I wanted to do if I dyed my hair.
“Or, you can be bold and do this,” Imani says. She is holding up one pack of purple and one pack of blue. She is laughing because she knows I would never do that.
Sadie, on the other hand, takes the packets from her and considers them. “These are actually nice colors. They’d work for highlights.”
It makes sense that Sadie would want me to add color. She changes her hairstyle every few weeks—braids, twists, Afro—and she dyes it or adds extensions in color, blond, burgundy, dark green.
Imani and I follow Sadie to the register. A woman is standing there cursing out the clerk because she can’t return her items. “Store credit only,” the woman behind the counter keeps repeating while pointing to the sign. After the manager comes out and calms the customer, I pay for the hair and the three of us leave.
Once we are at Sadie’s, I take my head wrap off and sit down in a folding chair that isn’t all too comfortable, but at least the seat is padded. Sadie begins to braid my hair, strand by strand, as we watch the first movie. She braids pretty fast, but still, it’s going to take a while, so we’ll probably get through two and a half movies—depending on how many breaks we take.
Sadie braids and we watch the first movie—pausing it once to take a bathroom break. When the movie is over, we stop so I can stretch my legs and so Sadie can rest her fingers. “Want to listen to music?” Sadie asks. She puts her music on shuffle so we are listening to all kinds of songs bouncing from genre to genre.
“Have you heard Blue’s album?” I ask.
“Who is Blue?”
Imani laughs. “A new singer that Nala is obsessed with. She plays her every morning. Loud.”
“I thought you liked Blue?” I say.
“I do,” Imani says. “I like her. You love her.”
“She’s right,” I admit. “I guess I’m a little obsessed, but she’s so good.”
“All right, all right, I’m sold,” Sadie says. “Let’s listen to her.”
I sync my phone to Sadie’s speaker. It’s hard to keep still because Blue’s music makes you want to dance. When we get to the end of the playlist, Sadie says, “Let’s listen to that again.”
“See? Good, right?” I tell her.
Imani rolls her eyes. “Are we really going to listen to the whole thing again?”
I push play.
We listen to the playlist one more time, and then we start the next movie. I sit back down in the chair so Sadie can finish my hair. Just as the opening credits roll, my phone buzzes. It’s Tye: Sorry I wasn’t able to say bye to you after our meeting. I had to rush out. What are you doing tomorrow?
I type a response: Whatever you want me to do.
No, that is way too forward.
I delete that and type again: Why? What’s up?
Hmm. Sounds too harsh. Truth is, I promised Grandma that I’d come over and help her on her puzzle.
I write another text: I have to go to work.
Tye texts me right back and says: Can we hang out after you get off work?
Well, it’s good to know my jheri curl didn’t scare him away.
“Nala, who are you talking to?” Imani says. “You’re not even paying attention to the movie.”
I feel Sadie looking over my shoulder. “Probably texting the same guy she’s getting all cute for.”
“Um, I’m always cute, thank you, and there is no guy.” I am laughing when I say this. And inside I am wondering if I should tell them about my crush on Tye.
“Wait, there’s a guy?” Imani pauses the movie.
“Why do you sound surprised?” I ask.