Shades of Sepia

II

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles
May 21st
Houston, Texas

"Get up here Beyoncé," Solange barked at me, "You don't even know what you're spending your money on."

I jogged up to meet her pace, my eyes finally losing that gorgeous woman I'd just seen. I wasn't listening to my sister. Sometimes her motherly instinct was too much, and she liked to forgot that I was the older sister and she didn't get to tell me what to do.

"Who is that?" I asked her, and looked over my shoulder, in search of the woman in silk.

"Her and Sierra are best friends."

"I've never seen her."

"You've never seen Sierra."

Her image was drilled into my brain, her pretty smile brightening my eyelids when I shut my eyes. She was so beautiful, not the type of woman you reduced down to the word 'fine' or 'bad'. She was delightful to look at, her body graceful, so easy on the eyes.

"You're such a damn dummy Giselle."

"Stop talking to me crazy."

"Don't act crazy and I wouldn't have to talk to you like that. I had it."

"You wanna argue about money that's leaving our checking account?"

"Oh no it's leaving yours, since you wanna jump in my shit."

The Randals' saw us and made a B-line. They had been searching for us in this sea of faces, and my sister and I were hiding. That conversation was one I really didn't want to have, but it looked like it was going to have me.

"Girls!" Mrs. Randal came to us and kissed our cheeks while her husband greeted us formally, standing behind his wife when he was done talking. "How's your mother doing?" She asked.

The question hit me like a bag of bricks, but my sister had always been there to save me. She was my ride or die.

"She's doing well," Solange said, "How about the two of you? How've you two been?"

"Well, really well. We were planning to go to Aspen in the winter, but we were outbid. Almost three million dollars to go to Aspen. Can you believe that?"

Almost three million dollars?

Solange looked back at me and chuckled then stared before she turned back around.

That's what I was paying for?

I could go to Aspen for less than a million dollars, a million if I was feeling fancy. But three? That was an upsale if I'd ever seen one.

Who in their right mind would even pay for that?

Me, apparently. By proxy, I was insane. If it made me insane to pay that price tag for that young lady, I'd do it happily with a smile on my face.

I played the back, exchanged niceties with folks as they walked by while Solange conversed with the Randal's. She was better at this than me anyway. Mama taught her the most before it all went downhill.

When they finished up, Solange faced me and before she could speak, I told her, "We gotta go see Mama."

"We will."

"Tonight?"

"You wanna disturb her tonight? It's late."

I thought about it, shifting in my pants and growing uncomfortable with the topic that I'd brought up in the first place.

"You think she'll wanna see us?"

"Depends on the mood she's in. We can't gauge it Bey, you know that."