Short Stories II

Sardines

Bella was short for Isabella, and Isabella almost directly translated to 'beauty' when the 'Is-' was dropped. That's why, she says, she goes by Bella.

Always and forever, Bella was a very smart girl. Her light auburn hair cropped short below her ears, and she always seemed to be wearing the same blue overalls. She was an interesting type to the kids in her neighborhood, and never failed to fascinate them with her works of science, or the facts of literature picked up from her architectural father. For an eight year old girl, she was the whole package, wrapped with a shiny bow to compliment. 

She was white, while a lot of her friends on the block were of different shapes and colors. But her neighbors didn't seem to mind. That's what made her stand out even more from the rest.

Adele(a) was the Asian-pacific girl just around the corner, with skin white as chalk and a bob straight as tinfoil. She took after Bella in dropping the 'a' in her name to sound more like her favorite pop star, Adele.

The rest of the kids on their streets were boys, each one a varying race and physical stature. Ryland was Vietnamese, but man was her tall, standing at a head taller than the other boys and girls. There was also Romeo, who was Spanish (Spain), and often had loud parties at his house. They celebrated almost every holiday.

In the summer of 1996, 8:00am on a Wednesday, Bella Rue made her way down main street to visit whoever was at the park that morning. There was no playground in the town of Montgomery but a clearing of rich grass, tumbling willow trees and a single park bench sitting on it's outskirts. Bella would appreciate the installation of a playground, or maybe a meadow of wild daisies and marigolds, but the clearing of grass worked just fine. 

Antoine flashed a toothy smile towards Bella, shuffling his hands in his khaki shorts as he nodded for her to come over. Bella smiled back, sitting down with him in the thick grass.

"So? How're you Miss Fitz?" Antoine loomed his eyes over her with his chocolaty, making Bella want a Hershey's bar right about now. His skin was near the same color as his skin, with tight curls budding off of the top of his head, making him definitely the strangest of the group; that was, according to the neighborly old women who gossip on their front porch steps. They ought have had a fit as teenagers when Martin Luther was in town, marching his way through town as a black man. Antoine could even be related to him for all she knew, for Alabama's little neighborhoods of Montgomery were closely knitted counties.

"Well, I'm doing pretty good. It's just that Emerald's room is so quiet nowadays, I ain't used to the silence." Emerald Rose had darker hair than Bella did, with knobby elbows and thighs that seemed unnaturally split apart. Her limbs stuck out of her body like toothpicks, and her pale cheeks were gaunt in the flesh. 

Antoine pursed his big lips together, eyeing her down in sympathy. He exhaled deeply like an old man, placing an ashy hand on her bare knee.

"I'm sorry to hear that," He said, making direct eye contact to Bella. She sniffled a bit, her eyes growing red by the second. She wasn't about to cry in front of a boy, no way in hell.

"I know Antoine, I know you pity me."

"Miss, I don't pity you none." He told her. He sounded sincere, but Bella Rue still felt mighty embarrassed.

"Do you need a handkerchief?" Her asked politely. His voice ran like water over stones, that's how comforting it was when he spoke to her, 'specially when she was upset about something.

Bella took the handkerchief, nodding a thank you to her friend.

"I just... I wish she could come home." That set Bella off like a needle to a balloon, making her shudder in tears and hot snot.

"Awe... Miss," Antoine softly patted her back, feeling her lungs tremble with each time she blew her nose.

"What is going on here?" Miss Paterson shouted from the park's entryway, her UFO shaped hips wobbling as she threaded through the thick grasses to get to the two kids.

"I have had enough of you touchin' my white girls, you hear me son?" She gripped the back of Antoine's shirt with a tight chubby fist. This women's weight did not describe her physical shape, for she was a woman made of anchored steel. Bella took her barrette off of her head before standing up in his defense.

"Ma'am, he wasn't doin' nothing!" Bella insisted, calling up to her as she lifted the poor boy off of the ground. 

"Please Miss, he was only helping me!" She cried, bundling her little hands in fists.

Bella looked over Miss Paterson's tall shoulder to see Adele standing in the entryway, her slicked bob blowing in the wind. She said nothing, just watching Antoine and Bella struggle to free him from Miss Paterson's tight grip.

"Adele?" 

"Shut it honey, she's the one who got me here just in time, and she ain't fixin' to help with none of ya'll lies,"

Bella Rue narrowed her eyebrows in both of their directions, confused on what was happening.

"Adele, what is going on?" Bella shouted, her face turning tomato red. She didn't know what to do, because Miss Paterson was a grown up and she had to do as told.

"Well, I saw he was buggin' you when you're still sad about your sister, so I got Miss's and she came to take care of it," Adele explained, realizing now that that may not have been a good idea.

"Adele! He was bein' kind to me! He was helping me! There wasn't nothing mean he was doing," Bella explained, mixing in her slang tongue out of habit. She couldn't think straight when things were going on around her.

By now, Antoine was being dragged outta the courtyard by his shirt collar, ripping a defined hole through the back. 

"Miss, I was wrong. Bella's right, he wasn't causing trouble for her," Adele told Miss Paterson as she brushed alongside her to get out of the park.

The old woman dropped the boy lack a sack of potatoes, letting him roll agony from being punched and gripped by Miss Paterson. Bruises seemed to be creeping up his collarbone and around his neck, making Bella feel even worse for him.

"You sure now? These n*****s seem to always be causing trouble," She said, glancing at Antoine like he were an animal.

"Yessum." Adele nodded. She waited until the racist old woman had left before coming to Antoine's side as well.

"Antoine? Are you alright?" Bella asked frantically. She didn't know what to do in terms of first aid when he wasn't bleeding, so she just sat next to him instead.

"No ma'am," He grimaced, reeling himself up to face both girls. To have Bella Rue, the most beautiful girl on the block try and save him so revolutionary.

"Belle, I'm so sorry I sent her over here. I didn't know she would be violent..."

"It's okay," Bella wrapped an arm around her friend for a second before returning to Antoine's side, helping him sit up. He had a bloody nose from hittin' against Miss's shoulder when she lifted him, but you could barely tell from his dark skin.

"It's okay Adele, it happens a lot," He said, wiping the crusty blood with the back of his hand. Bella looked above him to match a sad look with Adele, realizing the reality of her friend. People still hated him, no matter how kind he was to his friends, and someone he wasn't weepin' about that neither. 

"Antoine, I wanted to thank you for helpin' me with missing my sister. She's in the psychiatric ward, so I don't know when I'll see her again."

Antoine lifted his head up to match Bella eyes, grinning at her.

"Now, when did you learn how to say that?"

She was without a doubt the smartest girl in Montgomery, Alabama.