Upon telling people that they were sisters, no one ever believed them, and they always got the same reaction. They would always get the craziest looks from folks, eyes darting back from one sister to the other. Some people would be so brazen as to even outright say, “Y’all must have different daddies, huh?” There were the insensitive, rude ones that would say, “You’re so pretty,” to Bianca, as if Bella wasn’t even standing right next to her.
Every now and then, someone would think they were giving Bella a compliment by adding, “But you’re cute, too . . . to be dark-skinned.”
It never went unnoticed by Bianca how Bella’s spirit would take a nosedive then; sometimes her eyes would even water. Even after over eighteen plus years, to this very day, it still bothered her. It used to infuriate Bianca to see peoples’ comments make her sister feel so bad about herself. So, Bianca, loving her sister the way she did, would start downplaying herself. She started hiding behind Bella, thinking if people only saw Bella, they wouldn’t make comparisons or say hurtful things. Bianca never wanted others to hurt her sister, but at that moment, as the two struggled over the towel, she wanted to kill Bella her damn self; physically, mentally, any way she could.
“Let go, blacky,” Bianca spat viciously.
Bella let that comment roll off her back like the water from the shower Bianca had just gotten out of. She just kept right on battling. She was not moved by her sister’s words. She’d gotten over being called names such as black, tar baby, and darky. Besides, never once had Bianca ripped her for her complexion, so she knew she had only said it to upset her enough to let go of the towel and leave her be.
“I swear to God, if you don’t let go of this towel,” Bianca growled, holding onto it with a death grip. “I promise you, you going to be sorry.” With anger-filled eyes, she threatened her sister. She was so filled with rage that she felt strong enough to rip Bella apart with her bare hands.
Bella was no more affected by her little sister’s waterworks than she had been by the insult she’d spewed. With all her might, she gave one hard tug, successfully yanking the towel from Bianca’s grip, leaving her sister standing there in the middle of the bathroom floor, butt naked, with a very much visible baby bump.
Roaring like a lioness, Bianca’s reflexes made her snatch the towel from Bella and hit her with it.
“Ouch, bitch! I’m going to kill you!”
Before either of the sisters had realized it, the door flew open, and Ella was standing there in shock.
All eyes went to the doorway, where Ella stood, arms akimbo. “What the hell is going on in here?” She poked her nose in the doorway. She craned her head back on her neck in the way she did when she couldn’t believe something crazy was going on.
In all her years, she’d never heard her daughters have a fight, and she wasn’t going to stand for it now. If she had not done anything else, she’d instilled in the girls that once she was long gone, they would be all each other had. So from the first time it sounded as if Bella and Bianca were going to almost have a disagreement that could escalate, she nipped it in the bud. She constantly reminded them, “Y’all sisters, no matter what. And friends come and go, but at the end of the day, when the dust settles, y’all all each other got.” So, for the life of her, she couldn’t imagine what on earth all the ruckus was about that she’d heard all the way from the kitchen downstairs.
Ella stood there, her eyes darting back and forth between her oldest and youngest daughters. Neither of them said a word.
“Did y’all hear me?” Ella said with her fists on her hips. “I said, what is all the screaming and cussing going on? And y’all know damn well I’m the only one allowed to yell and fuss up in this house, so somebody better get to talking, because neither of you want none of this.”
Once again, Ella’s eyes shifted from one daughter to the next as Bella tried her best to explain, but she wasn’t fast enough. Bianca looked downward, while Bella looked down too—at her sister’s stomach.
“Here,” Bella said, handing Bianca back the towel.
Bianca snatched the towel to cover herself, but when she looked up into her mother’s eyes, she knew she’d moved too late. Ella’s eyes followed Bella’s stare, which bee-lined down to Bianca’s stomach just seconds before Bianca had a chance to cover it. Time stopped. The room fell silent.
For what felt like an eternity to Bianca, the mother-daughter pair stared into each other’s eyes. With every second, Bianca could see her mother becoming more and more disappointed. It was as if Bianca could see through her mother’s eyes, and she was watching all the dreams and hopes her mother had for her evaporate into thin air. Her mother’s shoulders visibly slumped inward. She sucked her teeth and shook her head as if she was dumbfounded. Her mother seemed to be frozen in that space, in the doorway of the bathroom.
Bianca thought about all those times her mother had danced around with Bianca’s report card in her hand, bragging about how smart she was. She would go on and on about how her youngest child was
