Lemon Cake

Chapter Six

Lola didn't fucking lie. The statement streamed through Tulip's mind as she glanced at the little girl buckled safely in the passenger seat. She couldn't stop stealing peeks at her while waiting for the red light to shift to green. Sidney King was a perfect amalgamation of her and Jasper.

Tulip's dark brown hue and Jasper's burnt sienna created a child with deep brown skin that seemed like God molded her from riches clay and sprinkled her with finely ground gold to catch the sun and shimmer in its rays. She had Tulip's almost black irises and Jasper's full lips. She even pulled her bottom one between her teeth as she thought deeply. She was doing it right now as she read the graphic novel she gripped in her hand while Lola introduced them in the foyer earlier.

Sydney's black mane that was the thickness of Jasper's with the length of her when she was that age was held back by an unidentifiable hair tie. It was straight but not hard like the way her Grandmama used to do her's. Casting a line of smoke from the hot metal comb knocking every trace of curl from her stands as she held her ear down.

I fucking hate steam. Tulip remembered the old nemesis that paid her a visit on the first day of school, the day before Easter Sunday, or any other holiday that you were meant to be paraded around and seen. She now rocked braids, cornrows, and wigs when she wanted to switch things up. She loved trying new hairstyles and colors but was certain about protecting her curl pattern. Tulip knew the Texas humidity was going to morph Sydney's flat-ironed ponytail to a corkscrew puff by the end of the night

"Verte," Sydney quipped with her eyes falling back to the colorfully illustrated page.

"What?" Tulip slanted closer to the child as if she was going to translate the word she spoke.

A honk for the car behind her gave back her awareness and she looked ahead at the glaring green traffic signal. She gave the engine some gas and they glided down the busy feeder road.

"D-Do you like this song?" Tulip nodded to the radio even though the music was streaming from her phone. She didn't know why she stuttered or why her voice sounded like a sheet of pre-used sandpaper. Nor why she was gripping the steering wheel like it was the last life jacket and she was on the Titanic.

No words come for the little girl. She did, however, look at Tulip with blankness for about a full second then went back to reading.

"That's fine." Tulip merged onto the freeway, swallowing away the nerves that rumbled in her empty stomach.

Damn, I didn't eat. She remembered the single sour strip she devoured before Lola rang her doorbell to bestow her with the delight next to her.

"I'm a talker." She jumped her car to the middle lane and received a blaring hunk from a black sports car... She shot up her middle finger and immediately regretted it as the little girl's eyes widened at her distended finger.

She planted her hand back on the wheel, "It's how people greet on the interstate."

The girl's eyebrows bunched together as her head tilted with disbelief.

"Naw, It's not a greeting." Tulip shook her head admitting. The last thing she wanted for the girl to go round flicking people off and thinking she was saying hi. That would be a parental fail or highlight, however you wanted to look at it.

"He was going thirty in a sixty-five zone and had the nerve to honk at me while on the phone." Tulip blew out a breath trying to validate her reason. She thought it was a stellar reason but Amelia King or even Lola might not agree.

"But telling people 'fuck you' isn't kind...I mean..." She shifted the chair easing on the gas as traffic slowed down. "Only if the situation calls for it and this is one of those situations. But you shouldn't do it. You're not old enough yet. "