8 Chapter 8

“Hello,” her mother said with a forced pleasant smile. Her eyes dropped down to meet Zora who looked back. She was careful not to stare at her mother too boldly but not drop her gaze either. She knew her mother suspected something between the two of them. After all, mothers always seemed to know.

“Who yah fi you bredren?” her mother asked in Jamaican patois. Zora’s eyebrows rose. Her mother rarely spoke in her native tongue in front of anyone outside of family. She said it was so rude to speak in a language not everyone understood. Despite that, she still pulled it out when she wanted to talk about a person right in front of them.

“Her name is Sarah,” Zora answered. “She was in my second grade class and she is Mrs. Montgomery’s niece. She is down from Asheville and we have been catching up.”

“Oh,” her mother said then looked at Sarah and paused. Zora sensed her mother wanted to say something else. Instead, her mother just waved her hand and closed the door.