Chapter 38

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As June drew to a close and July approached, I began considering my plans for the Fourth. I didn’t feel like driving, so I planned to stay in town and make the rounds of friends who planned to grill out. I was looking forward to stopping by Erica and Linda’s since Linda was always bragging on Erica’s skills for outdoor cooking. When I shared my plans with Karen, we realized it had been a while since Linda’s other half had hung out with the group.

“I mean, she has an unspoken invitation to go out and do things with us, but she never shows up. Maybe she doesn’t like a crowd of black people,” Karen said, as we sat watching Durham’s minor league baseball team play. Since the Fourth was the following day, they were running two tickets for $17.76 so Karen and I scraped up $8.88 for the game.

“I don’t think it’s that. Maybe she feels since we are Linda’s friends, we don’t want her around.”