On Monday morning, the back door flew opened and Mitzi and Puccini entered. The first thing Mama asked her was, “Does your Mother know where you are?”

“She will when you call her.”

Mama shook her head and called Aunt Jessie. “Okay, yeah. Sure. Let me ask her.” She turned and asked, “Are you staying for breakfast?”

“What are you having?”

“Waffles.”

“Good ones are yucky ones?” By good, Mitzi meant not whole wheat.

THAT MAN said, “Good ones, the kind I eat.”

“Okay, I’m staying.”

Lolly came downstairs followed by Fluff. She was wearing a jade green dress with little yellow flowers. Last night, Munch found out Lolly’s feet were the same size as Mama’s. This morning she was wearing Mama’s black suede boots. Mitzi exclaimed, “Oh Lolly, you look B-Beautiful!”

“Thank you Mitzi.” Lolly took her seat..

Mama put the platter of waffles on the table. Mitzi jabbed one with her fork and put it on her plate. When she reached for the second one, she saw egg shells on the counter. Oh, great. Her face turned red. Volcano red. She swung her eyes at Mama and asked, “Are you trying to feed me my friends still in the egg babies?” Mitzi had named ALL the chickens and each was her special friend. Eating their eggs was a crime in her eyes.

Mama lied, “No Honey, of course not.”

Mitzi frowned at Mama. There was suspicion in her eyes. She said, “I don’t believe you. If you will excuse me I am going home.” She hopped off the chair with Puccini in tow and marched out the back door.

“Gosh,” Mama said. “I shouldn’t have lied to her but darn it, I get so tired of listing ingredients for her every time she comes over here to eat.”

Lolly laughed and so did her pa. He said, “Well, Love of Mine, this morning you might have just put her off forever. Maybe she won’t be showing up unannounced at meals any more.”

Mama gave him a lopsided grin and said, “I can only hope.”

Now, Munch was not fond at all of THAT MAN’s nickname for Mama. LOVE OF MINE. It was stupid. He called Lolly, Shortcake, for crying out loud. Of course, Munch didn’t acknowledge that his own nickname was on the strange side. In silence he finished his waffles and went to his room to get his books.

Later, as he, Lolly and Max stood waiting for the bus, the sky was filling with color. Though Max was standing with them, he was not with them at all. By the look on his face he was on another planet and he liked it there. The bus pulled up. Mrs. Anderson complimented Lolly, which made her blush. Lolly didn't notice Kevin but Munch did. That boy's eyes were bugging out of his head. They took their seat. The bus took off. It wouldn't be long until they were at Trevor’s stop. Munch started praying so hard that Trevor would notice Lolly had dressed up for him. If he didn't notice, Lolly would hide it, but she would be so hurt.

As they approached Trevor’s stop, Lolly began to lean forward. Munch saw her hand tremble ever so slightly as smoothed out her dress. The bus doors opened. Trevor got on. His eyes went straight to Lolly and he smiled, he actually smiled. Munch sent up a silent, “Thank you Jesus!" Trevor reached out his hand and gently cupped Lolly’s cheek as he passed her. Lolly turned bright red, but she looked so happy. She turned to Munch and whispered, “It worked. Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Once they got to school, Trevor and Lolly headed for the library. Munch made his way to the cafeteria. Grace was sitting at their table with Lisa and Jake. When Munch reached the table, he was very aware something was off. Lisa gave him a smile, but she looked like she was on the verge of tears. Jake seemed mad. This couple had always been on rocky ground. In Munch’s mind it was just a matter of time. Lisa stood and said, “I need to go to the library.”

Jake stood up.

Lisa said, “Alone.”

Jake said, “Fine.” It wasn’t fine.

Lisa headed for the library and Jake left the cafeteria. Munch and Grace just looked at each other. Grace said, “Thank God they are gone. When I got here they were going at it about some girl named, Viv. Seems Lisa used to be friends with her. Anyway, they shut up when I sat down, but man was I uncomfortable. You think they are gonna break up?”

“Don’t you?”

“Yup.” Grace fidgeted with her purse for a moment. “I am glad they left, I need to talk to you about something.”

“Okay.”

“I caught my sister calling Max. She pretended like it was just some friend. I didn't believe her. So, I snuck in my parents room and very carefully picked up the receiver. Yeah, that was bad, but Tina kinda has a history with white boys.”

So, Grace listened in on phone conversations. Munch used to, but he stopped. When his mama first started dating THAT MAN, he listened in on their conversations. He was very good at picking up a phone receiver without making a sound. Almost, as good as MItzi was. Of course, listening in had made things worse for him an it didn't stop Mama from marrying THAT MAN.

Grace snapped, "Are you even listening to me?"

"Sorry, Uhm, so Tina has liked a white boy before?"

“That was just what I was saying, if you had been LISTENING to me. ” Grace frowned at him. It was a fearsome frown. Munch realized right then and there he did not want to get on the wrong side of Grace. She continued, "The problem is that my sister is too damn pretty for her own good."

The word beautiful came to Munch's mind.

"Plus, she is boy crazy. That Max is a little hottie."

Max a little hottie. Okay.

"From the minute my sister laid eyes on him, I knew there was gonna be trouble. Why in the hell did ya'll sneak to the barn in the first place?"

He couldn't say he'd gone because Thahn Ho was there. With a slight catch in his voice, he said, "Max wanted to."

Grace rolled her eyes. "My daddy is gonna be some kinda pissed if he finds out about Max."

Munch asked, “How is he going to find out? You aren’t going to tell on her are you?”

Insulted, Grace said, “Of course not. Its just they are both thirteen and stupid. You know Max’s parents, how would they react if they knew their son liked a black girl?”

This was something Munch had never thought of before. He probably should have. He honestly didn’t know. He couldn’t assume that just because Uncle Luke and Aunt Jessie loved him that they would be wild about Max liking a girl that was not white. “I honestly don’t know. I do know though that Grandma Toady and Lolly wont’ care.”

“So what? That’s nice of them, but they aren’t Max’s parents and they aren’t mine. I don’t know what do.”

“If you’ve talked to her and she won’t listen, I don’t know what else you could do.”

She grumped, “Easy for you to say.”

This made Munch mad. “Is it? Is IT? You know my mama is white. If my mama listened to everyone that thought she shouldn’t be seeing a black man, I WOULD NOT BE HERE.” He hadn’t meant to be so loud. Instant embarrassment washed over him. Grace was dumb.

Her eyes filled with remorse. “I am so sorry Munch. That was stupid of me.”

He could see she was very sorry and also scared. He told her, "It’s okay. I forgive you. I know you are worried about your sister and you should be. People can be very cruel. If you want I can try talking to Max, but I dont’ think it will do any good. Seriously, that boy is one of my best friends, but he is hard headed.”

“So’s Tina.”

The bell rang. They picked up their books and headed for Algebra. When they passed Quack in the hall he gave Munch a smile that clearly said, Atta boy! The idiot thought he liked Grace.

*

After supper, Munch took Mama aside and said, “I really need to talk to Max before we go to Karate lessons.”

“About what?”

“Trust me Mama, its really important, or I wouldn’t ask.”

For several eternal seconds she studied him and said, “Okay, but you only have 30 minutes.”

“Thanks Mama.” He got his jacket and headed to the trailers. He doubted 30 minutes or even a hundred hours would convince Max to stop doing something he wanted to do. Still, he had told Grace he would talk to Max. His biggest obstacle was managing to talk to Max without ratting on Grace. He never should have agreed to this. NEVER.

Aunt Jessie’s little Pinto was gone so Max and Mitzi were with Grandma Toady tonight. How Mitzi and Max kept track of where they would be sleeping each night, he did not know. He entered the Trailer. Mitzi was standing on a chair in the living room, dressed in her white pajamas singing opera at the top of her lungs. Puccini was on the floor with a chop stick taped to his paw. Apparently Puccini was the conductor of the opera. Mitzi did not miss a note as Munch went to Max’s room. He knocked on the door.

Max opened the door. He had his transistor radio plugged into his ear. He said, “Hey Man.”

“Hey.” Munch entered the tiny room.

Max closed the door. “I thought you were grounded from coming over here.”

“I am.” Now what? This was stupid. Munch had no idea what to say or how to say it. This really wasn’t any of his business. “Uh, Mama wanted to borrow some sugar. So she sent me over.” This was the lamest lie he had ever told. "I, uh, never asked you if you walked Tina to class.”

At the mention of her name, Max lit up. He lit up more that Munch had ever seen him lit. So, he had it bad. He looked away from Munch and mumbled, “Yeah, course. I don’t back down from a dare.”

Now what? Munch really wasn’t the sort to pry. Yeah right. Okay. He asked, “Do you like her?”

“She’s okay.”

Great. There was no way to sugar coat this or make it NON awkward. “Okay. Well, if you do like her, you need to think about something. Liking her might cost you a little, but it could cost her a lot. This is deep white country. My mama knows what that means. I know what that means.”

Max looked at him and said, “It didn’t stop your mama.”

“No, it didn’t and she paid for it. And, my birth dad did too. Did they think it was worth it? I hope so. You be careful with Tina. That’s all I’m sayin’. We can’t help who we like. We just like them..”

Max frowned and asked, “Did her big sister put you up to this?”

“Why would you think that?”

“Last night when me and Tina were on the phone, I thought I heard someone else breathing. I thought maybe it was Mitzi. Now, I know it was Grace.” Max looked mad.

Frustrated, Munch asked, "Did you hear anything I said?"

"Yeah, whatever."

Well, Munch had bungled this. He had said his piece, done what Grace asked, and had accomplished absolutely nothing. As far as he was concerned, whatever came next was totally out of his hands. Before he left though, he said, "Don't rat on Grace to Tina, or I will tell your mama about our little trip to the barn."

Max glared at him. "You can leave now."

"Gladly."