The Bernice L. McFadden Collection. Bernice L. McFadden

arrived home just in time for dinner.

      “My,” Connie exclaimed. “You been gone all day. You must have read a dozen books!”

      Melinda floated up the staircase, down the hall, and into her bedroom. If the world had come to an end right then and there, Melinda wouldn’t have complained. She had had the most perfect day of her life and the destruction of heaven and earth couldn’t take it away from her.

      Was she happy? Happy was too small a word to describe what she was feeling.

      Melinda flung herself onto her bed and screamed with glee into the pillow.

      Three days was as long as Melinda’s desires allowed her. Any day beyond that and she was sure her heart would burst from her chest, mount her bicycle, and ride itself out to visit Cole Payne.

      “I’m off to the library, Mom!” Melinda shouted from the driveway.

      Barbara was sweeping the porch when Melinda rolled into the yard. Barbara’s heart sunk, but she still managed to force a bright smile.

      “Well, hello there, Melinda,” Barbara said as she folded her arms across her stomach.

      “Hello, Mrs. Payne. How are you?”

      “I’m well, and yourself?”

      “Fine, ma’am.” Melinda’s eyes swung to the house. “Is Cole home?”

      Barbara hands reached for her elbows and she dug her fingernails into the tender skin.

      “No, he’s not.”

      “Well, where is he?”

      Barbara blinked at the girl’s forwardness. She didn’t want to respond and even considered grabbing her up and swatting her across her behind to teach her some manners, but instead she said, “He’s in the fields, working.”

      “Where’s that?”

      Barbara bit down on her lip and nodded back in the direction Melinda had come. “Down the road a bit on the left,” she said through gritted teeth. “But like I said, he’s working.”

      Melinda thought about it for a moment. “Do you mind if I wait?”

      Barbara wanted to scream: No, go back home and find yourself one of your own kind and leave my Cole be!

      “Not at all,” she breathed.

      Inside, over cookies and lemonade, Barbara found the girl to be, well, charming, and her earlier steeliness began to soften.

      “These cookies are really, really good, Mrs. Payne.”

      “Thank you. I baked them myself.”

      “Really?”

      “Yep. Doesn’t your mom bake?”

      Melinda shook her head no. “Sara does all of the cooking and baking in our house.”

      “Sara?”

      “Our maid.”

      “Oh.” Barbara refilled Melinda’s glass. “So, do you know how to bake?”

      Again, Melinda shook her head no.

      Even as she made the offer, Barbara couldn’t quite understand why she was doing it. “If you’d like, one day we can bake some cookies together. I’ll show you how.”

      Melinda lit up like a glowworm. “Really?”

      “Sure.”

      There were other things the girl didn’t know how to do: iron, wash clothes, clean house. Barbara pitied her.

      The back door soon opened and the Payne men spilled in for their afternoon meal.

      “Oh Lawd,” Barbara exclaimed. “I haven’t even made lunch.”

      They filed into the kitchen and their mouths dropped open when they saw Melinda sitting at the table.

      The youngest boy said, “What she doing here?”

      “Mind your manners,” Barbara chastised. “Melinda has come for a visit.”

      John uttered a low “Hello.”

      Cole said, “Hey, girl, how ya been?”

      If Melinda were a balloon she would have floated straight up to the ceiling and popped. “Fine. You?”

      “Great! So what’s for lunch?”

      Melinda helped Barbara prepare sandwiches and she alone stirred the sugar and lemon into the iced tea, poured it into the mason jars, and set them before each of the Payne men.

      After lunch, she followed Cole to the back door and stood watching him slip his feet into his work boots.

      “You gonna be around when I get back?” he asked.

      Melinda looked at the sky. The sun was heading west. The library closed at four and she needed to be home soon after that. “What time will that be?”

      “’Bout seven or so.”

      “No, I have to get home, but I can come back on Sunday.”

      Cole clucked his tongue. “That’s tomorrow, ain’t it?”

      Sunday morning, the house was filled with the aroma of fried fish and grits.

      Sara knocked softly on Melinda’s door. “Miss, you up? Breakfast ready. Church today.”

      Melinda groaned.

      The door eased open and Sara’s round, brown face peeked in. “Miss?”

      “I don’t feel so good.”

      “You sick?”

      “My stomach hurts.”

      Sara’s eyes swam with sympathy. “Poor thing. I’ll get you some Bromo-Seltzer.”

      After the rest of the family headed off to church, Sara began chopping up the boiled potatoes and eggs for tater salad. Upstairs, Melinda slipped on a pair of shorts and a white blouse and brushed her hair into a tail, which she piled high atop her head and secured with a barrette.

      Carrying her tennis shoes, she slipped quietly down the stairs and out the front door. The loud click of the lock brought Sara into the foyer calling, “Is someone there?”

      * * *

      Under an overcast sky, Cole Payne took Melinda Thompson by the hand and guided her through the field of flowers to the place where he had passionately taken Sissy Johnson and then, later, other women.

      “This my most favorite place in the world,” he said as he removed his shoes and shrugged off his shirt.

      Melinda was unsure what it was she was supposed to do at that juncture, so she just watched.

      When Cole reached for the zipper of his pants, Melinda turned her head away. “What are you doing?”

      “Freeing myself,” Cole laughed. “You should try it.”

      Melinda trembled with excitement. “I-I can’t,” she whispered.

      “Sure you can. It’s easy.”

      She kept her back to him. “No, no, I can’t”

      “Why, you on your period or something?”

      Melinda’s entire face turned red with shame. What did Cole Payne know about periods? “No!”

      Cole chuckled. “Turn around.”

      Melinda turned slowly around to find a completely naked Cole, stretched out on his back with one leg folded over the other. She was relieved to see that his genitals were hidden behind his thighs.

      “Come here,” he said.

      Her heart raced as she inched timidly toward him. Cole patted the earth. “Here.