Kameela

By Tamario Pettigrew

Freddy is just thirteen years old when he's sent to live with his father on Cicely Street in Buffalo, NY. At first he doesn't want to live with Pops-but then he sees Kameela Robinson jumping Double Dutch with her friends. As Freddy integrates into his new group of friends, he gets to know Kameela, inclu

• Language: English
• Publisher: 562 Publishing
• Release date: Nov 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9798218111335

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Kameela

Kameela’s companion novel, JUJU: Life on the East Side available now.

KAMEELA

TAMARIO PETTIGREW

562 Publishing

Buffalo, NY

Copyright © 2022 by Tamario Pettigrew

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Publisher’s note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

562 Publishing

Buffalo, NY 14215

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Edited by Kristen Corrects, Inc.

Cover art design by ebooklaunch.com

Printed in the United States

First edition published November, 2022

Kameela

1

I DIDN’T SEE KAMEELA Robinson on the first day of school. Though I ain’t know it at the time, this was when I first realized she was missing. I left for the bus stop thinking I would see her waiting for the metro bus but I didn’t.

The Robinsons’ house was the same as it had always been. It was the nicest house on Cicely Street. It was quiet. It was peaceful. Their porch light was still shining in the crisp morning air. The early-morning temperatures always dropped below sixty when school started. Today it musta been around fifty-two degrees.

I could smell Mrs. Robinson’s rose bushes in her side yard as I walked across her driveway. The Robinsons’ cars was where they always was. It was like nothing had changed even though everything had changed. I looked for Kameela’s bedroom window as I passed the Robinson house. The light in her bedroom was off. It was the first time I noticed a darkness from her window.

Kameela? I called as I passed her darkened bedroom.

I thought she would hear me if she was in there. I thought if she wasn’t in her bedroom it was cuz she was running late. Maybe she was still in the bathroom. Then I thought maybe she was already at the bus stop with Salina. If she wasn’t up there with Salina, I hoped she’d hear me callin’ her name and come runnin’ to the bus stop with me.

At the corner I seen Salina nervously watching down Cicely Street. She had on all her new school clothes. She looked like she was in college but she was a high school freshman.

Hi, Freddy, Salina greeted.

Sup, Salina?

I wished Kameela was standing off to the side of Salina but she wasn’t. I hoped she would be talking to Salina about the first day of high school. I looked over every girl waiting for the bus.

She not up here yet, Salina told me.

I couldn’t wait to see Kameela this morning. I couldn’t wait to see her dressed up all pretty like I imagined.

I don’t know what she doin’, Salina said. She better hurry up. I’m not missing the bus for her. She know you gotta be early on the first day.

You think Mrs. Robinson gon’ drive her?

Maybe. I don’t know. She ain’t even get her hair done like she was supposed to last night. Everybody was getting their hair done except her.

She call you?

No. You?

No, I ain’t talk to her since ’Tron’s birthday party.

Me either.

Yo hair look nice.

Thanks. Salina smiled her little girl smile.

All summer Salina’s hair was some form of afro. She’d have Mickey Mouse ears on top of her head, or rubber bands making one big puff at the top. Then sometimes she’d wear those hair bands and barrettes girls wear for decoration. Then she’d have braids on one side of her head or at the front of her head while the rest was afro. One time she even had small braids going up the side of her head making a fake braided mohawk at the top of her head.

This morning, Salina had her hair done up with some twisted-looking twirls down to her neck like how Kameela’s hair looked most times. Today Salina’s hair was combed out real thick but permed. Feathered, she called it. She had a twisted bang dancing above her eyes so it moved every time she blinked. She pushed her curled bang out of her eyes with the back of her hand.

Salina was agitated like Kameela wasn’t gon’ make it. She anxiously watched down Cicely Street.

What is she doin’? Salina said almost to herself.

The bus pulled up and we got on it without Kameela. I had half a mind to wait for the next bus but I convinced myself Mrs. Robinson was overprotective and she’d probably drive Kameela on the first day.

I didn’t see Kameela at all on the first day. We didn’t go to the same high school because I didn’t get into a smart school like Kameela and Salina. I was supposed to see Kameela on the bus but I didn’t. She wasn’t on the bus to or from school.

After school, I was up all night hoping Kameela would call me. I hoped she’d sneak out and climb in my bedroom window but she didn’t. I thought I’d see her the next day but she ain’t never come to school. I never seen her on the bus one time. No one heard anything from her, not even Salina. I thought because they let us skate and dance and kiss at Altron’s birthday party they’d understand she was my girlfriend and let me see her. I thought maybe the Robinsons would let us sit on her porch like they used to.

After a second day of high school without Kameela, I went and knocked on the Robinsons’ front door. I wasn’t even scared like I was before. Mrs. Robinson said, She ain’t here and slammed the door right in my face. It was real nasty. She had this look on her face like she hated me. She ain’t call me little Freddy or nothin’, like she used to. She ain’t smile. She wasn’t nice for shit.

Kameela ain’t never go nowhere else. She was always at home, or with me, or Salina, or on Altron’s porch with the rest of us enjoying our summer. I knew she was home. She had to be. I wanted to see her even if she only stood in her doorway like she used to. She’d just stand there with her screen door against her hip and her shoulder on her doorjamb until Mrs. Robinson told her to close her door and Stop letting all this hot air in here, girl.

I knocked again.

She ain’t coming out, Mrs. Robinson said. Don’t keep knocking on my gotdamn door. You want me to call Frederick? I dun told Fred to keep yo ass away from her but he ain’t listen.

I wanted to say, Call him I don’t care. But I didn’t. I said, Yes ma’am. I was tryin’ to see why Kameela ain’t come to school.

I told you she ain’t coming out cuz she ain’t here. Now get off my porch ’fore I call Frederick.

Mrs. Robinson closed her door like she hated me, like I was disgusting to her. Her face was saying Get away from here, mothafucka. She wasn’t no nice church lady. She was a wicked old bitch.

I moped off her porch with my head buried in the ground like Mr. Saunders.

They was all laughing and joking when I crossed the street to Altron’s porch. Even Salina joked Mrs. Robinson probably got mad me and Kameela kissed and danced all night at Altron’s birthday party.

Kameela probably gon’ be on punishment forever, Salina said.

You ain’t gon’ see her ass till the cows come home. Marcus laughed.

Don’t nobody say that, Altron said.

They do, in the movies, Marcus replied.

We don’t live on no farm, fool.

They was making up all kinds of sayings about how long Kameela was gon’ be on punishment.

DaMone chuckled to himself. When I looked at his stupid face he exploded in laughter. Her ass gon’ be on punishment till the next Halley’s Comet.

In school they said Halley’s Comet came every seventy-five years. They was laughing and falling to their sides and holding themselves up on Altron’s banisters about Kameela being on punishment till the next Halley’s Comet. Then they was saying, It already came in 1986. Nineteen eighty-six plus seventy-five is 2061, they said.

He ain’t gon’ see her ass till 2061, David laughed.

That’s crazy. They laughed.

It’s gon’ be spaceships and shit. Ennis laughed.

Flying cars and all that shit. DaMone laughed.

We probably be living on the moon. Junior fell off his chair laughing.

He don’t like that, Marcus said.

He mad as hell. Ennis laughed.

Stop it, Nia pleaded.

I know. He sad for her, April said.

It’s cool. Whatever, I replied through the lump in my throat.

Aww, Serena said.

Want me to see if she can come out? April asked.

I’on care, I said nonchalantly.

We should all go, Nia said.

Y’all go, Salina replied.

You not comin’? Serena asked.

No. I can’t. I don’t want to.

Why? They always let you in, Serena said.

I don’t want to. Plus, they can’t keep her locked up forever, Salina said. She gotta catch the bus at some point.

The girls decided April should be the one who knocked on the Robinsons’ door because they wouldn’t assume anything if it was April. April tried to see Kameela and they wouldn’t let her. Then when Serena and Nia tried to see Kameela, Mrs. Robinson said, She can’t have no company.

The girls not being able to see Kameela made it even worse for my mind. I couldn’t shake that something was wrong with her. Ennis and Junior was making jokes about Kameela being on permanent punishment and how I ain’t gon’ see her till she thirty.

Don’t listen to them, Freddy, Nia said.

They can’t keep her in there forever, Serena said.

Shid. Junior laughed. Why they can’t?

I know. Why they can’t? Ennis piled on.

Cuz she gotta go to school or they’a get in trouble, Salina replied.

They can homeschool her, Altron said.

They went on talking about being homeschooled and the pros for homeschooling, like any of us would actually have homeschooling. Our parents worked long hours. They was too tired to even help us with our homework. Plus, I wasn’t worried about her schooling. I was worried about Mrs. Robinson hurting her somehow. All I thought about was Kameela not being able to defend herself against Mrs. Robinson.

I was sittin’ on Altron’s porch watching the Robinsons’ front door. Something didn’t feel right. This wasn’t punishment like we’d experienced with Kameela all summer. This was different. I knew it wasn’t the same. I knew it in my soul. I could feel it. Kameela would come to her window if she could. She would sneak and call me or Salina or somethin’. She wasn’t in the house on punishment, she was missing.

Altron’s porch felt so normal like Kameela was laughing with us when she wasn’t. They made it feel like it wasn’t abnormal for her not to go to school on the first day. I knew something was wrong. I never stopped thinking Mrs. Robinson hurt her. Maybe she pushed Kameela down and Kameela hit her head, I thought. Maybe Mrs. Robinson hit her too hard and broke something in Kameela’s skull. They was acting like Kameela was sitting next to us like she always did. I was hoping she’d come out her front door and cross the street to Altron’s porch like she used to. I knew Kameela would try to see me if she could. I knew she’d at least talk to Salina but she didn’t. I felt like I was going crazy thinking about her. I was envisioning her in my mind while they moved on without me.

Freddy? Yo, Freddy? Earth to Freddy?

Huh?

We going to play the game, DaMone said. You comin’?

Yeah.

Later that night, after Mrs. Robinson went to work I was standing under Kameela’s bedroom window calling her.

Kameela? Kameela? I called.

I threw a pebble at her window but she ain’t come. She ain’t move her curtains or nothin’. It was like she wasn’t even in her bedroom. I was hoping she would open her window and stick her head out to talk to me. She didn’t. It was strange because her bedroom light was on. The light had been off all day and I thought it was on because she was in there listening to music or reading one of them books she read.

Kameela? I called louder.

I was trying not to yell her name at the top of my voice because I didn’t want to wake Mr. Robinson. I wanted Kameela to come to her window and talk to me. I was thinking if she did come to her window, she could open her side door and we could talk or somethin’.

I threw another pebble at her window but she still ain’t open her curtain. I had to hurry and leave her driveway because after I threw my third pebble, her uncle Palm’s headlights pulled in front of the Robinsons’ house. I had to jump the fence into Salina’s yard so I could go home without Palm seeing me.

I never saw Kameela again. She never came to her window. She never crossed over to Altron’s porch. She never came to school. She was gone.

2

WHEN I CAME HOME from school today, they was already sitting on Altron’s porch. I ain’t want to talk to them. I ain’t want to laugh about something they thought was funny. I wanted to see Kameela sitting next to Salina. I wanted to see the girls whispering. Kameela wasn’t nowhere I looked. I wanted to walk with my head down like Mr. Saunders and find my bed and fall into it.

I tried to walk home but Salina called me. They all wanted me to cross the street and sit on Altron’s porch with them. I ain’t want to sit on his porch cuz I ain’t want to spend all my time watching the Robinsons’ front door.

Freddy? they called.

I was stuck. I had to sit with them. Then I was thinking they probably sad they ain’t know nothing about Kameela either. Then I was thinking we probably needed each other so I went and sat with them.

It had been several days without Kameela and all them jokes they said before was gone. Ain’t nobody say nothing funny and we watched the Robinsons’ front door like it was a Michael Jackson concert or a movie or something.

Even Ennis and Junior ain’t say nothing funny.

We sat there and that’s when I noticed it. I felt it. Everything was different. Cicely Street would never be the same without Kameela.

Cicely was a nice street. It was a nicer street than any street Mama lived on. I used to stay with Mama but she sent me to live with Pops a couple months before my fourteenth birthday. That’s how I met Kameela. She lived up the street from Pops, with her grandparents. It wasn’t no big ceremony. Mama left me on Pops’ stoop with my suitcase. Pops pulled me inside by the back of my head and I been living on Cicely ever since.

When I was first coming to Pops’ house with Mama, I seen Cicely Street differently than I used to see it when I was visiting. I noticed things I ain’t notice before. Most of the houses had giant chestnut trees that rose up taller than the houses. Cicely was a calm, quiet street with kids playing in the middle of the road. In every corner I looked kids was running and playing and laughing. Boys was throwing footballs and riding bikes or skateboards and jumping off porches running this way and that enjoying themselves. And the girls was jumping Double Dutch and hopscotch or they was racing boys in the middle of the street gaging who was faster. Mama had to blow her horn one time so she wouldn’t hit nobody.

Every street on the East Side ain’t like Cicely. Some streets full of drug dealing and violence. Even the streets on either side of Cicely, Herman and Guilford, wasn’t nice streets like Cicely. Cicely was full of nice families and working-class people being neighborly.

Pops knew all his neighbors cuz he lived on Cicely Street his entire life. In fact, like most of Pops’ neighbors, he was born on Cicely. Most of his neighbors was homeowners he knew since he was a boy. Some of them was in a second generation of homeowning after their parents died.

After I got my bag outta Mama’s car she leaned over her passenger window and yelled for me to knock on Pops’ door. Soon as I knocked, Mama left. I used to always see Pops while he was sitting in his car. He’d usually pull up to Mama’s house and call my name FREDDY?! but he ain’t never come in Mama’s house. When I’d see him, it was always through his car window.

Now Pops was standing in front of me. He was a tall man with a lean build. I knew a lot about him even if I ain’t see him a lot. I knew he played football in high school. I knew he worked in a factory. And I knew he lived alone. When I was looking at him, he still looked like an athlete. The only reason I could tell he was over fifty was because his hair was gray. He had more gray hair than black hair but there was still several patches of black hair on his head. If I didn’t know him, I’d think he was in his forties. Mama told me he was fifty-one.

Once I entered Pops’ house, I somehow knew I was home. I felt it in my soul somehow. I’d been in his house before. It belonged to my grandmother, though it was populated with Pops’ things. His work clothes. His boots. The tools he used for work. Equipment he used for building this or that thing he worked on with Mr. Robinson. All his things were strewn throughout his house. Even through all Pops’ belongings, you could tell his house used to belong to an elderly woman. The furniture and dishes and pots and matching appliances all looked like they belonged to an elderly black lady and not the kind of man Pops was. Pops wasn’t no decorating type of man, and he surely wasn’t no man to put doilies on his dining table, but them doilies was on his dining table the entire summer. Then you knew them little glass bowls wasn’t his and them crystal-looking drinking glasses I wasn’t allowed to use ain’t seem like nothing he’d buy. The cups I drank from was plastic and I knew Pops bought them himself.

I liked living with Pops. It felt right. Pops was like me. He was quiet most times, unless he wanted something or if I was doing something wrong. I ain’t hardly never do nothin’ wrong except in the beginning I made Pops mad because I didn’t put a towel on his bathroom floor after I took a shower like he told me. I told him he needed one of them bathroom rugs like Mama and he told me, I don’t need no rug. He said he and Mr. Robinson put down some new linoleum in there. He kept trying to tell me how to dry off in the shower. Then once I dry off in the shower, I’m supposed to put the towel on the floor when I get out his tub so I don’t get his floor wet. It was different but it was his way and I was going to do it his way or he’d probably never let me have peace about showering. I got used to Pops’ showering instruction and he ain’t have no more problems with me leaving water on his bathroom floor.

I stayed to myself for the first week. I convinced myself that I’d be treated like a weird new kid and I ain’t want that. Pops told me to go play but I wouldn’t do nothing but stay in the yard. I got to know that yard real good. I learned to climb my pear tree. I even learned there was a huge branch I could use to climb into my bedroom without anyone seeing me from the street. One time Pops thought I was in the yard but I had climbed my pear tree and I was in my bedroom. He was confused and I ain’t tell him I climbed in from my pear tree. He said, You been in there all the time, Freddy? I told you to make some friends.

On my second week living with Pops, he took me across the street to see his godmother, Miss Rosemarie. I guess he was tired of me moping around the house all the time. It was the first time I seen Miss Rosemarie. She was the first person I met on Cicely Street. She was a nice lady. She felt grandmotherly to me. Even her house felt like home to me. Her house was like ours on the inside, filled with a lot of old furniture and matching old lady appliances. Miss Rosemarie’s appliances was yellow where Pops still had my grandmother’s matching green appliances and green deep freezer.

Miss Rosemarie and my grandmother had similar decorating taste. They both had one of them curio cabinets behind their dining table. My grandmother’s curio cabinet was full of little glass bowls and these stone elephants she collected, and Miss Rosemarie had her curio cabinet filled with these Asian