her finger and thumb together and slid them across her lips, as if she were closing a zipper. That was the signal she and her brother and sisters used with one another, meaning, “I won’t tell anyone!”
Dwayne’s shoulders relaxed, and he went back to the piano. Melody followed.
Dwayne held his hands dramatically over the piano keys. “How about you singing this for your Youth Day solo?” he said, beginning to play and sing something different—and lively. “Grandpa Poppa had a farm…”
Melody giggled, shaking her head at how he’d changed the words of the old kindergarten rhyme. From all around the house, her family joined in:
“E-i-e-i-ohhhh!”
Let Your Light Shine
At the corner, they paused to wait for Melody’s best friend, Sharon. Sharon lived three blocks up the street, and Melody always watched to see her front gate swing open as Sharon ran to meet them. Sharon always ran.
“Hey!” Sharon waved as her strong legs flew along the sidewalk.
Melody was eager to see if Sharon had remembered that it was “Matching Monday,” and had worn red hair ribbons as they’d planned. “You didn’t forget!” Melody said.
“’Course not,” Sharon said, turning her head so Melody could admire the crisply ironed satin ribbons that were tied in neat bows at the tops of her two pigtails.
“Nice.” Melody nodded and checked quickly to see if her own red ribbons were still tied tightly. They were.
“So, are you super excited about Youth Day?” Sharon asked. They were both in the children’s choir. “What are you going to sing?”
“I don’t know yet,” Melody answered.
“Does it have to be a church song?”
Melody hadn’t considered that question. Both girls looked at Lila, who was walking and reading a book at the same time.
“Lila, Mommy told you to stop doing that,” Melody reminded her sister.
“Yeah,” Sharon chimed in. “Didn’t you run right into a light post one time while you were reading?”
Lila glared at them. She slapped her book closed and promptly dropped it. Melody picked it up.
“Anyway,” Melody continued, “did you hear Sharon? About the song?”
“Yes,” Lila said. “And of course it has to be a church song, sillies. It’s a program at the church!”
Melody hadn’t said a word about Dwayne’s secret to her sisters or even to Sharon. But the tune that he had been playing on Big Momma’s piano snuck into Melody’s head during her morning math class, and stayed there through her spelling quiz. At lunchtime, she tapped her milk carton to the rhythm while Sharon and a boy named Julius argued about the Detroit Tigers baseball team.
By the time she and Sharon lined up for dodgeball in gym that afternoon, Melody was humming her brother’s nameless, wordless tune out loud. A high-pitched voice spoke behind her.
“What’s that song?” It was Diane Harris.
Melody glanced at Sharon. They always thought it was interesting that Diane’s speaking voice was high and screechy, but that when she opened her mouth to sing, such a smooth sound came out.
“Just music in my head,” Melody said. She wouldn’t give away anything about Dwayne’s new creation.
“Well, I’ve never heard it before,” Diane said, as if she’d heard all the music in the entire world. She blew a big bubble-gum bubble, and popped it.
Melody took a deep breath, thinking of what Big Momma had said about letting other people shine. “I guess you’re one of the first, then,” Melody said.
“Harris!” the gym teacher shouted. “Gum in the trash can! Ellison, you lead Team One.”
Melody smiled and stepped forward. She wasn’t very good at sports, so whenever she got a chance to make up a team, she tried to pick some kids who were good and some who weren’t. Julius was chosen as captain of Team Two. He picked Sharon before Melody could. It was no surprise that Diane was the last to be picked. It wasn’t that she was a bad player—she was just so bossy! She always seemed to think she was the team captain.
“Okay, Harris,” the teacher called. “You’re on Team One. Let’s go!”
Diane waved Melody over. “I’ll tell you how to position everybody,” she said as the class trailed out to the playground. “Our team is pretty weak except for me, so—”
Before Diane could finish, Melody thought of something Mommy always said when things didn’t quite go the way she’d planned. “That’s okay,” Melody said cheerfully. “We’ll make it work.”
The game was fierce and fun. The score was tied just before the bell rang. Diane sent the ball flying in Team Two’s direction. Julius dodged it. Sharon jumped up to catch it. All at once the ball was sailing back. Melody jumped up, but it bounced right off her fingers.
“I got it!” Diane yelled, running from the back of the field. She spiked the ball back. Then the bell sounded, and most of the kids ran for the school building.
“See, I should have been in front because I’m taller,” Diane grumbled. “It was a lucky win.”
“It’s a win just the same, right?” Melody smiled at her as Sharon jogged up to them. Diane walked on by without saying anything.
“Right,” Sharon whispered, before the girls went inside arm in arm.
After school, Melody said good-bye to Sharon at her corner. “See you at choir rehearsal!” she called as she raced ahead of Lila. Melody was hoping that Yvonne was home and that the three sisters could spend time together the way they used to before Yvonne went away to college. They ate cookies and combed one another’s hair, and talked about anything that popped into their heads without Dwayne or their parents hearing. The “sister-thing” was what Yvonne called it.
“Why are you and Sharon always running?” Lila yelled after her. But Melody was already at the front door, pulling magazines and envelopes out of the mailbox.
“See? You had to wait for me anyway,” Lila laughed, pulling out her heart-shaped key ring. Inside, Bo barked excitedly at the sound of their voices. Melody flipped through the mail in her hand. There was a small purple envelope in the bunch. She saw her own name written across the front in careful cursive handwriting.
“Oh! I got a letter from Val!” she said. Val was their cousin who lived in Alabama. She was between Lila and Melody in age, and she was Melody’s favorite playmate when they drove down to visit family every summer. Val and Melody had been pen pals since Melody was in second grade.
Lila looked interested. “What’s she say this time?”