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Chapter 1
You meet
the same peoples over and over again in life," Grandma warned from doorway.
I didn't giver her my full attention. I was too busy cramming wool sweaters into a suitcase full of jeans. Despite
my sweaty, well-toasted skin, I knew I'd need warm clothes in a month or so.
"They names and they faces might be different. But they will be the same peoples," Grandma insisted.
Her words hung in the humid Chicago air like the smell of chitterlings cooking on a stove. She pulled a paper towel
from her apron pocket and wiped the sweat off her fudge-colored forehead. Grandma wore one of those serious aprons
that you had to stick your arms through. There was nothing prim and proper about her.
I was the first person in my whole family to go away to college, and I was excited. But I knew that "book
learning" wasn't everything. Grandma says experience is the best teacher. And she is no one to take lightly.
Mama joined Grandma in the doorway. The two of them could barely fit. They were both big women. Neither of them
were fat, just big in the way grown women are supposed to be, according to Grandma She'd often say, "Chile,
don't nobody want a bone but a dog." But I was content with my slim figure. Thin was in, especially in white
America, where I was headed. After all, Twiggy was the model of the hour. And besides, I certainly wasn't anywhere
near that skinny…
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