“Why y’all so worried about your daddy? I’m the one that got the raw end of the deal here.”

“No you didn’t,” Trevor says. “From what I gather, you’re charging him for a crime he committed a long time ago. Haven’t you heard of the statute of limitations?”

“The what?”

“Even I know that,” Tiffany says. “It means after so much time passes you can’t be found guilty of the crime. And this was way over ten years ago, wasn’t it?”

“Look, after me and your daddy talk next time, I’ll let everybody know what the verdict is, but until then could we skip the subject, please?” My jawbone is jumping, I’m getting so mad. I hate being put on the spot like this. I don’t know why they taking his side, especially when they don’t know the whole story.

“Okay, then, Ma?” Tiffany says, finally running some dishwater. “How come you ain’t said nothing about my report card?”

“Where is it?”

“Right next to you, by that Ebony.”

I pick it up and lift up the top part. I can’t believe my eyes. Is them B’s I’m seeing? And an A? “Tiff ! Baby! When did you get so smart? I mean, I’m so proud of you! How’d you do this?”

“I listened harder,” she says, smiling. “My tutor said that whenever I didn’t understand something, instead of pretending like I did, to raise my hand and ask the teacher to explain it till I did. And guess what, Ma?”

“What?”

“A whole lotta kids in my classes was glad I asked, ’cause they didn’t get a lot of that stuff either.”

I give my daughter the thumbs-up. “Right on, Tiffany. I told you not to be scared to speak up, didn’t I? I’m going down to Kinko’s first thing in the morning and make a copy of this and mail it to your granny.” She nods her head up and down like she hearing music all of a sudden. I know she smart. She just been acting stupid. I hope this is the beginning of a trend. If it is, this make two down and one to go. Monique tries harder than anybody I know, and maybe one day it’ll pay off for her, too, especially when she grow up and don’t need no medicine to think. But, come to think of it, seem like her grades was better before they put her on this mess. She slowed down like them doctors said she would, but, shit, maybe too much. She don’t like taking it, that’s for damn sure. And maybe I might take her off this stuff and see how she do. White folks got us believing everything they tell us just because it might be true about them, but it ain’t necessarily true about us.

“Okay, Ma, I thought you was fixing to ask me a question a while back.”

“I already did. About college. And do me a favor? Work on your English, would you? You sound downright uncouth half the time. If you can write the shit right, try speaking it right.”