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?”
Melody ripped open the envelope as soon as she stepped inside and began reading out loud.
“Dear Dee-Dee. How are you and—”
“Skip that part,” Lila said. She bent to pet Bo. He rolled onto his back and stuck his paws in the air.
“Okay. You’ll explode when you hear my news. We are moving to Detroit as soon as school is over! What?” Melody screamed, forgetting all about the sister-thing. This news was even more surprising than Dwayne’s secret.
Even Lila was surprised. “That’s big!” she said. Bo sat up and barked in agreement.
“What’s big?” Yvonne yawned, padding downstairs barefoot and still in pajamas.
Melody waved the letter in the air. “Val and her mom and dad are moving to Detroit!”
“That sure is news,” Yvonne said. “I wonder what made Charles and Tish decide to move?”
“I don’t know,” Melody answered. “But I can’t wait!”
“I think this calls for a celebration, don’t you?” Yvonne asked.
“Yes!” Both Lila and Melody answered at once.
“Great.” Yvonne rubbed her hands together. “Now, I think we need to start by raiding Dwayne’s cookie stash.”
Lila grinned. “They’re hidden in the cupboard behind—”
“—the tuna fish!” Melody finished.
When Dwayne came home from his factory job an hour later, the house was full of loud singing coming from upstairs. There was an empty vanilla wafer box on the kitchen table.
“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine!”
“Oh, man! Not the sister-thing again!” he yelled. But no one heard him over the laughter, which was even louder than the singing.
Another Home
“Mommy,” Melody said from the backseat, “I got a letter from Val today. She said they’re moving to Detroit, and they’re coming as soon as school is over!”
Mommy looked at Melody in the rearview mirror. She didn’t seem surprised.
“Yes, Big Momma told me a few weeks ago,” Mommy said. “Until they find a house of their own, they’ll be staying with Big Momma and Poppa.”
Melody’s grandparents lived just a few blocks away from the Ellisons. “That means I can walk over to see Val all the time,” Melody announced. “We can do everything together!” I couldn’t have come up with a better plan myself, she thought.
“Val has lived in Birmingham her whole life,” Lila told Melody matter-of-factly. “Detroit sure is different. It’s going to take her a while to get used to things.”
Yvonne nodded. “I hope she’ll like it here.”
“Of course she will, Vonnie…” Melody said. But then she was quiet for a moment. Melody realized that she’d lived her whole life in the same house. It wouldn’t be easy if she had to leave her neighborhood.
“Do you think Val
