The Blackbirds by Eric Jerome Dickey Page A

we filed joint income taxes, I was in that marriage alone. He wanted no part of the disease or the suffering.”
    Destiny said, “Thanks for dropping off my dad’s meds last week, if I didn’t thank you.”
    Indigo said, “This is going to blow up in your face.
Ka-boom
. You hear me?
Ka-boom
.”
    â€œWhatever.” Destiny took a breath. “Give me your cell phones so I can become your female James Van Der Zee once again. All of y’all need to get on the same side.”
    Kwanzaa, Ericka, and Indigo slid Destiny their phones.
    Kwanzaa said, “What about you, Ericka? I know you’ve been lying.”
    â€œLying about what?”
    â€œI don’t believe you’re celibate. I bet you’re seeing one of the teachers at your job, or messing around with one of the parents. You’resneaky, and sneaky people are the freakiest. We just found out Baby Face Jones has been getting some almost every night, what about you?”
    Destiny laughed. “What are you, the neighborhood vulva monitor? Get off our areolas. And I’m not having sex every damn night.”
    Indigo said, “Don’t make my birthday sad and say you have a secret lover too, Ericka.”
    â€œDo you have to always be a hater and have to outdo everyone at everything, Indigo?”
    â€œ
Yes
. But I’m an achiever, not a hater. Everything I do should both inspire and motivate you. Watch me and learn to do better.”
    Destiny and Kwanzaa mocked Indigo’s accent and sent playful boos her way.
    Indigo chuckled and splayed her fingers at both of them. “
Ma ba mi soro
.”
    An older guy, a man who was at least eighty and using a walker, stopped by to pay them a compliment, said it was like seeing Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Lupita Amondi Nyong’o, and Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid breaking bread at the same table. Indigo was impressed that the man could both remember and pronounce African names. He told them he had traveled around the world, but had never seen women as beautiful as the four of them. He said they were all fine as wine and he would like to take them for a ride on a private plane so he could sixty-nine them one by one. In harsh whispers, Destiny, Indigo, and Kwanzaa cursed the disrespectful old man out.
    Kwanzaa cursed him in Spanish.
    Destiny snapped, “
What de rasshole
. I’m young enough to be your great-granddaughter.”
    Indigo said things of equal disgust in Yorùbá.
    Ericka added enough profanity to almost give the ancient freak a heart attack.

Chapter 10
    They finished breakfast at CJ’s, marched toward the parking lot venting and complaining about pathetic Bozo-the-Clown-looking octogenarians on walkers offering women oral sex.
    They climbed on iron horses, revved engines, sped in the traffic on La Brea.
    As Destiny and Indigo whipped their CBRs through traffic, Kwanzaa and Ericka their passengers, horns blew, the sounds of men flirting and fantasizing about taming a biker girl and making her just another pregnant woman driving in a four-wheel cage. Fifteen minutes later they were inside the Promenade at Howard Hughes Center at Happy Nails and Spa, all side by side in spa chairs, magazines in their laps as Vietnamese women gave them luxury spa manicures and pedicures before starting on their European facials.
    Destiny said, “The magazine I’m reading says most women fantasize about a three-way.”
    Indigo said, “Then you need to stop reading that magazine.”
    Kwanzaa said, “I’ve fantasized about that.”
    â€œNo, you haven’t.”
    â€œDepends on the dudes. Or the dude and the girl. Depends.”
    â€œNo, you wouldn’t.”
    â€œDo you think I’m that boring?”
    At the same time Ericka, Indigo, and Destiny said, “Yes.”
    Kwanzaa laughed. “It’s on my bucket list.”
    Indigo said, “At the bottom. Under the bucket. And then you’d have to dig ten