The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson Page A

had long since set and the murmurs of good-byes filled the church hall, Dionne went to find Trevor. It was hot outside, as if all the heat that had gathered during the day decided to stay the night. Sweatcollected in Dionne’s bosom, plastering her cotton bra to the top of her dress’s wide collar. She’d worn the dress all evening with an air of self-sacrifice, but now, in the open air, she tugged at its buttons. She took a seat on Trevor’s forbearer’s grave with the gift Bible tucked firmly beneath her, making a show of trying not to dirty her new clothes.
    â€œYou having fun yet?” Trevor asked.
    â€œDefine fun.”
    â€œC’mon, Dionne. You have to admit that seeing Sister B. do the pepper seed was fun.”
    â€œYeah, I guess you’re right.” Dionne laughed. She remembered the old woman’s shaking shoulders, the way that everyone was genuinely concerned about her teeth rattling out of her mouth.
    â€œWhat do you think his life was like?” Dionne asked.
    â€œWhose life?”
    â€œHis life. Trevor Cephus Loving. July 14, 1928–July 21, 1973.”
    â€œProbably the same as my father’s. Baptisms, weddings, funerals. More food than you could ever eat in one lifetime.”
    â€œSame as yours? Do you want to be a reverend?”
    â€œI guess I never thought I had a choice.”
    â€œEverything in life is a choice. It’s not like you just wake up one day and suddenly you’re Father Loving the third.”
    â€œWell, it’s not like in the States, where you just decide what you’re going to be and then you go to school and become that thing. Here on the hill, who you are is who your people havebeen. I was born the same day my grandfather died. Everyone said that was a sign I was coming back as him.”
    Dionne felt the door close on anything substantial between her and Trevor, but then also the urgency of their closeness. Dionne knew that any man whose life was already decided for him couldn’t be hers. But here, where her spirit felt only halfway home, anchorless without Avril, she wanted something familiar to be close to, somewhere to land.
    â€œHave you ever noticed that all these people died close to their birthdays? It’s almost like the earth remembers them and knows it’s their time.”
    â€œI don’t know how your mind works, Dionne, but I like it. What would you do if you knew this was your last birthday?”
    Dionne turned to Trevor and whispered in his ear. Trevor was shocked that what he had been begging for all summer was finally being offered freely. He tried to stay cool. He placed a fiery hand on Dionne’s thigh and did away with her blue panties with the deftness and care that indicated he knew that at any moment she could decide differently.
    â€œGo slow,” Dionne said, warning. She used her hands to guide him inside her.
    Trevor made love to Dionne by moonlight, her bare feet planted on the crumbling gravestone while he entered her with sweetness she didn’t know he could muster. Dionne remembered the roughness of Darren’s hand inside her and braced herself for what Taneisha told her would feel like a pinch and then like the ocean opening inside her. She sighed, taking in the heat of him at her neck and the damp of the night air.
    When they were done, Dionne took her panties in one hand and her new Bible in the other and let the breeze when it came touch her where Trevor had before. She felt wiser somehow, and looking at the church lit up above, thought that maybe this kind of pleasure could be herreligion.

AFTER THE PA RTY, Phaedra helped Hyacinth out of her brassiere. She unhooked all sixteen eyelets until the sandwich of flesh on the older woman’s back parted, and marveled at her grandmother’s unlined skin. Phaedra was going to find a book to lull herself to sleep with when Hyacinth told her that she should come to the back of the house.
    Hyacinth opened