Say You're One of Them
Chapter One
An Ex-mas Feast
Now that my eldest sister, Maisha, was twelve, none of us knew how to relate to
her anymore. She had never forgiven our parents for not being rich enough to
send her to school. She had been behaving like a cat that was going feral: she
came home less and less frequently, staying only to change her clothes and give
me some money to pass on to our parents. When home, she avoided them as best she
could, as if their presence reminded her of too many things in our lives that
needed money. Though she would snap at Baba occasionally, she never said
anything to Mama. Sometimes Mama went out of her way to provoke her. "Malaya!
Whore! You don't even have breasts yet!" she'd say. Maisha would ignore her.
Maisha shared her thoughts with Naema, our ten-year-old sister, more than she
did with the rest of us combined, mostly talking about the dos and don'ts of a
street girl. Maisha let Naema try on her high heels, showed her how to doll up
her face, how to use toothpaste and a brush. She told her to run away from any
man who beat her, no matter how much ... read full excerpt from: Say You're One of Them ebook
