Monday's Not Coming

Claudia reflects that she’s not the best person to talk about Monday’s bruises. She’d noticed them but always wrote them off as typical kid stuff or roughhousing. The police report, which Claudia read after they found Monday, noted over two dozen scars on Monday’s body.

After Christmas vacation (Claudia went to Georgia to be with her grandmother), Monday acted like a zombie at school. She stared wide eyed at everyone and barely spoke. Her little brother, August, didn’t return to school with her. Monday told Claudia that he was sick, and her mother kept him home.

The girls had their first fight. When August still didn’t come back to school after months, Claudia again asked about him. Monday snapped back that he was still sick and that Claudia should mind her own business. “He’s my brother! He ain’t yours. Just because you can’t have one of your own don’t mean you gotta be sweating mine!” (182). Claudia has no idea why Monday was so angry at her.

Claudia attended the church’s annual soup kitchen on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, helping her mother in the kitchen while Daddy and the men’s ministry set up. Claudia missed both Monday’s company and Monday’s help.