Hold Love Strong Read Online Free PDF

shared with my grandma. “Take ’em off.”
    â€œWhat you mean?” my mother asked.
    â€œDon’t wear none.” My Aunt Rhonda gave my mother a gentle push. “Hurry up. Go.”
    My mother left the room and my Aunt Rhonda went to the front door and with one hand on the knob and the other ready to unhook the latch, she watched my mother close the bedroom door. Then she looked at Donnel, Eric, and me.
    â€œYou ready?” she asked.
    She took a moment more to assess her own beauty, pressed an easy smile across her face, and opened the door. But to the surprise of us all, it was not Jamel and Doo-Doo at the door. It was Mr. Goines. Dressed in a wrinkled brown suit, white shirt, and yellow paisley tie, he took one long step into the middle of the room holding a small birdcage covered with a soiled bath towel.
    â€œLovebirds,” he said, pulling the towel from atop the cage. “Where is she?”
    â€œShe ain’t here,” said my Aunt Rhonda, still holding the door ajar.
    The birds chirped and cheeped, and I leapt from the couch and ran to the cage Mr. Goines held, his arm extended high at his side.
    â€œYou got birds?” I asked.
    The birds were radiant. Dusty green feathers covered their bodies. Sunset red was their face. Their eyes were small black pearls. Donnel and Eric hurried from the couch and stood beside me.
    â€œWhat’s their names?” Eric asked.
    â€œThey don’t have names,” Mr. Goines said.
    â€œHow do you got birds with no names?” said Donnel, peering into the cage like a child but sounding like the truculent young man he was bent on becoming.
    â€œThey’re for your grandma to name,” said Mr. Goines.
    The bedroom door opened and my mother walked out. Mr. Goines looked up, studied her, and said: “You know, the older you get, the more I swear you your mother’s twin.”
    Although she was always accepting of Mr. Goines, his gifts, his sudden arrivals, and the love he had for my grandma, the comment embarrassed my mother and she blushed, her penny-color skin swelling a warmer shade. She looked down and curled into herself a bit.
    â€œMr. Goines,” she said. “What you doing here?”
    â€œHe’s got birds,” I announced.
    â€œI see that.” My mother smiled at me. She looked at Mr. Goines and a tumble of airy laughter rolled from her mouth.
    â€œYou giving Momma birds?” she asked.
    â€œShe know you’re bringing them?” scolded my Aunt Rhonda, sounding jealous.
    Mr. Goines thought for a moment. Then he shifted his eyes to my Aunt Rhonda. “With all due respect, I believe your mother is the type of woman who knows more than she knows.”
    My Aunt Rhonda jammed her hand on her hip and tilted her head incredulously. “What kind of crazy shit is that?” she asked. “Huh? Cause I know you ain’t trying to make no sense saying some nonsense like that.”
    â€œIt means that Momma ain’t got to know to know,” my mother answered. “She been around long enough to know birds in a cage was bound to happen.”
    â€œHow can you tell one from the other?” I asked no one in particular. “You ain’t supposed to,” said Donnel, his cheek brushing against the side of my face with each word he spoke.
    â€œWhy not?” I asked.
    â€œCause they birds,” he said. “They meant to fly, not be here with us.”
    The birds stayed close together on the perch and although they looked fragile there was a fierceness to their unity, an inseparable inseparability. Donnel squeezed his finger through the bars of the cage to see how close he could come to touching the birds. The birds chirped. Then they flew back and forth in the cage, from one side of the bars to the other, stopping to hold on to each wall of bars before flying again, flapping until they came to rest together on the bars at the back of the cage. Donnel whistled to the