I Know I've Been Changed Read Online Free PDF Page A

just as Myles blew me a kiss and headed out the door.
    “What’s up, girl?” It was Shereen, the only real friend I had at the station. No, make that the only real friend I had in Houston.
    Shereen was director of community service at Channel 2 and didn’t let my ways get to her. She didn’t let much of anything get to her. She was a cross between hippie and ghetto, a wild-child sister-girl. But she had proven to be a really good friend since I’d met her.
    “Hey,” I responded.
    “Girl, turn on the TV and look at Lorna’s hair.”
    Lorna was the black anchor at the ABC station. She was my only real competition.
    I grabbed the remote and flipped the TV set on.
    “Oh…my…God.”
    Shereen laughed so hard I could barely hear. “I know. Can you believe she dyed her hair blond?”
    I joined in her laughter. Lorna looked like an idiot. “Girl, I hope she keeps it. It’ll make the few viewers she has turn away and over to us. Not that I need her five measly viewers.” I laughed.
    “Rae, you are too much.”
    I liked that Shereen understood my confidence and wasn’t turned off by it. That’s just another reason why we got along so well. Shereen was about five-three, 220 pounds, and wore minidreadlocks. She had no desire to be on air, so I didn’t have to worry about her stabbing me in the back.
    “So, are you ready for Malcolm?”
    “Yeah, I’m about to get dressed now,” I said as I pulled myself off of the bed.
    “Me, too.”
    “I thought you were off today.”
    “I am, but I have some work to do. Yeah, that’s it,” she stammered.
    “Yeah, right.”
    “Okay, so you got me. But how will I ever get Malcolm to father my children if I can’t get him to meet me?”
    I snickered. “Yeah, okay.” Like Shereen had a snowball’s chance of Malcolm even looking her way. But Shereen was my girl, so far be it from me to tell her that.
    “Why don’t you hook a sister up? Tell him I got the cure for his jungle fever. Once he tastes me, no other he’ll want to see.”
    “A poet you’re not. Good-bye, Shereen.”
    “Tell him that once he samples this black, he’ll never go back.”
    “I’m hanging up now.”
    “Help him get it through his head that big girls are better in bed.”
    I laughed again and hung up the phone. I was grateful for Shereen’s friendship. Ever since I’d left Sweet Poke, I’d been a loner, too scared to let anyone get close to me because I didn’t want anyone to find out about my past. Of course, Shereen had asked about my past, but I’d told her the same thing I’d told Myles, that my father was dead and I was estranged from the rest of my family. I think she knew I was lying, because she gave me this crazy look, but she never called me on it, only telling me that whenever I wanted to talk to her about anything, she was there.
    I scanned the racks of clothes on the far side of my closet. I had suits for days. Dana Buchman, Donna Karan, Albert Nipon, Tahari, you name it, it was hanging in my closet. I had come a long way from when Mama Tee would sew our clothes and hand them down from Shondella to Nikki to me. By the time I got them, they were usually hanging together by a string.
    “Those days are long gone,” I mumbled as I picked out a deep green BCG jacket and skirt. The suit alone cost $700. That’s more than Mama Tee probably spent on all my clothes my entire life. I put Mama Tee, Sweet Poke, and my previous life out of my mind as I held the suit up to my body and surveyed myself in the full-length mirror. I looked good. I felt good. And as I twirled around in the middle of my closet, I couldn’t help but feel like I was on top of the world.

Chapter 3
    I was still floating as I gathered my things to leave the studio. The interview with Malcolm had gone well. Extremely well in fact. He had even asked me to have dinner with him before he headed back to New York. Shereen, who had showed up at the station anyway, came over and introduced herself to him, but as I’d