Silent Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

wobbly cart. Her flip-flops spanked the wood floor. Her arm pulled a cord that ignited a bulb that swung from the ceiling. Searching for secrets, Matsi was sure.
    â€œ Le souper, ” Maw-Maw said, dipping her legs in mock curtsy.
    Six girls squinted at the stark light then slowly arched their kitten-boned backs. They crawled to the edge of their cots. Maw-Maw shuffled by each, placing scarred bowls in their cupped hands.
    â€œDe wind change, you face be stuck in dose pout,” she said, spooning rice and red beans from a pot. Flesh as spongy as dumpling dough spilled from the sleeveless arms of her dress, trembling with each plop of the spoon. “What it cost you to make a smile, to tank me?” she asked, though the girls had never said a word to her. “Back ohm, you be starvin, probly dead.”
    Matsi’s voice nearly flew out from its hiding place. The brown girls might be poor but she was not. Their parents might have sold them but hers had not. Back home she’d sleep after supper, not before, wouldn’t stay up all night like a raccoon or an owl. She ate quickly. Maw-Maw would collect the first bowl as soon as she filled the last. Empty bowls on the cart, Maw-Maw clapped and held out her hands. The girls removed their underpants for inspection. One of the brown girls had stained hers. “Watch de slap,” Maw-Maw said before her hand connected with the girl’s face. Thwack! The stupid girl slumped to the floor bawling.
    Matsi was too clever to stain her pants. She took them off each morning after Maw-Maw locked the girls into the sleeping room and put them on again when she heard the key click. She rarely let sleep swallow her whole, always made it to the bucket in the dark. Cots were inspected next; all were dry. Bedwetting earned worse than a slap.
    Maw-Maw herded them into a high-ceilinged room, empty but for the echo and the dragon-clawed tub in which the girls stood in turns. The bigger girls always went first. By the time Matsi got in, the water would be cool and scummy. She watched Maw-Maw run a cloth roughly over one girl until the skin looked burned underneath.
    â€œAnh! Look at dat.” Maw-Maw dropped the cloth, thrust a hand between the girl’s legs and pulled out a hair. The girl whimpered.
    â€œFilthy twat. My boys doan wanna see dis. You be poodoo soon.” Anything Maw-Maw didn’t like was poodoo.
    Matsi remembered other places where the girls were hustled together into vans on unsuspecting nights and driven each to a different place. At Maw-Maw’s, girls went missing one at a time after hard little lumps formed behind their nipples, or their hips got round, or they grew hair in dirty places. Like magic, new girls took their places. Matsi had been there longer than the others. Exactly how long she didn’t know.
    â€œNow dis peeshwank,” Maw-Maw said when she lifted Matsi into the tub, “is special-special. My boys love de Asian, f’sure, f’true, and dis one delish.” Maw-Maw wasn’t always mean.
    â€œNot everbody take chirren,” she said. “Afraid of police, say you trouble-trouble.” She slid her hand between her pillowy breasts. “Got big ole hawt, me. You lucky, dat.” She pinched Matsi’s thigh, making her jump. “Dumb as a turkey, ain’t you? Could tell lies until daylight, me, and you wouldn’t know.”
    Matsi kept her face bare of thoughts. She liked having secrets. When she was younger, she believed her parents knew everything about her. That her thoughts jumped out of her head and tattled on her. The men who delivered her to Maw-Maw claimed she didn’t understand English. Matsi hadn’t corrected them, had acted ever since as though what they said was true.
    The brown girls squawked like noisy birds when Maw-Maw wasn’t around. Matsi ignored them and their unfamiliar language. She didn’t want them as friends. They were dangerous, forever getting in