Excerpt from “An Ode for Orchids” – Chapter One

“What is it that every girl has that every guy wants?” Cicely asked her three cousins, Karen, Brook and Dawn.

They all playfully shrugged. Then Cicely twisted her hips around and wagged her backside to reveal the answer.

“You are so nasty,” Karen said to her.

“But it is so true,” Cicely replied. “It’s like my momma always said, ‘You have to use what you’ve got to get what you want from a man.’ ”

Of course her mother never really said those words to her directly. Surely that is not something a mother would tell her 12-year-old daughter. Besides, how many 12-year-old girls would know the meaning of that phrase if they happened to hear it?

It was the beginning of June. The sun was sitting colonially in the center of a cloudless sky, pitilessly showering the girls with piercing rays of radiation as they walked up Big Cagle Street toward the basketball courts. The heat enveloped them. So much so, that sweat started to accumulate on Cicely’s top lip. She quickly wiped it away; for she also remembered overhearing her mother say, “Never let them see you sweat.”

“My feet are hurting,” Dawn complained. She was not a big fan of walking. Every now and again, she would stop and rub the arches of her feet, which were throbbing as well as itching.

“You shouldn’t have worn those jelly shoes,” Cicely said to Dawn with disapproval. “Jelly shoes are so middle school.”

“But I am in middle school,” Dawn replied, matter-of-factly. “And why are we out here in this heat anyway?”

“It’s not that hot to me,” Karen responded as she skipped up the sidewalk. “I love being out in the sun.”

“You should love being out in the sun, as pale as you are,” Cicely replied, quite annoyed at Karen’s joviality. “And why are you skipping. Stop skipping! You’re 12 years old!”

“Why are you so snappy all of a sudden?” Brook asked. “First it was Dawn’s jellies and then it was Karen’s skipping.”

But Cicely gave no response. She became quite serious in fact. And as the girls cleared the mesh of great oaks and bushes and the basketball courts became visible, they knew why Cicely’s demeanor had changed.

Boys.

The basketball court was full of boys.

High school boys.

Experienced boys.

It was the beginning of the summer and Cicely Shaw had arrived. There was no time to waste.

***

An Ode for Orchids is a story about four young women and the challenges that they face, such as making bad choices in men, dealing with infidelity, struggling with promiscuity, and dealing with rejection. But perhaps the most daunting challenge is dealing with the animosity that one woman can have for another woman. Time will reveal whether or not each of them will be strong enough to face the challenges that life will offer them.