Hood Ornaments

From a very young age, she knew if anyone called her Victoria they obviously didn’t know her.

Or she was in trouble.

Tori was barely a toddler when the house became empty. She remembered Grandma crying, talk of an accident, then her father's room became an untouched shrine.

Where no one was allowed to worship.

“Victoria!” Grandma Trudy scolded. “No!”

That was the day Tori snuck into her father's room and was quickly snatched up. She nodded with an understanding she couldn’t possibly have had at her age. Then the door slammed and locked for good.

And the furnished attic upstairs became her room.

Tori loved it because it was the only room in the small row-home with a view of the horizon. Above the inner city sky was her imagination's palette, and in that palette she discovered hues that colored her mind. Transforming what most labeled insignificant into a magnificent kaleidoscope.

She sat sketching and shading with her colored pencils in the window seat her late grandfather built for her grandmother as an anniversary present many years ago. He made her praise time more comfortable. Trudy loved gazing into the sunrise and thank the Creator after she said her morning prayers.

She would come into the room, sit on the window seat and gently put Tori on her lap. She told the stories of her past.

She also told her to search for lavender in the sky, because the sky, no matter if it was a rainy or sunny, daytime or night, dawn or dusk, always had a shade of lavender within it.

Said it was the Creator's ribbon of hope.

Even now as a senior in high school, Tori never stopped searching for that hope and always incorporated it in her work. A collection that would eventually be her escape from the neighborhood of row-homes.

Tori was determined to go somewhere.

No matter what obstacles were in her way.

Tori glanced at the Polaroid picture of her parents that was taped to her notepad. It was taken on the beach before she was born. Her father, Andre had a sugar smile contrasting his cocoa complexion. It was jarringly attractive. Andre a large, well-built man, had hair grown high upon his head cut in an angle like a shrub. Tori always giggled when she saw it.

Who on Earth would ever wear a haircut called a Gumby?

Her father was slightly hunched over; his large arms wrapped around Tori's mother.

Dee had the complexion of faded cinnamon and long, raven hair. It was obvious the couple loved each other from the glittering wishes in their eyes and sparkling promises in their smiles. Tori took careful precaution to immortalize all the glitter and sparkle into her sketch. Although there wasn't a date on the picture, Tori always assumed her mother may have just found out she was pregnant with her. The dusk sea sky behind then encompassed all of the hues of lavender one could imagine.

Tori always saved the shading for last.

Although Tori realized she had the perfect blend beauty from her parents, she longed for that connection with her parents and had so many questions

Who had a love for the violin?

Who was sarcastic?

Who had a low tolerance for ignorance?

Who was the artist?

Did her father also look for lavender skylines?

Did he tell her mother to look too?

Did they ever see it?

She wanted to know.

She wanted to know why she wasn't allowed in her father's room.

Were the answers there?

Suddenly, there was a tap on the window. Tori closed her eyes in annoyance because she knew it was Rondell. Her friend since kindergarten always hurled pebbles at the window to get her attention. She put all of her art supplies on the window seat and cranked it open

"If Trudy hears you throwing those pebbles again, she gonna whoop your ass, Dell," she snapped as she pushed the window open as far as it could go. Rondell rolled his large, dark eyes, smirked and sucked his teeth;

"Girl, Grandma ain't even up yet. I can't smell the bacon frying."

From downstairs Trudy yelled,

"Tell that soon to be hoodlum, I heard him and I ain't none of his Grandma until he comes over and paints my basement."

Tori twisted her lips up in a frown and tilted her head toward the stairs.

"You hear that?"

Rondell laughed, "Yo, she has mad hearing!”

Trudy appeared in the window with Tori. She was a solid woman with hair graying only at the temples of her carefully coiffed crown. Her reddish-brown complexion wasn't aged but wise with knowledge.

"My hearing ain't angry boy, its sharp. But I am pissed you keep throwin them rocks at my window. If Jake was alive..."

Rondell cut her off "Yeah I know he'd whoop my..."

Trudy pointed down at Rondell, "Watch it!"

"Yes ma'am."

Trudy then handed Tori a twenty dollar bill.

"You and Dell go to the store and get some bacon so I can make y'all breakfast. You can't paint my basement on an empty stomach."

Tori whined, "Are you serious Grandma?"

"I sure am. Since you wanna be all hard with the rest of the hoodlums you hang with, I'm gonna put you to work too. Now go on."

Tori sucked her teeth and ran down the steps to meet Dell. Trudy cranked the window back shut and muttered under her breath about letting the air conditioning out. Then she came across the picture Tori was drawing and sat down on the window seat to look at it. She caressed Andre's cheek lovingly and swallowed hard to fight back tears.

"You know she is going to find out soon," she said to the picture, "I just hope she doesn't hate me when she does."