Wealth Pt. 01

"He just like wants to make sure you're you know, like you're all right," Toni admitted.

"He always was good like that," Darlene admitted quietly.

Toni declined the offer of lunch, took the offered jars of blackberry and raspberry jam, and box of organic soap Ed carried out for them.

"Oh, oh, before I forget," Darlene said, holding out a piece of brown paper. "Here, I wrote out the recipe for the soap; I don't know when I'll have time to make another batch, you know?"

"Oh, okay, thanks," Toni said and put the paper into her car's console.

"Sure you won't stay for lunch?" Ed asked Anita, eyes firmly glued to her large breasts.

"Thanks, but no," Toni answered for both of them.

She carefully backed the car down the dirt track until she reached the gravel road, and then drove them toward Highway 54.

Anita started to say something, finally finding her voice again but saw the tears trickling down Toni's face.

"Pull over for a minute," Anita softly asked.

"What?" Toni asked, concerned that something might be wrong with Anita.

Anita took Toni's face in her hands and kissed each eye softly.

"Don't cry; it like makes me want to cry," she softly begged and Toni burst into sobs and hugged Anita tightly.

Now, three days after that horrible Saturday, they stood in front of school, holding hands tightly, smiling and talking with their friends.

"Oh, goody!" Susan groused. "Here comes your best friend Pam."

"Like whatever," Anita groused back and Susan and Anita giggled at each other.

"Oh, hey, like what are you doing like after school?" Toni asked suddenly.

"Nothing, I guess," Anita shrugged.

"Like I got a haircut appointment at three thirty," Toni said as the first buzzer sounded. "Come with me? Please?"

At three fifteen, Anita approached her bus.

"Mr. Hardy..." she started.

"Uh, let me guess; you're not riding home with me," he said.

"Now how'd you know that?" Anita asked.

"Smart, I'm smart," he said, tapping his temple.

He smiled.

"You don't have your books with you, and your best friend is standing right behind you, car keys in hand," he explained and waved to Toni.

"I like loved him so much when he was my bus driver," Toni giggled as she pulled Anita to her car.

T. Dayton's Hair Salon was nearly as elegant and intimidating to Anita as the Delacroix home; Anita gawked at their surroundings while Toni calmly checked in with Selena Gomez, the attractive receptionist.

"I'll let her know you're here," Selena said, pushing a button.

"Miss Delacroix, an elegant blonde woman approached, smiling.

Anita gawked at the woman; sure that Terry Dayton must be a model. Her hair and make up were perfect; her clothes were not the clothes of a hair stylist but of a business executive fresh out of a magazine.

"Miss Dayton, this is like Anita, she's here to see you," Toni made a snap decision, pointing to the still intimidated Anita.

"Anita, how wonderful to meet you; thank you for coming in today," Terry said, greeting Anita.

"I uh, I mean, I..." Anita stammered as Terry took her hand and pulled her to the rear of the salon.

Then she found her voice.

"Toni! Damn it! You can't just..." Anita complained.

"Like it's my gift to you," Toni smiled, waving as Terry pulled Anita's hand.

"Now, what are we doing today?" Terry asked as she eased Anita back toward the shampoo basin.

"I don't, I mean..." Anita stammered.

"Can you make me look like Toni?" she whispered, pointing in the general direction of Toni.

"No," Terry smiled.

She lathered up Anita's long hair.

"Miss Delacroix's face is round; you and I have long faces, almost square," Terry explained.

"The can you make me look like you?" Anita whispered, gaping up at the beautiful woman.

Terry smiled and began to work the conditioner into Anita's hair.

In the front of the shop, Toni idly leafed through a hairstyle magazine. She found a photograph of a woman with a severe buzz cut.

"Miss Selena, like what you think?" Toni asked, showing the photograph to the receptionist.

"No, absolutely not," Selena smiled.

She looked up at Toni.

"You know how many women come in here and want us to give them beautiful curly hair like yours?" she asked. "And you want to cut it all off?"

"Well, like I think it's cute," Toni sniffed and sat back down.

Toni quickly tired of looking through the magazine and looked around the shop. She saw a display rack that showed the products the salon used and walked over to it. Selena smiled; for every bottle or can sold, T. Dayton's made profit of ten to fifty percent.

"Miss Selena, y'all don't like have no soap?" Toni asked.

Selena looked over at the glass shelves.

"No, I guess not," she admitted.

"Y'all like think y'all could sell some like totally organic soap?" Toni asked.

"How much?" Selena asked.

"Oh, I don't know, like five bucks?" Toni asked.

"Wow, only twelve ninety nine a bar?" Selena said loudly.

"No, like I said..." Toni said, confused.

"I know these bitches," Selena whispered loudly. "Five dollars? They won't even look at it twice but if it's more than ten bucks, well then it's got to be good, right?"

"Well, that's what I said, like twelve ninety nine a bar," Toni agreed loudly.

"T. Dayton's makes twenty percent and it's sold exclusively through T. Dayton's," Selena bargained.

"And on-line," Toni countered.

"Right," Selena agreed.

In the rear of the salon, Anita stared into the blue eyes of Terry Dayton as the woman applied the last brush stroke of lip color.

"Tell me what you think," Terry said and stepped out of the way so that Anita could look into the mirror.

Anita stared in dumb amazement at the beautiful, elegant Latin woman that sat in the chair. Terry had given her slight bangs, had provided a frame for Anita's now elegantly made up face. The hair had blue highlights, making the black hair look even darker, shinier, and healthier.

"I look..." she whispered. "That's me?"

"Come on, let's see what Miss Delacroix thinks," Terry smiled and assisted the girl out of the chair.

Toni looked up as a beautiful girl and Miss Dayton approached. She looked again at the beautiful young woman, and then looked again, mouth opening in surprise.

"Wow, Anita!" she said. "I mean, you were always like pretty, but wow!"

"Toni, I was like never pretty," Anita corrected.

"Come on, ready Miss Delacroix?" Terry smiled as the two friends stared at each other. "I had a last minute cancellation, so..."

"Miss Dayton, like what you think?" Toni asked, showing Terry the photograph of the woman with a buzz cut.

"Absolutely not," Terry said firmly.

"Told you," Selena smugly said.

"I like think it's cute," Toni said sullenly.

"Cute, yes, but you're beautiful; why settle for cute?" Terry smiled and led Toni to the rear of the salon.

"In fact," Terry said as she eased Toni backward for the shampooing. "I'd like to see it grown out a little, a little longer. She touched where Toni's slender neck met her shoulders.

"Right about here, for a little life, a little bounce; what you think?" Terry asked.

"You're like the expert," Toni conceded.

Anita was still staring at her reflection in the mirror over the display racks when Toni approached.

"You ready?" she smiled.

"By the way, this soap, what's it called?" Selena asked as she slid Toni's receipt for her signature.

"Um, like A and A Organic Soap," Toni decided.

"AA?" Selena asked, pretty face scrunched in confusion.

"No, no, like A," Toni pointed to herself, then to Anita. "And A."

"Come on; we like need to get busy," Toni said excitedly as she pulled Anita to the car.

"Ooh, get that list out," Toni ordered, pointing to the console.

Anita found the remnant of the brown paper bag and read aloud what she could make of Darlene's chicken scratch handwriting.

Toni pulled into the parking lot of Early's Grocery Store.

"Super One's cheaper," Anita pointed out.

"And Early's is like local and has been here forever and we like need to support our local businesses," Toni parroted what her father had said on many occasions.

"Oh, okay," Anita said.

Anita pushed the Buggy while Toni gathered up the assorted ingredients, racing around the store, checking the list sporadically.

"There, I think that's everything," Toni said, checking list and buggy's contents, and then pushing it to the counter.

Paige Guidry sneered slightly at the two high school students, still in their St. Thomas Aquinas uniforms but rang up the odd assortment of items.

"Like vegan or something?" she asked in a tone of voice that let Toni and Anita know she held vegans in low esteem.

"Like no ma'am, but thanks for asking," Toni snapped.

Toni ushered Anita into the garage of the Delacroix home and the pair got to work mixing a batch of soap.

"Mees Toni, you friend she eating?" Miss Alvarez asked, sticking her head into the garage.

"Yes ma'am," Toni answered.

"Thank you, Miss Alvarez," Anita called out.

"Is good, is good," Miss Alvarez smiled.

"What's that?" Anita asked, pointing to a tarp in the center of the garage.

"That? That's like my daddy's toy," Toni said and lifted the tarp.

"It's like a nineteen sixty five Bentley T Series; says when he's finished restoring it it'll be like worth a million dollars or something," Toni said and let the tarp slide back down.

"And add sixteen ounces water," Anita read the last step. "Toni, we need water."

"Don't have any in here," Toni admitted, looking around the garage.

She spotted the several jars of her mother's blackberry and raspberry jams on the shelf.

Barry had opened one jar, found one of Darlene's long gray/blonde hairs in it and simply stuck the jars on the shelf in the garage. Every now and then, he and Toni would empty out three or four jars and bring them back to Darlene. Toni would claim that Barry loved the jams, and the brandy, which Barry never even tried.

"Toni, this says water," Anita said as Toni dumped two sixteen ounce jars into the powdery mix that Anita had been stirring.

"No, no, this will be like fine," Toni assured her friend.

"Like whatever, it's your soap," Anita shrugged.

"No, it's like our soap," Toni said, hugging her friend happily.

Miss Alvarez complimented Anita's hair; even Barry commented on it. If it bothered him that his daughter spent his money on her friend, he said nothing.

At home, Luther just said they had leftover barbeque in the refrigerator. Louisa did not look up from the television. Marco just said something insulting then disappeared back into his room.

Chapter 10

"Oh! Didn't know we had a movie star on our bus!" Mr. Hardy commented when Anita climbed the steps of the bus.

"Like whatever," she smiled.

"Seriously, you look nice," he said and swung the doors shut.

"Thanks; we went to T. Dayton," Anita said.

"Tee... Rob a bank or something?" he asked.

"Rob a... what you mean?" Anita asked.

"Haircut there's like a hundred bucks," he said.

Toni must have sensed the disturbance in the force; she wasn't outside when Anita stormed off the bus looking for her.

She found Toni in the bathroom.

"You spent a hundred bucks? On this?" Anita screamed at her friend.

"No," Toni denied.

"How much? Huh? How much? Mr. Hardy says..." Anita yelled.

"Like a hundred and twenty, plus the tip," Toni admitted.

"A hundred and..." and Anita burst into tears. "Why, Toni? Why'd you spend all that...?"

Toni hugged her tightly.

"Because I love you like so much," Toni admitted.

"Toni, I like love you too, but still..." Anita protested.

"Like you had it, you spend it on me?" Toni asked.

"Well, yeah but..." Anita admitted.

"Then like shut up," Toni said, kissed her quickly, then pulled her out the bathroom.

In Computer Literacy class, both Toni and Anita worked on the design of their A&a All Organic Soap logo and printed off five sheets of it before Sister Bernadette redirected them to the Excel spreadsheet they were supposed to be working on.

After school, Toni drove them to the garage and they cut the trays of soap.

"How'd you think of that?" Anita asked as Toni carefully lined up a strip of wood over the tray to make the cuts with the sharp knife.

"My brother Patrick like showed me this," Toni smiled.

"Your brother makes soap?" Anita asked.

"No, he like makes the best brownies in the world," Toni admitted. "And at the school for the blind, they like showed him how to make sure they're even and stuff."

"School for the... Why'd your brother go to...?" Anita asked, carefully folding a sheet of paper over a cake of soap.

"He's like blind," Toni said and finished the last row of soaps.

"He's... You making that up?" Anita accused.

"No, Congenital Glaucoma," Toni said and helped Anita with the last of the soaps.

They then cut up the next tray and finished wrapping those cakes up too.

"Mees Anita, you staying?" Miss Alvarez asked, sticking her head into the hot workshop.

"Yes ma'am," Anita agreed.

"Didn't even bother asking me if it's like all right," Toni teased the woman.

"Ees all right?" Miss Alvarez asked, smiling.

"I guess," Toni sighed dramatically.

"Be right back," Toni called out as she and Anita carried the two boxes of soaps to the car.

Toni drove them to T. Dayton's and Helped Anita lug the boxes to the salon.

"Okay," Toni smiled at Selena. "We got like raspberry and blackberry. The original's still like drying but as soon as it's ready..."

"Oh, this smells nice," Selena agreed, sniffing the raspberry soap.

Margaret Schaub held her granddaughter's hand as she and the five year old girl walked to the counter.

"Mrs. Schaub, smell this," Selena said, holding out a cake of blackberry soap.

"Grammaw, I have one?" five year old Maggie Kowalski asked.

"But of course, Sweetheart," Mrs. Schaub beamed at her only grandchild.

The next day, Toni and Anita put twenty four bars of the original formula soaps on the shelf.

Two days later, Selena jerked her head up from the gossip article she was reading about the star Usher as a car screeched to a halt in front of the door.

"I will take every bar of that soap," Mrs. Schaub demanded, flinging the door of the salon open.

"Uh yes ma'am," Selena said as Mrs. Schaub slapped her American Express card down.

"Like it that much?" Terry asked.

"My Maggie's had that horrible rash since the day she was born," Mrs. Schaub said, a tear forming in her eye. "Dermatologists, Allergists, Dieticians, oh it's got to be this, oh it's got to be that; we've tried creams, pills, eating more of this, eating more of that and nothing's cleared it up. I buy that soap, give her a bath, she's not scratching at it; don't have to put the socks on her hands for her to sleep and not scratch herself raw. Next day, skin looks a little better. Give her another bath; she got all dirty helping me in the garden and of course she has to have another bath that night before she puts her pajamas on and the rash is almost completely gone."

More tears slid down the woman's face as she signed for the sixty seven bars of soap.

"I don't know what's in that soap but it's a miracle as far as I'm concerned," Mrs. Schaub declared.

"She didn't even look at the charge slip," Selena whispered as the car sped away.

"It's her granddaughter; she doesn't care what it costs," Terry smiled and greeted Daphne Baggett and TeddiAnn Baggett and Sophia Campion, TeddiAnn's best friend.

"Hi," she signed to the deaf Sophia. "How you?"

"Good, got 'A' in Science class," Sophia signed back.

"She got an 'A' in Science this report card," TeddiAnn translated. "All 'B's and one 'A.'"

"And what about you?" Terry smiled as the two girls followed her to the rear of her salon.

"All 'B's and one 'D.'" TeddiAnn said.

"And tell her why you got that 'D,'" Daphne ordered.

"Talking too much," TeddiAnn admitted.

Before Terry could ask, Charlene Falgout slid a stool over to her station for TeddiAnn to sit on.

Sophia nor TeddiAnn thought anything of it, but Fred Dumas and Nicole Dumas, even with Nicole now working at Babbage's Department Store, could have afforded for Sophia to get her hair done at T. Dayton's Hair Salon. They certainly could not afford for Sophia to take the horse riding lessons, or the dance lessons.

The two girls just assumed, since TeddiAnn got her hair done at T. Dayton's, Sophia would too. Since TeddiAnn went to Kimble Riding Academy, so would Sophia. Since TeddiAnn went to Kizzy's School Of Dance, so would Sophia.

Every time Fred, Sophia's brother in law, the only father Sophia had ever known, or Nicole, Sophia's older sister, brought up chipping in to help offset the costs, Daphne and Ed, TeddiAnn's parents, would just smile and shake their heads no.

Selena tapped out Antoinette Delacroix, looked at the phone numbers and recognized that Two Three Four was a cell phone number and sent that number a text message.

'Need More Soap.'

"Next time y'all get some of that soap, give me a call," Daphne said.

"Yes ma'am," Selena promised.

"I'll need two bars, of course," Daphne smiled.

At the playground behind the gym, the cheerleaders did a halfhearted practice; the heat was oppressive and the humidity was sweltering. Anita sat on the hot bleachers, scribbling out her Algebra homework.

"Go, Avengers, don't lose too bad," Caitlin yelled, which made the other cheerleaders burst into laughter.

"What?" Caitlin smiled. "God, we're playing Elgee; they're going to kill us."

"Shut up; the other team could like all get sick or something," Toni smiled, and then looked at her purse as it chirped.

"Toni, their cheerleaders could beat our team," Alexis agreed with Caitlin.

Toni looked at the message then called Selena.

"Hey, Anita, come on," Toni said, gathering up her things. "Like need to make more soap."

"What?" Anita asked, closing the book. "We made what? Like a hundred bars of that stuff, right?"

"Like seventy two," Toni corrected. "And they're all gone."

Anita followed Toni, not wanting to admit it, but her eyes were firmly glued to Toni's shapely rear in the snug shorts the blonde wore.

"Wait a minute, seventy two bars at twelve ninety nine each," Anita tried to figure out how much have of seventy two times twelve ninety nine was.

"Minus twenty percent," Toni pointed out as she pulled into Early's parking lot.

"Ew, I am not drinking that," Anita shuddered as Toni grabbed a quart container of raw milk.

"EW, like me neither," Toni said. "It's for..."

She looked around carefully.

"It's like for making raw milk and honey soap; saw it on TV," she whispered.

"Where you clothes?" Miss Alvarez asked as the two girls lugged their purchases

Toni grabbed her backpack and pulled out her school uniform.

"Mees Anita?" Miss Alvarez demanded.

"Miss Alvarez, you don't have to..." Anita protested.

"Ees no trouble, I wash hers, I wash yours," Miss Alvarez shrugged.

"Yes ma'am," Anita said and got her backpack too.

Even though they knew the recipe by heart, Toni and Anita carefully read each step.

"So, how much oh my God this stuff stinks!" Anita asked, opening the quart of milk.

"Sixteen ounces... um, like how about half that oh my God that DOES stink!" Toni said.

Okay," Anita said and measured out the milk while Toni scooped the thick honey into a second measuring cup.

"Like doesn't smell too bad with the honey in it," Toni said.

"Doesn't smell too good either," Anita grumbled as she diligently mixed up the thick concoction.

"All right, seventy two bars at twelve ninety nine," Anita said as they started on a batch of raspberry soap.

"Minus like twenty percent for T. Dayton's, minus sixty three forty eight for like last week's groceries and what? Like thirty nine fifteen for this weeks..."