Monday's Not Coming

After Christmas vacation (Claudia went to Georgia to be with her grandmother), Monday acted like a zombie at school. She stared wide eyed at everyone and barely spoke. Her little brother, August, didn’t return to school with her. Monday told Claudia that he was sick, and her mother kept him home.

The girls had their first fight. When August still didn’t come back to school after months, Claudia again asked about him. Monday snapped back that he was still sick and that Claudia should mind her own business. “He’s my brother! He ain’t yours. Just because you can’t have one of your own don’t mean you gotta be sweating mine!” (182). Claudia has no idea why Monday was so angry at her.

Claudia attended the church’s annual soup kitchen on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, helping her mother in the kitchen while Daddy and the men’s ministry set up. Claudia missed both Monday’s company and Monday’s help. Ma told Claudia not to mope but to be grateful. She showed her daughter the line of people waiting to eat. Some of them weren’t homeless; they were from Ed Borough.

After they let the people in, Claudia grabbed crayons and paper for the kids, helping them color. She missed August and Tuesday; she considered them a part of her family. Someone asked about Monday, an emotional gut punch for Claudia. Another patron remarked that the eviction notices in Ed Borough kept coming. Ma asked the first woman if she’d seen Monday lately. She hadn’t, even though they only lived a few houses from each other. “Ma continued serving, but I could see through her tight smile and worried eyes that she was also busy thinking” (189).

Later that night, Claudia overheard Ma talking to Daddy about Monday. She was worried that something was really wrong. Daddy brushed it off again, saying that perhaps the girls had a falling out over the rumors at school. Ma didn’t defend the girls’ friendship, to Claudia’s dismay. Daddy observed that Claudia was much more sociable with others this year because Monday wasn’t there to take up all her attention. He asserted that it was time Claudia made more friends. 

The next day at school, Claudia went to the bathroom to cry. Shayla and Ashley overheard her. They knew that Claudia was in TLC. They teased and bullied Claudia about being stupid and said that Claudia and Monday were lesbians. Shayla referenced a picture that allegedly portrayed Monday performing oral sex on Claudia.

Enraged, Claudia tried to hit Shayla but missed. Shayla shoved her into the stall door, and Claudia fell to the floor. Shayla attempted to put Claudia’s head in the toilet. Just then, Mrs. Valente entered the bathroom and ordered the other girls to go to lunch. She sent Claudia to the new nurse’s office.

When the nurse asked Claudia’s name so she could check her file for allergies, Claudia blurted out Monday’s name. The thick file said Monday might stop by time and again for bruises. The new nurse asked if there were any bruises Claudia wanted to show her. Claudia asked for “her father’s” phone number, but it wasn’t in the file. Before going back to class, Claudia obtained the previous nurse’s phone number.