Chapter 21 Cece
Cece
Cece watches Georgia toss her head back, and it about knocks the wind from her how much she looks like June. Georgia really
has become everything June dreamed for her, the one who rose above the name, rose above the drama, rose beyond a copy-and-paste
life gifted from generations before. Georgia might love this place, but she doesn’t rely on it like the rest of them. She’s
like a chameleon who can come and go, visit awhile, fitting in wherever she lands.
It’s all she could want for her niece.
When June became pregnant for the second time, she told Cece, right after she swore her to secrecy, that she’d prayed for
a boy. No more girls, no more chances at a June while their grandmother was living. She wanted out of the naming game. Dot
had told her that if she didn’t name the next girl June, she’d deed the shop to a trust, to a distant relative, to the dang
Salvation Army for their personal use, anywhere that would assure their lineage never touched the shop again.
June had cried to Cece. “The shop’s not just about me, and my hands are tied. I can’t make this choice for everyone. What about Tina too? Any kids
y’all have? How else are we going to make money in this town?”
Cece pleaded with her to change her mind and tell Dot to take a hike. They would figure it out, she assured her. Times were changing.
Cece holds her anger tight. Anger about the naming and the arm-bending and the threats and the business and family all wound
up together in a nest of barbs. She hates that June wasn’t allowed to make her own choices, name her own children, for God’s
sake. Somewhere along the line Cece decided she hated the shop too. Probably because it is solid and tangible and something
very real to point to in disgust, but in truth, it has always been about the choices made around it and how they made her
twin sister feel. How they made her feel too. And the rest of the women in their family in a ripple beyond.
Cece knows very well how it feels to be a sister jilted. The non-June.
She has always wondered if Junie feels insecure in her position despite getting the name and the shop.
Cece loves her family fiercely, and she hopes Junie doesn’t feel bad. When it comes to Georgia, Cece prods her away, pushing
her into her own exciting life and away from the never-ending beauty shop drama. The way June wanted it. Watching her now,
Cece feels her love for Georgia well up in her as a laugh bubbles out of her.
Cece may keep a guard up when it comes to most things June’s Beauty Shop—perhaps because she feels like the only watchdog
among them. The only one with the pulsing mistrust that conditions will be thrust upon them again, one of them forced to choose.
It rattles inside her and hurts like being the one not chosen. That is what she is after all, the twin who lost out. Nevertheless,
she will come to every meeting, even if she holds back.
She would be a fool to give up a single night like this with these women.