Read Online The Glamorous Life by Nikki Turner - Free Book Online Page A

lived in Church Hill, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Richmond. Her house was three blocks away from where Patrick Henry gave that famous “Give me liberty or give me death” speech. Grandma Ellie’s house was the prettiest house on the block. It stuck out like a sore thumb since the surrounding houses were so run-down. She always changed the color of the two-story house, which kept it looking new although it was old. Now it was pink with white shutters; the professionally landscaped flowers and grass complemented the colors.
    Zonna was Bambi’s older first cousin by four years. Zonna’s father was Tricia’s brother. Zonna’s mother and father had divorced when she was eleven, and when she’d turned fourteen, her mother had married and shortly after that had claimed that Zonna was getting into an excessive amount of trouble and had shipped her down south to live with Grandma Ellie. OnceZonna arrived in Virginia, there was never a peep out of Zonna’s mother. To this very day Grandma Ellie will tell everybody how Zonna’s mother sent her away for a man.
    Zonna and Bambi were close. They never hung out together, but they were always there for each other. Zonna was light skinned, with sandy brown hair that she wore in a neatly maintained ponytail. With a petite frame, she stood at only five feet two inches tall. Although she was a grown woman, she could easily fit into a girl’s clothing. She wore wire-framed glasses and was a computer wiz.
    Grandma Ellie firmly told Zonna when she was fourteen, “You can stay here, as long as you stay in school. The day you leave school, you’ve got thirty days to get up out here.”
    Zonna took full advantage of those living arrangements, completing one educational program after another. For some reason she never saw fit to get a job. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to work. The girl was a computer genius, and surely she could have gotten a job at Microsoft, IBM, or any of those places making a top-dollar salary, but she had decided early on she wasn’t taking any orders from any white man.
    “You think I am going to build up them folks’ company and devote my all to their company and the next thing you know after I put in years of playing fair, they come handing me a pink slip talking ’bout we are downsizing ?” she said.
    The bottom line was that she wanted to work for herself, but was too shy to get clients. She did, however, have a few folks that she met at school; she typed and composed resumes and letters for them to earn some money. The computer was Zonna’s best friend. When she wasn’t in class, she could always be found at home with her eyes glued to the monitor. She was addicted to it, like crack.
    When Bambi decided to start her business, Zonna was thefirst person she wanted to recruit. She offered her a position as office manager/vice president of the company. If it had been anyone besides Bambi, Zonna would have declined the job, but since it was her cousin, the closest thing to her sister, she had no choice.
    “So, do you have my back or what?” Bambi asked.
    “Of course I do.”
    “I can’t really afford to pay you a salary, but as soon as I get paid, then you’ll get paid,” Bambi told her, knowing that Zonna would agree anyway.
    Zonna said, “You ain’t never been selfish when it came to money anyway. Besides, I know that you would mess things up without me by your side,” Zonna teased. “You’re very smart, but at the same time, working together I know we could move mountains.” Then the cousins hugged and discussed Bambi’s next steps.
    “I need you to do a contract for me to get the ball rolling,” Bambi added.
    The next day Bambi pulled up to Grandma Ellie’s house to pick up the contract from Zonna. As she got out of the car, she was greeted by Ruby, who lived next door with her mother. In the state of Virginia, Ruby Lee Meedlepoint was a legend that went back to the mid eighties, and even now her name still rang bells