Excerpt from Nobody's Magic by Destiny O. Birdsong, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

The car was already at the shop getting painted, but they had ripped out the seats so Daddy could work on them at home. I don't know as much as my daddy do about restoring cars, but I like this part. I like watching old stuff get made up to look different, even though it's the same. It's how I feel when I put on my makeup in the morning, and I pencil in my eyebrows. Like, it's me, but better. I make my face up every day.

Daddy built this detached garage on the land out back after we bought the house, and he put just about everything he want in it, including a tall stool with a back for me to sit so I can watch him work, since he don't really let us come to the shop like that. Daddy said he coulda sent off for Mama's seats, but he wanted to do them hisself. When I walked in, him and Doni was ripping off the covers and setting them to the side so they could trace them on the new fabric, which was still bundled up on the worktable. Daddy bought two kinds of fabric, and he let me help him pick it out. One was leather, and it kinda reminded me of these boots I bought myself one Christmas, and the other one was like a damask. The color on both of them was called Chateau Mauve, and even while we was picking them out, I knew them seats was gonna be the best ones I ever seen in a car. It was the first time I felt jealous of Mama, cause Daddy gave me the money for them boots, but Mama got a whole damn car.

So I'm already a little irritated, and I'm even more irritated cause Doni there. Even though I figured he might be. I just wasn't ready. But I hop up on the stool and look around.

"Daddy, you gon clean them cushions before you put that new fabric on, right?"

Daddy just keep doing what he doing, like he do when he ignoring me.

Doni looked over at him and smirked. "Mr. Elkins, you didn't tell me the Queen Bee was gon grace us wit her royal presence this early."

"Excuse you, I been up. And I always come out here to watch my daddy."

Doni laughs. "You come out here to watch him, or direct him?" "Them cushions is nasty."

"Car gon drive just the same." "Did I say it wouldn't?"

"I guess you didn't. You talking so much, I mighta misheard you. My apologies, madam." And Doni turns and gives me a deep bow while he still holding one of the old covers, looking like a bullfighter. Daddy got the fans on, to bring in some of the cool afternoon air from outside, but it's still hot in here, and Doni sweating a little, just enough for his arms and chest to look wet. He only wearing a wife beater, so you can see it. I'm mad, and he looking back at me, all confident. More comfortable in my house than I am.

For the next couple of hours I watch them work: my daddy doing the stuff he wanna do and letting Doni do the rest. My daddy be barking at folks sometimes, and he was doing a little bit of that with Doni, but Doni stay cool as a cucumber. Daddy got a big sewing machine in there, but he was teaching Doni how to hand-stitch the leather, watching him so he don't make no mistakes. After a while, though, he left him alone. When Doni finish one seat, he take it to show Daddy. Daddy rubbed his thumb across the seams to make sure they wasn't bunched up.

"That look good, boy," he say to Doni, almost like he surprised hisself.

Doni say, "Thank you, Mr. Curtis," and he let Daddy finish with the tracing. But as he was walking away, Doni look back at him again, but Daddy's head is down. Then Doni look up at me and hold up the new seat cover like he making a toast or something, and wink. I smile a little, not cause I'm trying to flirt or nothing, but cause Daddy was sitting right there, and he missed the whole thing.

Excerpted from the book Nobody's Magic by Destiny O. Birdsong. Copyright © 2022 by Destiny O. Birdsong. Reprinted by permission of Grand Central Publishing, New York, NY. All rights reserved.