Mercille shook her head, ready to surrender the argument. “Well, Queen isn’t even paying for it this time. I told you, she found a government program to pay for her graduate studies.”
Allison argued, “Now that’s even worse, because you know the government gon’ want their money back. That child gon’ be working years for them years now. I already work with the government and I know. So she didn’t need no extra education for that.”
Bubby even pitched in on the conversation. “Yeah, that’s like when they wanted to give me a scholarship to play football at Maryland. They make all kinds of money off of you, but you can’t even make a free phone call home without getting into trouble with them college officials.”
“Yeah, but they would have given you a free education,” his aunt Justina reminded him.
“But is it really free?” Bubby questioned. “I mean, they getting’ a lot out of it, ain’t they? Football and basketball players bring millions of dollars to them schools.”
“Not only that, but the sports teams help the schools to recruit all of the other kids who still pay for college,” his uncle Mario added.
Mercille found herself overwhelmed by it. Pregnant with her daughter by seventeen, she had barely completed a high school GED herself. And she had made certain that Queen would not make the same mistakes that she had made.
She announced, “No matter what you all say, I’m proud of my daughter. And she’s gonna make something big of herself.”
“Yeah, after you dun’ paid for her to do it,” Allison rebutted.
Justina smiled. “As they say, you get what you pay for, right? So let the child get all that she can from school.”
“Ay-men,” Mercille agreed strongly. She stepped away before there was any more discussion about it.
“Whatever,” Allison uttered to her back.
Mercille headed through the kitchen and onto the deck with her daughter and her new friend. She figured she would spend a little time getting to know the man who her daughter may have been getting serious about. Queen had never brought many guys around her family after her high school years. Her college days were all about having fun and remaining unattached. But she now finished with undergrad and more serious about grad school.
“So, how are you two doing out here?” her mother walked out asked them.
Queen shrugged and grinned. “Just chillin’.”
Her mother noticed that Bryant was nearly finished with his plate.
“I see you have a good appetite,” she mentioned.
He smiled. “I was taught to respect good home cooking.”
Mercille nodded. “That’s a good thing. So where did you grow up?”
“In the Glen Burnie area.”
“Oh, that’s around the BWI airport. So you spent time in Arundel too?”
“Oh, of course. They got a lot of new developments in Arundel now.”
Mercille looked at her daughter and nodded again. Queen had made a good catch. The south end of Baltimore County was loaded with wealth, land and plenty of opportunities.
“Where did you two meet?”
“At John Hopkins,” Queen filled in. “I was doing research on their grad school programs, and whew, the prices were high.”
“Well, what did you expect at John Hopkins?” her mother asked her.
“You gotta shoot for the stars sometimes, Mom, no matter what the price is.”
Having just left a heated discussion regarding college education and personal debt, her mother blew her comment off. “Yeah, yeah, that’s what you always say. So, that’s where you two met?”
Queen smiled at Bryant, lovingly. “He had to show me how to get around the campus.”
Her mother knew better than to believe that. Queen had always managed to find her way around places, and no college campus would confuse her. A lost girl on campus was her likely excuse to meet a new college man with a John Hopkins’ education and income.
Okay, as long as they’re happy together, her mother mused.
Back inside the dining room, the subject of Queen continued to dominate her aunts’ conversations.
“Now Ju, you know as well as I do that child is always scheming on something. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have brought that man around here with us,” Allison stated.
“Well, that’s obvious,” Justina argued. “Why would any young woman bring a man around her family for the first time? She obviously has her plans for him.”
As they continued to discuss the pros and cons of their niece, Allison’s oldest daughter, Amber, in her late twenties, walked into the house with her five-year-old son, Claude Jr. at her side.
“Hey Amber. Hey Claude,” Kenyatta greeted them at the door individually.
Claude waved his small brown hand at his relatives in the room before he looked up at his mother. “Can I go play now?” He wanted to join his younger cousins outside on the front lawn.
“Not until after you say hi and hug your grandmother.”
Allison looked over at her grandson and smiled with open arms.
“Come on over here and give me a hug, boy,” she demanded.
Claude grinned sheepishly, and walked over to give his grandmother a hug. He hugged his Aunt Justina while he was at it. And as soon as his task was complete, he dashed out the front door to join his cousins.
Amber, with solid height, nice curves and a short hairdo of her own, looked over at the television screen that everyone was watching and commented immediately.
“Bubby got the bootleg copy already?”
The room full of relatives laughed.
Kenyatta said, “Everybody knows his steelo, right?”
Bubby chuckled and nodded himself, chewing down macaroni and cheese.
Amber moved into the living room with her mother and aunt. “What were you in here arguing about now?” she asked them casually. They were always arguing about something. It was just their way of communicating.
Allison hesitated, but Justina was quick on the draw.
“Queen brought a new boyfriend over today.”
Allison watched her daughter carefully to see how she would react to it.
Amber nodded and muttered, “Oh . . . that’s nice.” She began to gather a plate of food in silence. “What he look like?” she asked casually again.
Allison shook her head, hoping Justina wouldn’t go there, but she did.
“Well, I saw that he was tall with curly hair, but I didn’t get a good look at his face before he walked out with her. But I would assume he’s handsome, you know.”
“They already left?” Amber asked as she continued to pile food on her plate.
Allison looked ready to panic. However, Justina continued to answer her niece’s line of questions.
“No, they haven’t left yet. They’re outside on the deck.”
Allison watched Amber take in the information with a nod as an awkward silence blanketed the room.
“Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?” Justina asked her older sister. Allison had gone from loud and proud to a dead silence in a matter of seconds. However, Justina had no idea of the bitter history between Amber and Queen regarding a past boyfriend dispute. As an aunt, Justina was only slightly aware of the issue, but as a mother, Allison had been forced to help her daughter through the hurtful and embarrassing fall out for years now, and it definitely had altered Allison’s regard for her ultra confident niece.
In response to her sister’s question, allison shook her head, refusing to add any details.
Amber hovered next to the table in her thoughts, as she began to sample her plate of food, with her mother watching her closely.
“Did you bring over any of that peach cobbler, Aunt Allie?” Kenyatta asked as she walked into the dining room. She finally broke the awkward silence that had poisoned the air.
“You didn’t see me bring it in?” Allison asked her. “We put it in the oven to keep it warm. But let me go and cut it up right before you try and stick a nasty spoon all in it.??
?
Kenyatta laughed and followed her aunt into the kitchen with a paper plate in hand. Justina continued to focus on Amber.
“So, how’s everything going?” she asked her oldest niece.
Amber shrugged. “You know, it’s going; bills, child support arguments, more bills. What can I say? I feel like an R&B love song from Destiny’s Child,” she joked.
Justina grinned and placed a soft hand on her niece’s tall shoulder. “Just hang in there, it’ll all get better.”
“I hope so,” Amber commented as she moved toward the kitchen with her plate.
As Allison cut up the large tray of peach cobbler in the kitchen, saw her daughter walk in and head toward the deck outside.
“Amber, you ah . . . you all right with everything?” she asked her daughter before she could make it to the door.
Amber grimaced, reading her mother’s apprehension. “I’m fine, mom, I’m just walking out for some fresh air.”
Allison hesitated before letting it go. “Okay.” I hope she’s all right, she thought, as she went back to cutting the peach cobbler into modest squares with a large knife.
Amber walked out onto the deck with her plate of food and right into the conversation that Mercille was having with Queen and Bryant.
“So, you guys will both end up making good money after grad school.”
“That’s the plan,” Bryant stated.
Amber looked into the man’s face and was immediately jealous and angry. Shit, he does look good, she told herself. She wasted no time with her introduction to him.
Shifting her plate and fork to her left hand, she stuck out her right hand.
“Hi, I’m Amber,” she told him with a smile. “I’m Queen’s big cousin.”
Bryant took her hand in his and smiled back with a nod. “Nice to meet you. I’m Bryant.”
“Yeah, I heard,” she told him.
“Is that right?” he asked her rhetorically.
Mercille and Queen exchanged a look.
What’s going on with this? Mercille asked herself. Is Amber deciding to be friendly?
However, Queen was more cautious, waiting to see. You heard what? she wondered of her cousin.
“Yeah, my mom and Aunt Ju said that Queen had a new tall and handsome man over the house,” Amber filled in as Queen held her tongue. She was preparing herself for anything her cousin may say. Or anything that she may do.
Bryant laughed. “Well, that sounds like a good thing.”
“Oh, it is. And we’re such a close-knit family that we like to share handsome men around here.”
Bryant heard that and chuckled in Queen’s direction. “That’s crazy,” he muttered, somewhat at a loss for words. Even her cousin’s were outspoken. He had a feeling that her family members were liable to say anything.
Amber said, “Ain’t it. But that’s how we do around here. What’s mine is hers and what’s hers is mine.”
With that, Bryant began to feel uncomfortable. Yeah, this family is a little off the wall.
He grinned and shifted uneasily in his chair.
Queen looked at her mother. Yeah, here she goes, up to her shit again, she mused of her vindictive older cousin.
“She don’t really mean that,” Mercille interjected with a grin. She was attempting to settle her niece down and move on from the foul sarcasm.
“Why don’t I mean it?” Amber asked her aunt. “Queen means what she does. Or is gettin’ it however you can only for the Queen to do, and us peasants don’t apply?”
Queen took a breath, wondering how she could avoid another family fall-out with her cousin.
I was hoping she wouldn’t go there today, she thought. But it’s best to get all of this family drama out in the open. That way I can get Bryant to understand it all instead of being shocked by it.
Her family truths had been her reason for bringing him into the belly of the beast in the first place. She wanted nothing to shock him later on.
Finally, Queen shook her head at her cousin and said, “We were kids, Amber, and kids make mistakes.”
Amber looked disgusted with her cousin. She said, “We weren’t no damn kids. I was twenty-two years old! And you weren’t no kid either. You knew exactly what you were doing!”
The conversation started to heat up and get louder. Mercille moved in front of Amber to safeguard her daughter from anything physical.
“The man came on to her, Amber,” Mercille stated.
“Of course she would tell you that. What else is she gonna say; I wanted my cousin’s man? And so what if he did come on to her? Does that make it right?”
Bryant looked at Queen and was finally able to figure a few things out for himself.
Oh, this sounds like some deep shit. No wonder she’s tripping.
Queen read his concerned look and shook her head.
“I’ll tell you about it later,” she told him quietly.
“I know you will, Amber shouted, overhearing her. “You gon’ put your little fucking lies on it like you always do.”
Queen stood up and shouted, “I was seventeen, Amber.”
She barely stepped out of the way as Amber tried to toss her food into her face with her left hand. The plate missed and flew over the edge of the deck, tumbling to the driveway.
“Now if you would have hit me with that shit . . .” Queen flared.
“What?” Amber cut her off and challenged her. She had a considerable size and weight advantage over Queen, but her younger cousin remained fearless.
Before they knew it, Kenyatta, Allison and Justina all had made their way onto the deck to stop anything from escalating.
“You know what? We can’t keep doing this,” Justina was the first to comment. “It’s been years now, Amber.”
“I don’t even care how long it’s been,” Amber responded. “She always thinks she can get away with shit. And my life could have been real different right now.”
“How, with a man who would do that to you in the first place? It takes two to tango, Amber,” Mercille commented forcefully.
Allison eyed her younger sister and spat, “Yeah, and your daughter was already well experienced at dancing, now wasn’t she?”
Queen grabbed Bryant by the hand and attempted to make her way back into the house, but Amber grabbed for her hair.
“Cut it out, Amber,” Kenyatta jumped in and shielded them.
Amber pushed her and yelled, “Girl, if you don’t get the hell out my way!”
That forced Justina push Amber back. “Stop it, now.”
Allison grabbed Justina. “Now wait a minute, Ju.”
Queen made use of the distraction and slipped through the back door for the kitchen with Bryant. And she kept stepping for the front door to leave.
“This is crazy,” she told her stunned man.
Uncle Mario looked up from the sofa where he was still watching Dr. Dolittle.
“Where y’all going?”
“We got another cook-out to get to,” Queen answered him.
In a flash, she was out the front door and headed down the walkway toward the sidewalk.
“You better run, you little hot-ass bitch!” Amber screamed behind her through the house.
Queen never even looked back.
“Y’all leaving already?” Savannah asked her outside at the sidewalk.
“Yup. I’ll see you next time, cousin.”
Just like that, their Fourth of July with Queen’s family was over. They headed back down the Baltimore pavement hand-in-hand toward Bryant’s parking spot.
“I’ll explain it all once we get in the car,” Queen told him. She wanted to be clear of the area first. But when they reached the car at the second corner down the street, they had another surprise waiting for them, a parking ticket in Bryant’s windshield.
“Shit!” he saw it and cursed. “These money-hungry motherfuckers!”
He snatched the ticket from under his windshield wiper and read the amount.
“Fifty dollars.”
Queen grinned and said, “I told you not to park here. Oh well.”
Bryant shrugged and opened the car door with the remote key.
“All right, let’s go. I don’t have to worry about this parking shit at my house.”
Queen climbed in with him and thought, Yeah . . . nor do you have to worry about this family damn drama all the time.
The Thompson Family
Bryant drove only a block away before he wanted to know what Queen’s story was, and he had nothing else to say to her until he had heard it.
“So . . . tell me what’s going on,” he asked her solemnly from the wheel.
Queen exhaled before answering. It would be good to get it all out of the way.
“Basically, I was seventeen years old, I had just started having sex, and I ended up getting involved with my cousin’s boyfriend.”
Bryant listened to her quietly and asked her, “How?”
Queen grimaced at the question. “What do you mean, ‘How?’”
“I mean, how did you get involved with him? Did he come on to you or what? And I need to know the truth,” he warned her. He had a hint of anger in his tone with hard eyes on her.
Queen paused again. She said, “I was over my cousin’s house before they were ready to go out one day, and while she was upstairs getting dressed or whatever, he started talking to me about my boyfriend problems, and he slipped me his number. And at the time, I didn’t tell her about because I didn’t want to ruin her relationship, but then he asked me if I still had it when I saw him again at a family event. And since my cousin was always bragging about how good he was in bed . . . I mean, I started fantasizing about him. And . . . you know, eventually one thing led to the next.”
Bryant took it all in and said, “So, you slept your cousin’s man. That’s what she was talking all crazy about.”
Queen stopped again to read his emotions. The issue was a fork in the road that they would need to deal with.
She told him, “Basically, I just wanted to see what he was gonna say when I called him, and it ended up going the wrong way.”
“It ended up going the wrong way?” Bryant repeated. “But you were already having fantasies about him, right? How did you expect it to go?”