“Well, since I mean nothing.” Trey slowly lifts a card, going, “Ahhhhhh,” like a heavenly choir, then, “Bam! Draw two, boo.”
Ooh, I can’t wait to pull that draw four on his ass.
I draw my two, and there is a God. I got another wild card plus a skip. In the words of the late, great philosopher Tupac Shakur: “I ain’t a killer, but don’t push me.”
It’s kinda messed up that I’m enjoying this. We don’t have lights, and Aunt Pooh could be—
Several loud knocks at the front door startle me.
Trey gets up to answer. “Chill, Bri. It’s just the door.”
Time slows, and my heart slams against my chest.
“Shit,” Trey hisses.
I’m gonna puke.
“Who is it?” Jay asks.
“Grandma and Granddaddy,” he says.
Thank God.
But my mom goes, “Dammit!” She holds her brow. “Let them in, Trey.”
The door has barely creaked open when Grandma says, “Where in the world y’all been?”
She lets herself in the house, peeking in every room like she’s looking for something. Sniffing. Knowing Grandma, she’s searching for drugs.
Granddaddy lumbers into the kitchen behind Trey. He and Grandma wear matching Adidas tracksuits. “We happened to be over this way and wanted to check on y’all,” he says. “Y’all wasn’t at church yesterday.”
“Don’t lie!” Grandma says as she joins us in the kitchen. “We purposely stopped by! I had to check on my grandbabies.”
Figures.
“We’re fine, Mr. Jackson,” Jay says, to Granddaddy and Granddaddy alone. “We just decided to stay home yesterday, that’s all.”
“We barely in the house and you already lying,” Grandma says. “Y’all ain’t fine. What’s this about Brianna making vulgar songs?”
God, not now.
“First Lady came to me yesterday after service, said her and Pastor’s grandchildren been listening to some ol’ garbage that Brianna recorded,” Grandma says. “Said it’s so bad that it was on the news. Liked to embarrass the hell out of me!”
“Can’t nothing get the hell out of you,” Jay mumbles.
Grandma narrows her eyes and sets her hand on her hip. “If you got something to say to me, say it.”
“You know what? Actually, I do—”
“We already know about the song,” Trey says before World War III can break out. “Ma addressed it with Bri. It’s fine.”
“No, it ain’t,” Grandma says. “Now, I done bit my tongue when it comes to a lot of stuff with you and your sister—”
Um, she hasn’t bit her tongue about anything.
“But this? This the final straw. Brianna wasn’t acting like that when y’all lived with us. Making vulgar songs and getting suspended. Got everybody in the church talking ’bout her. Some mess!”
Granddaddy fiddles with the button on the oven clock, as if Grandma hasn’t said a word. He’s a pro at tuning her out. “Jayda, when this here clock stop working?”
If Granddaddy sees a problem, he’s gonna try to fix it. Once, we were at my pediatrician when I was younger, and a light in the waiting room kept flickering. True story, Granddaddy asked the nurse if they had a ladder. He got up there and fixed it.
Jay closes her eyes. If she’s about to tell them what I think she’s about to tell them, we’re about to have a blowup. “The lights are off, Mr. Jackson.”
“What?” Grandma shrieks.
“What your lights doing off?” says Granddaddy. “It’s that box, ain’t it? I been saying it need to be replaced.”
“No, no,” Jay says. “They were turned off by the electric company. We’re behind on a payment.”
There’s a moment of calm before the storm.
“I knew something was going on,” Grandma insists. “Geraldine said her daughter thought she saw you come into the welfare office where she works. That was you, wasn’t it?”
Lord, Ms. Geraldine. Grandma’s best friend and partner-in-gossip. Grandma says “Geraldine said” almost as much as she breathes.
“Yes, it was me,” Jay admits. “I applied for food stamps.”
“Now Jayda, you could’ve asked us for help,” Granddaddy says. “How many times I gotta tell you that?”
“I’ve got it under control,” Trey says.
“Boy, you ain’t got nothing under control,” says Granddaddy. “You ain’t got lights.”
Grandma puts her hands up. “That’s it. I done had enough. Brianna and Trey coming home with us.”
Trey raises his eyebrows. “Um, hi, I’m twenty-two, how are you?”
“I don’t care how old you are. You and Bri don’t need to be suffering like this.”
“Suffering?” Jay says. “They have shelter, clothes, I made sure they have food—”