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Nearly twenty minutes later, David came into the kitchen with a whoosh.
“Mom, baby! The smells...” he plants a kiss on her forehead. “this is what a man is supposed to wake up to.”
Verdie smiled.
“What is that supposed to mean?” his sister demanded to know.
“Exactly what I said. When you find you a man, you’ll know.”
“Oh, you got jokes, stinky poo? Why can’t you make your own breakfast?”
“Ya dippin’, counselor.”
Verdie rose off her chair and prepared her youngest his plate. She said, “Anybody else want breakfast?”
“No thanks, momma,” Patricia said. “I just want some juice.”
“Sit,” Verdie said, “I’ll get it.”
“Yes, sit, my dear. Momma, get her some of the good orange juice, from my stash. It’s on me, dear sister.”
“Shut up, stinky.”
“Real mature.”
Adam cut in angrily, “You know what, Bummy D? We ate breakfast at our own places, in our own kitchens.”
“Fool, please. And? Like these are not my Eggos and this ain’t my kitchen? You better go on before you get punched on.”
Adam rolled his eyes.
David said, “Listen, on the real, if we are going to do this, then we need to just ask everybody to bring something.”
“You crazy? Dad wasn’t living like that.”
“Look, I mean, this ain’t dad’s party anymore. I love him, he started this, true that. But he isn’t here, and then of course it changes everything. He would go broke feeding all those people. It was fun and it was nice, but like you just said, we not living like he was. We don’t have his extra income or his shortcuts to deal with the cost of throwing that type of party.”
“No thanks. Nice speech. We keeping it the same as always.
“He makes sense though,” Patricia said.
David said, “Adam wants to turn this into a Black Tie affair.”
“And you want it to be a pork and beer affair,” Adam said angrily.
“Funny.”
“There will be none of them alley bats you screwing at my party.”
“Your party?” Patricia barked.
Verdie looked up, as displeased with her son’s choice of words as her only daughter.
Their grandmother, chewing bacon as best she can without her teeth in, began to clap her hands slowly. When she had their attention, she said, “And the arguing? That makes the party better, the same or worse?”
No one spoke for a moment. In that time no eyes met.
Adam spoke first, “We should just have the party like it was. Period.”
David had his mouth full of food and tried to speak his peace, “You know, they might all think it’s stereotypical because it happens often, might that be the reason?”
“What?” Patricia said. “What did you say?”
Verdie and Grandmomma frowned, trying to understand.
Adam waved, “Don’t shine your ignorance my way.”
“Huh?”
“Exactly.”
“I am saying either way we almost have to do this, have the party. Us, all together. The people right here in this room. Daddy never wanted help, he handled it all. So now, I’m just saying, it’s on us.”
When he finished talking, he looked to his mother for her reaction and she didn’t look up or say a thing.
“Ah, hello, isn’t that what I have been saying?” Adam said.
“No! You want it to be a white thing.”
“I never said that!”
“Who you yelling at?”
“Ain’t nobody yelling!”
“Come on. My food ain’t going down right ‘cause you yelling.”
“Shut up. You sound gay with that.”
“Gay, look what you wearing? You ain’t buy that shirt in no men’s department.”
“How you know? You going by the men’s department in Wal-Mart then no, they don’t have this Egyptian cotton there.”
Grandmomma snickered, “Oh, now you Superfly?”
“You mean Shaft. He stole that line from the movie. He ain’t got nothing but Mississippi cotton on his ashy elbows.”
“That’s right, Shaft. Oh yes. Peoples. A pretty man, almost bald. I like that.”
Patricia laughed.
“And alley bats? I’ll have you know that sometimes that is the best tasting bat there is.”
“Okay, now,” Verdie frowned.
Patricia shook her head away from the image of her brother with some ghetto girl. “Anyway,” she said, “Momma, have you heard from Daddy’s side? Are they coming to the party?”
Verdie caught Adam’s glare and then noticed suddenly all eyes were on her. That was a question she feared would come up. For months she had done a good job of avoiding speaking about her husband’s family and their anger toward her for not having the kind of funeral they so wanted for him.
She simply said, “No, and I don’t expect to hear from them or see them.”
“They still mad?” Patricia asked.
“So what they not coming,” David said angered. “For real though, bunk them.”
“What,” Patricia pressed, “are they still mad because they wanted to control the funeral? That’s our father.”
Verdie nodded and breathed out the word, “Probably.”
“Like I so eloquently said, bunk them,” David added in her defense.
“Shut up with the eloquent,” Adam waved. “You wouldn’t know eloquent if it kissed you on your crusty lips.”
David blew his brother a kiss.
Adam went on, “They are his family, his brothers, his mother, his sisters. They had a right to want a say so.”
David waved him off. “Whatever. You tripping.” Then he lowered his voice sweetly and said, “Momma, my Eggos ain’t burning, is they?”
“No, baby.”
“Thank you, Momma. I trust you. For real.”
Patricia was shaking her head, “I can’t believe they are still upset. I called Grandma and she was all short on the phone.”
“That’s because she ain’t never really learned how to use the phone...modern technology and mess.”
Verdie put his waffles in front of David, “David, okay now,” she said and then gave him a light one-handed shove.
“Sorry, Momma. And momma, this ain’t enough, for real. I am a working man.”
Verdie drops two more waffles and leans her back against the counter with her arms folded. She doesn’t want to say anything but she wanted to hear her children discuss her in-laws.
Adam exhaled teeth in disgust. “When I die, and God forbid something happens to me-”
“You mean like one of your constituents beats you to death?” David quipped.
“-y’all will not let my wife alone. Y’all would want to be in the middle.”
“That’s because she ain’t gonna wanna do nothing with your cold dead butt from all them years of you getting on her nerves.”
“This is getting ridiculous now,” Verdie spoke up. “Your wife is your life partner. We are your family. And just like in this case, your wife will do as I did; she will abide by your wishes. Now that is that.”
“Uh, zing,” David exclaimed.
“So they not coming to the party?” Patricia asked. Her arms were extended out as if to ask why.
“Uh, is this conversation moving too fast for you, sis?”
Patricia added, “That’s not right. They are family. They need to be here. They were here every year.”
Verdie shrugged, “Things change.”
“We’ll be alright,” David said.
Adam huffed, “What? I am calling them. They need to be here.” He looked to her mother for agreement.
The Eggos pop up just as Verdie moves out of the kitchen.
“Momma,” Patricia groaned. “Adam? You made momma cry over them?”
Adam shook his head.
They could hear their mother slam herself into her bedroom.
“Asshole,” David said as he got up to get his waffles.
“How the hell do y’all get that idea? You the one, Trish. Why did you bring them up?”
“But you the one that went all there, they gotta be there, and all that. Why you kissing up to them? They can’t vote for you, most of them are felons.
“I am getting the family together.”
“Like they really family?” David said, his mouth full again. “Anytime we needed something or even when Mom was sick or something, where were they? Then when he passed, they wanted to control the damn funeral, like they all religious and shit.”
Patricia added, “Once a year, eating free? That doesn’t count as family.
“Must I say the F word again? Funk them.”
Adam said, “I ain’t letting this family fall apart. No way. Dad brought everybody together, all that love we shared, even if for just one damned day.
“Nice. Maybe they’ll thank you.”
Patricia bolted out of the kitchen.
“You see?” Ddavid said to Adam. “You pissing off everybody in the morning time.”
Adam sighed hard. “Y’all just don’t get it. What do you think daddy started this for? To end in a huff, to just end with nobody talking anymore?”
“You got a point though, on the real. But momma being happy is more important, this year. I mean, why can’t we just miss a year. Come back next year strong?”
“We need it this year.”
“You need it this year.”
“Momma needs it too, she just don’t know, she can’t feel it right now.”
David took in more food, chewing and considering what his brother was saying. Their mother surely needed happiness back in her life. Staring at the tiny television on the countertop, he took in account the fact that he hadn’t seen his mother laugh in a very long time.
“You know what?” David finally said, “You right, though. You right. I think she do need this. At least she needs to get that spirit back. Man I don’t think I have seen momma laugh since before daddy died. She needs this. Everybody here.”
“That’s what I am talking about, that’s all I am trying to say.”
“Just let me talk to her.”
“We have to do this.”
“Stop saying we. I’ll talk to her.”
“What you going to do?”
“What am I going to do? I told you I’ll talk to her.”
“No I mean for the party.”
“What man? You got me down with the party, ain’t that enough? Let me eat my breakfast.”
Adam cursed. “No, I mean what are you chipping in?”
David took a sip of his OJ. “I got forty on that.”
“Forty dollars? You living here rent free!”
David had taken in another mouthful. He shifted the food, and put his hand up to block his mouth. “Don’t count my money, dude. That’s rude.”
Adam looks disgusted. “You are a bum.”
“But your momma loves me though.”