I walked away from Val’s car feeling ashamed. I’d let my temper get the best of me. After all the training we did in Taekwondo class about controlling our anger, I had to go and kick the shit out of his drunk ass. When I made it back to the curb Val had taken off and Kelly was shaking his head smiling at me.
“Boy you must have tried to kick that fool’s head off. What made him get his ass back up and come for you again anyway?”
LaShawn laughed as she shook her head at me.
“I don’t know. Maybe the liquid courage.”
LaShawn laughed again.
“We better get our ass back in there before dad comes back out here looking for us again.”
He went back inside trying to get Sheldon and Pam out of the way of the action.
Lashawn shook her head laughing, but I had to remind her that her damn fiance’ was also involved.
“Yeah, Yeah.”
“By the way, when you gon make my boy K an honest man?”
“Don’t be getting all up in mine bro!”
“Says the one person who always up in mine. It is about that time don’t you think?
I’m ready for a niece or nephew.”
She was opening the front door but stopped and gave me a serious If looks could kill, I would be attending my funeral next week.
“What?”
“You know, what?”
My sister said that and walked in without even holding the door for Kelly and me. I looked at him and he looked at me. We both shrugged our shoulders and grabbed the handle, opened the door and walked in behind her.
Thirty minutes later LaShawn and I were watching pops open the gift we gave him. We told him we pitched in with Val and we could see his eyes tearing up. That man loved Val like she was his daughter too and he couldn’t be more proud. While taking his glasses off and wiping his tears he told everyone at the party the gift he was putting on was from his three kids.
Almost all of my pop’s coworkers admired the Rolex and it seemed the situation outside was almost forgotten, but it was still heavy on my mind. After a while the party was over and everyone left. Michelle helped pop’s take gifts to the car and left Me, LaShawn, Kelly and Malik to clean up.
“So, Shawnie! How you get this place to stay open so late for the party?”
“Ms. Sheila from Parks and Rec. let us use it.”
“Ms. Sheila, that used to come up in momma’s shop back in the day?”
Ms. Sheila is this short, round older lady my mom worked with at parks and rec in the city of Barstow before opening her beauty shop. They hung out sometimes and she was a regular at mom’s shop getting her hair trimmed regularly and dyed red.
“Yep!”
LaShawn inherited the shop so I guess Ms. Sheila was still a regular even after my mom’s died. That’s the one thing my sister and I still have in common. She left for the Army for a while, but she kept the shop opened. One of mom’s employees helped by running things when LaShawn was gone pop’s and Kelly checked in regularly. It wasn’t until LaShawn got back she hooked up with my cousin Sheldon who helped her flip a couple of properties before she got her real estate license.
“So, you’re doing her hair now?”
“Of course!”
“How much time you spend at the shop these days?”
“Mostly weekends. When I don’t have a showing. Ms. Celia pretty much still runs the shop when I’m gone. I just like doing hair. The business part of it never interested me.”
“I hear you. The business part is a pain. One day I’ll find something else that’ll interest me then I’ll delegate the duties to someone else.”
“Just make sure that person is trustworthy.”
A little while later we were done and LaShawn locked up the community center. We said our goodbye’s and Malik and I hopped in my van and headed over to pop’s house, which is my second home and Malik’s third.