Insanity (12 page)

“I guess if you’re into moving
up
in the world. But if you’re complacent with where you are . . .” She shrugged. “Then I guess you wouldn’t understand it.”

She took a bite of her own plate of food.

Back inside the dining room, Mercille asked her sister, “Why do you keep doing that to my
baby
?”

Allison looked
appalled
by the question. She answered after she chewing down her potato salad. “Girl, are you
kidding
me? That child
needs
to be brought back down to earth. You shouldn’t have even
named
her no damn
Queen
. She’s not
my
damn
Queen
. Sounds like a
dog’s
name.”

“Oh, just cut it
out
, Allison,” Mercille told her.

“No I
won’t
. Now you know good and well your child walks around us like we’re all
embarrassing
to her, just because she had a little extra
schooling
. And I feel like I
paid
for most of it with as much as you asked me for
help
, trying to get her little
uniforms
and stuff.”

“And you think she doesn’t
know that
?” Mercille questioned.

“Evidently
not
, because instead of her keeping a
job
to start to pay us
back
with, her crazy behind goes back to
school
. And for
what
, four more years of poverty?”

“It’s only
two
more years,” Mercille corrected her.

“Yeah, on top of what,
sixteen
? See I can
count
.”

Overhearing them argue, Justina, the middle sister, walked down into her dining room from upstairs and immediately sided with Mercille..

“The more education, the more security, Allison,” Justina reasoned. She was actually the smallest sister in size, where Allison was the oldest and biggest in every way, a bully with it.

She grimaced and said, “Oh, so you think educated people don’t go
broke
? Because I know
plenty
of them who never even paid off their college
loans
, and they end up in debt for their entire lives. I mean,
at least
I know when enough is enough. But some of them so-called
educated
people are just plain
dumb
, buying and borrowing until they got no way out of anything. And then they try to twist their noses all up in the air to
you
like they’re so
smart
.”

Overhearing his sister-in-law, who
refused
to be reasoned with, Mario began to chuckle from where he was sitting on the sofa and added fuel to her fire. He had moved up in the Baltimore construction industry with more than thirty years of experience and no higher education himself.

He yelled, “Get ’em, Allison! I work with some educated
fools
on the job right now. And we’re always training them and
retraining
them when they come in. But yet the company starts them off with more money and higher positions.”

“Yeah, so they can pay for them college
loans
and get themselves into more
debt
when they start buying houses and cars that they can’t really
afford
,” Allison calculated. “Oh, it’s all a big
business
. But
we’re
supposed to be the dummies, right?”

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?