When All Hell Breaks Loose (17 page)

“So, how’s your mother doing? My granddad tells me she’s a big hit over in France.”

“Huh … oh yeah. She’s doing fine.”

“I have two of her original recordings she did when she first moved there.”

I get curious about the relationship between the two. “How does your granddad know my mother?” I ask.

“My grandfather paid for your mother’s living expenses when she first moved to France. He basically sponsored her and Lester Woodbine.”

“The drummer?”

“Yes. My grandfather owned a recording studio overseas, but it was bought out by a Sony subsidiary about six years ago.”

I sit stunned. I can’t figure this whole thing out with my mother. First, I find out that she leaves town with another man to go live in France. Now, I’ve come to find out that she and the other man were living together while another man paid their bills. I’ve got to get out of here, because now all kinds of perverted thoughts about Louise are running through my mind.

“Your mother is some singer, you know.”

Dr. Bringham’s voice snaps me back to reality. “What’s that?”

“I was talking about your mother. She’s a great singer and a good friend of the family.”

“Yeah,” I say blankly. I rise from my chair and look at my watch. “Well, is this all there is?”

“Sure, and it’s on the house. Good luck on your wedding.”

We shake hands. I feel better knowing I didn’t have to pay for the session.

“So, you don’t have any words of advice for me?” I ask.

“Well, you will know the success or failure of your decisions when the time comes. You seem to have it all in perspective and you are ready for marriage. You are ready. Don’t forget that Adrian is a woman who is very independent in nature. It’s in her blood to go after what she wants and to create her own. She’s strong and it appears that you love her very much, and that’s good. That will make it easier for you to strain out later, when things between you two get really tough.” Dr. Bringham smiles as he walks me to the door. I start to question what he’s talking about, but I’m sick of him already and I need to get over to Uncle Bennie’s.

“Thanks,” I say and head to my car.

On the ride over to Uncle Bennie’s, I think about what the doctor told me about my mother. Even though I hate to admit it, I’m fascinated by her. Every time I find out something new, it’s like finding a dollar when all you have is a penny in your pockets. With her in town lately, it’s been like having a jigsaw puzzle in front of me and
not having a clue as to where to start to get it put together to see the finished result.

Last week, Adrian and I took her out to eat at a spaghetti place downtown. The entire time we were there, Louise asked Adrian a million questions. Adrian seemed to have the nosy bug too, because she asked just as many questions of Louise. I was glad Adrian was asking questions, because it kept me from having to.

My mother just released her first CD in France after all this time. The title of the CD is
Rivermoon Blues
. I almost choked on my Sprite when I heard the title. Rivermoon is the name of the street we lived on. Shreese and I grew up on Rivermoon Drive, where Pops still lives. I guess she was sad that she left us behind so she felt compelled to relay some kind of message on her CD. Well, that’s too bad, because it’s her own fault and I ain’t trying to have a pity party for her. Louise still seems a lot less friendly towards Adrian. I picked up on it the first time they met, but I figured it was because Louise had been away so long. But now it’s bothering me. I mean, Louise is not rude or blatantly unfriendly towards my girl, but the way she treats her is odd. Like she doesn’t want Adrian to get to know her. Maybe it’s just my imagination. I haven’t been around Louise enough to know how she reacts to new people, but the wedding is right around the corner and I’m sure her true colors will have come out by then. And when they do, I want to be right there. Uncle Bennie always said my mother had some funny ways. I guess leaving her family was only one of them.

U
ncle Bennie’s house has five cars in front of it when I pull up. His house always looks like it’s full of company. When I was growing up, I loved to come and play with my cousins, Bennie Junior and Aretha.

Uncle Bennie never married after Aunt Linda passed, but he did date several women. From my memory, every woman he dated had kids. It was as if having children was a prerequisite for any woman who dated him. It would always be me, B.J., ’Retha, and Reese along with two or more other children running around the house playing hide-and-seek, cops and robbers, and other group games. And I got in trouble every time we went over. It never failed.

One time I broke one of Uncle Bennie’s prize-winning fishing poles. Uncle Bennie had gone out with one of his lady friends and she left her three bad kids with us. Their names were Keith, Keilon, and Katrina. These kids were mean and they cussed like baby sailors. I went to the garage and got one of Uncle Bennie’s fishing poles to play with. I had played with them before and didn’t think anything of it. Keilon followed me outside and asked me what I was doing. I
told him I was playing with the fishing pole. He told me I didn’t know how to do no damn fishing and snatched the pole out of my hands. I told him to give it back. When I reached for the pole, he whacked me across the head with it. Lucky for me, Pops had taught me a few boxing moves, so I lunged at Keilon and knocked him on the ground. I grabbed the fishing pole and held it between my hands as I stood over him. I put on this real crazy face and told him, “This is what I’ll do to you if you don’t get outa here!” I raised one leg up and placed the bottom of my foot on the pole and pushed with all my might. At first, the bamboo bent with my foot, then all of a sudden, it snapped. A piece of the wood popped Keilon square in the forehead and he ran in the house crying to his brother. Needless to say, all the other kids came into the garage where I was. Shreese started teasing me when she saw the broken pole. “Ooooh! I’m ’on tell on you, Gregory! You broke Uncle Bennie’s pole!” Keith came over and punched me hard. My face burned where he had hit me. I started crying, and that’s when B.J. and Keith started fighting. All of a sudden this big masculine voice shouted, “Hey! What in the world is going on here!?” It was Uncle Bennie and he was pissed. Uncle Bennie and his lady friend had driven up and come in the house without any of us knowing it. They both started grabbing us and spanking our asses. Then when I got home, Pops lit into me again for breaking the pole.

Now, as I look at it, the garage I used to play in is full of car parts, old air conditioners, and rusted furniture. I walk around to the front of the house, ashamed that I haven’t been to visit my father’s brother sooner. When I knock on the door, I hear a child on the other side trying to open the door. I assume it’s one of Aretha’s kids. The door opens and a girl no higher than my knees looks at me. All of a sudden she runs down the hall yelling, “Gregory’s at the door! Gregory’s at the door!”

I pull on the screen and it’s locked. Then I hear Aretha’s voice. “Cicely, did you unlock the door?” I hear the small feet of the child come back down the hall and she unlocks the screen door. I follow her into the main room, where everyone is sitting. The television is on and they’re watching an old movie with Eddie Murphy playing
some cornball Detroit police detective that’s out of his district in California.

Uncle Bennie looks up. “Hey Gregory Bean! Boy, I didn’t think you was ever gon’ make it over this way!” He stands up and gives me a hug.

“Boy, you looking better than ever,” Aretha adds. She remains seated on the couch, rocking a boy infant on her lap. I lean down and give my cousin a kiss on the cheek.

Cicely runs up and grabs my leg. I bend and give her a hug. When I stand back up, she runs down the hallway to the back.

“Have a seat, have a seat,” Uncle Bennie tells me. I plop on the couch next to Aretha and the baby.

“How’s everybody doing?” I ask.

“Oh, we’re holding our own,” Unc says. “B.J. will be back in a moment, he ran to the store to get the baby some milk.”

“Has Stephanie had the baby yet?”

“Any day now. B.J. can’t wait,” Uncle Bennie says.

“Gregory, you ready to walk down the aisle?” Aretha asks.

She looks tired but hopeful as she rocks the baby on her lap. Aretha used to be fine back in the day. So fine that I used to wish we weren’t cousins. She was thick in all the right places and it showed when she wore jeans. Guys used to follow my cousin home and offer her rides in their cars and she would tease them by flashing that well-known Alston smile their way and keep on walking. Me and B.J. would have to fight niggas just to get them to leave her alone. Now, at thirty-one, her hips are large and rounded from the two children she’s carried, not to mention the one on the way. Her face doesn’t glow like it used to. You can tell she’s been through some heavy emotional situations. No doubt, dealing with two different men, neither of which is really worth her time. The only thing that holds a hint of what Aretha used to be is her eyes. They still look like the eyes of a fourteen-year-old know-nothing teenager. I still think she’s the prettiest. Her skin is smooth except for the two marks. One near her left eye where she fell off her bike when she was nine and another that extends from the back of her ear to part of her neck. A stab wound from fighting a chick over her first baby’s daddy.

“Yeah, I’m ready,” I answer.

“I can’t wait for your wedding. I bet it’s going to be nice.” She smiles.

Uncle Bennie looks at me. “How’s Adolphus doing? He told me Louise was in town.”

“Pops is holding his own. He’s been on cloud nine since she stepped off the plane.”

Uncle Bennie lets out a weak laugh. “I remember when you couldn’t split them two apart. Louise was all yo’ daddy talked about. One time she was late coming home from a gig, and Adolphus called the cops and told them to look for her.” Uncle Bennie is laughing. I’m wishing we could talk about something else.

The front door opens and seconds later, B.J. and Stephanie walk in. Stephanie looks like she’s carrying twins in her oversized belly. A modest smile crosses her face.

I stand just as my other cousin, Bennie Junior, steps into the room. He halts when he sees me. “Look what the wind blew in! Greg! What’s up, man!” B.J. places the sacks he was carrying by the couch. We grip and hug.

“Hi Greg, it’s good to see you,” Stephanie says.

“Steph, it’s good to be seen,” I reply.

B.J. picks the sacks up and takes them to the kitchen. Stephanie takes the baby from Aretha’s lap and heads to the back. The Bennie Alston house still feels the same. Everywhere you look or go, there is some human activity going on. B.J. comes back into the living room. He’s smiling big. We go way back and I feel bad that I don’t spend as much time with him as I did when we were kids.

“Where’s Adrian?” he asks. He comes and sits next to me on the couch.

“She’s out with Shreese and Mom, looking for carpet.”

“Man, how is Shreese? She still going to that church, Mount Cannon?”

“Yeah, she’s still there.”

B.J. lets out a sly laugh. “Man, I remember when she wouldn’t play with us. Remember? Your sister used to preach full sermons on the back porch to Corduroy and them dolls.”

I nod my head in agreement. “Not too much has changed,” I say.

“She would sit in this living room and preach sermons to Aretha’s dolls, too.”

We all laugh at the memory.

“Is she dating anyone, Greg?” Aretha asks.

“I don’t know. Last time I called her, the pastor from Mount Cannon answered the phone.”

“You mean the pastor was at her house?” Aretha’s mouth falls open. “I went to high school with Ulan Dixon and I still can’t believe he’s preaching. Who would have thought?”

“She’s going to end up being a preacher’s wife, you just watch,” B.J. proclaims.

“Naw, Nina ain’t gon’ be no preacher’s wife no time soon,” Uncle Bennie interjects. “Nina was always different after Louise left. Now that her mama is back, things will change.”

“I don’t think Louise is here to stay,” I say to my uncle.

“Don’t matter if she does stay or don’t,” he responds. “Nina Shreese Alston got her prayers answered. That’s all that ever mattered to your sister, ever since she was a little bitty thang.”

We all sit quiet in the living room after that. Eddie Murphy is doing that crazy laugh of his, keeping our silence company.

Before too long the sound of a baby crying fills the house with noise once again. Stephanie comes from the back with the infant in her arms. Aretha gets up and joins her in the kitchen. I get up to leave. Uncle Bennie looks up at me.

“You gone?”

I stretch and straighten my pants. “Yeah, I’m supposed to meet Adrian shortly.”

B.J. and Uncle Bennie get up to walk me to the door. Aretha looks out the kitchen at me.

“See you later, Greg. Don’t be a stranger.”

“Okay, ’Retha,” I yell back as I head out.

Uncle Bennie places his hand on my shoulder. “That’s right, Gregory Bean. You know where we are, and it’s always somebody here.” He smiles. “Don’t let it be March before we see you again.”

“Yeah, and tell Shreese ’nem we said hello,” B.J. says.

Uncle Bennie walked me to the door, but B.J. steps out of the house with me and walks me to my car. “So, when’s the big day again?” he asks.

“March twenty-second.”

“We’ll be there.”

I lean against the car. “You still going to adopt Stephanie’s baby?”

“Man, I don’t know.” B.J. has this look on his face that proves he’s confused and needs some solid answers.

“What’s up, cousin? Talk to me.”

He leans on the car next to me and crosses his arms over his chest. “I met this girl.”

“Aw hell.” I chuckle. “We all know what that means.”

He holds his hands out and uses them to express his words. “Nah, cuz, it’s not like all them other times. This girl is the one for me. Her name is Tawanna. She’s fine, makes good money, no children, and she wants me to move in with her. It’s the perfect opportunity for me to get out from under my dad’s roof and show him that I can do something with my life.”