Chapter 3
Audacity is High and my Patience is Low
“So, you didn’t have anything else to do today, young man? Don’t you have training or something for baseball?” I was annoyed as hell that Travis was here.
I already had to deal with him at my house when he came over and at baseball games.
Now I had to go shopping with his ass too.
The adults decided to split up to do our shopping for each other.
Croy, TJ, Riker, Shaun, Jacob, Ned Jr., Pop Ned, Pop Samuel, Trevor, Matthew, Joseph, and Jamal were all planned attendees.
I was excited that Shaun was able to spend the day with us. Football had him busy as hell.
With all those folks, no one thought to tell me that Travis’s little ass would be here. My eyes bounced between him, Croy, and Trevor. I blamed them. All of this when I just accepted Trevor’s gyrating presence.
Travis stared at me like I was on his damn nerves.
He had that arrogant spirit in him heavy, just like his brother.
As much as I wanted to hate it, I couldn’t after I met his parents.
His father was a man of integrity, and he taught his sons to be.
How could I be mad about that when I did the same with my children?
Proverbs 10:9 said, “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.”
“Mr. Manfield, baseball season doesn’t start until March.
I don’t have official training, but I do work out daily,” he said flatly.
His back straightened. “You should let me come work out in your gym sometime with you. Maggie sent me pictures. That would be cool because I could help you with your form on a few of the lifts I saw you doing in the video.”
Did this nigga just say that my form was wrong? All the men around the table had goofy smiles on their faces. They knew I was frustrated with this boy. “So, in my questions, you found an opportunity to invite yourself to work out with me. No, you want to teach me proper form.”
“I mean, yeah. I answered your questions. The only thing that I had to do today was shop with you all so that I could find the perfect gift for Maggie. I figured between me, you, and her brothers, I would achieve that,” he said with pride.
Matthew scoffed. “I’m not helping you find my sister a gift. Travis, you the baseball homie, but dang. You’re supposed to use the rosin on your hands, not snort it.”
Trevor burst into laughter. “Damn, baby bro. I thought they were on me. Stick in there if you think it’s worth it, man.”
See, the arrangement of words is what gets folks messed up. “Trevor, watch your mouth. My baby girl will always be worth it. You better tell your brother to stick in there until my daughter decides whether he’s worth it.”
Travis chuckled. “Mr. Manfield, both of us are worth it. We just may not be worth it for each other. That doesn’t short either of us.”
I wanted to chop his fifteen-year-old behind in the head. What did Draco tell me to do when someone says something that makes sense, but I still don’t like it? Ah, I remember . . . Vaguely agree, then change the subject. “Touché. Shaun, you been killing them out there on the field.”
“You know I do what I can do, Unc. Gotta make my pay and endorsement checks worth it,” he said before he put a piece of steak in his mouth.
Croy’s chest was poked out. “Yeah, my boy just locked in a sneaker deal.” He gripped the back of his son’s neck and shook him a little. “I told y’all my boy was going to be a problem on that field.”
“That you did, my boy. TJ, where’s your boy? I hope you plan to put his ass in a sport with his lil hyper behind,” I said.
Hyper was the nicest way to say that TJ’s son was bad. I knew TJ was a little off, but Mekole was just a nut case like her cousin Fiona. It was astonishing how crazy people tended to meet, marry, and procreate.
“Man, he wit’ my mama and daddy. His lil ass got kicked out of day care, so now my mama and Mama Brandy watch his ass. I swear that boy bad as fuck. My baby girl gonna be good though,” he casually said.
My eyes bucked before I pushed my plate back to lean my forearms in its place. “My dude, you really said to yourself one day, ‘I already have one bad ass son with my wife, why not put a bad ass daughter in her.’ That’s really what you said to yourself?”
Samuel laughed. “Wow! I guess this is one of the pot can call the kettle black because the pot is black too situations.” He pointed at Matthew and Joseph. “You got two detachable pot handles right here.” My step-daddy tries to ho me often.
Before I could say anything, Pop Ned chimed in. “Shit, Samuel, you got a point. Mega, those boys are you all over again when you were younger. Your ass stayed in trouble.”
“What kind of stuff did our dad do to get in trouble?” Joseph interrupted our conversation.
My head snapped in his direction. The last time I looked at them, he and his brother were locked in to something on their tablets. Their nosy asses. “Why you worried about it?”
“Don’t do that,” Pop Ned said with a titter. “Joseph, your daddy was a damn misfit. He fusses at y’all, but he was doing things that were worse than y’all. Ned was right there with his ass.”
I sucked my teeth. “Man, I was not that damn bad. I got into shit like most boys do, but I wasn’t out here doing jail worthy shit.” I had to defend myself.
Pop Ned’s head tilted to the side. His eyes bounced between me and Ned. Ned just shook his head. “I ain’t got shit to say. Gone ahead and tell your story, Pops.”
What about your friends, they say. There was no way that I could stop whatever story he would tell them. I was sure it would be embellished for entertainment purposes.
When Pop Ned turned toward my boys, I knew that this story would be one for the books.
“Alright, I think Ned and your dad were around your age. They might have been a year younger. I wasn’t sure where they got them, but somehow, your father came into the possession of FHRs.
Those are flameless ration heaters that military soldiers use to heat their food. ”
I dropped my head because out of all the stories he could have picked, he picked this one. “Really? You’re going to tell them this story?”
“You’re damn right that I’m going to tell them this one. You just said that you had never done anything that was jail worthy. I remember keeping you and Ned over there out of jail for this one,” Pop Ned said with knitted brows.
Matthew’s little face scrunched. “Dad, it’s rude to interrupt. G-Pop, what did they do with those FH things?”
He shifted in his seat with a devious smirk. He was way too excited to tell this story. “Well, these two found out that if you put them in a soda bottle, fill with water, then twist the top on tight that it would eventually blow up.”
Matthew’s, Joseph’s, and Jamal’s eyes widened. “Where can we get those?” Joseph asked.
“You can get them shits at the end of my belt. Don’t play with me, little boy,” I fussed.
This was why I didn’t want him to tell this story.
My sons were inquisitive and loved to experiment like they were scientists.
Now I have to put a block on our credit cards and keep an eye out on what they do on the internet.
If I didn’t, I would turn around and have a delivery of FHRs at our house.
Pop Ned continued. “These fools got ten two liter bottles, filled them, and put them under a damn car. Guess what happened to the damn car?”
“Did it blow up? Is that what happened?” Jamal finally broke his silence.
Jamal was a perfect mix of his mama and daddy.
He was the introverted, quiet type that you had to watch.
The boy was violent on the low like his damn mama.
Last year, in his sophomore year, he stood up for this autistic kid that got bullied.
The bully decided that he would turn his stupidity on Jamal.
Jamal let the boy pop off and hit him one time.
After that one hit, that boy got his face caved in.
Galiana and Jacob had to pay for the boy’s facial reconstruction surgery.
You would think that they would have put Jamal on punishment or something.
Nope. They started to train the boy. I thought they were crazy as hell.
In the little over a year that he had been in training, it taught him discipline, temper control, restraint, and many other skills.
Big G wouldn’t be happy that I said this, but that nigga was about to be one hell of a killer.
Before Pop Ned could answer the question, Big G worked on my behalf and caused an interruption. The door to the private room at the restaurant that we were in opened. Smoked Soul was one of the best barbeque, soul food restaurants around.
“Family!” Corleone walked into the room. “What it do?”
Ned was the first to stand to his feet with a wide smile. Corleone was the pride of his heart. He recently went on his first mission with his father. I didn’t know the details of the mission, but I knew that Ned walked around for a week like the boy graduated college.
Corleone and Ned embraced. “What the fuck you doing here, boy? I thought you were busy.”
“You know I’m not about to miss time with the family. I shifted some shit around,” he let his dad know.
He sat in the empty seat that was between his dad and Jamal after he greeted everyone. The server came in, got his order, and was on her way out of the room. He leaned forward on the table. “So, what y’all talkin’ about?”
Joseph leaned forward. “Cory, did you know your dad and my dad blew up a car?”
I threw my hands up. Here the hell we go! “I didn’t blow up a car!”
Travis snickered. “It kinda does sound like y’all blew up a car. Maybe your recollection of events is off like your workout form.”
I will punch this nigga in the fuckin’ throat!
Up The Mountain for A Good Time . . .