Goon
Recommendation: Listen to “I Tried” by Bone Thugs -N- Harmony
“Gwaan bring dat man ’round again an’ watch wah gwan, Sharon,” Chef warned my aunt, but was talking to my mother. My aunt sat on the couch with her arms folded.
Things were just good.
My uncle had come home from prison, and my aunt and mother threw him a welcome home party. Everybody came out to welcome Chef home, and we were all happy.
My grandparents were never happy with my uncle.
My grandmother said the man was mad and loved being locked up like an animal.
I didn’t see it that way.
My uncle was the man because he went to prison and came home. He wasn’t a snitch and he held things down while being away.
I wanted to be like my uncle when I got older. Since I was old enough to understand, he told me whenever he wasn’t around, I was supposed to look out for my mother, brother, aunt and Inez. Whenever he didn’t come around for a while, I already knew to look out for a phone call from him.
When he did call, I used to become so excited.
My uncle always treated me like a man and taught me everything that I knew.
His family was his life, so it was never easy when he was locked up.
I grew up wanting to make my mom’s life easier because she raised us alone.
Even at nine, I was trying to find small shit to make things easier.
Picking up after Kenneth and making sure that chicken was in the sink before she got home from work.
Even after the world chewed her up and spit her out, she still smiled when she saw me in the kitchen with my schoolbooks spread on the table, and food that my aunt had sent over for us because she knew my mom was working late.
“I’m a grown ass woman, Clifford!” she hollered as she paid more attention to my mother, instead of my uncle.
Even with Chef being the oldest, and my mother the second, she was the peace between Chef and Maxine. For as long as I had been able to understand, my aunt and uncle never got along. Maxine always had something smart to say, and it would trigger my uncle to start with her.
Neither of them agreed with how the other lived. Maxine kept a new boyfriend. Before you could count to six, she already had moved the man in and was calling him her husband.
I had another fake play uncle every other month. We never knew when it would end, only that a new man professing his love for her would show up. Inez hated all Maxine’s boyfriends, and slept over our house, even knowing we didn’t have the space.
Chef couldn’t stand the men she hung out with and always had something to say. The same dude was never around when Chef came by or was out of prison. Even though my mother never agreed with her bringing so many men around Inez, there was a way she went about it.
There were times when my aunt refused to come over, so that meant that Inez couldn’t either. My mother and Auntie often had fights where they didn’t speak to each other. At times, it felt like both my mom and Chef were against Auntie. Moms approach was nicer though.
Or at least I thought so.
Like Chef didn’t agree with the way that Maxine lived, she didn’t like the fact that he was always in and out of prison. She brought it up every time my mother went to mixing together rum punch and paying someone on the block to fire up a grill.
If it was the winter when he was released, Moms would always have the rum and make sure she cooked. The whole block would be out. She spent her last at times to welcome my uncle home and let him know he was loved and prayed for while we waited for him to be released.
Maxine hated all the celebration and never participated.
I was surprised when she pulled up on the block with her new boyfriend. I was old enough to stop calling these random men uncle. It didn’t make sense to even learn their names, so I hit them with a head nod and continued on with everyone else.
“Yuh movement mek it easy fi people think she yuh like man… batty.”
My uncle paused and turned slowly to face his sister. She had gotten under his skin, and she knew it from the smirk that was on her face.
“Maxine… enough. Chef, let me make a plate for you.” My mother tried to ease the tension and keep the little bit of peace that was left.
“Gwaan wid di man dem… he will end up sick same way like yuh.” He pointed his finger at her, as she rolled her eyes, not wanting to listen to her older brother.
My uncle kissed my mother on the head, no longer wanting the food that she was going to fix for him. “Tawk to ha.”
She shook her head, knowing nothing got through to Maxine. She was the youngest and had been used to getting away with everything for years. Even with a child of her own, she was still having her way when it came to being the baby of her siblings.
“Wait Chef… I’ll walk you out.”
He smirked. “Big guy… come on.”
I walked out behind him, as the red BMW sat parked in front the building. It had gotten darker, and his jewelry glistened as we stood out front.
“I don’t think you batty.”
“Shit don’t matter if I was… she talk out her ass. What one man do with his business not my business… eh?”
“Yeah.” I smiled.
“Your aunt Max get unda my skin… she know she do, but I luh her… she’s my baby sista, man.”
I listened, because although I had always been wise beyond my years, I didn’t know how to respond, and it seemed like he just wanted to vent.
“I protect her and Sharon with mi life, you know?”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Inez isn’t your sista, but you protect ha like one, too. Always look out for ha… if she anything like Max, she gonna give you gray hairs and stress like mi.” He chuckled, pulling me close, and hugging me.
“I got you, Chef.”
“Even when I’m not around, I’m around.” He rubbed my hair and then walked around to the driver’s side.
He beeped the horn as he pulled off the block. I stood there and watched as he made a left at the corner store, leaving me behind.