10. Deja McCoy
DEJA MCCOY
Ijust pulled up to my grandma’s house. It was so crowded that I couldn’t get a spot in the driveway. I wasn’t too upset about it because I didn’t have plans of being over here too long, and I didn’t want to park in the driveway, and chance someone pulling behind me, blocking me in.
I left the hospital around three this afternoon, and once I got home, I was able to lay down for about two hours, and then I had to get ready for this family get together that my grandma was throwing at her house.
My uncle Troy was released from prison yesterday, so just like any other typical black family, my grandma wanted to throw a welcome home party, as if it was a celebration.
I wasn’t that excited to come because I knew that my mom was going to be here.
An argument between the two of us was always bound to happen whenever we got around each other.
Not only that, but I knew that my uncle and I were going to get into it about my career choice.
He didn’t approve of it. In the past, he would piss me off when he tried to take on that role and pretend that he was my fuckin daddy.
If I wasn’t for my grandma calling me this morning, and threatening me to come, I wouldn’t be in attendance.
I left my Range Rover on the side of the road, parking in front of my grandma’s neighbor’s house.
I grabbed my Christian Dior crossbody bag that was sitting in the passenger seat and stepped out of the car.
I placed the bag around me, pulled the low rider jeans up a little bit, so that my ass wasn’t exposed, and from there, I headed to my grandma’s house.
I had my own key, so I was able to let myself inside.
It was loud as hell in here, making me question how many people her ass might have invited.
The second I walked in, I was standing in the foyer area, and not only could I hear the loud noise that was taking place, but my little sister was standing here, holding Nico in her arms. He was screaming to the top of his lungs.
Nari had a look in her eyes as if she was defeated, and trying to stop herself from crying. She looked so angry, and helpless.
“Okay. Okay. What’s wrong, auntie fat man? What’s wrong with you?” I immediately placed my phone in my back pocket and walked over to the two of them.
I jumped in auntie mode quickly. I didn’t play that shit when it came to my nephew. I loved him as if I carried him and birthed him.
He had little beads of sweat on his forehead from all the crying that he was doing. He was crying the kind of tears that proved that he was angry about something. I took him out of Nari’s arms, thinking that he was going to calm down a little bit, but he was still cutting up.
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked her, walking over to the couch, so I could sit. After that, I lowered him down in my lap. Nari was so checked out, that she couldn’t even answer what I just asked her. She just stood there, looking stuck.
“What’s wrong auntie boy? Huh? You hot? What’s wrong with you?” I asked him, as if he could verbally answer, and tell me what was bothering him.
He still wasn’t calming down yet. As he was in my lap, screaming to the top of his lungs, I kept stealing glances at my little sister. She still had this look on her face as if she was stuck. She was honestly so out of it right now, that I can’t even tell you if she heard him crying or not.
“Anari, why the fuck is that baby still crying like that? He’s been crying like that for the past twenty minutes! Take my car, so that you can go home with him. I’ll have Twan drop me back at home,” that was my mama’s voice that came rounding the corner.
She stood there with a drink in her hand, doing all that fussing.
You could tell that she didn’t know I was here yet because she made a face as if she was shocked to see me sitting here.
I had a rule where I wouldn’t speak to her unless she spoke to me.
Since that was the rule, most times, we would end up not speaking to each other at all because it was rare that she would speak first.
I ignored her presence, while staring down at my nephew.
He was cute this evening in his denim long sleeve top, with the matching jeans.
Little booties were on his feet. I figured that he might have been hot with all these clothes on, so as I had him lying down in my lap, I removed the bottoms that he had on, along with the top.
He was left in just his diaper, and once that was the case, he took one deep breath, as if he was finally at peace, and he instantly stopped crying.
Even through the sad look that was in his eyes, he managed to give me a small smile.
“That’s what was wrong with my baby? You were hot auntie man?” I talked to him, as I picked one hand up, so that I could wipe away the leftover tears on his face.
Once he was in better spirits, that’s when I stood up, holding him in my arms. His head instantly went for the crook of my neck, burying it there.
As I stood, I kept my eyes on my little sister.
I watched her carefully, really trying to take her in.
It felt like she wasn’t getting any better with this postpartum journey that she was on.
“Go lay down upstairs or something, Nari. I got him,” I let her know.
“No, she needs to take that baby home. It’s late, and I’m sure he’s tired,” my mom couldn’t help herself.
She always had to jump into the conversation every time that I was talking with my sister.
I was told by so many people that she would do that shit to get under my skin.
She wanted to get a rise out of me. I wasn’t going to give her ass one though.
I paid her dust. I focused my attention back on my sister, told her to go upstairs, so that she could chill out for a little bit, while I tended to the baby.
Nari went upstairs, and while she did that, my mom sucked her teeth and walked away. I took this opportunity to keep my nephew in my arms, make sure that he was okay, and once everything was good with him, I walked further into the house, going in the direction where all the noise was coming from.
Right there at the dining room table, my uncle Troy was sitting down with other men that were in the family.
Each of them were sitting down, talking trash amongst one another.
His eyes landed on me, and the second he got a clear view that it was me, he stood up, pushed the chair back, and made his way over to me.
“There go my niece. Let me take my belt off, so I can beat yo’ ass. What’s that shit you was talking on the phone to me while I was locked up?” he said it in a joking kind of way, but I knew that there was some truth to what he was saying.
This man really thought that he was my daddy and he could have some sort of say-so on what I did with my life.
“Gone on with that,” I said to him, pushing his ass back once he was close enough to me. I could tell that he was drinking. The second he approached me, I saw the gleam in his eyes, plus I could smell the liquor on his breath.
“What you mean gone on with that? You knew I was going to get in yo’ ass the second I laid eyes on you.
Why I gotta find out in prison that my niece stripping?
They was in that bitch saying that you hot shit.
Why you went that route? Because your mama, and your auntie did it?
You smart. It’s a bunch of other shit that you could have done with your life,” he drunkenly said to me.
“Troy, leave her the fuck alone! Go back and sit at the table!” my auntie Twan came to my defense, getting on him for me.
“Ay, you shut your ass up. You the reason she got wrapped up in this lifestyle anyways. Ya’ll had that shit thrown in her face, so she was glorifying it.
I come home to my baby niece with a four-month-old baby, and my other niece is stripping.
I don’t like that shit bruh!” he snapped.
I could already tell that I wasn’t going to be over here much longer.
Wherever the hell my grandmother was, I was going to find her, talk with her for a little bit, and leave. It was too much shit going on over here.
“Where is grandma?” I asked my auntie, ready to make my escape.
“Outside in the backyard. Toot, don’t pay his ass any mind,” my auntie responded. It’s almost like she knew that I was getting ready to leave.
“I’m about to go. I didn’t come over here for this.
I knew he was going to act like this, which is why I didn’t want to come in the first place.
I only came because grandma got on me earlier over the phone about it.
Here. Take the baby, so I can go,” I said to my aunt, and at the same time, the patio door opened.
It was my grandmother walking in. She had on one of her house dresses.
Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail because I’m sure she was the one to do most of the cooking.
She had a look on her face, as if she could sense the tension going on, which is why she started looking around the kitchen area, where we were all standing, trying to see what happened.
“What’s going on?” was the first thing she asked.
“You know your son. The second Deja walked in here, he automatically started trying to play daddy,” my aunt told her what happened.
“And that be the problem right there. That nigga that Meka chose to be her daddy didn’t do his part, and that’s why she stripping. I’m sure if he was in the picture, Deja would have gone a totally different route,” my uncle went on to say, talking about me as if I wasn’t standing right here.
After he made that dumb ass statement, my mom, who was sitting down at the table, still holding onto that red cup in her hand, ended up laughing. She laughed and shook her head.
“I didn’t choose the nigga to be her daddy. It wasn’t a planned pregnancy. It was an oops pregnancy. I should have found out that I was pregnant just one more week earlier, and I would have terminated it,” she tried to mumble the last part, but since she was drunk, I heard her.