“Dandy, I’m your mother.” She shoves a chip in her mouth and says nothing else.
So, I decide to keep quiet, too.
“By the way, your father—”
Her words stop when I hear a crying baby and quick footsteps. My father walks in holding Micah while Eva runs ahead of him. She comes right to our table and hugs me so hard that I nearly fall over. She grins, showing off her missing two front teeth.
She sits in the chair next to me and holds my hand. The baby sees my mom and bounces in my dad’s arms. I stare at my mother, but she won’t make eye contact.
Dad sits next to her and waves at me.
“Eva got hungry, so we thought we’d join you,” Dad says. “Hey, Dandy.”
I open my mouth to greet him, but Sylvie and Tim come in holding hands.
“I’m done here,” I say and stand.
“Sit down,” Dad orders. “We can have lunch together. Levar dropped Tim off, and he’s been crying. Be cool.”
“She doesn’t want me around her kids,” I whisper, but Tim drops her hand when he sees me. He hugs me almost as tightly as Eva.
“Hi, Auntie,” he says with a sniffle.
“How was camping, buddy?” I ask. Sylvie flares her nostrils, and I want to bite my tongue when my nephew sticks out his bottom lip and looks away. “Oh, I’m sorry. Come sit down next to me.” I grab a chair for him. He sits but doesn’t talk.
No one speaks, and I already know what happened. Levar promised his son a weekend of camping and brought him back home after one night. I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to set Tim up like this, but I could have told them that Levar isn't interested in the trad life Sylvie wants, not beyond the benefits it affords him. He could give a shit about my sister or his children.
She has her lips pursed shut and appears to be close to tears herself. I look at my mom and shake my head. It’s a tense few minutes while they make small talk with the kids. Ignoring the adults, I try to cheer Tim up by coloring his menu with him.
“Auntie, can I come visit you at work?” Eva asks.
Sylvie whips her head around so fast I’m shocked she didn’t break her neck.
“I want to be a scientist,” Eva says proudly.
“I think that’s wonderful, Eva.” I rub her head in pride. “You’re going to be the best scientist in the history of the world.”
My sister flares her nostrils, but keeps her mouth shut. I’m sure Eva wanting to be a scientist isn’t the issue. It’s that she wants to spend time with me.
“This is awkward,” I say after several minutes of silence. The only noise is Tim’s sniffling and Micah’s babbling.
“It doesn’t have to be,” Dad says. “You two need to—”
“She needs to dump that—”
“Shut the hell up,” I say.
For once, she shuts up, but she pulls out her phone, turns her body, and texts something.
“Look, Auntie.” Eva shows me a picture of a flower she drew. “Can you come back to Grandma’s house and hang out with us?”
“Excuse me.” Sylvie abruptly stands up and walks out of the restaurant with the phone to her ear.
I glare at my mom, who shrugs at me.
“I told your father not to show up here,” Mom hisses.
“The kids wanted to see Eden,” Dad says. “And I was trying to get her and Sylvie to talk.”
