“Is Wayon here?”
“What’s it to you?” Her red lips dipped into a frown. “Don’t come ’round here asking ’bout my man,” she snapped.
Sophia heard heavy footsteps, then Unc came around the woman and pushed the front door wide. “Rusty! Whatcha doing here, gal?” He ducked past the woman and pulled Sophia into a hug, crushing her to his wide chest. “I thought you were away at that fancy school.”
“Who the fuck is this?” the woman howled.
“Gloria, go in the house and sit down somewhere ’fore I whoop your ass. This here is my niece.”
“How I know she kin?”
“?’Cause I just told you. Now get.” He glared.
Gloria huffed off. Sophia stepped into the vestibule. The hallway was damp and smelled of pickle juice. The dull wooden floors creaked beneath their feet as Unc led Sophia down the narrow hall and back into the kitchen.
“You hungry?” Unc asked. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and chiseled like a boxer. He carried himself like a man who got respect on the streets.
“A little.”
An off-white Formica table took up most of the room, with tan leather swivel chairs. A stack of papers sat on one corner of the table, so Sophia sat on the other side and shrugged out of her coat. The television blastedI Spyfrom the living room, and Sophia could make out Bill Cosby’s voice over Gloria mumbling to herself.
Unc ignored Gloria. “How’d you get here? Deary know you out of school?” He turned on the pilot to the stove. Ittick-ticked, then he struck a match and fed it to the pilot until it roared with fire. Unc put a cast-iron pan over the eyelet, tipped in what looked like bacon grease from a mason jar on the counter, and then cracked three eggs. “Fried hard?”
She smiled. “You know it.” It felt good to be with someone who knew her.
Once Unc put the plate of eggs and two pieces of jellied toast in front of her, he sat down and lit his Pall Mall. Sophia forked eggs into her mouth while Unc caught her up on the farm, the new workers, and the last time he’d seen her brothers.
Sophia ate the crust of her toast. “Unc, can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.”
“Where did I come from?”
Unc choked on the smoke from his cigarette, pounded his fist against his chest, and then chuckled. “What the hell kinda question is that?”
“Imean,where did I come from? I don’t remember much about my childhood. There are no pictures. Whenever I’ve asked Ma Deary, she says, ‘We the only family you need to know.’ That’s not a real answer.”
“Well, we are the only family you need to know. And we love you, girl. Stop asking stupid questions,” he said, getting up from the table with his back to her and strolling out of the room.
Sophia finished her eggs as she heard Unc and Gloria whispering in the living room. Then Unc came back wearing a double-breasted leather coat with his lapel popped.
“I gotta make a run. Wash up them dishes for me. Damn roaches think they paying the bills ’round here.”
“Where you going?”
“I gotta go see a man about a dog.” He turned to the small mirror pinned to the wall and licked his finger. Then he ran it across his mustache.
Sophia knew he wasn’t really seeing to no dog. That was Unc’s way of saying “None of your business.”
“But I’ll be back in a few hours. You gonna have to stay the night here, and I’ll drive you out to the farm tomorrow morning. I was going out there anyhow.”
“I can’t go to the farm.”
“Deary ain’t frontin’ on you no more. She knows you did what you did so you could get that education.”
Sophia looked at her empty plate, not feeling convinced.
Unc leaned against the doorframe. “You do okay up at that school?”
