I can tell by their tense expressions they’ve had this argument about this Rich guy hundreds of times since I’ve been away. It’s the same argument they’ve always had about the other “projects,” but this time something simmers beneath their jabs and expressions. It feels like I’m floating through an alternatereality where Aunt Faye is weirdly invested in one of Uncle Kenny’s “projects” in a way she’s never been.
I look between them, waiting for something to happen. I don’t know what, but I feel thesomethingthat’s simmering is boiling over. Maybe he’ll bury his fist into her face for having the nerve to twist his words around. Tony always said Mama had a bad habit of doing that, and AJ says I’m so good at it I don’t even realize I’m doing it sometimes.
I shake my head to get rid of the morbid thoughts, but Mama and Tony planted seeds for them to stay and grow. They linger a lot longer than they used to. When I was little, I could make them go away by pinching my eyes shut, but that doesn’t work anymore, so I suck in a harsh breath as Aunt Faye’s finger gets closer to Uncle Kenny’s nose.
He balls his fists at his side so I grab the edge of the dining room table. She curls her upper lip so I claw my nails into the wood. Together, they breathe hard until Uncle Kenny’s plump cheeks lift and he reaches out for Aunt Faye.
He wraps his long arms around her middle and nuzzles her neck with his nose until she giggles, swatting him away.
“Get off me, Ken.” She laughs. “Lovebug, tell him you don’t wanna see all this.”
They rock back and forth until she pulls her face from his chest and looks over at me. The frown that forms on her face makes my ugly, morbid thoughts wilt and shrivel into nothing until I’m just left with those traumatic memories of Mama, Tony, and now me and AJ.
“Lovebug…” Aunt Faye whispers, clearing her throat. “Are you alright?”
A nasty throbbing rolls across my nail beds. It’s just as bad as the throbbing in my side. I slowly follow their eyes down to the kitchen table where blood trickles around my nail beds and across my burnt orange nail polish.
Aunt Faye doesn’t gasp in shock, and I appreciate it because she usually loses her shit at any semblance of trouble thanks to Mama. I can only imagine how it’ll be when I tell her the real reason I intruded on her and Uncle Kenny’s lives for a second time.
She gingerly unravels herself from Uncle Kenny’s arms and picks up the rag she’d been drying the dishes with. She stalks over to me and wraps it around my broken, bloody nails.
Now my last manicure is ruined, and I can’t feel enough to mourn it.
Aunt Faye squeezes my fingers while running her other hand along my back without asking the questions I know she really wants to ask.
“She’s alright, Ken. I got her. It’s just another one of those moments we haven’t had in a while,” she mutters.
Uncle Kenny doesn’t move from in front of the sink because he’s too busy staring at my bloody fingers.
“She should clean at Rich’s tomorrow morning while I take care of that Manvel consult.” She pats my back. “Rich is going to the doctor to get that mouth handled so he’ll be gone anyways. She’ll be there alone.”
“He told you that?” he asks, swallowing so hard that his Adam’s apple jumps.
“I heard him checking his voicemail when he came in the other day. The nurse said tomorrow morning at nine. I know what I heard. I’ll make my consult quick so she won’t be there long. He might even stop to go for a quick walk at the park before he goes home. He likes to go before the kids get out of school and it gets crazy down there.”
They keep talking back and forth, and I open my mouth to join in and ask why Aunt Faye knows so much about this man’s life even though I still don’t know who the hell he is or why any of this matters. All I want to do is clean to get back to some senseof normalcy. I swear I’m telling them all this until I realize I’m actually not saying anything at all.
“I think she’ll be fine,” Aunt Faye utters, patting my back again and giving my throbbing fingers another squeeze. “Ain’t nobody gon’ bother her over there.”
My eyes shoot up to Uncle Kenny to see what he has to say, but he avoids both of our gazes.
“And look on the bright side, maybe Rich will talk to you more now since he’s getting those wires out his mouth,” she says. “I imagine it’s hard to communicate with your mouth wired shut.”
“I don’t think it even matters anymore. We ain’t got to get along.” He sighs, staring at my fingers again. “Mouths don’t win fights no way—fists do.”
CHAPTER
FOUR
LOVIE
The early morningsun cloaks Rich’s small one-story house, making its pale yellow siding glisten.
“Ugh,” I groan to myself, climbing out of Aunt Faye’s front seat and glancing down at my Old Navy jeans and Air Maxes.
I had to fold the jeans’ waistband six times and stick safety pins on the sides to keep them from falling. Aunt Faye didn’t even fuss like she normally would when she rounded the kitchen corner and saw how I snipped my shirt’s neckline and turned it into a boatneck top. She only smiled and dumped the rest of her coffee down the drain after glancing at the flesh-toned Band-Aids she had wrapped around my fingers last night.
Afterward, her and Uncle Kenny didn’t raise their voices at each other for the rest of the night—not even jokingly. It’s like we all regressed back to how things were when I was six and couldn’t sleep without seeing Mama and Tony in my nightmares. I even pretended like I didn’t hear Uncle Kenny whispering about me when I passed their bedroom door on my way to bed.
