Page 5 of Senior

“Fuck that,” I spat. “Come get y’all’s damn kids.”

“Aht, aht!” Maceo said. “You wanted them all for the weekend, you got them. Ain’t no take backs.”

“Nigga, I will drop these lil’ fuckers on your front step. The only ones that can stay are Korri, Nayelli, and Lil’ Stanley. Them other ones gotta go.”

Smoke laughed. “I thought you loved being Pop Pop, old man.”

“Yours is the worst one. Why the hell is she and KJ stealing cold chicken from my fridge?”

“You fed my baby?”

“Don’t ask me no shit like that. Yes, I fed them. They are just greedy as hell.”

Steel chuckled. “Fat Man doesn’t get full. He always wants a damn snack. Semaj is following in his footsteps.”

Titan snickered. “Fat like his Uncle Smoke.”

“Fuck you,” Smoke snapped. “Don’t make me take a walk to beat your ass.”

“You gon’ limp back if you walk over here.”

“All right now,” Quaid said. “Don’t threaten my brother.”

“Nigga, I’ll threaten your blind as a bat ass too!”

I shook my head. After all this time, they still went at it. It was all love, though. Quaid and Titan had fallen right in with the rest of the family having shit talking as their love language. I had six sons now and while I loved them all, they got on my fucking nerves.

“For real,” I said, interrupting the back and forth banter. “This ain’t like raising y’all. At least y’all sat the fuck down sometimes. I don’t know where they got all this energy from, but Pop Pop is tired.”

Deuce laughed. “Pop Pop’s ass is getting old. Or did he forget that? I bet you wish a grandma was in the picture to share this load with, don’t you?”

“Go to hell, Deuce.”

I couldn’t lie and say he wasn’t right. These days, all my kids were married off and had their own families. Their mothers were happy and most had new families. Even Maddie’s ass was married. I’d officially retired from getting my old ass in the field, so there wasn’t any action in my life. Shit had been lonely as hell over here. My grandbabies kept me going. Still, I went to bed alone every night.

Now that was weird. It was very rare that I didn’t have a woman in my life. Even if was just to get my rocks off, there’d always been someone around. I’d unintentionally been practicing celibacy for the last year and a half. If a woman even breathed in my direction, I’d probably nut on myself. Thank God for that vasectomy. I couldn’t see myself having another kid at my age.

The six I had were plenty enough.

I sat on the phone with my boys for a while, yelling at my grandkids every so often. When their daddies got tired of my mouth, they finally made their way up to the house to pick them up. After raising hell, the bad ass ones cried because they didn’t want to leave. I was almost a sucker and let them stay… almost. Once the last one was out of my house, I quickly closed and locked the door.

Pulling a much needed blunt from my pocket, I lit it and went to sit in my sunroom. Clearly, I was getting old. I’d sit out here for hours, just watching nothing. I’d been in my rocker for about twenty minutes when my phone rang. I looked down to see a call coming from my goddaughter. Swiping the screen, I answered the call.

“Yes, Emmy?”

My baby was six now and growing right on up. I couldn’t believe I’d technically started over with another kid. Emmy would be mine if anything ever happened to Tavia or Hershel. Honestly, she would fit right in with the rest of these damn kids.

“G-Daddy. Whatchu’ doing?”

“Nothing, baby girl. Your cousins just went home, so G-Daddy is about to relax.”

“You don’t wanna come see me?”

I chuckled. “You want me to come see you?”

“Yes. Can you bring me some cookies? Mommy is cooking and I want cookies for dessert.”

“So you’re just using me, Emmy? You really just want cookies.”