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“I got the ribs!” Uncle Sha announced while heading toward the kitchen. “Y’all not about to have me putting on a suit and singing over this nigga!”
Mama was laughing so hard she had to wipe her eyes.
“Sha, you are so stupid!” she said while crying with laughter.
“I’m trying to keep my brother here for Christmas!”
He called out before he disappeared into the kitchen while everybody kept laughing. I looked at Daddy, who was shaking his head with the biggest smile on his face.
A few seconds later, Uncle Sha hollered from the kitchen.
“And these ribs look good too!”
Daddy hollered back.
“And ya ass better not eat none!”
“Too late!”
That started everybody up laughing again.
By the time we finished eating, I was ready to sit down and never get back up. Uncle Sha had eaten enough ribs for three people, Aunt Tori had taken over packing up leftovers, and Mama had finally stopped trying to help everybody clean. Daddy was in his wheelchair at the dining room table, talking to Tahari while MJ carried plates into the kitchen. Penelope stood beside me at the counter. She was putting the last of the cheesecake into a container.
“You want to take some home?” I asked.
“I brought it for y’all.”
“And we ate it. Take some.”
She smiled.
“Okay. Just a little.”
I handed her a smaller container.
MJ came into the kitchen and stopped beside her.
“You’re leaving already?”
“In a little while.”
“Stay until tomorrow. We can head back together.”
Penelope looked up at him.
“I can’t. My dad’s coming to see me in the morning.”
“What time?”
“He hasn’t told me exactly. I just know he said he’d be there in the morning.”
MJ leaned against the counter.
“So, tell him you’ll be there a little later.”
She smiled and then shook her head no. MJ moved closer to her and lowered his voice, but not enough that I couldn’t hear him.
“You sure you can’t stay?”
