Page 143 of Heart Of A Goon II

She kissed her teeth and did this wave of the hand she had done as a child. As if we were a fly she was shooing away. To know my grandparents was to know they hated resorts. Some of the places they knew when they were younger were taken away because of the need for a resort.

If it was up to me, I would have stayed here the whole trip. That wasn’t logical for my mom’s or fair to Boobie. Despite how comfortable I felt here, her comfortability mattered, too.

“You booked us rooms?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve been in the country since I been here… I can use a drink and some beach. Mommy you and Deddy can, too.”

She wasn’t trying to hear a damn thing either of us were saying. “Bring ha in.”

My grandfather went to smoke, and Boobie came in. Maxine gave her the chair, and my grandmother offered her the first smile since we had arrived. “Ah baby.”

“Yes.”

“Bwoy or gyal?”

“We don’t know yet.”

“Wuh yuh want?”

“I don’t know. A little girl would be nice, but then a mini me for Goo would be cute, too. I just want a healthy baby.”

My grandmother put the jar down, and I knew she was about to start showing baby pictures of me. She handed Boobie the book, and she opened it carefully. With how old that book was, if she opened it any faster the cover would be on the floor and then she would hate her.

“Goo Goo a baby right inna dat sink deh.” She pointed the makeshift sink that had been there for years. I remember coming in from playing and washing my hands right in that sink.

She would make me wash up there some nights when it was raining out back. The memories in this house were endless, but so damn good.

“Awe, look at your chubby cheeks. You were so chocolate,” Zoya gushed over my baby pictures. “So handsome, too.”

“Word?”

“Don’t get too excited now… you had braids?”

“If that’s what you wanna call ‘em… boy hated getting his hair combed. They were more like locs with how stuck together they were,” Maxine called from the pull-out bed.

“He should have grown ‘em like his grandfather. His are so long that they have to be heavy.”

“And he won’t cut them either. That man will be buried with them,” Maxine chuckled, knowing how stubborn he was. She already knew that her parents wanted to be buried on their land.

“Mommy was a fresh likkle thing, eh?” she did her fake accent as she looked at us, and none of us were moved. “It’s cute when y’all do it, but silence when I do… okay.”

I smiled as she flipped through pictures of my mother and aunt. They were best friends and put my grandparents through it on this island. Everybody wanted a piece of the Wraithe girls.

“Okay Maxine… little pum pum shorts.”

Maxine smiled and snapped her fingers, reliving her glory days. These days she barely left the house unless she was going to the store or going out the country. It was like she stopped enjoying her life.

“Fass,” Grandma smirked.

“Oh fuck… I’m sorry. Oh shi… oh hell.” Zoya put her hand to her mouth, as she looked at the book.

It was a picture of my mother posing with my father while pregnant with me. They were standing by the mango tree that was out front. Both of them had smiles on their faces like life was good for them.

And it probably was at that time.

“What’s wrong?” Maxine leaned up.