Page 24 of Vega

Wise went to college to make our mother happy. That was where he met Bishop and Milan. He earned the degree, came home, and applied everything he’d learned to making the Street Kings more efficient businessmen.

I never bothered trying to please my mother with going to school. I couldn’t pull myself away from the streets.

“Why are you staring at the food?” my mother asked me. “Pick up a plate.”

“I was waiting for y’all to finish arguing.”

“We were not arguing,” Aunt Denise said.

“You told her she couldn’t cook,” Lowe pointed out.

My mother looked offended. “I did not say she couldn’t cook.”

“You said her macaroni looked dry,” Lux reminded her.

“That is constructive criticism.”

“It’s disrespectful,” Aunt Denise corrected.

Wise picked up the serving spoon. “Can we eat before this becomes violent?”

My mother pointed at him. “You’ve always been bossy.”

“He has,” I agreed.

“When he was ten, he made written schedules for the neighborhood basketball games,” she announced.

Wise paused serving himself. “Why are we talking about this?”

“He wrote down what time everybody was supposed to arrive, when warm-ups started, and how long each game would last.”

Prodigy looked across the table at him. “You had scheduled warm-ups?”

“He got mad when the players arrived late,” my mother continued. “One boy came fifteen minutes after the time Wise wrote down, and Wise told him he had forfeited his playing privileges.”

Lux laughed. “Playing privileges is wild.”

Wise glanced at our mother. “You enjoy humiliating me.”

“That explains why he acts seventy now,” Lowe said.

Wise slid the macaroni past Lowe without letting him take any.

“That’s childish,” Lowe responded with a laugh.

“No. According to my schedule, you missed your opportunity, motherfucka.”

Everybody laughed, including my father.

Aunt Denise pointed her fork at Prodigy. “Don’t laugh too hard. You were running a gambling operation out of my basement at twelve.”

Marcus agreed with a laugh. “Sure was.”

Prodigy grinned. “It was not a gambling operation.”

“You charged those boys five dollars to enter a video-game tournament, took bets on every round, and kept half the money,” Marcus explained.

Prodigy shrugged. “That was an administrative fee.”