BOMAW 7-9

by Mercedes Keyes

  By 4:30pm, Sylvia's husband showed his face among the living.

  He was showered, shaved, fresh, and starving. To Sylvia's relief, he looked at her, smiled and winked. To her, that gesture, was like the rising of the sun, she smiled back, mouthing, "I love you." He chose not to mouth it, but said it loud and clear, "I love you more... and I'm hungry." Saying so, caused the women to offer this or that to taste and sample. There was so much food cooking, he didn't want to spoil his anticipation for what would be served tomorrow, so turned them down, wishing to savor all that he saw being prepped; knowing that tomorrow, some serious eating would take place, his plan was to be first in line. Instead of sampling, he made himself a ham sandwich. Standing at the counter, eating out of a Frito's corn chip bag, munching on his sandwich; he laughed at the antics of the women surrounding him. Enjoying all present, when his brother, Dennis, and Mundo walked into the basement to see him there.

  "Well, looka here - looka here! Here we are, busting our butts! Working up a damn good sweat, mind you - and where are you - having teacakes and crumpets with the women!" Jake started in on him, joking, nudging Dennis with his elbow. "Now I get it! Why he went and tied one on last night; thought to himself - I need a damn good excuse to lay about! Slacker!"

  "Don't come in here, startin' no mess! Just leave my husband alone! Ya'll know what needs to get done! Take a break, come in, report to him, then get back to work!" Sylvia joked back. Shawn stood grinning, as all the other women helped her out.

  "Ya'll don't look like you sweating much to me, no way!" Sheila added, grinning. Mundo was smiling, remaining quiet, going to the refrigerator for something to drink. He covertly made eye contact with Shawn, who winked and smiled at him. Mundo sighed with relief, hit right then and there, that this man standing beside him as he raided the fridge for something to drink, loved them. Loved him, and the feeling was mutual. Something else that stunned Mundo, although he knew Shawn was white, that fact couldn't be missed - he no longer appeared white to him. Funny how when you become family and really love someone, their exterior fades. What the world could see about them, their differences; this was no longer visible in their eyes. Mundo smiled - right then, at that point, he was happy - and settled in as this man's son, albeit step-son, but son nonetheless. He'd been given a blessing, someone for him, and he was taking it, and all that came with it, good and the bad, discipline and the good times, from this moment onward, he would embrace that.

  "Must not be no hard work!" Sheila was going on, laughing, she turned to Shawn, "Sit on down here, suga', eat yo' food, don't pay them no mind." Loving it, Shawn pulled a seat out next to Sheila and sat right on down. Gert looked at him with doleful eyes, "Does my honey want something to drink?"

  Shawn rolled his bottom lip out, put his head down, looking up with sad eyes and nodded as pitifully as he could, gave a couple of fake coughs, and squeaked out, "Yes, mommy, please."

  "Yes, mommy - pul - ease - oh, brother!" Jake ribbed him, finger in his mouth to gag himself.

  "That's right - your brother! Now get what you've come for, and get back to work!" Gert chastised him.

  "Mom always did like him better than the rest of us." Jake muttered to Dennis, who cracked up.

  Sylvia stood laughing, as her husband played the part, sucking it up. Jake decided to turn to her. "I don't know what you're laughing at... shoulda seen her last night!" He started, getting a beer out the fridge after Mundo and passing it to Dennis. Glancing at Vivian, he winked and puckered up, tossing her a quick air kiss. She grinned and blushed. Turning back to Sylvia after closing the fridge, using a female voice, sounding pitiful, "Ja-a-ake - get my hush-band - don't leave him outsi-i-ide!"

  "I did not sound like that!"

  "Oh, hell if you didn't! Damn near broke my back, hauling his ass in! All you had to do was pitch a tent over him! No! She threatened to pick the man up and carry him in herself!"

  "Jake, stop lying!" Sylvia laughed, blushing.

  "Mundo... what was she doing?!" Jake pressed him to agree, Mundo was grinning, "Ma... you were pretty insistent."

  "Ya'll need to stop! Both of you exaggerating!"

  "I'm not leaving my hush-band outside... ple-e-ease, Jake!" He teased her some more.

  Shawn sat proudly, watching his wife blush and try to play it off. She finally looked at him, "C'here." He invited.

  "No, Shawn." Sylvia defied.

  "See how fickle women are!? Last night - she was 'bout in tears... now? No honey, not in front of the company!" Jake went on, with Dennis standing beside him, laughing.

  "Just leave them alone! Don't forget, I paid somebody two hundred dollars to bring your butt in! And YOU - weigh a ton, that's for dog-gone sure!" Vivian brought up. Sheila laughed and pointed up behind her at him, where he was standing, "Sho' nuff! She sho did! Night of the reception! Now, if that had been me... you'da got a blanket over your ass! Two hundred dollars? No sa'!" She shook her head.

  Everybody started laughing when Dennis spoke up, "She ain't lying, man! We wasn't married two months, went out drinking and partying, my ass passed out in the car... she left me there! In the car! I woke up - didn't know where the hell I was! I come in the house the next morning, yelling out, "Woman, you left me out there in that car!? Is you crazy!"

  "That's where yo' ass fell asleep! I locked the doors!" Sheila defended herself, laughing.

  "You locked the doors!" Dennis grunted resentfully, "Somebody coulda stole that car - me in it - then what you woulda done?"

  "Man, wasn't nobody 'bout to steal that raggedy-ass car! Muffler 'bout to drop off! Dennis had it wired up with a clothes hanger! Had to jump start the motor! And there sho' as hell wasn't no heat!"

  "That's another thing! It was goddamn November! Cold as hell, that's what woke me up! Reach for some goddamn covers, wouldn't no covers! My ass was still in the car! Shiverin'n'shit, teeth clackin' like a mug!"

  Everyone burst with laughter, when the phone rang. Sylvia went to it and answered.

  "Hello?"

  "Chile - we on our way, but I'm telling you now - we been sitting still for the last half hour! Stuck in traffic! I told yo' daddy we shoulda left first thing this morning, now we stuck here!" Lydia explained, Sylvia could hear her father in the background, grumbling, "Don't start! I tol' you I had to pick up a wreck this morning fo' we leave!"

  Shawn was looking at her as everyone was talking, wondering who was on the phone. "My parents." She answered him, without him having to say a word. He stood from his seat and walked to where she was by his office on the phone. "They on the way?" He asked her. She nodded, "Stuck in traffic." She explained. He held his hand out for the phone, smiling, she passed it to him.

  "Lydia?"

  "Hey, Shawn!"

  "Where are you?"

  "Here, let me give the phone to Lucas. Hang on a minute."

  Shawn could hear Lydia passing the phone over. "Hey, boy!"

  Shawn smiled, "Hey, Mr. Martin, you guys stuck in traffic?"

  "Boy, I tell you the truth, this don' make no sense."

  "Where are you?"

  "Just outta Janesville."

  "Okay, you mind doin' back roads?"

  "Boy, I do anythang get the hell outta this traffic."

  "All right then, tell me exactly where you are."

  Lucas did, and Shawn went on to tell him how to get off the I90 and onto highway 14, and onto the next junction that would bring him onto US highway, 12 & 14 - and all the towns he would hit on the way. "Now, of course, I90 would bring you straight on - however, as you can see - everyone is using it, you'll be there for hours. So the moment you see the exit I told you, get the hell off of there, and come the way I told you, you'll be here in a couple of hours."

  "Boy - it's coming up now... I see it up ahead. Let me get the hell off this goddamn highway! See ya in a bit." He clicked off.

  Sylvia was still standing there when Shawn turned the phone off. He pulled her to him and kissed her, shocking her, because he hadn't given her time to think abo
ut what he was going to do. Pushing against his chest, she gasped in his mouth as he kissed her. Burning with embarrassment, she moved back. Shawn chuckled, loving it.

  "Ah, hell! Are we gone be subjected to these kind of displays all weekend?! Huggin' and kissin' - I wuv' you!" Dennis teased.

  "You wanna eat this weekend? See all this food?" Shawn teased back, refusing to let Sylvia go. Up until Dennis said something, she was trying to get away, now - she had her arms wrapped right around him.

  "Hell yeah, I wanna eat!" Dennis fired back, "Shi-i-it! All this goddamn food, I'm helpin' wit' this shit!"

  "Then this the price you gotta pay, me huggin' my honey at a moments notice!" Shawn grinned, giving his laughing wife an extra squeeze.

  Sylvia was staring up at her husband. When he looked down at her, she searched his eyes, her own filled with love for him. "You know what we need now?" She asked.

  "What is that?" He returned, rubbing her back. Everyone else was back to laughing and talking, ignoring them for the most part. "Tables. We only have your one table on your back deck that we need to bring out to the yard, and I have a picnic bench in the back; that's not going to be enough to lay out all of this food. While you were resting, I called around to all the True Values, I've rounded up five tables all together. Two need to be picked up from the one in Tomah, one in New Lisbon, and then there was two left at the one in Mauston."

  "Okay, well - I guess since I've slept the day away, I'll go get 'em for you. I'll hit the one in Mauston first, and then-..."

  "You know what, my mom and dad are coming right by there, why don't we get them to stop and get those two?" Sylvia suggested.

  "Noooo, they'll be wanting to get here. I wouldn't even ask. Don't worry, sweetie, I'll get 'em."

  Sylvia turned from Shawn, her arm still around his waist, looking at her son, "Mundo... come here."

  "Sylvia - leave it, I'll get 'em." Shawn tried to stop her.

  She ignored him. Mundo stepped up to them. Smiling up at Shawn, still feeling bad about the previous night. "Yep?" He answered.

  "Would you mind going and picking up two tables I rented from the True Value in Mauston, so Shawn doesn't have to go all the way there?" She asked.

  "Yeah! I'll get 'em! Just two?!" He inquired further.

  "Actually, there are five I need picked up. Two in Tomah, one in New Lisbon, and then the two in Mauston. Shawn was going to get them."

  "Hey! I'll take care o'that!" Mundo quickly claimed the chore, looking at Shawn instead of his mother. "Anything else you want me to do, Papa-Shawn?"

  Shawn sighed. "Yes, come in my office a minute." He let go of Sylvia, who left them to rejoin the women in laying out a banquet. Shawn closed the door with Mundo standing inside. He took a deep breath, "I'm sorry about - how I came off, with you - last night."

  "Papa-Shawn ... you ain't got to say you sorry to me, man. I'm the one should be sayin' I'm sorry."

  "Well, you did... so you don't need to say it again. And - if I come on too strong with you, I don't-..."

  "Papa-Shawn... we'on even need to be having this discussion, man. Okay? Look - my biggest worry, what I don't want - is for things to change between you and me. Know what I'm sayin'? We straight, man ... and I meant what I said to you last night - if you had been my father for real, a whole lot of shit wrong with me, might not be."

  "There's not a whole lot of shit wrong with you, now, Mundo... frankly speaking, I wouldn't change a thing. You're on your way to manhood - and I for one, think you're on the right track."

  "So we straight?" Mundo asked.

  "We straight." Shawn returned.

  Mundo held his hand up for the black man's shake, Shawn grabbed his hand and pulled him close for a hug. After a moment, Shawn pulled away saying, "You're not going to get all of those tables in that Blazer. I'll see if Jake will let you take his truck."

  They went back out to loud talk and laughter, "Jake!" Shawn called to him. His brother was leaning over Vivian's shoulder, whispering something that had her grinning. He looked up at him. "Let Mundo use your truck to pick up some tables from True Value."

  Jake straightened and looked at Mundo, then back at Shawn. "How many?"

  "He's picking up five!" Shawn answered.

  "From where?!"

  "Mauston, New Lisbon, and Tomah! He'll be gone a while."

  "Young man! You be careful driving that truck! And don't scratch it up loading those tables! Make sure you tie 'em down."

  Mundo smiled, "I'm straight!"

  Jake tossed him his keys, Mundo tossed him his to the blazer to use while he was gone and headed for the door right away. A moment later, Dennis and Sheila's boys rushed in, with Angela behind them, "Daddy - can we go with Mundo!?" Zachary, their oldest came in the door asking, with Tyrese and Jimmy leaning in behind him wanting to go too. Mundo nudged Angela in the door, waiting to hear their answer.

  "Mundo, you want them with you?" Dennis asked.

  "I'on mind, they can go."

  Tyrese and Jimmy jumped up shouting, slapping one hand, because Jimmy still had the other wrapped from his break.

  "Can I go too?!" Angela asked, looking from Sylvia to her father.

  Right away, Sylvia shook her head with a strong and definite, "No!"

  "Aaah, Sylvia! Please... why not?!" Angela drooped and moped, coming further into the basement. "Lil' girl, I am not about to let you go off with a truck full of boys! No way!"

  "Mama - she gone be ah'ight! You know I ain' gone let nothin' happen to her!"

  "I said what I said, now - that's that - no... you stay here with us women! Start getting that fruit ready for that fruit salad you said you wanted to make." Sylvia directed her.

  Tyrese and Jimmy looked at her and said, "So sad, too bad, it sucks to be a girl! Bye!" They were out the door behind Mundo. Angela looked up at her father. Shawn threw his hands into the air, as if to say, 'You been told what to do. End of discussion.'Dragging her feet, walking like she had no bones, her lip curled out, she went to cabinet, taking out a big bowl to start on the dessert she asked to make. Crystal, finished with what she was doing, joined her, and in a moment, the smile was back on her face.

  Phone rang again, Shawn was still there - contemplating either going across the road to the other house to see what still needed to be done there, or going into his office and getting a bit of work done. Considering all that still needed doing, and the company there - work was out of the question. He knew that when the weekend was over, he was really going to have to buckle down and get his projects completed. As well as get on the others he was planning for their future income. Such as, Style's Studios. Photography was a money maker, family portraits, weddings, senior pictures, baby pictures, portfolios, the whole shebang was right up his alley. There was no reason for him not to take advantage of their location and get a studio built into their new home, which would be right off of his office. He was even tempted to have them build him a totally separate building for just his work. They had the land and space for it. He would have to talk it over with his wife. But the more that it was on his mind, the more he liked the idea. He needed somewhere to go that signaled to all the family, that dad was at work. The moment he left the house and went to the other building, that would have to be the wake up call not to disturb him. He needed to be away from all distractions going on in the house. Also, that would give his future clients somewhere to come to and call to book appointments. With that on his mind, he picked up the phone, it was his dad.

  "Hey, boy, who's coming to get this pig?"

  "Pig?" Shawn asked, wondering what he was talking about.

  "Didn't your mom tell you? I slaughtered a pig, told her to ask if you wanted it for your barbecue."

  "WOW - yes, dad! We want it!"

  "Well, one of you needs to come and get it. You know it needs to be put on the pit tonight, you can borrow that too."

  "Woooohoooo! On our way! Thanks, dad!" Shawn hung up the phone. "Mom - you forgot to tell us about the pig!"

 
; "Oh, shoot! Vivian - how come you didn't remind me, girl!"

  Vivian was busy swatting at Jake behind her, nudging her, pleading with her to come to Shanna's to "See" his new room, to "Help" him unpack his stuff and put it away.

  "I'm sorry, I forgot myself."

  "I know, I know - you ain't got nothin' on your mind, but that boy of mine!"

  "Momma, man - I'm a man!"

  "HA! Boy!" Shanna seconded, laughing at him.

  "You just continue on with what you do best, shuckin' that corn!" Jake returned, grabbing Vivian's wrist to pull her up from her seat.

  "Jake! Go'on now!" Vivian whined, although she was grinning and blushing. Not fighting hard enough against him from pulling her up from her seat and leading her to the door.

  "Jake! Where do you think you going with that girl?!" Gert asked.

  "Momma - I'm a grown man, she a grown woman!"

  "Did you hear what I ask you, boy!?"

  Sheila and Dennis were rolling and laughing, "Em hm, you know what he tryin' to do, don't you, mama!" Sheila asked Gert.

  "Vivian - help him unpack his stuff and come on directly back here - don't let him get to foolin' around with you over there!" Gert warned, as they were both at the door. Jake was not letting go of Vivian's hand. "Yes, ma'am!" Vivian promised, grinning as Jake pulled her out the door, he was looking back in it at his mother. "She's in good hands, don't you worry your pretty lil' head about her!" Jake called to his mother, winking at Dennis.

  "Jacob Patrick McPherson! You mind your manners with her!"

  "Now, momma, don't you trust me?" He asked, so much like a wicked wolf - Gert dissolved into laughter. "Lord, that girl ain't got a chance." She turned to Sylvia and Sheila to say.

  "Dennis, you wanna ride with me to pick up a pig?!"

  "Let's go, dawg! Aw man! I'm gone be eatin' all kinds o'stuff this weekend, I swear fo'god! Baby, you gone have to go stock up on the Rolaids, stock up on the Pepto. Get some Alka Seltzer, and don't forget the Phillip's Milk of Magnesia! I got a feelin' we gone need it all!" He sang, with images of a pig turning on a pit on his mind, doing a little dance, as Shawn grabbed his keys to the SUV, kissed Sylvia on the head and they both headed for the door with Gert shouting, "Shawn, you tell that brother of yours, don't start nothin' he don't wish interrupted... 'cause I will interrupt!" Gert promised. Dennis and Shawn looked at each other and busted a gut laughing, both couldn't wait to deliver the message.