All in a Day

by Alexis Nicole

I rolled my eyes at the mentioned of Morgan’s name.

  “All right, Uncle Earl.” JJ rolled the window back up and continued to the house. Everything began to spin as JJ put the truck in park and got out. I couldn’t move one muscle of my body to make my way into the house.

  “C’mon now, this was your idea.” JJ came around to the passenger side and opened my door. I slowly took my seat belt off and took a deep breath. Why was I so nervous all of a sudden? This was something I wanted. I was going to go in this house and demand that my father have the respect that he deserved. I finally got out of the truck.

  Inside the house were traces of the party that we missed yesterday. There was a welcome home banner hanging in the foyer, streamers that lined the walls, and a few low-floating balloons. It kind of pissed me off that they were celebrating the return of someone who abandoned her family while my family was in agony. Now I was really motivated to complete this mission. JJ’s nose led him into the kitchen where my aunt was cooking breakfast.

  “Aunt Beanie.” JJ tried his best not to startle her, but she still jumped back at the sound of his deep voice. When she turned around and realized it was us, her face immediately turned somber. She grabbed each one of us without saying a word and hugged us for at least three minutes each. When she released me from her embrace, she quickly turned back to her stove to flip over the sausage patties that were sizzling. I could see her wiping her tears, trying not to show us she was crying.

  “Y’all hungry?” were the only words she seemed to be able to get out without bursting into complete tears.

  “I don’t think either one of us has much of an appetite right now,” JJ answered for the both of us. I took a seat at the table and JJ followed suit. We watched her in silence go back and forth, taking food out of the oven and off the stove.

  “How’s Jean? I’ll send food back with y’all if you want it.” She never took her eyes off the stove.

  “She’s seen better days, but she’ll get through it.” My brother continued to answer. “Aunt Beanie, we came here to talk.”

  She paused for a moment, then turned around and sat down at the table. My brother looked at me like he was presenting the floor for me to speak. Before I could open my mouth, there she was: the five foot five prodigal daughter in all her former beauty queen glory. Her hair was still just as long and flowing as I remembered, her bronze skin had a glow to it, and even in her pajamas she still looked like a movie star. It pissed me off.

  “JJ, Nettie, I didn’t know you guys were here. I’m so sorry about Uncle Bug.”

  JJ got up to hug her and welcome her back home. I stayed right in my seat. I was not here for her. She sat at the table between JJ and Beanie and kissed her mother good morning.

  “I know it’s early, but have you guys thought about when you want the funeral?” Morgan asked like she was the one who was going to be putting it together.

  “That’s what we came over to talk about.”

  “We want to have Daddy’s funeral next weekend,” I finally said, not giving JJ a chance to finish. Both Morgan and Beanie looked at me like I had seven heads and fourteen tongues spinning in circles.

  “Don’t you think that’s a little soon to plan a funeral?” Beanie asked with a look of confusion spread across her face.

  “I figured since everyone will already be here, it would be easier.” I glared at Morgan, waiting for her to say something that involved her. Since no one spoke I continued. “It’s important that Daddy is given a proper burial while the family is together.”

  “Aunt Beanie, we’ll take care of all Daddy’s arrangements. We just need you to make room in the schedule.” JJ tried to make light of things. I personally wouldn’t have cared if everything on the schedule got cancelled. We were going to have my Daddy’s funeral.

  “Fine. I can do that for Junebug,” Aunt Beanie finally agreed.

  JJ and I both had grins of accomplishment on our faces. We stood up from the table and made our way back to the truck. It might not have been much, but I was satisfied that I got what I wanted. Now the family can focus on the most important thing—my father. No more of just the Morgan Show.

  Chapter 9

  Morgan

  Let’s go over recent events, shall we? In the last week the normal family reunion went from that to my wedding, now to a funeral. I’m starting to believe that God is Ashton Kutcher because I must be getting punk’d. What type of emotional rollercoaster will we be getting on this weekend? First people will be happy, then sad, then happy again. I was getting motion sickness just thinking about it.

  Janette thought she was so convincing with that line, “It’s important for everyone to be here for a proper burial.” Please, she probably just wanted the attention to be on her instead of anybody else. Ever since we were little kids she had always had a little attitude toward me. Being only a year apart, I could sense there was some competition and rivalry there. I didn’t know why she was so hostile. I would have gladly switched roles with her if she wanted it; maybe growing up would have actually been enjoyable.

  Now I was stuck with high expectations being placed on me wherever I went in this town, especially now that I’d been dragged into this mess of a wedding. Today my mother had a mother-of-the-bride glow about her. She had everything planned out: wedding dress shopping, then cake tasting, then to the flower shop to pick out a bouquet. I was surprised that she was so into this, especially since only a few hours ago we just added a funeral to the agenda.

  “All right, here she is.”

  I walked out of the dressing room behind Clara, the owner of the bridal boutique. I stepped on the pedestal in one of several dresses that had already been pulled for me.

  “Oh my God,” my mother gushed, “you look so beautiful.”

  “I have a feeling you are going to say that about every dress.” This was a familiar routine with my mother. Every time I had to try on pageant gowns, she would cry and say how beautiful I was no matter what the dress looked like.

  I spun around to get a good look at myself in the full-length mirror. As I examined myself, I had to admit I did look good in the one-shoulder chiffon floor-length dress. It was classic and simple, just how I liked things. I started thinking about what Ahvi’s face would look like when I walked down the aisle. I felt like this could be the one. I couldn’t believe I was actually enjoying this process.

  “Wow, you look breathtaking.”

  I swiveled around to see Henry standing at the door holding a couple of boxes. This was day two of his amazing reappearing act. The airport and surprise party were one thing, but while I was dress shopping for my wedding? How sick was this man?

  “I’m pretty sure stalking is illegal in Georgia.” I turned back around to the mirror and continued to gaze at myself. I wasn’t going to let Henry’s presence distract me.

  “Bring the ego down, bridezilla. I’m not here for you. I’m here on business.”

  I didn’t know why, but that comment really stung. Not that I wanted him to be there for me, but he didn’t have to be so mean about it. Clara came out with a veil and accessories to jack me up so I could get the full effect.

  “Henry owns all of the limousine and car services in Macon,” she said as she put a jeweled bracelet on me.

  “And I just came to restock Ms. Clara on business cards and flyers.” He walked over and put the boxes on the counter, then came and stood right beside me. I stood as still as a statue looking at our reflection staring back at me. For whatever reason, my brain was trying to figure out what would life have been like if we had gone through with the plan we made our senior year.

  “We always did look good together,” he said, looking at the same reflection I was.

  The shop got awkwardly quiet and I could feel every eye in the building, including my mama’s, on us. I walked off the pedestal and stomped to the dressing room. It seemed to be the only thing I could do to get everyone to stop gawking at me. What was happening? Between everything that was going on with my fa
mily, and whatever game Henry was trying to play, I felt like I was on a Tilt-A-Whirl and I wanted to get off.

  “Honey, are you okay?” I heard my mother’s voice through the curtain.

  I took a breath before I answered. “Yes, ma’am. Tell Ms. Clara I’ll take this one.” Without her answering, I heard her walk away from the curtain back into the main area of the shop.

  I quickly got out of the dress and threw my regular clothes back on. This thing with Henry was ridiculous and I wasn’t going to have it continue for the rest of the week. I hung the dress back on the hanger with the veil and accessories. I came back out into the main area and scanned the room for Henry. I spotted him through the window getting into his car. I dropped the dress on the counter and bolted for the door.

  “Ma, you can get any cake you want. I’ll meet you at the flower shop.”

  “But . . .” was the last thing I heard my mother say before I was out of the store.

  Henry was about to pull off when I jumped in front of his car. I banged my palm on his hood as hard as I could to get his attention.

  “Hey, you got something to say to me, let’s talk,” I yelled to make sure he could hear me through the glass. I could see out the corner of my eye that people were slowing their walk down to see what the commotion was about.

  “Are you crazy? This is a company car,” he yelled back as he hopped out of the driver’s side.

  “Oh, big deal, you own the company.” We were face to face in the middle of the street. If there was one thing Henry knew about me, it was that I would never back down from him in an argument. He may have won, but he would always remember he was in a fight with me.

  “What’s your problem, Morgan?”

  “What’s your problem? I haven’t even been home two days and already you’ve gotten under my skin. You pop up for no reason saying slick comments to me, for what? Say what you have to say, Henry.”

  He pulled me by my arm out of the street toward his passenger side. I tried to wiggle my arm from his grasp but the more I moved, the tighter he held on.

  “Get in the car.” He opened the door and gestured for me to get in.

  “Why?” I finally snatched away from him and folded my arms, giving as much black girl attitude as I could muster up. That was something he was used to from high school.

  “You wanna talk, we’ll talk, but not out here in front of everyone. Get in the car.”

  I stood there for a moment contemplating if I really wanted to have a conversation with him. Now that I made this dramatic scene, which I was sure would be the talk of the town for the next two days, I didn’t know if I actually wanted to hear anything Henry had to say.

  “You done made this big scene out here. You might as well go through with it,” he said as if he could read my mind.

  I finally got in the car and Henry slammed the door. As he got in on his side, I opened my mouth to start firing questions at him. He put his hand up in front of my face to shut down anything I was about to say.

  “Not here.”

  For twenty minutes we drove in silence with old-school Marvin Gaye playing on the radio. I tried to sing along to the words inside my head to keep my mind from racing. I had no idea what Henry was going to say to me and I was a little nervous that I had opened Pandora’s box. We pulled up to a creek that had the memories rushing back to my mind.

  “You remember this?” Henry said as he turned off the engine.

  I hopped out the car and walked through the field, thinking about all the times Henry and I would come out here together. I stopped right at the creek’s edge and gazed out at the water. Henry came and stood next to me and I could feel him reliving the moments we shared.

  “You remember the first time I brought you out here?”

  I shook my head yes, remembering our ninth grade year.

  “You had a picnic setup,” I said in response.

  “Yeah, and I asked you to be my girlfriend.”

  I smiled at how corny Henry was back then. He tried to be all smooth and Billy Dee with his approach but he was a nervous wreck. Being eaten alive by mosquitoes and ants wasn’t helping his game either. However, I did think that his effort was cute.

  “It’s when we had that awful first kiss,” I said as we both laughed. Neither one of us knew exactly what it meant to be boyfriend and girlfriend at the time, but we knew kissing was involved. He tried to imitate one of those passionate kisses you see on a chick flick but all it ended up being was wet and awkward.

  “We’ve had a lot of firsts right here. Our first kiss, the first time I said I love you, the first time we made love.”

  “What’s your point, Henry?” I was becoming tired of this walk down memory lane.

  “My point is that we had plans, Morgan. We were supposed to go to college together, and when I went pro, we were going to get married.” Henry’s voice was beginning to rise, but I could tell it was more out of hurt than anger.

  “Plans change, Henry, you know that.”

  “Why does it seem like I was never in your plans to begin with?”

  I remained silent. I couldn’t form the words to answer his question honestly.

  “The first chance you got you just up and left. No good-bye, no ‘I’ve changed my mind.’ You just left.” He continued, “And now you’ve come back to marry this random person and I’m supposed to be cool with that?”

  I could feel my eyes welling up as I tried to choke back tears. I cared for Henry a lot and I hated that I hurt him, but I couldn’t be who he wanted me to be.

  “Henry, I apologize if I hurt you, but I had to do what was right for me.”

  Henry took a seat on the ground and put his head between his hands. I had no idea that he had been carrying this around for all these years. I took a seat next to him and put my head on his shoulder.

  “You know things really went downhill for me after you left. I blew out my knee sophomore year, which ended my football career. I lost my scholarship. I had to come back home and try to take care of my mama.”

  I felt horrible for not being there for Henry at his darkest moments. I considered him my best friend growing up and I should have been there when he needed me.

  “I’m truly sorry, but things turned around and you’re doing great now.” I needed to keep this conversation going in a positive direction.

  “What is it about this Ahvi cat that makes you so sure?” He gazed deep in my eyes, searching for an answer.

  “There are certain things about Ahvi that unfortunately you will never have.”

  “Like?” He continued to hold his glance.

  I felt like he was trying to burn a hole through my soul. It was hard to have this conversation with him. I couldn’t give him the answers he wanted to hear. “It’s complicated.” I had to put an end to this conversation. “Look, what we had will never change, but it’s in the past. Can we just agree to move on and still be friends?”

  I put my hand out in front of him, hoping he would shake it in agreement. He stared at it for a moment then slowly took my hand in his.

  We smiled at each other and Henry wrapped his arm around me and kissed my forehead. I never realized how much hurt I had caused by leaving Georgia, but I was glad Henry and I could sort of get back on track. For now this was good enough for me, and I exhaled as we sat back and looked at the creek in silence. Maybe the Lord was finishing His comedy set.

  Chapter 10

  Janette

  I never understood how difficult burying a person was until now. And when you’re trying to do it in a week, it definitely adds to the stress. Apparently my parents never made any arrangements for their untimely deaths so JJ and I were stuck to handle it on our own. My mother was completely skeptical about having Daddy’s funeral so soon, but I explained to her that the sooner we laid him to rest, the sooner we could begin to heal. She was on board to help but after falling out in the morgue trying to identify his body, JJ and I agreed to handle everything else.

  “You know your daddy
and I go way back. We used to play pool together, even hustled some folks,” Mr. Wyatt said, rubbing his round belly at his desk.

  “Yes, sir. That’s why we were hoping you would help us out on such short notice.” JJ always put on his smooth country-boy bit when he was trying to pull the sympathy card. He had watched my father do it a thousand times.

  “As much as I liked Junebug, I’m not sure if I can get you what you want in such a rush.”

  As good as my brother was, I knew we weren’t going to get anywhere if he continued to handle this. Mr. Wyatt owned several businesses in town but his funeral home was the most profitable. Between the teenagers killing each other and the old folks dying of natural causes, Mr. Wyatt stayed busy. He also had no shame hitting on widows who came to bury their husbands, especially the ones who didn’t have enough money to do it properly. If we were going to get what we wanted I had to step up.

  “JJ, why don’t you give Mr. Wyatt and me a minute alone?” The way Mr. Wyatt perked up in his chair, I could tell he was willing to negotiate. JJ looked very uncomfortable and leaned in toward me.

  “Are you sure?” he whispered in my ear.

  “Trust me. I’ll handle this.”

  He reluctantly got up and left the office. I stared at Mr. Wyatt for a moment, trying to cleverly calculate my approach. I finally got up from my chair and sashayed around his desk. I stood beside him for a moment, giving him a chance to take in my five foot four thick frame. The fact that I had a slender waist with big hips and thighs was always a plus in the South. I sat on top of his desk in front of him, making sure I hiked my skirt up enough to expose my legs.

  “Mr. Wyatt.” I began stroking his face. “You can’t imagine the heartache my family has gone through in the last couple of days.”

  “I . . . I think I may have an idea,” he stuttered while his eyes gazed up and down my body.

  “Then surely you can understand how important this is to us.” I continued stroking his face and wiping the little beads of sweat that were beginning to form. “My daddy was a good man and you and I both know he deserves a proper burial.”