Page 64 of Free Agent

“Nah, I didn’t need any help, I had it. Besides, Kerry was the one who pulled me off of her. He threatened her to say who put her up to it or he’d let me loose again.”

“And it was Joshua.”

“Yeah.”

I sighed, scrubbing a hand over my face. “Tam, I’m really trying to understand why and how you don’t feel like this is a big deal.”

“Because I already beat her ass. She’s gonna pay for my shit. And that’s just it. Making a big deal of it, getting all riled up, all of that… It only lets him know that he’s rankling me.”

“Not just you!” I declared. “It makes the rest of us look like a joke if he can fuck with you without consequence.”

“Makes the rest of us look like a joke? Nigga, we are not the fucking mafia,” she laughed.

“I’m not saying all that,” I chuckled. “But you telling me our Daddy’s name don’t mean shit around there anymore?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying.”

“Okay, it sounds a lot like what you’re saying.”

“Okay, and I’m telling you it’s not,” she insisted. “I’m saying that… Joshua was family. He’s just having a hard time coming to terms with the divorce, accepting that we’re done.”

“Yeah, that seems to be too much of a common thread around me. Motherfuckers don’t want to do right, then wanna act shocked and surprised when you stop going along with it,” I snapped.

“Ohhhh,” Tam laughed. “You’re all up in arms because of Monty Rudolph, aren’t you? Rori isn’t letting you kick his ass , so you’re looking for somebody to take it out on?”

“It’s not about aspiring to be violent,” I explained. “It’s about wanting to make a point with these niggas before something like what happened with Aunt Adele happens,” I reminded her.

She was quiet for a moment, then agreed. “…Yeah.”

Some years ago, our aunt, our mother’s sister, had gotten married to what seemed, by all accounts, a really good guy. He wasn’t from the area, so nobody knew his history, but he’d been around a little bit before he got involved with Adele. So, people had grown to know him, and nobody had anything to say that wasn’t good.

Adele was a jovial woman. Loud and happy, always ready to have a drink or light something up. Cook a big meal, play cards, go mud bogging, line dancing.

Whatever you were down for, she was too.

But then, after they were married, little by little, she wasn’t around as much. And when she was around, he was too, which meant we actually got to know him for real.

Stuffy ass dude.

Just a little too buttoned-up, and rubbing off on her too. Her wild outfits, trendy hairstyles, all that, just… started fading.

And there were rumors.

About women.

And there was… a vibe.

The kind of vibe that had us always asking Adele if she was good.

And she swore she was.

But she stopped coming around.

And then one day she called my mom, crying. When my mom got to her, she looked like she’d had a run-in with the wrong end of a bullwhip.

But nope, just that fucking husband of hers.

She begged us not to retaliate.

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