Page 20 of Make Me Remember

I rolled my eyes and sat back in my seat. Stupid bitch. We shouldn’t have even been going through this shit. Her foolery ignited this shit… probably all over again since there seemed to be some drama in the past that we weren’t aware of.

“So, Jameka pursued Jacob because of Courtney. They felt they could all somehow get Henderson men to take care of them. Kane got shot because Courtney’s younger sister, Shakima, wanted him, but he didn’t take the bait. So she told her cousin that Kane insulted her and called her a bitch.”

He rolled his eyes then looked at us from the paperwork. “Where do y’all find these ignant muthafuckas? I ain’t never in my life seen no shady, petty, jealous shit like this that spans decades.”

He shook his head as Uncle Storm chuckled. There wasn’t a thing funny, but that nigga could find humor in anything.

“So, Jameka’s mama got her ass handed to her back in the day by Tiffany over her trying to mess with Tiff’s boyfriend. Mama been carrying that with her all these years, so y’all had to pay for that shit.”

The way he was reading that foolery was comical as hell, although he was serious. It was reading like a whole toxic ass reality show. I wasn’t sure how he got his information, but apparently, it was all accurate so far.

“So, WJ, you remember a nigga named Dale?”

All eyes were on Big Dawg, and he looked to be thinking hard as hell. “I can’t say I do. From how long ago?”

“High school.”

“Man, that was over forty years ago. If he wasn’t in my circle, which mostly consisted of my family, I didn’t know him.”

Shy chuckled, but not in a way that was funny. He seemed completely blown away. “Well, you slept with his girlfriend in eleventh grade. He’s their cousin. I swear y’all, this shit is just getting better and better. Apparently, he was somewhat soft and didn’t say shit, because he knew he would get his ass whupped. There’s a lot of other petty shit in here. Storm, they just didn’t like your mean ass. They wanted to get at you too, but after you brought a gun to school, they chose to let that go. Nigga, you took a gun to school?”

Everybody laughed as Uncle Storm said, “Hell yeah. My name ain’t Storm for nothing. I’m destructive as fuck. I walked right down that hallway with my hunting rifle, ready to fuck that nigga up. He better thank God they caught up with me before I caught up with him, or y’all wouldn’t have seen the greatness I have become and the greatness I produced. I would have been locked up for life.”

Almost every person in the barn rolled their eyes, causing Shy to chuckle. He continued. “Jen, your name was mentioned in this too. Nothing you would have known about though. Just that they were jealous of your skin color and long hair.”

After flipping a couple of pages, he continued. “Y’all can read this shit on your own time. Is Mister Wesley here?”

My grandpa waved his hand at him, and I could see the room grow tense. The secrets he held nearly tore this family apart on a few occasions. “Good evening, sir. There was an incident with JT Sullivan back in the sixties. According to the police report, he was trespassing on your land and was trying to steal a tractor or something. Is that correct?”

“Yes, sir. I beat his ass before calling the cops.”

It seemed everyone released the breath they were holding. We could deal with shit like that. I thought he was gonna read that he’d fathered a child with them people that he wasn’t taking care of, like Uncle Marcus. “JT was Jameca’s grandfather. Who’s Thomas?”

Uncle Thomas was my grandfather’s younger brother and also Malachi’s dad. I figured his name would come up somehow for them to be here. He lifted his hand, and Shy asked, “Reesie was your wife, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

Shy rubbed his hand down his face. I could tell that whatever he had to say would be heavy. He looked back up at Uncle Thomas, and he seemed nervous to say anything. “It’s okay, Mister Berotte,” Uncle Thomas said. “I know she had an affair.”

Everyone’s eyes widened, and Mal stood from his seat in shock. “So, she had an affair with this same JT guy. There is so much intertwining between y’all and them, it’s unreal… unbelievable. There is record of her having a child not long after.”

Uncle Thomas lowered his head and shook it slowly. “My only daughter.” He turned to Cousin Rhonda, and said, “JT is her biological father. I took him to court to strip him of his parental rights since he was a known thug and drug dealer. I loved Reesie to the death of me. She cheated because I cheated first. I just didn’t make any outside kids. When she said she was pregnant, I knew it was his and so did he. Reesie told him because we hadn’t had sex in months. There was no possible way for the baby to be mine. Had she not told him, I could’ve just pretended you were biologically mine without taking him to court.”

Cousin Rhonda stood from her seat and walked out, her husband right behind her. This shit was a lot. My mama and Aunt Chrissy went after her as well.

“Please tell me you ain’t got much more, man. This shit is getting ridiculous,” Uncle Kenny said.

“Getting? This shit been ridiculous,” Uncle Jasper added. “Please tell me you about to wrap this shit up. I need to smoke.”

“You and everybody else,” Uncle Marcus added.

Mal was still pacing, but then he suddenly sat down. His wife grabbed his hand and kissed it, doing her best to console him.

“There’s one more thing. This shit finna blow y’all fucking minds. I kid you not. I had Ali go over the shit a few times to make sure he’d gotten the right information.”

He slid his hand down his face again. “Mister Wesley, Mister Thomas… y’all’s mother, Sedonia… she’s the product of a rape. The apples don’t fall far from the tree. Her mother was raped by Jameka’s second great grandfather. Her husband killed that nigga and raised the child… Sedonia as his own, just like you did with WJ, Mister Wesley, and how you did with Rhonda,” he said, turning his attention to Uncle Thomas. “Back then, rape was swept under the rug. The shit is sad. Basically, y’all kin to those muthafuckas… way down the line, but y’all kin.”

“Hell fucking no!” KJ yelled. “Fuck that shit,” he said, grabbing Cassie’s hand and damn near dragging her out of the barn.

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