Page 3 of The Enforcer

“We sure do,” I offer with a bright smile. Mina is, by far, my favorite member of the Council of Aunties. She might even be my favorite family member, period.

“Mmmhmm. You know, when I was her age, I followed a man to Ceylon.”

“Where the hell is that?” another auntie whispers.

“That man had the biggest, most beautiful, long—”

“No!” Mildred yells loud enough to make everyone but Mina jump in their seats.

I turn to catch Shae’s eyes, and we smile at one another as we have so many times in situations like this. Seeing her smile, though, only makes me certain that there’s definitely something else going on with her, no matter what she says.

Mildred clears her throat, and we turn back to her. She looks frazzled in the way only Elmina can make her. “We’re worried about your sister,” she says in a strained voice.

“Not me,” Mina says loud enough to be heard.

I bite back a peal of laughter, and Shae tries to cover hers with a cough.

Mildred’s right eye twitches. “We want you to go get her.”

I start to roll my eyes, and my mother sucks her teeth. “Obviously,” I say. “We’ll go get her eventually, but are we really at that point already? It’s only been a couple of weeks since she left Milan.”

“Hardly enough time to get into any real trouble,” Mina agrees.

“She’s not responding to my phone calls, so she’s out of chances with me,” mom says.

I shrug. My dad says I’m needlessly combative, which is probably true, but since we’re on the same page, and I got so little sleep last night — but not because of sex — I decide to concede this fight. “Okay. I’ll start looking for flights and call my editor. I can probably get there sometime late next week.”

“We’ve booked you two on a flight tonight.”

Shae gasps.

“Tonight? We have jobs, ma’am.” I add that last word hastily, my eyes darting to my mother in the corner of my vision.

“Then I guess you’ll be motivated to locate her and return here as quickly as possible,” Eunice says, all high and mighty.

She’s the youngest auntie on the Council and loves a power trip. Needless to say, she’s my least favorite.

“I…I,” Shae stammers. “I can’t afford this. Besides, I, um…I’m about to move.”

“To where?” Auntie Karin asks.

“In with me,” I answer for my cousin.

Karin doesn’t even look at me. “You and Steven broke up?”

Shae’s eyes dart around the room. She gulps loudly. And then, she finally nods slowly.

The entire mood in the room changes.

“Well, hallelujah, amen!” Eunice says, raising a hand into the air.

“Geraldine, you owe me a hundred dollars,” Mina calls out.

“Best bet I ever lost,” our grandmother says.

Shae and I watch as Nana Geraldine stands from her chair and begins to dig into her bra — her makeshift wallet. She walks across the room, counting out a stack of twenty-dollar bills and then placing them into Mina’s hand.

Mina closes her eyes and rubs her thumb across the bills. If anyone knows what a real versus counterfeit bill feels like, it’s Mina, although no one in the family is willing to tell us how or why. “Thank you kindly,” she says to Geraldine. The rest of the room is still buzzing with energy over the apparently good news that Shae’s now single. For a room full of women who believe in the sanctity of marriage, this is a shock.

---