Shane a whoopin’,” Tariq begged, tears spilling down his cheeks. “He’ll be good.”
Tariq’s plea on his brother’s behalf was starting to get on Mazie’s nerves. “Do as I say.” She shook the belt at Tariq. “Get your butt up those stairs before you get a whoopin’, too.” Tariq bolted for the stairs.
“Now drop your pants, bend over, and grip that table.” Mazie pointed to the dining room table. Shane obeyed, and then looked over his shoulder and gave his great-aunt a cocky grin.
Incensed by his impudence, she applied two strong lashes. She quickly worked up a sweat and became winded, but determined to finish the task, Mazie forged ahead. “You better mind your teacher and stop picking fights with the kids in your class.” Each word was followed by a thwack of the strap. Shanerefused to cry. By the time Mazie realized she was wasting her time on the bedeviled child, her heart was pumping so fast she thought she was going to have a heart attack.
“Go on upstairs with your brother,” she said, gasping for breath as she reached for the remote and settled into her favorite chair. “And y’all better not make no noise while I’m watching my story,” she added in a barely audible voice. Fooling with Shane had sapped all her strength. She was sixty-one years old and should have been cooling her heels instead of chasing after two rambunctious boys. She sure wished she could cash in on her blessings now instead of having to wait until the twins drove her to an early grave.
“Did it hurt?” Tariq inquired.
“Hell no. That old bitch can’t hurt me.”
“Ooo, you better stop cussin’. You’ll get another whoopin’ if Aunt Mazie hears you.”
“How she gonna hear me way up here?” Shane untied his left shoe and pulled it off. “Look!” He handed the shoe to Tariq.
Tariq looked inside the shoe. His mouth dropped open when he saw the neatly folded ten-dollar bill. “Where’d you get that?” Tariq’s eyes were wide with wonder.
“Where you think? I took it off Devon. That sucker’s always flashing money, so I clipped him.” Shane imitated the gestures of older boys—the kind who hung on street corners; the kind he looked back at longingly when Aunt Mazie picked him and Tariq up from school.
“You better not let Aunt Mazie find it,” Tariq warned.
“Man, Aunt Mazie better suck this!” He squeezed his private area.
Shane’s lewd gesture and blatant disrespect for their aunt caused Tariq to cover his mouth in shock.
“So whatchu gonna buy with your half?” Shane asked.
Tariq uncovered his mouth. “I can have half of that money?”
“Uh huh.”
“Oh boy!” Tariq’s face broke into a big grin. Then he scrunched up his face in confusion. “How much is half?”
“Five dollars, dummy! When you gonna learn how to count?” Shane threw a pillow at Tariq and then playfully tackled him onto the bed.
Mazie heard the children laughing. She shrugged, pointed the remote at the TV, and turned up the volume. She’d watch one more story—uninterrupted, if she was lucky—and then she’d start fixing dinner for the boys.
CHAPTER 4
Three years later, Mazie Matthews had a massive stroke.
Some blessings!
she thought to herself as she was being carted off to the County Nursing Home. Her mind was intact, but she was unable to retrieve words to convey her thoughts. Mazie looked around and surveyed her new surroundings. In her mind, she bitterly drifted back to the circumstances that had led to her current miserable situation.
A woman her age, she scolded herself, had no business trying to keep up with two growing boys. Had she been left alone and allowed to tend to her rose bushes, go to church, and watch her soap operas in peace, she would have been able to keep her blood pressure down. She could have lived out the rest of her life in her own home taking care of herself.
Shane was a wild little hellion who was constantly involved in some sort of wrongdoing. By the time he’d