Stormz on the Horizon

Code Switch pt. 1

That Weekend...

"Papa, you are such a cheater!"

"I am not! Yo lil butt just losing too bad so you wanna blame me!" Papa poked my forehead.

We sat at his and my granny's old fashioned, wooden dinner table and played speed. It was a thing the two of us did. From the time I could walk he had taught me every black staple card game he knew. As a consistent player of football pool, the lottery, and spades, there was no way he was letting me grow up to be another girl stereotype that couldn't play cards because of the fact. According to him, his little playing crew had rules against women trying to get into the game.

They were definitely intimidated, afraid to get their old asses whipped by a woman. So, he was teaching me to be that woman to someday grow up and burn a whole in someone's playing table. He tried with his prissy first two granddaughters, no doubt, but you all can see how that worked out. He spun his legacy onto me, I guess it worked this time around. I didn't mind it all, it did quite the therapy.

"He cheatin Tot," confirmed granny, who stood at her forty-year-old stove frying tilapia in an even older skillet. "This grown folks business woman, stay over there now," Papa shooed her.

She threw a rag hanging off the edge of the sink at him, "Keep on here, I'm gone gut you like this fish in here." He dodged it and looked at me playing shocked, "See how she do me Tot? Get your granny."

"Bye, Marion," she dismissed him.

"Both of y'all are crazy," I said.

If there was anything else in this world I loved, next to dance, it was my grandparents. Specifically, my mama's parents. I couldn't explain how much I loved them, they loved me back even more. Including me and my crazy siblings, they had a total of eleven grandkids. Of course mama's sister, Auntie Maxine, had Jade and her little brother, Jadawn, with another on the way. We don't know the gender yet, but it's definitely coming. Lastly, Uncle Major lived in Gulfport with his two boys, Mercy and Mishae.

Yep. There's a lot of us, but it isn't too bad to handle being that all of granny and papa's children are all on different paths with their families. It seems over the years, we see each other less and less besides Big holidays, but when we do get together, trust it's like we've never missed a beat. Especially when it's a real family reunion, great cousins, distant relatives, the works.

What I mean by different paths is just that. Each branch of the three siblings seem to be on different paths always.

My mother, I'm certain I've heard that her siblings and lot of cousins think she's the golden child. Always excelling and going above and beyond. They just knew she would be exactly what she is today, successful and stable. What they didn't expect on her path to greatness, was that she would become involved with some street rat with less than half of the brains she had. For a period of time, the family hated on her for falling out of her potential success role and "shaming the family", but they got quiet when she was able to showcase her accomplishments with zero hiccups and six kids, years later. To be clear my grandparents had no parts in shaming their own child, they knew humans weren't perfect.

Wanna know something?

The real corporate behind the backlash mama received was her own sister. I knew from a very young age Auntie Maxine had issues with mama. I guess it was childhood sister business, none I had any knowledge of. They didn't do a very good job hiding the spite toward one another when it came to exchanging kids for sleepovers or gatherings. I was always curious as to what the beef was..I really couldn't say. It was just always a thing, I've sort of normalized it in a way. Not healthy. However, I will say she never held anything against her nieces and nephews, she loved us like her own. I know for a fact her daughter holds a plethora of things against her though. I believe Jade did her best with what she could to be the opposite of her mama, but somehow she carried all of her tendencies. Fast, insubordinate, and a ticking time bomb. I imagined she didn't like being that way, but the confidence she walked about with told people she was proud to be her. That could very well be true, but her attitude towards her mother contradicts it entirely.