Moose and Goose

Chapter Thirty-four

"Your mother is trying her best, and the least that y'all can do is help out around the house and show her that you don't see her as a second-class citizen." For the past few seconds, she's been silently staring at him as he chastises her. "Now that your father is gone, she'll need a lot more help managing everything and coping. Please don't make me have to keep coming 'round."

Yeah, because New York is more home to you than here. Please, you move around more than we do, and that's saying a lot.

"Okay, I'll talk to my siblings, and we'll have a family meeting after Wayne comes home," she monotonously assures him. "If you'll excuse me, I have somewhere I need to be."

"And at this hour, where is that?" He turns on the heels of his shoes to watch her walk to the stairs.

"Mom kicked me out, so I'm staying with a friend until she cools down," she tells him without looking at him. Rembrandt folds his arms and shakes his head.

"Judith Sierra Jefferson." She stops in her tracks when he says her full name, and she veers her head to look at him. "You're not leaving this house over a misunderstanding. I'll talk to Sheryl and fix this fuss you two had."

"Uncle Rembrandt, I'm gonna say this as nicely as I know how." She turns to face him, her left eye twitching. "I don't know you, and you don't know me. You're here for my Mom, not me, so stop pretending to care about me. This thing that you're doing is overwhelming, and quite frankly, you're suffocating me. I'll ask for help when I need it."

They avert their gazes to the door when a car honks, and she takes a deep breath. Judith rushes to her room and sets his number on her dresser. She grabs her bookbag, fills it with three outfits - his shirt and pants included - then when she packs her toothbrush as well, she hoists her bag over her shoulders. She takes his shoes and carries them with her downstairs.

Judith makes a confused face when she doesn't see her Uncle, but when she reaches the front porch and notices him standing at the passenger side of a brown four-door Volkswagen, she looks at the dark sky in disbelief.

Judith approaches the running vehicle and notices Jerome in the passenger seat and a cinnamon-colored woman as tall as him behind the wheel. The three of them look at her.

"Why's he saying you weren't kicked out," she asks with a snappy tone, and Judith looks at Rembrandt.

"He lied because he feels like he can fix everything. That's one of the problems I have with my family." She looks at the lady who glares at him. "I'm not lying to you or Jerome when I say that she told me to leave. That's what I'm doing."

"Get in the back," she orders her without breaking eye contact with her Uncle as she unlocks all doors. Judith grips the shoes in her left hand to open the door in her right, which she shuts behind her when she settles in the seat. "Tell her mother that we'll have her back around nine tomorrow morning."

"Be safe, Judy," he says with his gaze fixed behind Jerome's seat, ignoring his Mom. He taps the windowsill, then when he turns to walk away, she rolls her son's window up. She turns the car around then cruises down the road.

"Just to let you know, you two ain't sleeping in the same room," she tells them while shifting her gaze between the two. "When we get there, we'll figure out which room you'll sleep in."

"Okay." She forces a smile at her then glances at him before looking at his shoes in her hand. They're silent for the rest of the trip up the cul-de-sac's entryway, and when they reach a grey house, she pulls the car in park then shuts off the engine.

They exit the car with her, and she locks it, then they follow her inside. Judith's attention immediately lands on a mahogany television identical to hers placed to the far left of the living room. Unlike her, they own a VCR player.