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  My father chuckled, trying to find the words to say. We sat in silence for a few minutes, both of us unsure what our next move was. The sadness hit once again as I remembered that a tragedy just happened.

  “Dad,” I finally asked, “what are we gonna do about Uncle Bug?”

  My father stopped grinning as the memory of Bug’s death came flooding back to him. The men in our family were very tough, but a death like this was hard to swallow.

  “The only thing we can do. Celebrate his life and keep on moving.”

  My father stared at the ground for a few minutes without moving. I could tell he was thinking about all the times he and Uncle Bug shared together. They had grown up down the road from each other so they were more than brothers-in-law; they were close friends. He finally jumped out of his daze and kissed me on the forehead.

  “Night, baby girl. Get you some rest. I’m sure your mama has plenty for y’all to do tomorrow.”

  “Night, Daddy.”

  He closed the door and I walked around my room one more time. I stopped at my vanity mirror, gazing at the grown woman in the reflection. I never thought I would be back here like this: rushed wedding, dead uncle, crazy family reunion. Lord, I don’t know what you’re doing up there, but it isn’t funny anymore.

  Chapter 7

  Henry

  I had seven missed calls, four inquiring text messages, and two very angry voice mail messages all from Janette. I knew she would be pissed about me ignoring her phone calls when I was in the car with Morgan, but I wasn’t about to take that chance of creating an awkward situation. Besides, I had expected to see her at the party. It was such a tragedy about her father. Junebug was a good dude. He was funny, always had some kind of backwoods wisdom, loved his family, and had a special relationship with Morgan. When Morgan and I finally announced that we were an item the summer before our tenth grade year, he was the one who took me aside and threatened my life if I ever hurt her, or got her pregnant. I thought the main point was “don’t get her pregnant.” I was more scared of him than I was her own father.

  I cleared out my phone and dialed Janette’s number. It went straight to voice mail and I hung up before leaving a message. I’d known Janette a long time and I considered her a good friend, but she had been coming on a little strong lately. Dropping by my office to bring me lunch, cooking me dinner at her house, supposedly accidentally bumping into me at places she knew I visited regularly, like the gym, were all becoming a bit much for me. Granted, I accepted the food and the gifts, but, I mean, who would turn down free food?

  I tossed the phone on the other side of my bed and lay back down. The beauty of owning your own company was being able to go in whenever you wanted, and this morning I felt like sleeping in. I wanted to reminisce about seeing Morgan. It was the same feeling I had when I saw her in my homeroom in the ninth grade. Growing up with her cousin, we had always been around each other, but it seemed like after puberty hit she started looking a whole lot different to me. Seeing her yesterday, after all this time, made me fall for her all over again. She still had the silkiest bronze skin with those gorgeous hazel eyes; her hair was long and curly, how I’d always liked it, and she still looked like she was the perfect size six. She was even more beautiful than I remembered. She literally took my breath away. I didn’t even get to say what I wanted to say to her between that awkward car ride and that depressing welcome home party. I wished I had played it better, especially since her fiancé didn’t even come with her.

  Every time I tried to get closer to her yesterday, different family members would surround her trying to pry into information about her upcoming nuptials. I overheard her trying to be vague about everything, which was typical Morgan. She never liked people in her business, especially in a town that would spread it like wildfire, but to be a woman about to get married she sure didn’t show the signs. She wasn’t bragging about how wonderful her soon-to-be husband was, or giving details on where they met, or even how he proposed. I would think if she was so in love, she would at least want to give people a little of her fairytale. I really didn’t think she was completely sure about marrying this dude, and I was going to at least try to see if we still had something. If nothing else, I was happy to have her back home.

  I stayed in the bed a few more minutes, gazing at the ceiling, before I got up and headed to the shower. Being able to sleep in was cool, but it wasn’t in my nature. I needed to get out and be productive. I was still waiting to hear a decision from Don and his business partners about the investment for the new branch of business. The meeting went well but I was always nervous about how these things could go so I needed something to take my mind off it.

  The sweltering heat hit me as soon as I walked outside. I lived here all my life and I still hated Georgia in the summertime. It was like the sun had no respect for the people in the South. I jumped in my car and decided to head about an hour outside of town. With everything going on, I needed to visit my mom. She was the only person I could be completely honest with, and I hoped I could catch her on a good day so she could give me her motherly advice. I desperately needed that at the moment.

  When I finally pulled into the parking lot, I hesitated on getting out. I hated medical facilities, especially after I blew out my knee. It was cold, it smelled funny, the food was awful, and everybody treated you like some type of burden. I was completely against my mother being here, but I couldn’t take care of her by myself anymore.

  I got out of the car and began to walk the dim hallways of the nursing home. When I reached her room, the bed was made and none of her personal belongings were in there the way I had set them up.

  I went in and checked the drawers and the closet to check for her clothes, and everything was completely empty. I began to panic. If something had happened to my mother they would have called me. I ran outside into the hallway and bumped into a nurse. The clipboard she was holding dropped to the floor and her paperwork spread across the linoleum.

  “I apologize about that.” I bent down to gather her things and put them back on her clipboard as neatly as I could.

  “Didn’t anyone ever teach you not to run in halls?” the what seemed like a five foot two nurse said in all her attitude.

  “I’m sorry but I’m looking for my mother, Margaret Lloyd. She’s supposed to be in this room.” I handed her back her clipboard and she snatched it out my hands.

  “Ms. Lloyd was moved to a different room. Go down the hall, make a right, and she is the first door on your left.”

  “Thank you so much,” I said in relief, and began taking off down the hallway.

  “Mmhmm. Just stop running in my halls.”

  I completely ignored the nurse’s directions, especially after she demanded so nicely, and trotted to my mother’s room. When I reached her door, she was sitting in a rocking chair, staring out the window. She had a really nice view of the abundant trees and a small man-made lake that lined the backside of the facility. I figured she probably made a huge scene about having a view until they gave in and switched her room. My mother had always been an outdoors type of girl. She and my grandfather were extremely close and growing up he taught her everything there was to know about fishing, hunting, sports, how to fix things, et cetera.

  “Ma.” I walked in slowly and squatted down beside her.

  “There’s my baby boy.” She put on a huge grin and grabbed my face to kiss me on my cheek. I grabbed her right hand while it was still holding my face, and kissed the inside of it.

  “How you doing today, beautiful?”

  “I’m fine. Sittin’ here watching the ducks in the water.” She folded her hands in her lap and slightly began to rock in her chair. I pulled up a folded chair that was in the corner of the room and sat next to her.

  “I see they changed your room.”

  “Now I told them if I was going to stay here I needed a view. These nurses don’t know what the hell they’re doing. You know I tried to get them to turn on your game on Saturday and th
ey act like I was speaking Chinese.”

  I dropped my head and tried to choke back tears. By that statement alone, she wasn’t having the best of days.

  “Ma, I don’t play football anymore. Remember I blew out my knee a few years ago.” I hated having to say that every time she had an episode. I didn’t want to upset her and I didn’t want to have to relive it.

  “You remember that game against Madison? You had over two hundred receiving yards and scored four touchdowns.”

  “Yes, ma’am, I do.” I smiled at the memory of one of the best games I had in my high school career. It was the game when four recruiters got to witness in person the magic that was my skills, and the night I knew I was going to play for somebody’s Division-I school.

  “That was your night, baby. Best wide receiver in Georgia. I’m telling you, Coach should let you run more outside options. No corner can hold you on the outside.”

  I couldn’t help but smile at the fact that my mother could recall my glory days so well. She was always my biggest supporter and my dream of going pro was partly for her, too. When my dad left, I felt it was my job to take care of her the way she deserved to be taken care of. I wanted to give her the big house and nice cars and not have her working two jobs to support me and my brother. I decided not to burst her bubble anymore and just play along.

  “I’ll make sure to tell him at practice.” She patted me on my back and continued to gaze outside the window and rock back and forth.

  We sat there in silence for a few minutes as I contemplated what to say next. My mother’s dementia was delicate on days like this and I didn’t want to get her upset, nor did I feel like I was going to get any advice about the Morgan situation. I never imagined that my mother would be fifty-two in a nursing home with dementia. Both of my grandparents died of Alzheimer’s disease, and I knew it was possible for her to have it, but I never knew it would hit her so soon. All I wanted to do was bust her out of here and take her home.

  “Ma, I promise you as soon as I’m able I will come and get you out of here,” I finally said as I grabbed her hand and kissed it.

  “I know, baby. You don’t worry about your mama. You just concentrate on going pro.”

  A single tear rolled down my face and I quickly wiped the back of my hand across my face.

  “Yes, ma’am,” were the only words I could whisper out of my mouth. I tried to pull myself together before a river of tears flowed. At this very moment I didn’t want to think about the Morgan situation, I didn’t want to think about the business venture; I just wanted to make my mama happy. She gave up so much for me and I hated that she ended up in this place. I finally gained enough composure to look her in the eyes.

  “You know what we need? A Dairy Queen run.”

  A smile beamed across my mother’s face as she got up to go find her purse. It wasn’t much, but it was what I could do at the moment to keep her spirits up and get her out of this old people’s prison for a while. This was something we did all the time growing up when my mother wanted to treat my brother and me for doing something good. It was fun to laugh and eat ice cream with her. I wanted that feeling again. I needed it right now and I could tell she needed it too.

  “Let’s go get you some chicken strips and an ice cream sundae.”

  I put her arm inside of mine and guided her out of her room. Whatever Morgan issues I wanted to talk to my mom about I could deal with on my own. It was better to concentrate on the woman who loved me most anyway.

  Chapter 8

  Janette

  The news of my father’s death still stung. My brother and I stayed at my parents’ house to try to keep my mother company. Honestly I didn’t know how much company I was because all I did was cry all night. I lay in my old bed with the shades drawn so no light could get in. I didn’t think I’d ever felt pain like this in my life. Open-heart surgery with no anesthesia would probably be less painful than this. I held tight on to my pillow as more tears began to flow. A knock at my door made me suck in hard, trying to compose myself.

  “Nettie, you okay?” My brother poked his head around the door, looking to see if I was still alive.

  “No, but you can come in.” I cut the bedside lamp on and moved over to make room for JJ. He slowly made his way to the bed and put his arms around me. It’d been a long time since my brother had to comfort me like this. JJ and I were five years apart but he had always made sure that he looked out for me. Even when I didn’t feel completely loved by my father, I knew I was always my brother’s baby.

  “How’s Mom?” I said through the remainder of my tears.

  “Heartbroken, but trying to be strong.” He squeezed me tighter to let me know that I didn’t have to be strong around him.

  “How are you?” I asked him, making sure he wasn’t trying to swallow down his pain.

  “I’m hoping remembering the good times will make it less painful. Like remember when he tried to teach us how to swim?”

  I giggled at the thought of eight-year-old JJ and three-year-old me at the community pool with my dad. “Yeah, and you were so scared to go in the deep end.”

  JJ began to chuckle with me. “You doggone right I was scared. That was ten feet.”

  “Daddy didn’t think it was so deep because he sure forced you in.”

  “I can hear his voice now. ‘Joe Jr., stop all that hollerin’ and kick yo’ feet, boy.’”

  My brother and I both fell out laughing at his impression of our father. It was so exact to his angry voice; it was almost like Dad was in the room.

  “What about the time he almost got to fighting with Mr. Johnson next door about using our trash cans,” I said, continuing to laugh hysterically.

  “Man, I’ve never seen two middle-aged men ’bout to put hands on each other over trash cans.” The memory of my father out in the yard in his pajamas, dancing around with his fist up like he was in a boxing ring was too much for me to handle. My laughter became uncontrollable and my stomach began to hurt.

  “Honestly, though, if Mama hadn’t broken it up, I really think Mr. Johnson would’ve given Daddy a run for his money,” JJ continued as he began to control his laughter.

  After a few more minutes of the giggles, I finally was able to get myself together. I took deep breaths to calm myself so that I could talk again. “I never realized we really did have some good times with Daddy.” I was almost back to a normal voice, with only small traces of giggles.

  “Yeah, we really did.”

  For some reason, JJ’s confirmation brought us back down off of our reminiscing high. I didn’t think I could actually produce any more tears at this point, but I was becoming depressed all over again. No matter how many funny stories we could tell about Dad, the fact still remained that he wasn’t here anymore, and he was never coming back.

  “What are we gonna do, Nettie?” This was the first time JJ had no idea what to do next. My father had always taught him to have a game plan and be one step ahead, but I could really hear in his voice that he was lost.

  We lay in silence for a few minutes as my wheels began to turn. All of the memories, all of the stories, needed to be shared among family. My father was a big part of the Maxson family equation and he should be respected as such.

  “JJ, we need to have Daddy’s funeral next weekend.” I said it as if it had to be done. I could tell my brother needed time to process.

  “Next weekend, as in the family reunion?”

  “Why not? Everyone will already be here.”

  “Yeah, but it’s so much going on as we speak. The reunion is jam-packed, then you have Morgan’s wedding, and now you want to throw a funeral on top of that?”

  I sat up at the mention of Morgan’s name and faced my brother. I could feel my blood boiling by the second. This was no longer about her.

  “Are you telling me Morgan’s little wedding is more important than our father’s burial?” I gave my brother that look when I wanted him to say the right thing.

  “No, but—”


  “But nothing.” I cut him off before he could get his thought out. “Daddy was an important part of this family—a family who is planning to celebrate the fact that we are family, next weekend. Why wouldn’t Daddy’s death be included in that?” I saw my brother contemplating the idea. I could tell he was trying to figure out if there was a more logical solution. We sat in silence for a few minutes as he continued to think.

  “You’re right,” he finally said. “He should be celebrated during the family reunion.”

  I was so happy my brother was on board. I jumped up and began rummaging through my drawers.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Looking for clothes. We’re going to Beanie’s house to tell her.” Though my red dress I had put on for the party was fierce, I wasn’t going out the house in something I had cried and slept in all night.

  I could feel my brother wanting to object to my request, but he held it in. He got up from the bed and left me in the room to get dressed. For some reason I was mildly excited. The death of my father was tragic and heartbreaking, but the fact that this week would no longer be all about Morgan gave me a little joy. I found some old shorts and a tank top that I could put on and headed to the bathroom to take a shower.

  An hour later, JJ and I climbed in his truck and proceeded to our aunt’s house. In retrospect, Beanie and Uncle Earl lived in walking distance from my folks’ house, but this summer heat was beginning to be too much to bear. As we pulled up, my uncle was pulling out. JJ stopped the truck and rolled the window down to speak.

  “I was gonna stop by today and see how y’all were doing,” my uncle said as he was still rolling down his window.

  “We’re making it,” JJ answered.

  “All right, well, I’m headed to the garage. Morgan and Beanie are stirring around in there.”