Who Am I Without Him? by Sharon Flake Read Free Book Online

people waiting on you hand and foot. Giving you money and washing your drawers whenever you say.”
    He laughed, and I could see why Shanna fell so hard for him. Everything about him was perfect, even his cute little hands. “I ain’t never giving up my family for no girl,” he said, going back inside. “See you later. At dinner.”
    â€œDon’t come here. I’m telling you.”
    He pressed his face to the screen, looking like a monster from TV. “We ain’t coming here. Your family’s coming to our place tonight. Everybody is.”
    I was scared to hear that. Especially since my mother ain’t tell me nothing ’bout it. So, soon as Mookie left, I got on the phone. Called Shanna. The girl just as hardheaded as Mookie, though. She said she had to come, ’cause Mookie’s momma invited her personally. Poor thing. She ain’t know what Walker women could do when they put their mind to it.
    â€œHow come you ain’t tell me dinner was over here?” I said to my mother just before we walked into Mookie’s house.
    She handed me the platter of smothered liver and bacon, and told my father not to forget the watermelon fruit salad in the car. Soon as he finished bringing in the rest of the food, though, they made him leave. Made all the men leave and eat in the den. And when Mookie asked why, the women all smiled. Said they had a surprise for him and Shanna.
    Nothing special happened almost the whole time we was there. People ate. People drank. People farted and watched TV. Then just before we was all ready to leave, the aunts asked to see Shanna—alone. They took her to the bedroom. Told me I better not even try to come in. Shanna looked back at me and smiled. I think she thought something nice was gonna happen to her there. It didn’t. She came out crying. When Mookie asked her what was wrong, she almost knocked his head off. “You got some girl pregnant?”
    I stared at him. He stared at the aunts and me and my cousins. “What?”
    Shanna ran out the door. My mother smiled. Her sisters almost busted out laughing. Mookie was too busy chasing Shanna to ask them why they lied on him. So I asked. Aunt Lucinda said it was for his own good. “To protect him from girls who got their own agendas.”
    â€œWhat?” I asked.
    My mother scraped chicken bones into a plastic bag. “We know the kind of girl he needs.”
    My arms started shaking. “Mookie’s almost a man. Y’all ain’t got the right—”
    Aunt Grace stood up and shut me down. “Girl! We protecting the family. Making sure the line stays pure . . . clean.”
    â€œWhat?” I said.
    Aunt Lucinda said Mookie ain’t have no business trying to date just one girl. That he needed to date around so they could see who was good enough for him.
    â€œFive years from now he gonna be married,” Momma said.
    â€œAnd babies gonna be coming then.”
    Aunt Lucinda crossed her arms. “And we got the right to pick the girl who gonna give birth to the next boy in this family.”
    Me and Mookie are the oldest cousins, so there was no one left to take up for him but me.
    â€œBut he’s just seventeen. Ain’t thinking ’bout marriage . . . or babies.”
    Aunt Lucinda said she liked Shanna. But Shanna’s side don’t produce nothing but girl babies. “Them two get married and only girls coming. No way around it.”
    They crazy, I thought.
    â€œThat boy got our future inside him,” Aunt Hattie whispered. “So we got the right to interfere. To make sure . . .”
    I covered my ears. “I’m-a tell my father,” I said, running to the door.
    Aunt Lucinda blocked my way. “Gal . . .” she said, her fist in the air like a club.
    I looked at my mother.
    â€œWomen raised Mookie,” Momma said. “He ours. We know best.”
    I looked at my aunt’s arm still high in the air.