Someone brought the fight up every year and they would have the same argument, every year. Grandma Jana had four girls and two boys. The girls got along good, but her boys had a pure sibling rivalry thing going on.
"No, no, man," Uncle John argued. "I tore you up and you know it. The only reason I let you up was because people were talking about calling the police."
Then Calvin said, "Yeah and that's when I grabbed you by the balls and tried to yank 'em off. Remember they had to take you to the emergency room and everythang, man. Don't be trying to act brand new in front of your wife and kids, man. Just go on and say it, I whipped you and that's it." He recounted the fight with pride.
Various family members laughed at the thought of Uncle John doubled over with Uncle Calvin squeezing the life out of his manhood.
Lela's mother, Rachel, who had been snapping pictures of Antwan, came to the canopy to diffuse the fight. "Y'all stop the foolishness. I won the fight. Momma sent me out there with a belt to whip the both of you." Rachel spoke with the authority of an oldest child. "Now if y'all don't want me to tell some stories about how I used to whip both of your butts…like the time Calvin tried to sneak Bessie Ann through the window when he was thirteen..."
Calvin coughed like he was choking. "Um…no need to get into all that. I got to go check on this meat anyway."
"That's what I thought," Rachel said.
***
Later that afternoon, Lela sat poolside watching Antwan and some of his little cousins swim in the hotel's pool. Kids were all over the place. Antwan showed off his skills from the swimming lessons as he glided through the three feet of water like a pro. He had been looking forward to the family reunion so he could see his cousins again and show off in the pool, and his cousins were just as excited to see his new moves.
After laying down the ground rules about pool safety, Lela sat back on her lounge chair half reading a novel. Most of her attention was on the kids in the pool. She removed her beach towel that was wrapped around her waist, exposing her yellow bikini. No sooner than she removed it, she sensed Punkin was heading into deeper water than she could handle.
"Come back this way, Punkin!" Lela said to her little cousin.