Analise Easterling
February 19
8:45 pm
"Auntie can we color one more page?" My 7 year old niece Zoè asked as I helped her put the crayons up
"No you gotta get ready for bed" I told her and she frowned a little
"I'll try to come back Sunday and then we can color some more. Okay? And I'll bring some ice cream"
"Can it be the rainbow ice cream? I really love the rainbow one"
"Of course" I responded and her frown instantly went away so she helped me finish clean up the mess we made. By the time we were done my momma walked into the living room with 4 year old Layton now dressed in her pajamas and all washed up for the night too
"Alright Zoè, give ya auntie a hug and kiss goodnight so you can get to bed"
"Good night auntie" she told me in her soft voice before hugging me and I hugged her back
"Goodnight. I'll see you Sunday"
"Don't forget my ice cream" she whispered in my ear "rainbow"
I couldn't help but laugh "I won't. I promise"
"Night night auntie" Layton said as she ran over to me in the big T-shirt she wore to bed, hearing the beads on the ends of her braided hair under her little bonnet. I picked her up and hugged her as well before putting her back down
They both then followed my momma down the hall to their shared room and she put them to bed and while she did so I cleaned up as much as I could to help her out. After a while she came back into the living room rubbing the nape of her neck and sat down
"They sleep?"
"They going" she answered and I sat down on the other couch
"Where aubrielle?"
My momma instantly sucked her teeth and held a nasty look on her face
"Chileee ion know. I got home from work and they was next door at the neighbors playing in the yard with the little girl over there and the lady told me yo sister asked her to watch them while she went to run an errand and that was at 2 when she dropped them off over there"
I shook my head as she started to talk again
"I'm tired! I raised my kids and here I am raising my grandkids. And I love them to pieces. I do, but ya sister need to get her shit together and learn some responsibility.. BOTH of em"
"What happened with autumn?"
"It's always the same shit with autumn. Yesterday she called me cause she needed gas money and today I had to give her money so she could pay her light bill"
Again all I could do was shake my head
"Destin still ain found another job?"
"I don't even think that boy is looking and she got in her feelings when I said something to her about that too but I don't care. I don't give a damn how long they been together or how many kids they got. That man is damn near thirty sitting on his ass while she working and taking care of them kids, STRUGGLING to keep up with all them bills by herself. Ain enough love in the world for somebody to constantly stay in some shit like that. Every week it's always a new reason why she need to borrow money from me and like I told her, if I gotta sit here and take care of two households then she might as well pack them kids up and come home. Leave his sorry ass where he at"
"Well momma, you did your part by raising us. You not obligated to do nothing nomore. Autumn almost thirty. She chose to move out and live with destin and go have kids and let him lay around like that so she need to get herself out of that problem that she put herself in. And aubrielle too. She keep doing what she do cause she know you gone save her but you gone have to let go and let her fall down. She 24 years old and a whole momma she she gotta start acting like it"
