Miss Lola.

Rhonda.

"Y'all hurry up and come on! Your granny said 5:45 and it's dern near 5:50 right now!"

My doggone kids were dragging their butts, as usual, and I finally had to bodily haul them to the car one by one and then make sure their seat belts were properly locked in place because Bella has this problem with keeping hers locked.

As soon as I hopped inside of the car, J.r had to pee again and so I had to get right back out and let him inside the apartment to use the bathroom.

I swear that boy must have a bladder the size of a grape so I try to limit his liquids before bed and whenever we're going on long trips.

"Mama, Tommy keeps pinching me." Bella whines.

"Man, I didn't even touch that girl." Tommy protested too loudly. His little bad behind.

"Did too!" Bella yelled.

"Did not!" Tommy hollered.

"Y'all better cut that mess out before I slap the black off of both of y'all!" I bellow which quiets them down for a little while.

These kids be working my last nerve sometimes but I love every last one of them and would do whatever it takes to make sure they had everything they needed.

That's the main reason why I took the job at Club Foxxy's. For the money.

Hell, it ain't like I enjoy shaking my behind for those tired, sleazy jokers but the money is real nice and Foxxy's is the most popular club in this dusty little

town and so you know we be packed out almost every night and I'm getting real good at working the pole too but my first night I fell off that sucker and busted my behind.

Man, I was so embarrassed and almost quit that same night until this dancer named Thunder pulled me off to the side and gave me some tips which actually helped.

I'd also noticed that the clientele be throwing larger bills at the girls who know how to slip, slide and twirl around that pole like a flag and

once I mastered the technique there are some nights when I can make up to four grand but then some nights I barely manage to pull down nine hundred dollars and some change, but it's all good.

I came into the game with a strong mindset and don't be falling for the lines these guys be handing out.

Like I never do private parties because you might as well be a prostitute if you do something like that and I haven't sunk that low and whenever I do a lap dance, I always make sure to let the customer know to keep his hands to himself or I'll tell Bucky, the big, two hundred pound, jet black bouncer.

Bucky don't mind breaking a few bones and he's real protective of the girls.

Mama thinks I'm a slut for chosing to do me, and yeah, her thinking that way hurts my feelings a lot more than I let on but everybody can't be G.Q like her and my twin brother, Merlin j.r.

All my life, I've tried to fit into the perfect little mold that she created for me.

I made good grades, wore my naturally straight hair in Shirley Temple curls when I was little and then bouncy curls when I was a teenager because not only did she like my hair like that, Mama was also my own personal hair stylist and so what choice did I have?

Man, I'd hated wearing my hair in those old fashioned curls and when I hit sixteen I'd sneaked to another hair salon on the North side of town and had it braided and boy when I came home, Mama had hit the roof!

I guess it was a rebellious stage but after the age of sixteen our relationship went left instead of right and I started getting in trouble at school and hanging with the wrong crowd which is why I ended up pregnant at seventeen.

I'd been too scared to tell her, but Mama figured it out quick enough when my clothes couldn't fit anymore and then she'd marched me straight down to her personal gynecologist for the test.

I'll never forget what she said to me,

"Well, your little fast behind gone be just like me. So let's make sure that you do something worthwhile with your life like I have."

Well, things didn't quite work out that way because I had my own plans and dreams and they didn't include running a beauty salon and so I ran away to live with my grandparents until I had Tommy but Mama came and got me.

"Listen, I don't care what you do just as long as you graduate highschool. We'll figure the rest out later." She'd said.

So, I finished highschool, had two more children out of wedlock and found myself a job at the Bargain Barn instead of going to college and now I'm an exotic dancer.

Mama must be real proud of me. Yeah. Right.

However, I refuse to feel ashamed of my life choices, like I've said, I have a strong mindset and mama had raised me right so none of this is her fault.

I guess you can say that we have a jacked up relationship but I love her so much but sometimes she irks my last nerve.

"Mama?" J.r was staring at me with big eyes and holding himself. "I gotta wee wee again."

"Well, you gotta hold it this time because we're almost to Granny's house and I can't turn around and take you all the way back home."

"She asked us to call her Big Ma." Bella piped up from the back seat. She always trying to correct somebody and her little Miss know-it-all behind be getting on my nerves sometimes. Just like her grandma.

"Yeah, just like your Granny told you that my nickname is Trifling. And don't y'all ever call me that again."

Tommy cracked up laughing.

He looks exactly like his daddy.

As a matter of fact all of my kids look like their daddy's and they all act different.
It's like I'm raising three perfect little strangers.

Ten minutes later, I parked my old, beat up Honda behind Merlin's gold Lexus, and just sat there a minute to collect myself because I already knew that this was gone be a trial.

"I still gotta wee wee." J.r's desperate voice sets my teeth on edge but when I look into his soft, hazel eyes I sigh and quickly get out of the car.

10/29/21.
Edited 12/20/21.