Chapter 50: The Family Reunion

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It's been a while and it's now July the 2nd and we are packing up things and on our way to Earl's family reunion in his hometown of Greenville. Its Thursday and its 11:00 in the morning, we've all been up perhaps since 8:00. Earl and Ava made a tasty smorgasbord of a breakfast; buttermilk pancakes, slab bacon, fried potatoes, scrambled eggs and a big fruit salad consisting of strawberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, white seedless grapes and blueberries. There was also warm maple and brown sugar syrup for the pancakes. Duke was almost out of dog food so I made him a nice concoction of ground beef, brown rice, peas and gravy, cooked of course. The plan was while we were in Greenville to leave Duke with Rhett and his son Miles. Rhett would be on his way to come and get Duke in a few minutes. Plans for accommodations were already made ahead of time. We will be staying in Earl's cousin's house with his wife and two teenage daughters. My 19th birthday was coming up and my baby bump was growing more and more. Oh, I almost forget to mention we now know the gender of the baby we are having, it's gonna be a boy. Today I was dressed in a pair of black leggings, for room and comfort of course. A light blue tank top with a picture of a pink convertible low rider on the front. Earl helped me find my pair of solid black flip flops. Ava neatly packed some extra pairs of shoes for me, a pair of sneakers, and my fuzzy house shoes. Right now we are packing up and we're almost done. Earl wants to be on the road by 1:00 in the afternoon by the latest. Ava wore a pretty pink tank top with cartoon characters on it and blue denim shorts with red rhinestones on the back pockets with pink and white sneakers with no socks. This morning after she took her shower I styled her hair in two long french braids with white plastic ponytail holders at each end. Earl was wearing a solid black v-neck t-shirt with gray camouflage cargo shorts and black sneakers and no socks. Earl left earlier after breakfast to rent a mini van because he thought it would be easier than taking one of the cars. The dark red mini van was parked in the gravel driveway behind my Pontiac gto. With Duke being with Rhett and his son and our bags were now packed, we were ready to go. To be honest with you, I've never been outside of Cleveland before. With the help of Earl, I climbed into the passenger's seat while Ava climbed in the back seat. Earl gave instructions for the old ex-biker to keep an eye out on our place until we get back. Earl promised to pay Rhett for watching Duke.



"Is there anything happening today at your cousin's place?", asked Ava after we all got settled in the mini van.



"Besides us gettin' settled in, they's gon' be a fish fry an' a kick ball game later on dis evenin' at a local park", Earl replied.



"Sweet!", exclaimed Ava. I kick so much ass at that game!



"Watch yo' mouth", warned Earl.



"Sorry, I mean butt", replied Ava.



"Eva' been outside of Cleveland, baby?", asked Earl.



"No, can't say that I have", I replied. I didn't even know you had much family left.



"Oh yeah, mostly my daddy's folks", replied Earl. An' a few on my mom's side.

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