Bad Blood Read Free Page B

I’ll never forget how he showed up naked at my high school graduation.”
    â€œOh. I didn’t know about that,” I mumbled.
    â€œAnd you didn’t know about your late grandmama’s late twin sister, who used to eat rocks and live grasshoppers.”
    â€œNo, I didn’t. But those people are deceased, and like I said, neither Seth nor any of his family will have to mingle with Janet or Ernest.”
    â€œIt ain’t just Ernest and Janet you’ll need to tell Seth about. The bad seeds in our family ain’t all dead. You got a cousin named Milton. He’s just three years younger than me. You was a baby when he was around, so you wouldn’t remember him. Anyway, he’s over there in the state hospital, wrapped up in a straitjacket, as we speak. He’s so bad, he’s been locked up in that asylum most of his life.”
    â€œWhat did he do?”
    â€œYou name it, he done it. But the man finally took action when Milton busted into a white woman’s house and broke a claw hammer over her head. They tried to say he ravaged her, too, but Milton had never had no interest in sex, and they couldn’t prove he touched that white woman’s tail. And I bet she wasn’t even clean.”
    I looked off into space. “Mama, I know what you’re thinking,” I muttered. I turned back to face her and gave her a sharp look. “ My children will be fine. There are all kinds of medication and treatments and therapy available these days. If, and it’s a very big if, my children have problems, Seth and I will deal with them together.”
    Mama gave me a pitiful look. “I sure hope you’re right, baby. If you ain’t, I can tell you right now that you can forget about living happily ever after with Seth. . . .”

Chapter 3
    Seth
    I WAS SO NERVOUS AND DUMBFOUNDED , I COULD BARELY REMAIN seated. Ernest was still sitting on the couch. No matter how hard I tried to get him to talk, he continued to act like a mute. A few more minutes dragged by.
    My stomach was in knots, and my head was throbbing like somebody had attacked it with a paddle. The inside of my mouth was as dry as sandpaper. A belch suddenly flew out my mouth, and I tasted some of the heavy, greasy food we had eaten for lunch, mixed in with the bile that had risen in my throat. I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out a stick of gum and stuck it in my mouth. As soon as I started chewing, my bladder began to demand attention. It was a one-story house, so I knew that it wouldn’t be hard for me to locate the bathroom, but I attempted to get the information from Ernest, anyway.
    â€œWhich way is the restroom?” I asked, rising.
    He looked at me and blinked a few times and didn’t say a word. He returned his attention to the magazine still in his hand.
    I looked at my watch, wondering why Rachel was taking so long to return. I had no idea where Janet was, and I was in no hurry to find out. The last thing I needed was to run into her and have her say something crazy again. My head was spinning. Rachel had some explaining to do! Like, why hadn’t she told me that both of her only two siblings were mentally challenged?
    The bathroom was just as neat and spotless as the living room. Frilly yellow curtains covered the window, and bright yellow towels and a shower curtain made the room look quite impressive. I wondered how Rachel’s mother managed to keep such a neat house with Janet and Ernest around. I had a feeling those two didn’t do much housecleaning, or anything other than what I’d seen so far.
    It was hard for me to contain my frustration and the feeling that I had been duped into a relationship under false pretenses. I let out a few obscene words under my breath and balled my hand into a fist. I wanted to punch the wall as I wondered again what I had gotten myself into! Well, since I couldn’t hit the wall, which looked so thin I was sure I’d