Trio Dancers (excerpt)

....After church was over, we stood outside to speak to more people. We finally saw Auntie Rena. “Rena where you been girl???? I been looking all over for you.” Mama asked. “Girl you know how that traffic is coming from my house.” Rena said.

That dreaded Sunday morning traffic huh???? What’s going on here???? Then I figured it out. Hiding in plain sight behind Aunt Rena was a tall, well educated looking, chocolate Brother who had 100 Black Men wannabe written all over his face. Apparently scooping this fool up and bringing him to church with her was the “business” she was taking care of.

Without even speaking to me first, Rena announced his presence like we were at a debutante ball. “Cassandra this is Keith. Keith is from Bowie, Maryland. He goes to Flipper Temple AME. He went to Hampton University. He’s about your age. He told me he saw you on Soul Train one time and he wanted to meet you.”

She made this morning announcement all in one breath. Apparently this clown with the cheesy ass grin works with Rena. I guess she showed him a picture of me or something. So the big plan for today was to bring him here with her to “Club Jesus” to hook up with me.

“Pleased to meet you” I said as polite as I could manage, fighting the urge to turn to Mama and Rena and cuss them out for this tired ass ambush. Keith and I chatted for a few minutes and tried to find some common connection between mutual friends who might have gone to Morehouse, Hampton, Howard or Spelman. He knew a whole lot of girls who went to Spelman. A whole lot. I knew mostly all of them hussies and tramps he mentioned, but I pretended not to. After a few minutes “Mr. Player, Player” gave me both his day job business card and his Noni Juice representative business card. Finally we exchanged “Goodbyes, Nice meeting yous and Hope I see you agains.”

“I’ll make sure she uses that card “My Mama whispered in Keith’s ear as they hugged goodbye in Christian fellowship....