Page 11 of Standing In The Sun

Mumbling under her breath, Ahvi lifted herself off the floor and padded to the door. “Why are you like this?” she glared up at her lengthy little sister as she opened the door.

Butta was tall and loved the game of basketball. You’d hardly ever catch her in anything besides a pair of ball shorts, tank top, and slides whenever she didn’t have on sneakers.

Butta flung her hand in the air, brushing past Ahvi. “It’s hot as hell out there and you wanna take your time opening the door.” She reached into the playpen to grab her nephew up. “I know your mama gets on your nerves like she does mine,” she babbled in baby talk to him, kissing over his face.

“Don’t come in here getting him riled up.” Ahvi sat back on the floor, crossing her legs. “How you get here – Ma drop you?” Butta and Ahvi shared the same mama, even though Ahvi would argue Butta got the better version of Sheena. With Butta being the oldest in the house, Sheena doted on her a little more and didn’t pile her down with having to see about their two younger siblings— seven-year-old Carter and 4-year-old Piper.

Butta cut her eyes with pursed lips. “Now you know your mama ain’t dropping nobody off nowhere…my lil’ boo brought me,” she said wagging her tongue.

“You know I don’t like a bunch of people knowing where I stay.”

“Girl, you ain’t ‘bout to be staying here long.”

“Bitch!” Ahvi threw something at her sister as they laughed out loud.

Cradling Kamari’s head, Butta fussed, “What if you would’ve hit my baby, hoe?”

“But I didn’t.”

“You could’ve,” Butta countered, placing him back into his playpen.

Butta dropped onto the floor beside Ahvi, stretching her long legs out as she scanned the mess her sister had made, digging through her daddy’s old boxes. “What you looking for?”

“A charger for this old ass phone,” Ahvi muttered, flipping through a pile of tangled cords before groaning in frustration. “I know he gotta have one somewhere.”

Holding her hand out, Butta asked to see the phone. She examined it like she actually knew what she was looking at but the phone seemed to be older than her since she was only seventeen. “The fuck kinda phone is this?”

“Some kinda Apple phone… I don’t know which number but I know daddy gotta have a charger somewhere in all this shit. Like who needs an old ass class reunion t-shirt?” Ahvi’s nose scrunched as she held up the old class of 1986 shirt.

“You know Ish was always nostalgic and weird.” Butta hunched her shoulders.

“Not too much on my daddy, cause where yours?”

“Probably where the rest of Sheena’s baby daddies at… running from their kids,” she snickered. The pain of being fatherless did nothing to Butta anymore. She didn’t have a million questions for her mama because she understood that men could walk out on their children, and no one batted an eyelash, especially if the mama wasn’t shit neither.

Butta’s eyes landed on an old power strip in the corner, half-buried under some random junk. She crawled over and yanked it out, untangling a charger that looked like it might fit. “Try this one.”

Ahvi snatched it up and pushed the block into the wall socket before plugging it into the ancient phone, holding her breath as the screen flickered before the Apple logo appeared. She glanced at her sister, both of them waiting in anticipation. “Damn, no passcode?”

“Ish ain’t never believed in all that,” Butta said, shrugging.

With a deep breath, Ahvi tapped into the phone, fingers moving to the videos first, assuming it’d be something from their father. Maybe an old recording…a message… something sentimental. Instead, the thumbnails that popped up made her pause. It wasn’t her daddy at all.

The first video started playing grainy footage of kids running through a yard, their laughter echoing through the tiny speaker. A boy, maybe sixteen to seventeen, was coaching another boy while he caught a ball.

“Nigga, you watching with your eyes like you ain’t got the skill to throw that shit with your eyes closed. How you gon’ get out The Jig, throwing like that?”

“What the hell…” Ahvi mumbled, confusion knitting her brows.

Butta leaned in closer, eyes squinting before she gasped, slapping Ahvi’s arm. “Oh shit! Do you know who this is?”

Ahvi gave her a look. “Uh, no! Clearly…”

Butta smacked her lips. “That’s Nar’s family! That’s Big Lunar.” She pressed a hand to her chest like she’d just seen a ghost. “Girl, I saw this man,” she pointed at Javen, “on TV a few months ago during his football retirement parade. They did a whole segment on Big Lunar and how he was their everything. That man is the reason they all successful now.”

Ahvi blinked, looking back at the video playing on the screen. The little boy that was laughing and running around…was Javen Cooper? And this phone had old home videos of them? Her mind went into a tizzy.

“Wait, so this…” she trailed off, realization hitting her like a truck.

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