Page 29 of Can I?

“Uncle Ferris!”

I turned to see my niece running toward me. I picked her up and swung her around as she laughed. The minute I stopped and set her on her feet, she frowned at me and put her hands on her hips. “Why weren’t you here to see me get my Easter eggs?”

“Baby, I went somewhere with Cousin Asad. I wanted to attend a rodeo. I’m sorry I missed the hunt. How can I make it up to you?”

“I wanna go to the rodeo!” she said with her hands lifted in the air.

I wanted to roll my eyes. The last place I wanted to find myself at right now was a rodeo. Even if Milana wasn’t there, I knew someone from her family would be there. Instead of voicing all of that, I said, “Okay! Next time I go to one, I will take you. We just have to make sure it’s okay with your mom and dad.”

“Yay! Will I be able to ride the horsey?”

“Naw, Kam. You only get to watch other people ride.”

“Well, that’s no fun. How come I can’t ride?”

“Because they are in a contest. They are trying to win a prize to do a specific thing. Maybe I can take you to Mister Red’s house instead and see if he has a horse you can ride. Would you like that better?”

“Yes! Can we go tomorrow?”

“Don’t you have school tomorrow?”

“Oh.”

“I’ll check with Mister Red to see when we can go.”

“Okay!”

That seemed to be enough for now. She ran off to go play with her brother, and I could hear her talking to him about riding the horse. When I heard my mama chuckle, I turned to her.

“What?”

She slowly shook her head. “You know you gon’ end up with all four of them. She’s going to talk about that all day, then the rest will want to go. Get ready to make a day of it. Maybe that will help keep your mind off why you and Milana aren’t together.”

I twisted my lips to the side. It was bad enough the next game I was supposed to be working on had to go back. They discovered something big that needed to be fixed before I could play it, so they wanted to correct it first. My notes and reports were always super thorough, and that was why I stayed busy. Me grading the game kept them on their toes. When the game was released, I often posted reviews on the overall appeal of the game.

It would benefit them to make sure the game was produced to the best of their abilities before sending it to me. I had a huge following of gamers who were ready for the next game, so they were waiting for my review to say if the game was worth their time. They trusted my opinion, because it aligned with what they expected from a game.

“You taking Kam to ride horses and not taking Kohl, Kiley, and Loren?”

My mama laughed as I rolled my eyes. I turned to my brother as he held Loren in his arms. I glanced down to see Kohl and my sister’s daughter, Kiley, right next to him. Loren was only two; Kohl and Kiley were four.Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

“I’ll take all of them, Kyle. Why you tryna paint me out to be the bad guy?”

He chuckled as the kids hopped up and down with excitement. When they ran back to the other room to play, I said, “Now you got me having to babysit Angelica, Phil and Lil, and Kimi.”

He laughed at myRugratsreference. When they were all together, that was exactly what they were like. Kam was Angelica. She was the boss and had to tell all the “babies” what to do since she was the oldest. Kohl and Kiley were Phil and Lil. Although they weren’t twins, they were the same age and looked a lot alike. People always thought they were twins instead of first cousins.

Loren was Kimi simply because she was the only girl left other than Susie. She was too young to be Susie. Her personality was more like Baby Dill, but I couldn’t call her a boy. She was whiny when she couldn’t get her way and meddled with everything. My hands would be full. There was no way I would be able to think about Milana while watching them.

“You tryna call our babiesRugrats?” he asked with an amused grin on his face.

“I’m not trying, bruh. Iamcalling them rug rats. They bad when they all together. You don’t even watch all four of them alone, and three of them are your kids!”

He laughed. “Well, I guess you better get your mind right, nigga.”

My mama laughed loudly as my dad joined us. “What’s so funny?” he asked.

“Ferris gets to take all his nieces and nephew to ride horses on a day of his choosing. He’s so excited about it,” my mama said sarcastically. “He’s trying to keep his mind off the young lady he’s falling for.”

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