My name is Harvey. I'm 13 years old but it seems like I've been around a lot longer than that. My momma and I moved to Chicago from Memphis when my Dad left. I was about 7 years old.

I had a lot of fun those days. There were 3 friends that I played with all the time during the summer: Jay, Heavy, and Lil Vic. Every now and then they spent the night at our house while Momma and their mommas worked. It was the 4 of us, so we weren't really scared at night. We just played games and ate junk food until we fell asleep. I really never knew what they did for a living, but there was always food on the table. On her off days, Momma would fry Chicken while her friends and their boyfriends played dominoes in the living room. Because kids and grown-ups didnt mix, we spent our time looking at the bra and panties section in the Sears Roebuck catalog. When someone yelled "Dominoes", we knew to stick the magazine under the mattress because someone would be in to check on us shortly after. We learned to do that after being caught a few times.

[enters Ruby into Harvey's bedroom]

Harvey, you can't just sit in here all night daydreaming. I know you miss yo' momma. [sitting down on the bed] I miss her too. I'm sorry I aint spend as much time with her as wanted to. That's my problem, I say a lot of things but only get around to doing a few of 'em. I swear fo' God that's gone be the death of me. Try to get some sleep baby, ok? Me and yo' Aunties are gonna take care of you.

[continues narrating]

That's my Aunt Ruby. She's gotta be the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life. I've never seen her without red lipstick on. She has this long, Black wavy hair, with a body kinda like the ladies in the Sears catalog...*sigh* There's something about my Aunt Ruby. I dont know what it is, but she's different from the other 3. We all live in the same house, but I see Ruby the least. When I see her though, it makes up for all the time she's away.

My Auntie Velma is the house lady and the momma of the group. She's about 45 years old, 10 years older than Ruby. She sells this drink called Moonshine or Shinny, and probably drinks as much as she sells. All I know is that it smells bad, and guys hang out on the porch all the time because if it. Sometimes, Aunt Ruby takes a couple of those guys upstairs and they dont come back down for hours. One night, I heard one of those guys screaming, and I couldn't help but to giggle because he sounded like my Aunt Nancy whenever she saw a spider.

My Auntie Nannie is special. She goes to Church all the time and takes with her my Auntie Lily-D. I noticed that Auntie Nannie is 8 years younger than Ruby and Lily-D is 8 years younger than my Auntie Nannie. Nannie says the number 8 is special in the Bible. Something about new beginnings. I told her I was too young to understand what that meant, and she said I'm at the age where I'm responsible for knowing about it. I'll figure it out I guess. Lily-D says she hates Church and only goes to get out the house. Something about Velma acting like her momma. My Aunt Lily would rather hang with Aunt Ruby and have men chase 'em around. Since Auntie Velma wont let her have any friends, she had to see people behind closed doors.

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[Scene: the next morning in the kitchen. Ruby is making breakfast. Lily-D enters]

[Lily-D] Girl, you got the whole house lit up. What you cooking?

[Ruby] Hey babygirl, how you - [stares, walks over to Lily-D and starts sniffing her]

[Lily-D leaning back] What?!!!

[Ruby still sniffing] Nothing. Nothing at all. [walks back to stove] How you doing?

[Lily-D] I was ok until you started hound-dogging me. What you do that for?

[Ruby] Does Velma know?

[Lily-D] Does Velma know what?

[Ruby] Nothing, cause you aint tell me nothing. What you want for breakfast?

[Lily D] Nothing, I aint hungry. [stomach growls]

[Ruby] Well, you might not be, but somebody is. Go get Harvey and yall set the table for me would you?

[Lily D] I love you Ruby. God I wanna be just like you so bad. [leaves kitchen]

[Ruby to herself] You're well on your way, girl. You're well on your way.

SCENE