“I hope you outta jail if you reading this the way I asked y’all to read it, but I ain’t heard from you all day and you know damn well it’s my birthday. I know what this mean if I ain’t heard from you. Was you in jail today, Lewis? I hope you ain’t done finally killed somebody driving drunk. I pray that ain’t the case. You been lucky so far. Well, maybe not lucky. But anyway, Lewis, even though you done had problems dealing with your problems these past ten or fifteen years, I still wish I woulda had two more of you cause you got a heart of gold, and you ain’t got no qualms when it come to showing your feelings like a lotta men do. More women should love you, but that ain’t what I wanted to say. I wanted to tell you that I know why you didn’t wanna go to Squirrel and Boogar’s funeral. That it’s been bothering you all these years, but let me tell you something: they probably in hell for what they did. But it’s okay. Folks do terrible things to other folks and then you the one who suffer while they off dead somewhere. That ain’t meant to be no joke, even though I’m chuckling—”

“Excuse me for interrupting, Baby Girl, but what did your cousins do to you, Lewis?”

“We know,” Paris says.

“We’ve known for years,” Janelle says.

“How come y’all never let me know you knew?” Lewis say.

“ ’Cause we didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable or feel any shame or embarrassment about us having this knowledge. Plus, at the time Mama found out, she went straight to Aunt Priscilla and Uncle Julian, but of course they didn’t believe her, so she told the police and they kept an eye on them both until they finally got caught doing more wrong. Karma is Law. So—may I finish?”

“Wait,” Paris says. “There’s nothing for you to be ashamed of, Lewis, and we don’t ever have to mention this again if you don’t want us to.”

“Thanks, sisters. And if you ain’t figured it out by now, Daddy, I’ll tell you later.”

“That won’t be necessary. But I’m here, if you wanna talk to me about it.”

“Okay!” And Janelle start reading again: