“About?”
“Tomorrow! The dance studio officially opens, and you’ll have little girls running all over here in adorable pink and black dance outfits!”
I leaned back in my chair and chuckled. “Why, Aunt Vi, are you going soft on me?”
“Just because I never had kids doesn’t mean I don’t like them. After all, I used to like y’all when you were little.” She looked up in thought. “Although, I was forced into having to like you because you were my brother’s kids, so there is always that.”
Rolling my eyes, I pointed to the basket. “Did you bring lunch?”
She glanced at the basket and laughed. “Hell no. Do you think I’m that domesticated?”
“What did you bring then?”
“Booze.”
“Why?”
With a loud thump, she set the basket on my desk. “Because we’re going to get drunk and dance around your studio naked. Now we’re just waiting on Joyce and Carol and a couple others to join in.”
I nearly choked. “Come again?”
“We need to baptize this place with some good juju.”
“Good juju? And getting drunk and dancing around the studio naked with your friends will do that?”
She stared like I was asking a stupid question. “Yes. It’s been proven time and time again. When Joyce was about to marry her husband, we got ourselves a few cheap bottles of wine and drank them around her daddy’s fire pit and chanted that we needed good juju for the marriage. That night we snuck into the reception hall of the church and danced naked. It worked. She’s been married almost forty years.”
Standing, I looked around. “Where’s Sandra Bullock? I feel like this is Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood! You’re shitting me, right?”
Again, she stared like I was the one who was acting insane. “I don’t know what in the hell you’re talking about, Waylynn Parker. Asking for good juju is not a joking matter.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re serious, Aunt Vi?”
She lifted her chin. “Of course I am.”
“You and your friends dance around naked?”
“Not always, Waylynn. Only when we need to.”
“Are you like sisters of the ya-ya hood or something?”
“For fuck’s sake, child, what in the hell are you talking about?”
I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing. “Aunt Vi, you’ve never seen that movie with Sandra Bullock and all the older women who had a secret ya-ya sisterhood?”
“I said juju, you nit, not ya-ya. I don’t know what in the hell a ya-ya sisterhood is.”
“You know, y’all cut your hands and press them together and swear to protect each other over a fire out in the woods.”
“Holy fuck, Waylynn, what kind of weird shit do you and your friends do?”
“I didn’t say I did it! In the movie they did it and the friends were always there for one another.”
She stared with a blank expression. Why do I get the feeling Aunt Vi, Joyce, and Carol somewhere along the way pricked their fingers and said some sort of vow?
Forcing myself not to laugh, I waved it off with my hand “Never mind. We are for sure going to watch that movie, though.”
“This isn’t a movie. This is spreading good vibes so that your dance studio is successful and thriving!”
With a heavy sigh, I ran my hands down my face. “Aunt Vi! Why can’t we just drink a toast and be done with it? Why the dancing around naked?”
“We’ll have sheer robes on. Mother Earth needs to see us in our raw.”
“Because that visual makes me feel so much better.”
“Don’t be bitchy. You aren’t appreciating the sacrifices we are making for your future.”
Paxton, Amelia, and Corina appeared at the door. Amelia walked in and kissed our aunt on the cheek. “You asked, and we’re here.”
I laughed. “Holy shit, y’all agreed to do this? Have you hit your damn heads on a brick wall?”
Paxton sat on the small loveseat. “What do you mean? Aunt Vi said she wanted to celebrate the dance studio opening tomorrow.”
I stood. “By getting drunk with her friends Joyce and Carol.”
“Oh, I love Joyce!” Amelia piped. “She is a hoot!”
Aunt Vi smiled big.
Putting my hands on my hips, I continued. “And she wants us to get drunk and dance around the studio to give it good juju.”
“I love this idea!” Corina said.
“Does that mean good vibes?” Paxton asked.
Aunt Vi pointed to Paxton and said, “I knew you were my favorite.”
“I wasn’t finished, there’s an important detail she didn’t mention. She wants us to be naked, wearing nothing but sheer robes so that Mother Earth connects with us.”
“The fuck?” Amelia said with a laugh. “You can’t be serious, Aunt Vi. Is that what you and your friends do at night around the fire pit?”
With a half shrug, Aunt Vi replied. “Maybe. Maybe we’re just getting ready to have an orgy.”
Paxton and Corina lost it laughing.
“Okay, while tweedle dee and tweedle dum laugh on the sofa, I’m being serious. This is insane.”