So, I could understand how I’d be her sunshine after such a dark period for her. But every time I heard the nickname, I could remember her voice saying it, and it still hurt all of these years later.
“Thanks for having us at such short notice.” I watched as Shanti helped the dog with wheels when it got stuck on something. “I have a feeling you’re not going to see your dog much while Shanti’s here.”
Mi-mi snorted. “If it keeps a smile on that pretty baby’s face, she can take Melba with her when it’s time for y’all to go.”
“I’m not entirely sure Naomi would be down with that plan,” I admitted, then filled her in on my mistake with the fish.
“You know, your dad did the same thing when he was a kid. He was adamant he wanted a fish tank for his birthday, so we got him one and let him choose the fish for it. The next day, there were babies everywhere because every damn one of those fish had been pregnant. Your grandpa was so proud of him for reeling in a large catch, he went out and bought another three tanks.”
I could picture it clearly and burst out laughing. “I did the same when I came to live with you, and I thought you were going to kill me each time I asked for one for my birthday or Christmas. Shanti wants one called a Bi-Orb for her room. I’m scared if we do that and buy more fish, we’ll need another tank, and Naomi will bury me in it.”
Just then, Naomi joined us on the porch with a glass of sweet tea in her hand. Mi-mi made diabetes tea, I swear, so I laughed when she took a mouthful, and her eye twitched.
“Thanks for having us, Mi-mi. I hope we’re not putting you out.”
“Nonsense, honey. Nothing I love more than having my boy home, and if it comes with a beautiful little girl who’s planning how to steal one of my dogs and her aunt who blatantly worships both of them, I’m all in.”
Naomi blushed but smiled brightly in response.
“Just watch out for that tea. I keep it to one glass a year,” I advised her, winking when Mi-mi turned to glare at me.
“I’ll have you know, I drink two pitchers of it a day, and I’m still diabetes free. And my cholesterol is the lowest the doctor’s ever seen.”
“Then you’re a miracle,” I said dryly. “I get the shakes after one glass.”
“That’s because you live in a place where they don’t know how to make it properly,” Mi-mi sniffed, holding her nose in the air. “Could have moved to Alabama or anywhere, but, no, he chose Texas of all places. They couldn’t make real tea if you printed out the instructions in large print.”
Knowing this topic of conversation could degrade further, I decided to change it. “What’s for dinner?”
“Oh, yes, can I help you?” Naomi asked, looking relieved that we weren’t going to be listening to Texas getting shit on.
“No, I put it on this morning. I’m making my momma’s famous jambalaya.”
Naomi’s face went white, and when I say white, I mean a Casper shade of white.
“Um, that sounds…” she swallowed loudly “…delicious.”
“It really is. It can be hard to get the special ingredients she swore by for it, but after a little searching, I found them last night.”
I had to hold back the bellow of laughter building in my chest at Naomi’s expression.
“The trick is to stew the meat for a few hours with the tomatoes, spices, and sausage, so it absorbs the flavors. It makes such a nice base for the rice, too, because it leaks out into the sauce.”
“I can’t wait,” Naomi said weakly but pasted a bright smile on her face just in time for when Mi-mi turned to look at her.
“I’ll have to teach it to you. I’m sure you can get the ingredients where you are, even though it’s Texas.”
“Wh-what were the special ingredients you needed?” The way Naomi asked it was discreet, but she was also glancing nervously at Shanti like she was trying to find a way out of her eating it.
“I think what Naomi’s wondering is if it’s a roadkill jambalaya.”
Naomi glared at me, but Mi-mi’s head snapped around to look at me like I’d grown two heads.
“Now, you know I stopped doing that well before Mr. Aaron died of food poisoning. Rumor has it he had leprosy as well.” Mi-mi faced forward, her attention back on June and Shanti. “Musta had that armadillo. I warned him, but he swore he’d eaten it every week since he was a kid and hadn’t had issues once. Fool.”
Come to find out, the special ingredients were a mixture of chicken, crawfish, and shrimp, and her own blend of spices Mi-mi made and put on everything. It was the spices she wanted to teach Naomi. Apparently, it’d been hard to find everything that went into it growing up. Given that we had the internet now, it’d be easy to order it all and have it delivered within forty-eight hours, by my grandma said it took the flavor out of it doing it that way.