Chapter 10

Bodie finally pulled her into a hug and it felt good having his big body to lean against. He kissed the top of her curly head.

"I know, honey." Pete wasn‘t just his employee he was family. He rubbed his wife‘s back until she looked up at him.

"But where‘s Riley?"

Bodie‘s lips formed a thin line and then he picked up little Maddie and gave her a bear hug and a big kiss before placing her delicately back to her feet. Then he did the same for Myisha.

"You girls go on to my office. I have a pack of bubble gum in the candy drawer. You can have one each."

Two little voices could be heard squealing in delight as they ran to their daddy‘s office.

Bodie turned to his wife. "I fired him."

Shaun‘s eyes widened. "You fired Riley? Bodie, what happened?"

"Nothing happened." Bodie walked to the picnic basket and began digging through it. "I fired him because he‘s a fuc--freaking redneck, wannabe, white supremacist."

Shaun had followed him. "Are you saying that Riley was behind getting Pete deported?"

Bodie had grabbed a paper plate and had a slice of bread on it. He was piling crispy catfish on top of it. "I don‘t know," he replied. "He said he didn‘t." He topped his sandwich with another slice of bread and then took a big bite. He told her the story of what Theresa had told Pete.

Shaun was shaking her head in confusion. "I don‘t understand. You fired him but you‘re not sure if he had anything to do with what‘s happening to Pete?"

The girls came running out of the office smelling like cherry bubble gum.

"Daddy can you play with us for a while?" Myisha asked.

He bent down until he was eye level with them both and then he began to tickle them.

"Bodie." Shaun was staring at him with her hands on her hips.

"We‘re going to have to talk about this when I get home."

She sighed but he was right. There was no talking while the girls were getting their much-needed Daddy attention time. But surely Bodie wouldn‘t have fired Riley over who he associated with. He was the cousin of one of the most ornery hillbillies on the mountain. But Riley wasn‘t a hillbilly. She wasn‘t as close to him as she had been with Pete because Riley rarely let down his shields but Shaun was a good judge of character and she thought that he was good people.

She looked into the picnic basket. "Well I made all this fish-"

"And I‘ll eat every bite of it," he replied.

"Well…I‘m taking the hush puppies home. I can freeze those." Although her plan was to actually cover them with mustard and eat them with a jar of spicy chow chow relish—but Bodie didn‘t need to know all that. She gave him a meaningful look. "We‘ll talk when you get home. Come on girls, it‘s time for us to go so that daddy can eat his lunch while it‘s still hot."

"Oh man," Myisha whined.

"Oh man," Maddie mimicked.

Bodie gave them a final kiss and tickle. "See you girls at home. I‘ll tuck you in tonight." He stood and kissed his wife. "We‘ll talk more later. But I‘ve decided that I don‘t want people like Riley around me or my family."

"People like Riley?" she asked with a raised brow.

"People who don‘t take a stand. People who are fine with just allowing injustice."

"You‘re talking about white privilege?" She asked in sudden understanding. Her brow gathered and she shook her head slightly. "We‘ll talk about this later." She gestured for her girls. "Come on girls. Time to go. Say bye to Daddy."

Bodie walked them to her car and got them strapped in to their seats, which made Shaun and her baby bump very happy.

"Don‘t worry," Bodie said while giving her another hug. "It‘s going to be alright."

How is that possible? Shaun wondered. It wasn‘t going to be right for Pete and Theresa and Riley was out of a job so it wasn‘t right for him. And Bodie was now going to be over his ears in work. How was any of this going to be all right?

"I think you should call Riley and give him his job back." Shaun said while standing over Bodie who was kicked back on the couch in just his boxer briefs. He had arrived home just in time to tuck the girls in and he was tired as shit. He had just gotten out of the shower and was not in the mood for this conversation when all he wanted to do was go to bed.

"You‘re the person that I thought would understand my decision the most." He said.

"Because I‘m black?" She smirked. "I live in a southern town in Kentucky. I‘m still surprised when I meet white people that aren‘t out right racist. I‘ve lived my life assuming most white people are at least a smidgen racist." She shrugged. "So I‘m not surprised when some white B-list personality is caught using the N-word. Or some redneck city‘s police chief has a history of arresting more blacks over whites. I am not surprised by this country‘s level of racism. I‘ll leave that to the white people who have kept their blinders on for too many years."

"That‘s what I‘m talking about, babe." Bodie said. "I walk into Stubby‘s and I hear the same rhetoric about Mexicans and the border, about Jews and Middle Easterners. But the difference is that I don‘t just listen to that shit. I call them on their bullshit. I‘m correcting their mistakes when they say something stupid. Fuck, it ain‘t easy! I‘m not a part of ‘them‘ anymore. I‘m just Bodie that married the black girl and became a liberal. I am not a liberal. I am as conservative as I‘ve always been but I also can see bullshit and call it bullshit."