The Sarifs

[thesarifs]

1 | My Brother's Keeper

“There’s my handsome!” Rayne squealed and wrapped her arms around her little brother Amir. The dude was twice her size now, but even though she had to stand back and tilt her head up to look into his eyes, she still saw the skinny little kid she made cry all the time.

“My cutie-cute!” He replied squeezing her head against his chest.

“Man, Mama was so sad, she thinks you’re not coming.”

They climbed into her raggedy old Honda Civic, the only reason that car was still working was because their Uncle Clive was one of those mechanics who used magic to fix cars.

“I can’t believe Tim kept his mouth shut.” Amir laughed.

Rayne narrowed my eyes at him, “Your ass gonna behave or will I have to punch you in the eye?”

“Damn, your mood changes fast don’t it?”

Amir knew just what she was talking about, and it pissed her off that he had the nerve to act all innocent. Her brother was like those Sour Patch Kid candies, but with a dick that he weaponized. Amir was sweet, sweetest guy she knew in fact and she wasn’t just saying that because he was her brother. He was a teddy bear! All the boy ever wanted was for literally anyone to cuddle him. He was also a vindictive whore, who would hit you where it hurt if you pissed him off. That mofo was calculating! He has caused drama within her friend group, because he was mad at her. How? By targeting the two most vulnerable friends, flirting with one, sleeping with the other and ‘accidentally’ letting them find out. Chaos! Crazy thing is, the girls would forgive him but not each other. In one fell swoop the friend group was disbanded.

Now, it was Christmas. The house would be filled with Ahsan’s hundreds of siblings and their thousands of children. They would be inviting their friends who would probably bring their children. Rayne’s friends were stopping by later too, and they had already been thirsting over Amir’s IG pictures. All that was well and good, but they were throwing alcohol in the mix. Rayne love her brother with her whole heart, but the kid was annoying and she knew we’re going to have at least one argument before the day was out.

“You try that shit again and I’ll chop your dick off.” She warned him.

“Ooo, scary.” He said dryly.

Amir was weird. She always thought her daddy looked like his mother, but Amir was the spitting image of their Grandpa Armand. He had been short and skinny most of his life, he hit fourteen and suddenly he just shot up, and for a while he was just big old hands and feet and bobblehead. They come from a military family, Grandpa Armand was a marine, their father Ahsan is a marine and Julie Ann all but fainted away when Amir talked about enlisting. He finessed her though. He finessed her good. He joined the Coast Guard and she never found out about it until she received an invitation to his graduation. Ahsan was amused but Rayne was sure she would have one less sibling the second Julie Ann caught Amir alone.

Okay, maybe he hovers over the water from a rope ladder most of the time, but he’s one of those dudes that they send into the worst areas during and after storms or who’s responsible for diving up the cocaine after traffickers try to toss the evidence. He’d always been a strong swimmer and Ahsan always handled him kind of rough. Somehow, during training Amir filled up and bulked out, and must have left his morals in a locker room.

Rayne could no longer beat my brother like she used to when he was smaller than her and she hated it. Amir needed to have his ass beat, often!

“So, are we going out tonight?” Rayne asked him.

“Oh…you’re crazy crazy.” He laughed at how she was back to being calm. “Yes. I’ve got two weeks off.”

“We’re doing all of the drugs then?” They shared a laugh. He was her lil homie. Her party buddy. “Man, I’m so glad I’m not stuck with prissy Nia.” She clapped my hands. “Zion’s coming too, it’s about to be lit! Oh shit!”

The car swerved, but Amir grabbed the wheel and steadied it, she rested her hands on the wheel, feeling her heart hammer in my chest.

“I’ve got two weeks off and you’re gonna kill me before I can even get my vacation started?”

“There was some ice there.”

“Stop lying!”

The siblings chatted about a lot of things on the ride home. There was so much to catch up on. What their mutual friends were up to, Amir’s job, that fine ass friend of his she trying to snatch from his wife, that foine ass co-worker he’s got with the muscles and the smile, him beating Rayne’s ass for hitting her and her taking the heat so he wouldn’t lose his job.

“Rayne dropped the charges.” She said.

Amir snorted, he hated Rayne. “You gon’ go back to him now?”

“No, are you crazy?”

He gave his sister a look out the corner of his eyes and for a moment she thought he knew she was texting that nigga again. Boy-Rayne and his sister Rayne have been off and on since she was eighteen, she had this crazy, primal love for the dude.

“Ray-Ray, all I’m saying is you’re hot. You can do better.”

“Why are you accusing me though?” Rayne snapped.

“I’m accusing you? Oh, my bad sis.”

A tense silence settled between them. Amir definitely knew something. She knew her brother wouldn’t say anything to their parents, unlike Nia, that ho just liked to make her look bad. Rayne had been on a couple of dates since she moved in with their parents; she’d had some one night stands too, but nobody made her feel the way Rayne did. She was starting to worry that maybe he knocked a few screws loose and she was no longer capable of loving anyone but him.

“Since we’re talking about love lives, what about yours. What happened to that girl…um…I wanna say Susanna?”

“Soleil?” He shrugged.

“You whore.” I muttered.

“I’m not a whore, I just get bored quick.”

“My dude, one of these days a woman is going to come out of nowhere and sweep you off your feet. I feel you though, if she don’t match your goofy, don’t wife her.” Amir knew how to treat a woman, as he should, dude had two sisters and was raised by gentlemen.

Rayne felt a sudden pang in her chest, this was their first Christmas without Grandpa Louie. Julie Ann had spent the week trying to get Gran’Mere Michelle to come up to West Virginia, but she decided to go to Julie Ann’s sister Louise in Georgia instead.

“I used to think that couldn’t nobody give you the game.” Louie said to Rayne when somebody with a big ass mouth let it slip that Rayne put his hands on me. Grandpa Armand may have had looks on his side but Grandpa Louie was smooth as butter. That man could charm the birds from the trees, and he tried it but Gran’Mere snapped him back real quick. The disappointment in her grandpa’s eyes nearly killed her! It was not enough to make her leave Rayne though.

Rayne knew how a man should treat a woman; the Sarif and Boudreaux men treated their women right. Compliments, gifts for every occasion and just because, doors being opened, chairs being pulled out. All that was why Amir was so good at getting and keeping women. That wicked, twisted part of Rayne wished a woman would break his heart, he needed to be humbled.

Her mind went back to that day, about a month ago. Maybe she antagonized him, she did give herself permissions in his phone after all. Rayne knew the man was cheating on her, it would not be the first time. She didn’t go into his phone looking to get herself hurt; she went in giving him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she was overreacting. Nope!

It was two o’clock in the morning and Rayne was up, smacking her boyfriend in the face with her laptop that had previously been on nightstand. She is all of five-two, one hundred and twenty pounds, so when he jumped up angry and swung, she fell backward off the bed and he pinned her. Rayne may have been big, but her brother was bigger and strong. She had just gotten her nails done, stilettos, when she brought her claws across his face, two broke off, one dangerously close to his eye and the other one caught in his lip. In the five seconds he was up, she wiggled free, sent both of her feet into his stomach, snatched up her cell phone and locked myself in the bathroom.

Amir was on the way home from work, and in what felt like two seconds he banging on the front door, when nobody answered he busted one of the living room windows with a crowbar and wiggled in. No questions were asked, she heard Rayne shriek and when she opened the bathroom door Amir had him pinned much like he’d had her a few minutes before. Rayne rarely saw her brother angry, but something inside her knew that had she not gotten Amir in a headlock, boy-Rayne would be dead and Amir would be in prison. She didn’t know what they taught the Coast Guard guys, but they had to know a thing or two if they were dealing with drug lords, pirates and human traffickers right? Not to mention the Sarif kids all went to boot camp growing up.

Needless to say, when the cops arrived she said that she had beaten her boyfriend up in self-defense, Rayne knew better than to open his mouth and say otherwise. Regardless, the cops cuffed her and took her downtown. When Amir got the real story, Rayne thought she was about to get her ass beat again.

“Your ticket is booked, Nia is gonna take you to the airport.” Was what he said instead. Her Honey Bunches of Oats always had her back!

Christmas went off without a hitch, Amir was on his best behavior and her girls kept their hands to themselves. At five the next morning, Amir, Zion, Tim and Rayne were just stumbling into the house. They didn’t even go to a bar, they just hopped around some family and friends’ parties. Everyone clambered into the downstairs bedroom that her parents had decided would be the guest room—it just so happens Rayne became a permanent guest.

They were woken up in the afternoon by TJ throwing a tantrum. TJ was spoiled rotten, and Rayne thought had it been one of them kicking and screaming, Ahsan would have whooped their ass. She was about ready to beat TJ down until Amir sat up and snapped at him. Tim seemed a little peeved but he said nothing, just picked up his child and left the room.

“You beat that lil boy’s ass don’t you.” Rayne asked laughing.

“Nah. He just knows I don’t play that shit.” Amir picked a rogue eyelash strip off Zion’s face and she snatched it out of his hand.

“Is the next one still there?”

“No,” Rayne answered cracking up. “I think you left that one in the club.”

The strange thing about the two of them was, they didn’t get hangovers. Tim had to crash out the rest of the day, much to Nia’s irritation. Zion left to go to her dad’s place and Nia, Rayne and Amir were tasked with cleaning up the house and backyard. “Who was even out there?” She whined, “It was like…negative one hundred degrees yesterday.”

Ahsan glowered at her, “Y’all drunk people.”

“Oh…”

Amir was supposed to be cleaning the kitchen, but he came out with an obnoxiously large turkey sandwich, begrudgingly, he gave a half to Ahsan and the two watched a rerun of the basketball game. Rayne was sure they watched it live the day before. Men and their sports!

She left the men to their game and found her mother in the cubby that Julie Ann had turned into an office. “What’s up?” She asked her. Julie Ann played it off well, but they all knew something was up. She wasn’t a talkative person, but she was still unusually quiet. Not to mention her baby boy was home and she didn’t cuddle him once!

“What do you mean?”

Rayne sat on a beanbag chair that she accidentally ordered one drunk night. “You know what I mean.”

Julie Ann shrugged, “I’m just tired.”

“You mean tired tired or Grandpa tired?” Grandpa Louie had said he was tired too, and a few months later he was dead from cancer. Rayne was still traumatized.

“Tired tired. You think that party put itself together?”

Rayne gave her a long look but decided not to press the issue. “Alright then, I’ve got work tonight so I’m heading back to bed.” She kissed her mother on the cheek and left.

She didn’t even give the strange interaction a second thought until Nia called a few months later.

Zion was into some weird shit, but she made bank so Rayne usually hit her up for a soft loan that she never asked her to pay back. Rayne needed to get her nails and hair did and needed some new clothes for work. It was a good ass day too! Zion had Venmoed her the money the night before, so she got up early to go shop, then she would get her nails done and spend the rest of the day at Shontel’s while she hooked her up with a custom lace-front.

Rayne went to the nice nail shop, the one where you sat in a massage chair and got free champagne while a girl worked on your feet, and she was in the middle of all that when her phone rang. She ignored it, that bubbly was hitting! It rang again and she declined the call again. On the third ring Rayne answered and was about to shout at her sister, but Nia was already screaming into the phone. Rayne couldn’t understand what she was saying, and for a moment she thought that she would have to catch a flight to kill Tim for hurting her. She could hear him talking to Nia in the background and his tone sounded too rough for Rayne’s liking.

“Hello?” He finally said.

“Hello? Man, what the fuck is going on? What did you do to my sister?”

He sighed, “She got a call from the Coast Guard.”

Later, she would be unsure if she heard what he said next, or if she just reacted to just knowing that something bad had happened to her brother from Tim’s first sentence. Rayne remembered dropping the damn champagne flute and stumbling out the spa chair, leaving puddles all through the people’s shop. She didn’t even realize she left my slippers there until she needed them a few weeks later.

Nothing but her grandmothers’ prayers got her home in one piece. Rayne was numb.

How do you process someone going to work and then just...

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[thesarifs]

Prologue

Julie Ann Sarif sat in the chilly examination room, one bare foot dangled above the freezing tiles, the other sat flat on the pullout stand. She wore one of the ugly paper dresses but she felt naked. Dr. Morgan had excused himself to take a call, but before she left, she had told Julie Ann that her blood pressure was high and had kindly asked why. This was why Julie Ann felt naked; always a private person, sixty seconds with a cuff around her upper arm had revealed that Julie Ann had had one hell of a year!

As she watched her dangling foot bounce, she realized she did not have to say anything at all. Dr. Morgan was her doctor, not her therapist or her friend, but Julie Ann was so desperate to unload everything on somebody anybody. Maybe that was why when the doctor returned a simple, “Now where were we?” Turned into an hour in that room that stank of disinfectants, with tears running down her face and the other woman hugging her awkwardly.

When Julie Ann left, she felt a lot better, but that did not stop Dr. Morgan from giving her a prescription for a half-dose of blood pressure medicine. Julie Ann was fifty-one years old and had never had blood pressure issues; then again, she had had one hell of a year!

Christmas was the prologue to the Hell Year.

“Nah, this doesn’t feel right.” Julie Ann had said to her husband Ahsan that morning.

“What?” He asked, she covered his mouth with her hand when she saw his lips begin to form the words you worry too much. He was right, Julie Ann always worried, but there was always a reason to worry. Ahsan was in the military, as soon as she got comfortable they would have to move, Julie Ann felt like they had dragged their poor children all over the damn world and back again. They had been in Florida for a long while, Julie Ann had started to get comfortable, she had started working at a bank again and could feel the promotion to manager coming when Ahsan walked into the kitchen and announced that he would be moving back to West Virginia. For a brief second Julie Ann had considered beating her husband to death with a skillet. He had promised that this would be his last assignment.

“I want to retire at home, Ma and Pops are old, I want to be near them.”

Once again her eyes fell on the skillet, maybe she wouldn’t kill him but bringing the pan upside his head would make her feel a hell of a lot better. “You want to move me from sunny Florida, to Wasteland Virginia int the middle of Winter? On top of all that you want me to be with crazy Miya?”

“Come on JuJu.”

“Don’t you JuJu me you son of a bitch!” She snapped and stormed past him, skillet still in hand. Ahsan was six feet, six inches and nearly three hundred pounds of pure muscle, she would have to jump to reach his bald ass head and he would easily avoid the blow.

“JuJu…”

“No Ahsan, you said this would be your last assignment. You said once the kids were grown you’d retire and we could finally start taking those vacations. You said Florida was cool, especially after Daddy died, you know how I feel about Momma being by herself. You always promise me things.” She gasped, “You’re selfish!”

“I am not selfish.”

“Yes, yes you are.” She rounded on him, “Stop following me.”

Ahsan took two steps back, hands up, eyes on the skillet. He had tried her once or twice before.

“It’s not the middle of Winter.” He muttered weakly.

Julie Ann flung the skillet at him, and he had the nerve to catch it! She spun on her heels and stomped upstairs, “Mind your damn business.” She shouted at their eldest, Nia on her way to their bedroom.

Her children and their alliance with their father was another source of irritation. Ahsan could do no wrong in their eyes.

Julie Ann sat on the bed and pouted. It would be nearly a week before she would speak to Ahsan again, and another week before he was allowed back inside their bedroom. He had spent time in the living room and in the nursery with their grandson. Julie Ann had told him to go to West Virginia by his damn self, yet when the time finally came for him to leave, she followed.

Looking back, Julie Ann had to admit that things were not as bad as she thought they would be, in fact, they were not even close to the way she imagined it. Ahsan did not have to live on base, and they got the gorgeous three-bedroom home in Magnolia Park, with the stuck-up neighbors and the pool in the back.

“Oh, your boyfriend’s here.” Julie Ann had said when they were moving in and Silas Johnson swung into their driveway. “Is he why we moved back here?”

“Stop.” Ahsan grumped and kissed the top of her head. The pair had been childhood best friends and Julie Ann hated Silas since the day she met him. There was something about him, he was cocky and every time Ahsan got into serious trouble, Silas was right there by his side. Not to mention Silas was a whore!

“Goddamnit, Ahsan.” She huffed when the passenger door opened and Silas’ new wife Grace. climbed out.

“Please be nice.” He begged.

Julie Ann was nice, and to her surprise she found that she actually liked Grace. The woman was the same age as they were but looked so much younger, she was tall and shapely; a dancer’s body! Grace was quick to smile and was an all-around pleasant person. Pity. Julie Ann had hated this woman for years without actually knowing her. When Julie Ann met Ahsan, Silas was already married to his first wife Esther. The two were close friends and most of their children were the same age. Silas’ daughter Sonja was two years older than Nia; his second daughter Amore was two months older than their second daughter Rayne, and their son Amir was two hours older than Silas and Esther’s daughter Zion.

Poor Esther had struggled during her last pregnancy, she had finally found out about Silas’s whoring ways and the stress had drained her. Silas had a daughter who was a few months older than Zion, but by the time the girl was born Silas had already moved on to Grace.

It was through Grace that Julie Ann joined Mamas & Mimosas, a small women’s club for mothers. She made new friends who helped with her transition. Julie Ann also started her home-based craft business and with the help of the Mamas, the business took off online and grew to something lucrative very quickly.

Julie Ann also stressed often about Rayne because of her crazy boyfriend…also named Rayne. She lost sleep over that relationship. “He’s going to kill her,” was what Julie Ann lamented a lot. She knew she was driving Nia crazy always calling and asking if she heard from her sister. On the other hand, “Amir is going to kill him.” He son was as big and buff as his father, it took a lot to make Amir mad, the boy was some kind of saint—but at the same time Amir had a temper and once triggered he became a beast.

“Rayne is grown.” Ahsan would remind her, but she had heard him threaten to kill boy-Rayne on more than one occasion.

That situation resolved itself when one morning, Ahsan opened the door on his way out to work only to find Rayne standing there with a suitcase. “Yeah, I nearly killed Rayne.” She announced and strutted into the house like she owned the place. “What’s for breakfast Ma?”

Ahsan was on her heels, “What happened? Did he hurt you?”

“That nigga cheated on me—again, and had the nerve to swing on me when I confronted him about it. I defended myself with a rolling pin. Anyways, I’ve got court in January.”

“Your sister and brother already know about this don’t they?” Julie Ann questioned.

“Amir posted my bail and Nia drove me to the airport.”

Julie Ann and Ahsan exchanged a look, their children always screamed that they wished each other was not born but would protect each other feverishly.

Rayne had always been the most daring of their children, so she often found herself in sticky situations. She was also the most hot-headed and provoking so she usually started fights with her siblings. She was closer to Amir than she was to Nia, although the pair were always at each other’s throats. Nia was the most stable of the children, she married her high school sweetheart Timothy and the pair had a son, TJ, together. Amir was a chaotic neutral, he was the most affectionate and shared a close relationship the entire family. He was the one who convinced Julie Ann to move with Ahsan. “I’m in this weird traditional phase with work, so I still have to go up to Louisiana all the time. I’ll keep an eye on Gran’Mere for you Honey.” Amir never called Julie Ann Mommy, or Ma, or Momma because Ahsan always called her honey, so somehow, he thought that is what he was supposed to call her.

Nia, Tim and TJ came up the week before Christmas, Amir was not sure if he would be able to make it since the Coast Guard had finally transferred him fully to Florida and people tended to be idiots during the holidays. When the front door flew open and Rayne strode in from her shift at the bar Christmas morning with her brother behind her, rather than feeling excitement, Julie Ann’s feeling of dread grew worse.

“Something’s going to happen to my baby.” Julie Ann told Ahsan when she caught him away from the children.

“Is this about the psychic thing?”

“You know my feelings are never wrong.” Ahsan did not believe in—as he puts it—mumbo-jumbo, but he had to admit that these strange inklings Julie Ann got were never wrong. She knew something was going to happen to his older brother, and not long after he ODed. She knew Nia was going to have a baby and a year to the day she told her, TJ was born.

“Let’s not focus on that. Let’s just try to enjoy the day with our family and friends, okay?”

“Yeah…”

All in all, it was a good day. Two year old TJ was his usual, dramatic self being the center of attention. He wanted to go swim in the pool since he did not understand that water froze in the Winter. He was usually attached to Tim or Amir’s legs and would rather play dominos with his Papa and the men than with the mountain of toy he received as gifts. There was an awkward moment when Esther passed by for some food and met Grace and the Mamas at the house. “We’ll get brunch on the weekend, okay?” Julie Ann said as a way of apology.

Silas disappeared for about an hour and the girls grilled Grace on where their father could have gone but she just smiled.

“Oh shit, that boy done brought his girl here?” Ahsan’s father Armand said.

Amir laughed, “Come on Pops, you remember Zion.”

Armand’s eyes bugged out of his head, “That’s Lil ZiZi? Got damn!”

“Stop.” Ahsan slapped his father on the arm and tried to swallow his laugh. The other girls swarmed their sister, there was a lot of giggling and squealing.

“Look at that fool.” Amir grumbled when Rayne pushed her way through the Johnson girls. When they were little and Rayne was mad at Amir, she always told him that she wished Zion was her sister instead of Amir being her brother and he would cry every single time.

Ahsan chuckled, “It’s so good to have my family all together in one place.”

Julie Ann felt his eyes on her.

Two days after Valentine’s Day, Ahsan came home early from work looking terrible and Julie Ann wondered if he was sick. He made her sit on the couch and took a seat beside her. “We’re going to Florida. Tim called. Something happened…with Amir…”

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