785

 "When I came out to see what was going on I heard these words from Ari, my stepfather, to Elias, So what's a monkey like you doing in this neighbourhood. I replied, and what is a Greek immigrant like you doing in this neighbourhood, and not bothering to listen for his rebuttal, Elias and I both got in the car and drove off.  Apparently when Ari first saw him he assumed that, being a black man, Elias was up to no good, so he wanted to know where he lived.  He wouldn't believe him when he said he was my fiancé.  This also put the kiss of death to my mother's marriage to Ari.  I called a family conference the following Sunday.  Elias refused to attend, but the showdown got very ugly.  Both my stepbrothers were there, Mike and Demetrius, who both took my side.  After we got through the yelling and screaming and swearing, my mother left the room, and we all sat around scowling quietly.  Mom came back down with her suitcase.  What do you think you are doing. Thelma, said Ari, to which she replied that her daughter was going to have a guest for a while.  Without any further ado, Mom and I went back to my place in her car.  She slept on my couch for three weeks, then when Elias and I got married, the three of us moved together to a two bedroom apartment.  I was surprised that he was okay with it, but for him our arrangements squared with African tradition, plus he and Mom got on quite famously, for two years anyway, until I became pregnant with John, and my African husband began to get very nervous and very ugly surrounded by all this estrogen.  Fortunately he was away a lot...