"REALLY???"

"Dad-eeeeee, I gotta pee!'

Dewayne's little sister, Tee, had slept for a good portion of the first leg of the trip. Now that she was awake, the dynamics inside the vehicle were in for some definite changes.

After a couple of seconds, "You hear me?"

Even though he loved his little sister, sometimes, Dee was way too easily bothered by, as he referred to it, her "spoiledness."

"Why does she always have to hold onto the word daddy so long when she calls you? Doesn't that get on your nerves? It sure gets on mine."

"Get off your little sister, Dee. I hear you, Lil Bit. The next exit we see with a gas station, I'll pull over. I'm going to need you to remind me, though. Cool?"

"Cool, Daddy!"

Acknowledging Tee's persistent and somewhat nagging nature to get what she wanted at any particular time, Dianne chimed in, "Now, Camp, you KNOW you're going to hear that child of yours say bathroom a million times before we, actually, get to one. Do you really need to ask her to remind you?"

Big Camp chuckled.

"Helloooo! I am right here, Mother! While you're talking about me, I CAN hear you. Although, for a while the other day, I didn't think I would be able to hear anything. As loud as Dee had that music playing when I took him his baseball glove in his room, it's a miracle I can hear at all."

Even though everyone in the car knew trouble was a breath away, for a brief moment, no one gave attention to Tee's sneaky way of ratting her brother out."

"See! You're always dry snitching on somebody. And y'all wander why I don't mess with her. She's always doing stuff like that. Man, you irk my nerves to the fullest."

"Ain't nobody dry snitching on you, LITTLE BOY!"

Since before Dewayne hit his growth spurt, and at that time, he was embarrassingly short for his age, LITTLE BOY was one of Tee's tactics that was guaranteed to get on his nerves and get a response out of him. And the emphasis she put on it stoked the fire she lit within him every time she referred to him as such.

"You just did! And I told you to stop calling me that."

"Stop calling you what? LITTLE BOY?"

"Grrrr!"

Although he would never allow it to show, Big Camp always found humor in the back and forth between his children. He, also, viewed it as a necessary part of them growing into the type of people he wanted them to be. He didn't want them to ever be afraid to speak up for themselves. He, especially, took pride in how Tee would utilize her wit to stand up for herself against her much older brother. As he believed and had stated several times, "A Black woman who refuses to intelligently stand up for herself is bound to get knocked down."

After having stared at him the entire time their children were arguing, Di leaned over and whispered in her husband's ear, "You can keep a straight face all you want. I know you, though. I know you're laughing on the inside every time they go at each other. Annndd, it is a little funny."

Almost failing to hold in his laughter, Camp interrupted their banter, "All right, you two! That's enough! Is it time for Hug a Thug hour?"

Hug a Thug hour was a punishment in which Dee and Tee would have to endure for allowing their argument to go on too long, become too intense or to hit below the belt by bringing up topics from their sibling's past which were deemed too sensitive. The two rarely had to suffer through the whole hour, though. The hug in the title came from the fact while the punishment was taking place, the two, literally, had one of their arms around their sibling. More often than not, Big Camp would put one of his t-shirts over the two to symbolize more of a togetherness. The thug came from Big Camp believing thugs are formed by not being taught to respect the boundaries of society.

Dewayne hated Hug a Thug hour with a passion.

"Nah Pops! I'm good!"

He spoke up really quick this time because he knew if they stopped at a gas station, his dad would make them hug each other as they got out of the car, as they walked to and inside the store and back out to the car. The only time they wouldn't be hugging their sibling thug would be when they went to the bathroom. Dee thought people would look at him as some kind of perverse pedophile as he walked around hugging a girl so much younger than him. In his mind, no one would think for a moment that the little girl may be his younger sister.

Tee, on the other hand, sometimes, liked Hug a Thug hour. It gave her time to be with her big brother, whom she secretly admired. Whilst she would never tell him, she had looked at him as her own personal super-hero ever since he stood up for her when an older boy from the other side of town tried to steal her bicycle by pushing her off of it, picking it up and running with it. As she remembered it and painted the picture for their parents once they got home after the incident, "I didn't even know Dee was anywhere around. Then, all of a sudden, he came out so fast. It's like he hit that boy with a Black Panther move or something. He had to let the bike go. If he didn't, he would've slammed into a tree."

Being a little sister to an older brother, she, also, liked the punishment because he hated it and she knew how much it aggravated him.

"Mr. Dewayne! Don't try to flim-flam me with your first grade psychological diversion tactics."

"What you talkin' about, Pops?"

"Don't think I forgot about you bumping your music while your mom and I were gone to the grocery store. What's the loudest you're allowed to have your music turned up to?"

"No louder than twenty-three on the dial."

"How loud was it that day?"

"I just had it on thirty, Pops."

Being all the way in nuisance mode, Tee jumped in, "Nope! Since I knew you had told him to leave it on twenty-three, and since it was hurting my ears so bad, I looked at it. He had it all the way up to fifty, Daddy."

"Thank you for the ABC, All About the Campers, news coverage, Tee. Right now, I need you to butt out."

"Yes, Sir."

"Back to you, MR. DEWAYNE. And I use Mr. because you must be a grown man now. I mean, since you're making your own rules when your mom and I aren't home."

"It ain't like that, Pops."

"It AIN'T?"

"Sorry. It's not like that, Pops."

"Well, explain to me what it is like that gives you the balls to disregard MY rules in MY house."

"Oooohh! Daddy said balls!"

"Hush, Tee!"

"Yes, Sir."

"Calm down, Camp."

"I'm not calmed up, Di! But, for the sake of us attempting to get through this trip with minimal negativity, we will revisit this at some other time, MR. DEWAYNE!"

"Yes, Sir."

While Camp attempted to not allow the most recent conversation to bring the family's enjoyment of each other and the trip to a temporary termination, just as always, when he reprimanded one of the children, a thundering silence came over the vehicle.

Unlike always, when Camp and Di brought it upon themselves to end the rough tranquility, Tee's urgency to urinate broke the silence.

"Whoo! It's about time. Did you see that exit sign, Daddy?

"Yes, Baby! I saw it."

"Whoever puts gas stations on these exits, need to look at how far they have 'em spaced out. Somebody could pee and drown themselves and everybody else in the car before they get to one."

"You just woke up twenty minutes ago, Tee. I doubt, very seriously, that you're in any danger of drowning us in the car."

"But, Mother, you know we girls can't hold it as long as they can. I bet it was a man who put the exits with the restrooms so far apart."

As Camp pulled off the exit in route to the gas station, everyone else in the car started freshening up. Dianne put her make-up on and helped Tee comb her hair. Dee, as most teenage boys with waves do, brushed his hair to make sure they were all laying just right.

"Is the 360 hitting, Pops?"

"You got 'em waving like the surf in Hawaii."

"As your little sister, I think I need to tell you that you brush your hair more than a girl. And what is a 630 anyway?"

"It's called a 360, Ms. Know It All. That's when you have waves going all around your head. Just like mine do."

Being a fairly handsome young man, Dewayne was meticulous when it came to keeping his looks together. He made sure his clothes and shoes were always clean. Whenever possible, he made a point to brush his teeth three times a day. It was very seldom he didn't brush them, at least, twice in any given day. And you would never catch him without the waves in his hair falling just right. Of course, this was done just in case he ran into a girl who caught his attention.

Walking into the store, Big Camp gave everyone their instructions, "Tee, go with your mother. I don't want you going into the restroom by yourself. I'm still now trusting these new rules about who can go into which restroom."

"DUH! You don't have to tell me to keep up with your daughter, Dear Heart. I've been doing this all of her life."

"Dee, you're old enough to go by yourself. That is unless you sca-ed. And if you sca-ed, then say-ed."

"You know I can handle mine, Pops."

"Everybody get what you want and bring it up to the counter. This first stop is on me."

"Uh-oh! Daddy big-ballin'!"

"You know how I do, Lil Bit!"

After everyone had utilized the facilities and Big Camp had paid for all of the snacks, Dewayne got his bag of Cheetos and the 20 oz Sprite he had put on the counter.

As he moved ahead of the rest of the family on his way outside, right when he reached the door, he was approached by a tall muscular White man.

"Hey, BOY! Did you pay for those items?"

Dee stopped, spun around and began to turn his head from one side to the other as if he was looking for the obvious "someone else" he figured the man must have been talking to.

Looking up and in the man's eyes as he had been taught to do by his father, Dewayne asked, "Are you talking to me?"

"Yes, I am. Did you pay for those items?"

"No! He didn't! I did!"

It was Big Camp, of course, coming to the rescue.

"And for some strange reason, his mom convinced me to name him Dewayne and not BOY."

"That's not how I meant it, Sir. You and your family have a nice day."

"We will do just that, despite your attempt at intimidating my son. But, I, also need you to know I will be speaking to your corporate office. I would ask to speak to your manager. But, I have come to learn situations like this aren't isolated incidents. Meaning if they occur once, they have occurred and, if given the opportunity, will occur several more times. That lends me to believe the manager knows about prior incidents like this one and has chosen to ignore them. So please inform your manager of my intentions.

After the family got to the vehicle, it was clear the encounter had them all feeling some type of way. Camp was visibly upset with the way the man approached and addressed Dee. Di, as she always was, was concerned about her husband's blood pressure with him being so upset with everything that had just transpired. Tee was a little scared about the whole predicament. While Dee, in contrast, was feeling good from one aspect and worried on the other. He felt good because he knew Big Camp would always be there for the family. While he wasn't considered a physically big man, Dewayne knew his dad's demeanor commanded respect. His dad had taught him there was a difference in demanding respect and commanding respect. He had heard him say on multiple occasions, "To demand respect comes from more of a verbal nature. To command respect comes from the way others view you and the way you carry yourself.

Dewayne, also, felt some type of way about the situation with the man in the store because it made him think about one of the things he had been told by his friends, "The police and the courts make money by framing Black boys and sending them to prison for life." The man in the store appeared to be a policeman, possibly, working off-duty. He thought, "What if Big Camp wasn't the strong Black father he is?" "What if the man really could've framed him for stealing those snacks?" "Would he have ended up doing jail or prison time for them?" And the scariest thought he had was, "What if he had been killed over some Cheetos and a Sprite?"