Saved and SAINTified by Tiana Laveen Page B

with a wide, toothy grin.
    “Mommy, guess what?”
    “What, Hassani?” she answered as she picked him up in her arms. “Boy, you are getting heavier every day!”
    “I know! I got to watch the Thomas movie and I’m getting big. I’m a man now, Mommy.”
    S aint and Xenia looked at each other and burst out laughing.
    “ Nuh uh!” Dakarai screamed out, his dark eyebrows furrowing above his large hazel eyes as he shot Hassani an evil glare. “Tellin’ Mommy! Mommy, ’Sani bad!!!”
    “Shut up, Day-Day!” Hassani screamed while Chantel, the babysitter, came out the door wearing a red halter top and tiny white shorts.
    “ Hey!” Saint walked toward Xenia and pulled at Hassani’s leg. “I told you about telling people to ‘shut up’, Hassani,” He said sternly. “Don’t let me hear it again. I mean it.”
    Dakarai smirked at his brother, while gripping his father tightly around the neck.
    Hassani made a pitiful face and buried it into Xenia’s chest. Saint immediately softened and turned away.
    He looked toward the babysitter. “Hey Chantel, thanks for watching the boys, we appreciate it.”
    “No problem, they were good.” She smiled and waved at Xenia.
    Xenia waved back. “Hi, Chantel, thanks again!” She looked back down at Hassani.
    S aint removed his wallet and handed Chantel a fifty dollar bill.
    “Thanks , Dr. Aknaten. Oh, just so you know, I will be out of town next week but my cousin can watch them if you need someone.”
    “Well, we’d have to interview her first, so in the meantime, we’ll just make do without you . If we have anything come up between now and then, we can call my sister-in-law or mother-in-law.”
    Chantel nodded and turned to go back inside the house. S aint looked at Xenia, who still appeared to be in her own little world until Dakarai broke the silence.
    “’Sani did a bup-tee on me!”
    Xenia shot Dakarai then Saint a look of confusion.
    S aint looked down at Dakarai as they made their way to the car. “A bubble? Hassani did a bubble on you?”
    “Yes!” Dakarai angrily crossed his arms over his heaving little chest.
    Saint burst out laughing as he placed him in his car seat and strapped him up.
    “A bubble, like gas? He farted on you again?” S aint recalled several incidents in recent weeks in which Dakarai would come running out of their playroom, charging toward him like he’d been shot out of a canyon. Each and every time, Hassani would remain in the quarters, hunched over, laughing while his brother screamed bloody murder and reported the heinous, malodorous crime, time and time again.
    “Yes!” Dakarai’s tone got angrier each time he responded.
    Hassani looked over at Dakarai as Xenia put him in his booster seat in the back of the SUV. He could tell she tried to contain herself to no avail. Her shoulders continued to move up and down as the obvious laughter effervesced in the pit of her stomach. It was wrong, but it was in times like these that wearing a straight face was virtually impossible.
    “Now Hassani, ” Xenia began. “We know you think that is funny, but it’s not nice to do that to Dakarai, or anyone else for that matter. If you have to pass gas, you step away from the person and say ‘excuse me’.” She managed to muster between puckered lips.
    “He did it!” Dakarai yelled, pointing at Hassani as if it were a game of ‘Clue’. Hassani was now looking straight ahead , defiantly, with his arms crossed over his ‘Sid the Science Kid’ t-shirt covered stomach.
    “He jump on me, hold me down and den he bup-tee! Then he run away and laugh!”
    With that final accusation, his tiny finger pointed squarely at his big brother who feigned ignorance , and the angry scowl on Dakarai’s face, he ensured that his parents could no longer oblige to the ‘no laughter’ rule. It was now too late. The battle was lost.
    Xenia exploded, holding her stomach tightly as she bent over, her eyes filled with tears. Saint joined in, then quickly got