The Little Mean Gene

He had a mean disposition. Aunt Booty said quite often Lydell is like his daddy's old Grandpa Curtis. They didn't see no good in anyone or anything. Even at the holidays with all the folks together at a big dinner, why, one of them would eat pie until their eyes popped and then complain the crust wasn't really flaky the way a good pie should be. It was the same with everything, yet they clung to their family after all, no one else would have Tolerated them. Aunt Booty was a cheerful woman, never got too discouraged for long. We are all different, I guess, she said. I reckon it's something in our genes that makes us what we are, something that put a red mark on Billy's back and made his eyes so wide and blue. Poor Lydell got the mean gene