Some exposition.

Our biggest family drama is undoubtly the pregnancy and motherhood of my sister Em. In early May, she gave birth to a baby girl, Janaya. Her biological mother was in the room with her. A month later, in early June, my parents came to visit both the baby and the boy who had sired her. Our only contact with him so far was a voice mail that he had left on my cell phone while were in in Puerto Vallarta: he called himself "Big Sexy" and told me that I should tell Em, who had left her phone at home, that he "missed his Boo Boo."

When my parents came to visit, their first act was to take my siblings and Big Sexy out to lunch. They were greeted with a large young man who declared that he couldn't order from this restaurant, because the menu didn't have pictures. We found out later that he wasn't joking. Later that night at dinner, Big Sexy declared that he and Em were going to be engaged. My stepfather, who has a notoriously bad temper, flipped out. Later, he found out that his possible son-in-law was both a reforming drug user and a kid from a bad family, two things that my stepfather could empathize with. But when he brought Em home from lunch one day only to find his granddaughter's house filled with pot smoke, he panicked.