The Thetas

by Shawn James

  Chapter 27

  What do I want to do with my life?

  After dinner last night I think I’m getting the answer to that question. The more I learn about my family history and how it impacts the African–American community the more I realize I want to be part of that legacy.

  I got a sketchy picture of what my future role as head of Anderson Financial would be last night. I’m seeing myself as one part investment banker, one part social crusader. Secretly searching for those small businesses in African–American communities across the country and providing them the financial support they need to compete against the bigger corporations sounds like noble work. I think I could even have some fun doing it.

  I’ve always been hesitant about following in my father’s footsteps. I always saw any job I took at Anderson Financial as part of an inevitable destiny I had to fulfill to honor and respect my family out of obligation, not something that would be fulfilling in and of itself. But after meeting some of the people who were directly impacted by my family’s investments like Penelope and Yvette I feel I could make a difference in people’s lives by continuing Mom and Dad’s life work.

  My mind races with thoughts of the future as I peer up at the red lights of the clock that read 6:12 A.M on the night table across from me. Dean Mother Dr. Reed will be expecting me downstairs in eighteen minutes to start my cardio program. I can’t waste any more time, I don’t know what the penalty will be for arriving late. As rough as it is around here, they may make me wash the breakfast dishes and clean all the bathrooms.

  I slide out of bed, hurry over to the dresser, get my gym clothes out, and dart into the bathroom. After I wash my face, I quickly get changed into my sport underwear, the salmon Theta T–shirt, green shorts, and sneakers. I know I should shower and put on some lipstick before going down there, but there’s no need to get fancy when I’m going to be sweating in ten minutes.

  My watch reads 6:20 as I dart out of the bathroom back into the suite. As the dim light of the early morning sun peeks out from behind the shades, I catch a reflection of myself in the full–length mirror. The fitted Theta T–shirt clings to my hourglass figure and the shorts are shorter than anything I’ve ever worn in high school. We must be doing some hard running around the estate to wear clothes this close to the body.

  I don’t think Marcy and Abby are joining me this morning; they’re snuggled under their duvets fast asleep. Since this is my day off, I guess they get the privilege of sleeping in.

  I check my watch again. 6:28, I better get moving. I hurry down the back stairs through the kitchen. The aroma of coffee wafting in the morning air wakes me up as I pass by the stove. I say Good Morning to Rosa before heading out through the tall French doors onto the patio.

  I spot Dean Mother Dr. Reed stretching on the grass. She stops her routine as I approach her and greets me with a smile.

  “Good Morning Colleen. Good to see that you’re punctual.”

  “I was afraid I’d be washing breakfast dishes if I was late Dr. Dean Mother Reed.”

  “You don’t have to worry about being punished for anything. We’re not on the Theta Clock until nine. Until then I’m Angela.”

  “Well, Angela, what torture am I going to be put through this morning?”

  “We’re going to keep it light today. Just going to run around the campus. Why don’t you do some stretches?”

  Light means she’s probably going to work me like a horse. As I stretch my legs, I get a good look at Dr. Reed in her gym clothes. The close fitting green shorts and White fitted Theta T–shirt she wears show off a toned fit body that would make a fitness model jealous. It’s hard to believe she hides a body like that under those dainty designer suits.

  It looks like Angela is warmed up and ready to run. I think I’m stretched out enough for my first run around the campus.

  “You ready?” Angela asks.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be.” I reply.

  Angela and I start jogging around the pool. We soon turn on an asphalt foot path surrounded by grass. As we hit our stride, Angela feels comfortable enough to continue our conversation.

  “I hear you’ve been skipping meals.” Angela says.

  My Theta Sisters are big blabbermouths. “I was a little nervous when I first got here.”

  “That can turn into an eating disorder. If there’s something bothering you, you ought to talk about it.”

  “I was just a little anxious about getting through pledging. I just thought I was going to have to drop like twenty pounds or something in eight weeks–”

  “No one is asking you to starve yourself Colleen.” Angela comforts.

  “You guys said I was a little heavy–”

  “You are a little heavy for a woman your height and build. And you have to watch your weight and what you eat.”

  “To get a boyfriend–”

  “To stay healthy.” Angela corrects. “When you skip meals all your body is going to do is store food from the past meals on your body and that’s going to turn into fat. Keep doing that over a couple of months and you’re going to get obese.”

  “I’m only 130 pounds. I don’t think I’m that heavy–”

  “No, you’re not that heavy, but you could use a little more muscle tone and a little less body fat.”

  “I’m not that fat–”

  “130 pounds can easily turn into 200 pounds. Weight has a way of creeping up on you without you knowing it.”

  “Well, I’m a lot better now. I’m eating regularly. I polished off a cheeseburger and a milkshake before I had dinner yesterday.”

  “It’s okay to have that stuff once and a while, but don’t make it a regular thing.” Angela chides.

  “The meals around here are pretty rich–”

  “The portions here are balanced. I make sure of that.”

  I wonder what kind of doctor the good Dr. Dean Mother Angela Reed is. At the examination when she knew all about my vagina and what to look for, I thought she was a gynecologist. Now she talks about nutrition like an expert. I have to wonder if she has more than one M.D. degree.

  “You know a lot about stuff. What kind of doctor are you?”

  Angela smiles at me. “I’m an OB/GYN.” Angela replies. “And I’m a certified personal trainer and nutritionist. Before that, I did my residency in the trauma unit.”

  “That’s a long way from the Anderson Financial secretarial pool–”

  “It is.” Angela reflects.

  “How’d you wind up meeting my mom– I hope I’m not being too prying.”

  Angela smiles at me again. “I don’t mind sharing my story with you. In fact, that’s the reason I wanted to spend the summer with you.”

  Angela slows her pace as we make our way into the woods. As we approach a big rock in the middle of the thickets of trees, we pause to take a break. I feel sweat pouring off my back as I sit down to catch my breath.

  “Your mother meant a lot to me.” Angela continues. “If it wasn’t for God working through her I would have never be where I am today.”

  “What happened?”

  “My family owned several hotels down south. But as integration changed the Black economy we weren’t making as much money as we used to. So my father took our remaining fortune and bought some buildings in the Bronx from some White people back in the early 70’s when he moved us up to the city. He thought it was a good deal, but it turned out that the real estate market was in a serious state of decline. With property values going down at the time, and property taxes going up back then due to the state and city budget crunches, maintenance on the properties, taxes, and insurance ate up most of his money. By the time I finished high school in 1976, there wasn’t any money to send me to college.”

  “I’m sorry you had things so hard.”

  “That’s how it goes. Instead of going to Princeton to study pre–med like I wanted to, I had to work my way through City College. I struggled through my freshman year and barely had enough money for books then. I was
halfway through my Sophmore year when your Mother approached me about becoming a Theta. I was reluctant to Pledge, because I didn’t have much money.”

  “With all the designer clothes we wear I could understand.”

  “That was only the half of it.” Angela reflects. “Money was so tight in my family back then, I didn’t want to risk taking a summer off. Pledging the Thetas meant I would have to not just take a semester off, but quit my job as well.”

  “It’d be a big risk with money being so tight for you.”

  “I felt if I stopped going to school I wouldn’t be able to start again. But Dean Mother Anderson was pretty insistent about me pledging. She said someone like me would definitely benefit from becoming a Sister.”

  “Mom was always looking out for people like that. Daddy always told me she had a good eye for people and could see potential in them.”

  “She must have seen a lot in me because with her help God changed my life. She bought all my clothes when I pledged, and after I became a Sister, she gave me a job at your Dad’s company in the secretarial pool. Thanks to that job, I was able to build a savings and work towards a full scholarship to Med school. Over the past few years with God’s help I’ve been able to build my own fortune as an OB/GYN.”

  “If you graduated in 1976, and your sophomore year was 1978, you were probably one of the last people Mom knew before she–”

  “I was the last pledge she ever worked with.”

  An old memory hits me in the head. “You were the reason my mom went away for two months when I was little.”

  “Yeah.” Angela sighs. “I’m sorry I took time from your mother away from you. I didn’t know how little she had left–”

  Angela gets choked up. I reach over to her and give her a hug. She’s probably felt guilty for years about the time she’s spent with my mother. She has nothing to feel bad about. I’m glad to know my mother had such a tremendous impact on her life.

  “You have nothing to be sorry about.” I comfort. “You couldn’t have known she was going to die two years later.”

  “I’ve just felt so guilty about taking that time from you for years. You being so little you should have had those first moments with her–”

  “You’ve honored my mother by going on to have this great career.” I say breaking the embrace. “I think she’d be very proud to see you took the chance she gave you to make your life count for something.”

  Angela lights up. “You didn’t miss your mom back then?”

  I miss her now sometimes. But I don’t want her beating herself up over this. She’s come too far to let some guilt over the past stop her. “I was four. I got over it. Over that summer Daddy used his vacation time to teach me ABC’s and I played with blocks.”

  “I was so busy with work and school I never got to thank your mother for all she did for me.”

  Maybe she never got to say thanks, but I’m going to. Hearing this story about my mom makes this whole trip worth it. “You must have loved her to come here and spend time with me.”

  “I was very close to Millie in the short time I knew her.” Angela says. “I wish you could have known her the way I did.”

  From the stories they’re sharing, I’m learning a lot about how great she was. If she could show these strangers such love and compassion in her friendships with them, I know she would have been a great mother to me.

  “I wish I could have known her too. Did Mom ever tell you why she wanted to help you?”

  “She said she was helping me because she didn’t want me to be lost.”

  “In your situation you could have easily fallen through the cracks–”

  “I easily could have. The company I was working for before I pledged started laying people off a few weeks later. One of those people would have been me.”

  Wow, that is a miracle. Mom got to her just in time. “God works in mysterious ways.”

  “That He does. I’ve promised myself ever since I first pledged The Thetas whenever I got the chance I was going to help you in the same way.”

  “You don’t know how much hearing your story means to me. I haven’t met many of Mom’s friends.”

  “Well, you’re going to meet a lot of them here. Practically every Pledge from the 1960’s and 1970’s has a story to tell about your mother helping them in one way or another.”

  I’m looking forward to hearing them. It’ll give me some perspective on the legacy of my family.

  Angela looks down at her watch. It’s almost seven. “Let’s get going. We still have a lot of running to do.”

  I look down at my soaked shirt. “There’s more?”

  “Of course. Now that you’re warmed up, we can really run.”

  And she said she was going to keep things light. I jump off the rock and join her as we continue our run through the thickets of trees around the Theta estate.

  Chapter 28

  Angela and I jog through the tall thickets of trees in the back of the Theta Estate. As we build our stride back up, I’m curious to find out how much property they actually own.

  “This place must be huge. I have to wonder if it’s an estate or its own city.”

  “We own about forty acres of land.” Angela puffs.

  “That’s a lot of land for a campus.”

  “Well, we want our sisters to relax. Buying all the land around the estate allows things to be really quiet around here.”

  “And allows for a lot of room to run around on.”

  “Jogging is a good way to relax.”

  “It’s a good way to sweat. How many times do you run a week?”

  “Every morning before work. The cool air wakes me up and gets me energized for the rest of the day.”

  “No wonder you’re so cut.”

  “I’m glad you noticed.” Angela blushes.

  “I don’t think I’m going to get that buff in eight weeks.”

  “It took me two years of training to look like this.”

  Well, I’ve got something to work towards. “Are we going to run every morning?”

  “Yeah. Then we’re going to hit the gym for some aerobics and a little weight training depending on the day. We’re going to work out five days a week.”

  “So I’m going to meet you downstairs every morning?”

  “That’s the schedule we’re working on.” Angela says smiling at me. “Then after breakfast the other Dean Mothers and Grand Mother Flowers will work with you.”

  “And Marcy and Abby–”

  “Will be there with you when you’re working with the Dean Mothers.”

  “I wish they were with me right now.”

  “I’ve got them in the gym working out.” Angela quips.

  “They were working on their snoring this morning–”

  “They’re in a little better shape than you are so I gave them a half–hour off. They’ll join you for aerobics and circuit training tomorrow.”

  Nice to know I’ll have some company while I’m tortured. The cool morning air whips around us as we increase our speed. I hear my heart racing when I see the garage coming up on the turn. We’re coming full circle for the second time.

  “You’re really good at your job. How’d you know about the condition my vagina by just looking at it?”

  “I worked with rape victims during my residency with the trauma unit.”

  “So you were looking me over to make sure I was okay?”

  “It’s a standard Theta medical exam.” Angela replies. “Some of the girls who have pledged us were very sexually active. Others were molested by their parents or sexually abused by other family members. Their bodies tell stories that they sometimes can’t tell us.”

  “I didn’t know girls from families like ours went through things like that–”

  “Some families keep painful secrets.”

  “If they keep painful secrets like that why would you allow them into the Sisterhood?”

  “In situations like that it’s not black or white. You just can’t e
xclude an entire family based on one or two people in it–”

  “But it would keep dysfunction out of the Sisterhood–”

  “We can’t do anything about the sins of the fathers or their mothers. But we can try to get their children help and counseling so they can end the cycle of abuse.”

  “Marcy and Abby tell me that people with sexual histories aren’t considered for the sisterhood.”

  “Some of the more sexually promiscuous girls are rejected after the examination.” Angela continues. “And lesbians are completely out. But we do make exceptions for girls who have been sexually abused. After we get them help, they’re allowed to pledge us.”

  “Sounds like the sisters are very selective.”

  “Pledging isn’t as important as getting someone the help they need to have to overcome the trouble in their life. I’d rather see someone get counseling to deal with being abused rather than have them be troubled for the rest of their lives.”

  I thought they were rigid and formal when it comes to their rules and standards. But it seems under the formal exterior, there’s a softer compassionate side. Maybe they do care about the girls who they consider for their sisterhood.

  “You have a very healthy vagina.” Angela teases.

  Nice to get the clean bill of health from a gynecologist. “I do Kegels.”

  “Those are really good for tightening up your walls.”

  “Are yours–”

  “My husband doesn’t complain after two kids.”

  I did notice five wedding bands at the lunch table. I have to wonder if my fellow Dean Mothers are help meets to their husbands when they’re not at the Theta House or are they just preaching a philosophy they don’t practice. “Are all the Theta women married?”

  Angela smiles at me. “Most of us are.”

  “So my chances of getting a husband increase by being a Theta?”

  “There are no guarantees, but there’s a saying among women in our circles: AKAs may see his thing, but Thetas get the ring.”

  “So most Theta marriages are happy marriages?”

  “I can’t speak for most of the other Theta Sisters, but there’s only been one divorce among our ranks in sixty years.”

  My eyes grow wide. “I didn’t know the news of Aunt Margaret’s divorce traveled this far–”

  “Grand Mother Flowers was the first to hear about it.”