by E. N. Joy
Everyone fell silent, guilty as charged on either end.
“But still, how do the things get out in the first place?” one of the board members asked, set on shifting blame back to Margie.
“Well, I don’t know,” Mother Doreen said sarcastically, walking over to her pastor’s desk. “I guess just as soon as y’all leave, Pastor picks up the phone over here and ...” Mother Doreen had her hand on Margie’s phone, preparing to demonstrate, but a little red light that was lit up on the phone caught her attention. Without saying a word, she turned and walked back to the door and marched out of the office.
Curiosity from the peculiar look on Mother Doreen’s face had everyone else following her. Mother Doreen recalled seeing a car out in the parking lot, only the owner of that car wasn’t in Pastor’s office, which meant she must have been in her own office.
Without even knocking, she opened the church secretary’s closed door. And there, they saw the church secretary hunched over her phone. Her unannounced visitors startled her. All she could do was sit there looking like a deer caught in headlights; actually, a deer after it had been caught in headlights and was lying helpless on the side of the road.
“Do me a favor, Pastor,” Mother Doreen said. “Go back into your office and talk. Just say anything.”
Margie quickly walked back into her office and began to speak. Everyone in the church secretary’s office could hear her loud and clear ... over the secretary’s intercom.
Mother Doreen walked over to the secretary’s phone, pushed a button, and said, “Okay, Pastor, you can come back in here. We’ve got this thing figured out now.”
A few seconds later, Pastor returned to the secretary’s office. “So what’s going on?”
Pointing to the church secretary, Mother Doreen explained. “What’s going on is that she’s been going into your office, turning on your intercom, and listening to everything that’s being said in private.”
Margie didn’t want to believe what she was hearing. She looked at her secretary. “Is that... is that true? Have you been listening in on the conversations that take place in my office?” Before allowing her to answer she continued. “And then you’re repeating what you’ve heard? That’s how folks are finding out things they have no business knowing?” Margie’s shoulders sank with disappointment. “Vegas, how could you?”
“Pa ... Pastor, it’s not what you think,” Vegas said in her own defense. “I wasn’t doing it to be spiteful or anything. I just wanted to, uh, you know, be able to touch and agree. Yeah, that’s right; be able to touch and agree with you in prayer. I wanted to know what was going on with my brothers and sisters in Christ so that I could pray for them; so that I’d know exactly what to pray for.”
“In all my years of pastoring or just being a prayer warrior in general even before I became a pastor,” Margie said, “I never had to know a person’s business in order to pray for them. Even as a pastor now, I have to cut folks off when they start telling me too much. Whenever anyone, especially a pastor, feels as if they need to know every single grimy detail in order to pray for someone’s situation, then they need to reevaluate their intentions or what God has called them to do.”
“Amen,” Mother Doreen stated, a prayer warrior herself.
“So, although you are the only secretary I’ve ever had serving under me,” Margie said, “I’m going to have to ask you to step down from that position.”
“Pastor!” Vegas responded, surprised that that would be her pastor’s reaction. “You can’t mean that. I’ve been your secretary for years; since you started pastoring at New Day.”
“I understand that,” Margie said. “But see, as a pastor, any relationship I’m in is like a marriage. I have to be very careful and protective. And as you know, one of the ingredients to the glue that holds a marriage together is trust. And if I can’t trust you, I can’t be married to you,” Margie explained. “Now, I’m not saying that you have to leave the church. By all means, I think you need the church now more than ever, and we’ll be here for you. But I can’t have you functioning in any capacity in the church, though, until you seek deliverance and walk in it.”
“I love this church, Pastor.” Vegas was nearly in tears. “You can’t expect me to keep coming here and not be the church secretary. Folks will start asking questions. Folks will start talking.”
“Oh, dear Sister Vegas,” Margie said in a compassionate tone. “Perhaps you really do need the church far more than I thought. Didn’t you pay attention to Church Lesson 101? We reap what we sow.”
Vegas looked downward.
“Sure, people are going to talk. You’re going to get back what you gave out,” Pastor warned her. “But that’s the law of the land; God’s and man’s. So just pray on it. But you can pray while you are boxing up your personal things.” Pastor looked at Sister Perrin and one of the other board members. “Can you two stay in here and help Sister Vegas get her personal things together, please?” After they agreed to do so, Pastor turned to exit the office. “Oh, and Sister Vegas, if you do decide to remain a member of New Day, I think you owe this church an apology. Now, I’m not telling you that’s something you have to do, nor am I making it a condition that you do so in order to remain a member. I’m just saying that I feel it would be the right thing to do.”
Margie walked out of the secretary’s office with Mother Doreen and Paige following behind her.
“Pastor, I have to go,” Paige burst out. “I have to do something really important.” She gave Margie a Holy Ghost hug. “What you said about trust in there, that was good, Pastor. And I’m sorry that I doubted your trust for even one minute. But right now, I gotta go.” And just like that, Paige was out of the door.
“Lord have mercy,” Mother Doreen exhaled. “What a day.” She rested her right hand on her chest.
“Lord have mercy is right,” Margie exclaimed, grabbing Mother Doreen’s hand. “What in the world is that?” She pointed to the bling-bling that rested on her friend’s ring finger.
“It’s just what it looks like,” Mother Doreen said proudly. “I said yes. I said yes to both the Lord and to Pastor Frey when he asked me to marry him.”
Both women screamed and embraced like girlfriends. But the excitement would be short-lived.
“Mother Doreen!” a frantic voice called out. Everyone turned to see Sister Nita entering the lobby area. She was holding her sliding touch phone in her hand and was practically out of breath. “Wasn’t that Culiver basketball playing fella the one Sister Deborah ran off to marry?” Nita looked at her cell phone screen and read. “Elton Culiver?”
“Yes, Elton,” Mother Doreen confirmed. Margie cosigned with a nod.
“I was taking a break from cleaning and just happened to come across this headline on an online paper that reports foreign news,” Nita exclaimed. She handed Mother Doreen the phone.
Mother Doreen looked at it with agitation. “I don’t know nothing about these minicomputers. Just tell me what it says.”
“I think you better sit down,” Nita suggested.
“Child, if you don’t read me the dern thing ...” Mother Doreen could sense she was about to receive some not-so-good news.
With trembling hands, Nita tried to hold the phone at a steady distance as she looked down at the screen. “Elton Culiver ... he lived in Chile, right?”
“Child, I’m telling you ...” Mother Doreen warned. Now she herself was trembling, so much so that Margie held one of her arms in order to keep her balanced.
“That earthquake in Chile. It says that Elton Culiver and his wife were killed.”
“Oh, Lord Jesus!” Mother Doreen cried out. “No, no, it can’t be.”
“Yes, it says so right here.” Nita pointed to the phone. “And this news is old. It says that they had a burial and memorial over in Chile. The couple have already been laid to rest.”
That’s when Mother Doreen’s body laid out to rest as well; to rest in the spirit. She just lay right there on the church-l
obby floor. She didn’t move. She didn’t say a word as her eyes remained closed, and she rested in the spirit of the Lord.
Chapter Thirty-nine
The words Pastor spoke in her office just moments ago were like magic to Paige’s ears. With those very words she’d had an epiphany. “... any relationship I’m in is like a marriage. I have to be very careful and protective. And as you know, one of the ingredients to the glue that holds a marriage together is trust. And if I can’t trust you, I can’t be married to you.”
Who was it that Paige could and couldn’t trust in her life now? Was it trust, or lack thereof, in people that was stealing her joy? Well, Paige had definitely gotten a piece of her joy back by going to see her pastor. Learning that she could trust her pastor 100 percent after all had lifted some weight off of Paige. It had given her some of her joy back. But that wasn’t enough. She wanted all of her joy back.
Pulling up in front of the downtown office building, Paige went inside. She signed in at the desk and then waited. She waited and waited, and then waited some more. She started to feel like her efforts would be a lost cause. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life in there waiting for someone to help her. Finally, God showed Paige favor by touching someone’s heart to help her get the ball rolling on some things she needed to do.
After leaving the office building with yet more of her joy restored, Paige drove to the place she needed to go in order to get the rest of it. Parking her car, she walked up the walkway, onto the porch, and rang the doorbell. She could hear some rustling on the other side of the door and was glad when Tamarra opened the door. She was glad that she’d been home. Had she not been, Paige probably would have sat on her doorstep and waited for her to return. But it would have been worth the wait. She wanted her joy back ... all of it ... right now.
“Paige! I’m so happy to see you. Come in.” Tamarra greeted her maybe-still-best friend, and then moved out of the way so that Paige could enter.
“No, it won’t be necessary for me to come inside,” Paige informed her. “What I have to do, what I have to say, it won’t take long.” Paige took a deep breath. “I forgive you, Tamarra, I really do. I’m not forgiving you just because the Bible says that’s what I should do. I’m forgiving you because I love you and I want to set you free. I’m forgiving you because I want to be free. Walking around with unforgiveness in my heart will not only keep me bound, but it will block my blessings.”
“Thank you, Paige. Thank you for forgiving me,” Tamarra said, relieved. She went to hug Paige.
Paige held up her hands, keeping Tamarra at a distance. “Hold on. Just because I’ve forgiven you doesn’t mean I still have to be your friend. So with that being said ...” Paige reached down in her purse, pulled out an envelope, and handed it to Tamara.
“What’s this?” Tamarra asked, confused as she opened the envelope and pulled out some papers. As she read them, a puzzled expression covered her face. “These are divorce papers... for you and Blake.”
“Oh, my mistake.” Paige had given Tamarra the wrong envelope. That envelope held copies of the divorce papers Blake would be served with. The clerk down at legal aid, the office she had sat at half the day, had assisted Paige in drafting up the documents.
Initially when Paige showed up at the downtown office building, she was told that it would probably be months before anyone could assist her with filing for divorce. There were just too many requests in that area and not enough volunteers. Paige filled out some paperwork. The completed paperwork was placed on top of a stack of about a million other people’s paperwork.
“We work from the bottom up,” the clerk told her, making it clear that the other million clients would be served before her.
As Paige was about to leave the building, a man came and carried away the stack. With Paige’s paperwork being on top, he scanned it a little, then looked up to see if the person who’d completed the paperwork was still in the office. “Paige Dickenson,” he called out. “Is that you?” He looked at Paige.
After informing the man that she was, in fact, Paige Dickenson, the man asked her if she could come to his cubicle. He then informed her that he’d recognized the name of both her and her husband from the little bit of publicity Blake had received after appearing on the magazine cover, Paige’s arrest, and then the arrest of Blake.
“So you’re going to divorce him?” the man had asked her.
“Yes,” Paige informed him. “They said it would be months, though, before they could assist me here. I’ll probably just go find me another attorney or something. I honestly don’t know what led me here in the first place.”
“You can’t wait. You have to do it now. I’ll help you. Between now and a few months, or even between now and you finding another attorney, you could change your mind. Something could happen. Anything could happen.” The gentleman had a sense of urgency in his tone; like it was a matter of life and death. Turns out it was.
He went on to tell Paige how he’d watched his stepfather abuse his mother for years. One day she finally got the courage to divorce him, but during the process, he beat her so badly, that to this day, she has to eat all of her meals through a straw. From that moment on, he dedicated the next two hours in helping Paige do whatever she needed to do in order to get the ball rolling on her divorce from Blake. And he didn’t think Paige’s next request of him was strange either; not after she briefed him on the circumstances surrounding it.
Paige reached down in her purse and pulled out the envelope she’d intended Tamarra to have. The enveloped contained the second request she’d made from the man down at legal aid. “Here, this one is for you.”
Once again, Tamarra began to read the letter, and once again a puzzled look covered her face. “But these are still divorce papers. I don’t get ...” And just like that, Tamarra got it. “You’re divorcing me? You’re divorcing me as a best friend?”
“That’s right,” Paige said with confidence, then repeated the very words about trust she’d heard her pastor say to the former New Day church secretary. After that she said, “I love you, Tamarra, and I thank God for putting you in my life. When you were a friend, you were a good friend. But I just can’t forget the fact that, more than likely, the reason my husband couldn’t touch me on our honeymoon was because he’d slept with my best friend the day of the wedding. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t my size, it wasn’t something I did, something I didn’t do. None of what you, Blake, or anybody else has done has had anything to do with me. God gave us freewill. What we do with that freewill we can’t blame anyone else for. So, on that note, it’s been real, Tamarra.” Paige smiled, hit her ex-best friend with a nod of the head, and was on her way.
“Paige, no, you can’t do this. You’re already divorcing Blake. You can’t stop being friends with me too.” Paige kept on walking. “Who will be there for you during the divorce? You need somebody, Paige. I know because I needed somebody when I was going through my divorce.” Tamarra exited her house and followed Paige. “You were there for me. Let me be there for you. We can work this out. Don’t go through this by yourself. It will be better if you have someone there for you.” Tamarra did not want to lose her best friend. She’d made a mistake; she knew that. And she knew it would take some time for Paige to get over it. But she never imagined in a million years Paige would stop being her friend altogether.
Paige stopped in her tracks and turned to face Tamarra. “You know, there was a time when I felt that I did always need somebody there for me, somebody to make it all better. But through all of this, you know what I’ve learned?” With a huge, confident smile on her face and before getting into her car and driving off Paige said, “I’ve learned that I can do better all by myself.”
Chapter Forty
“So if you’re our mommy’s mommy, then who is her daddy?”
As Lorain sat down alone in the chair, those words kept going through her mind. She couldn’t answer that question right then and there when it had been posed; not in front of the b
oys. It was too grown-up of a matter for them. But Unique had answered for her.
“He’s dead,” Unique had told her sons. “Your grandpa, Mommy’s daddy, is dead.” She looked up at Lorain, “Isn’t that right?”
All Lorain could do was nod as Unique hustled the boys off the porch and into the car. When Lorain closed the door, she turned around to see Eleanor studying her knowingly.
“She’s Broady’s girl, isn’t she?”
Once again, all Lorain could do was nod. She was expecting Eleanor to fall out, lose control, or something. But she didn’t. “Are you going to tell her?” she asked her daughter. “Are you going to tell the girl who her daddy really is?” Lorain didn’t reply because she didn’t know. “Well, if you ask me, I’m beginning to think that some things really are best left untold.” Eleanor walked away, and the two didn’t speak about it anymore. And it was kind of like a nonverbal agreement that they wouldn’t, especially not to Unique. Why? After all, he was dead. What good could possibly come out of Unique knowing the truth about who her biological father was?
“Hey, sorry, I’m late,” Nicholas’s voice interrupted Lorain’s thoughts. She’d forgotten where she was, that she was in the hospital cafeteria waiting on him to join her for lunch.
“Oh, it’s okay,” Lorain smiled and stood.
The two walked over to the line and picked out the choices of food they liked, and then returned to their table.
“When I got here, your mind looked as though it was a million miles away,” Nicholas said to Lorain.
“It was,” she replied. “Just thinking about things with my daughter, my mother ... just everything.”
