“Yeah, but you are with beautiful women every day. I saw you on those posters. What makes my granddaughter stand out? I know men. They don’t turn down the free stuff when it’s offered. I challenge you to tell me how you plan to be faithful to her in the profession you’re in,” Gracie snapped.
Jeremy looked at her, not wavering. “I plan to be faithful to her after we’re married because I am faithful to her now. I don’t want anyone else. I love Aura. I work with women, but I don’t love them. I don’t want them; I want her. As for the ‘free stuff,’ as you say, I need love more than I need sex. Your granddaughter is the love of my life, and I will do nothing to hurt her. Being faithful to her when we’re married will be easy because I’m faithful to her now.”
“Yeah, but when the novelty of sleeping with her wears off, then what? Maybe it’s just a phase. Maybe you think you love her because she’s different,” Gracie speculated.
“I’m no child, Mrs. Vanderleigh. I know what love is,” Jeremy insisted. “As for sleeping with her, I’m not. We are waiting for marriage.”
Gracie’s eyes grew big at his comment. “You must be gay or something, boy! No black man would have dated someone for over a year and not slept with them. What’s wrong with you?”
“She wants to wait, and I love her,” he said simply. “I will wait… but not much longer.”
Gracie Vanderleigh laughed. “Is this why you wanted the short engagement?”
“Of course,” he admitted, grinning. “A man’s patience is only so long, you know.”
“I see.” Gracie smirked.
Aura came back in the den, relieved to see the two of them smiling and talking and not yelling as she had imagined. She couldn’t hear the conversation from the kitchen, and her mother’s talking hadn’t helped matters.
“Dinner’s ready!” she announced happily.
“Come on, lover boy,” Gracie said. “I want you to sit by me.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jeremy replied, winking at Aura.
Aura was surprised at how easygoing her grandmother was with Jeremy. She didn’t know what he had said to her in the den, but whatever it was worked. Gracie was monopolizing the conversation and constantly asking Jeremy questions.
“Do you have any black folks in your family?” she asked.
“I don’t think so… at least not yet,” he said, smiling at Aura.
“He told me that his uncle has a pickup truck,” Aura replied “No moonshine though, Grandma.”
“Why don’t you have a deep southern accent if you’re from South Carolina?” she asked.
“It’s there. I’ve taken some speech classes here in New York. People have a misconception about southern people. They treat you like you’re uneducated and stupid just because of the way you talk,” he said, reverting to his South Carolina accent.
Gracie stared at him. “You sound like a redneck Klan member. Is this how you talked down there?”
“Yep,” Jeremy said, laughing at her comment. “Miss Gracie, I’m enjoying your company,” he said, still talking with his southern accent.
“That’s enough,” Gracie said, trying not to snicker. “Go back to the way you were talking before. You’re scaring me!”
“Grandma!” Aura said.
“Don’t worry about it, Aura,” Jeremy said, laughing.
“How is your family, Jeremy?” Aura’s mother asked.
“They are fine, Mrs. Vanderleigh,” he said.
“So they’re all for this marriage, huh?” Gracie asked, looking at her son as she awaited Jeremy’s response.
“They are now,” Jeremy said.
“I told my son that he should check your family out before giving his daughter away. Do you have a problem with that? What do your parents do for a living?”
“My mom is a housekeeper, even though she drives the school bus too. My father is a minister,” Jeremy said.
“No more models in the family?” Gracie smirked.
“Nope. I’m the only one.”
“Do you make a decent enough living to take care of my granddaughter?” she asked.
“I do all right,” he replied.
“How all right is all right?”
“Grandma, that’s enough. Jeremy shouldn’t have to tell you his personal business like that.”
“That’s all right, Aura,” he said, looking at her grandmother. “Let’s just say that I am finishing up my two-year contract where I earned about five thousand dollars a day for my work.”
Aura could tell her grandmother was impressed.
She looked at Aura. “He just might be a keeper.”
Daniel Ferguson sat back in his easy chair and closed his eyes. He had a full day at the church with meetings and counseling sessions.
The house was fairly quiet. Charlotte and his daughters were upstairs for the night. He looked at his watch and saw that it was after nine. He’d go up himself in a while.
He was surprised to hear the doorbell and wondered who would be coming over this time of the evening. He got up, stretched, walked to the door, and looked through the peephole.
He was surprised when he opened the door to see his nephew Eric standing there and wondered if something had happened to someone in the family.
Eric looked upset and nervous standing in the doorway with his hands in his pockets.
“Eric, what’s going on? Is everything all right?” he asked.
“Can I come in and talk to you, Uncle David?”
“Sure. Come into the den.”
Eric followed him and then sat on the sofa, and Reverend Ferguson returned to his chair facing him.
“Uncle David, I want you to perform a marriage ceremony. I have the license.”
“Marriage? Eric, what’s this about? Why are you talking about marriage when you know that you’ll be graduating in a couple of weeks!”
“I want to get married. My girlfriend’s in the car. She’s pregnant, and now her parents have found out about it. She’s left their house. I know we graduate in less than two weeks. Things just have not turned out like we planned. She can’t go home, so she’s going to stay with her sister. She told them I am the father, and I know I will have to tell my parents before they hear it from someone else now that the word is out.”
“Eric, marriage is not something that you rush into,” his uncle insisted. “You should have talked to my brother about this before you came over here.”
“Once he finds out, I’ll have to leave home too,” Eric said sadly. “Nadine’s sister won’t let us live with her unmarried, so I want us to get married, and then I’ll tell my father.”
“Why didn’t you bring her in with you?”
“I wanted to talk to you first.”
“Why do you have her in the car? Go and get her in here right now! I want to talk to the both of you!” Daniel snapped.
Eric walked out, leaving the front door open, and Reverend Ferguson was perplexed, wondering what in the world was going on. Why would his brother put Eric out of the house? He knew he would most likely be upset about the pregnancy. After all, Eric was only eighteen and was hardly ready for such a big responsibility, but Eric was his brother’s baby, and Daniel knew that he doted on him. This would be their first grandchild. They would be upset of course, but they would come around eventually.
Eric walked back into the house holding the girl’s hand, and Daniel knew immediately what Eric was talking about. Eric’s girlfriend was black. After all the comments his brother had made to him about Jeremy, he knew that he would not take this news well.
“Uncle David, this is Nadine,” Eric said nervously as the two held hands.
Nadine smiled at him, and Reverend Ferguson had to admit that she was indeed a beauty. She was only about five foot five, and Eric smiled down at her, giving her reassurance. Her stomach stuck out even though she h
ad on loose-fitting clothes, and Daniel wondered how she had hid her pregnancy from her family for this long. She wore her hair in a bob with large hoop earrings. Eric’s six-foot frame towered over her, and he put his arm possessively around her waist.
“Hello, Nadine,” David said. “Please sit down.”
They sat on the sofa side by side and looked at him nervously.
“Marriage is a serious thing,” Reverend Ferguson began. “It’s not to be rushed into. Eric, you are coming to me as an uncle. I am also a man of God. You will need the Lord in your life to have a healthy marriage. This is especially true if you don’t have family and friends supporting you.”
“Nadine goes to church,” he responded. “I mean, you know we used to come to hear you preach from time to time. You know my family was never much on churchgoing.”
His uncle shook his head. “It’s not about going to church, Eric. It’s about a relationship with God.” He looked at Nadine. “Do you know what I’m talking about?”
“Yes, sir. That’s partly why my family is so upset. My father is a trustee at my church, and my mother is the secretary of the Sunday school. They want to send me away to have the baby. I’m an embarrassment to them. They want me to give the baby up and go to college. I don’t want to. They don’t like Eric, so I know I have to leave. I don’t want to live in sin, so I told Eric we need to get married.”
“Why don’t they like Eric?” he asked.
She looked embarrassed. “My family does not like white people. They say they can’t be trusted. It seems that some bad things happened in our family… some family members were lynched. I mean, I understand, but that was years ago. That’s not Eric’s fault! When I told them that Eric was white, they blew up. My mother started crying, and my daddy told me I was a disgrace to the family.”
“Have they ever met Eric? Have they talked to him, gotten to know him?” Reverend Ferguson asked.
“No, we’ve been meeting secretly. They thought I was going out with someone else,” Nadine confessed.
“Well, there’s your problem right there. Both of you started this thing out all wrong. You should have stood up to them and told them about your relationship. These types of secrets never turn out well. Now you have a baby on the way. They may be upset at first, but they will get over it,” he replied confidently.
“You know my father would have hit the ceiling—” Eric started.
“Doesn’t matter,” his uncle said, interrupting him. “If you had faced this head on and had been forthright and honest, at least you would have known you had done all you could. I will marry the two of you on one condition. You both call your parents and get them over here tonight.”
“That’s crazy!” Eric exclaimed. “You know my father! What good will it do to call him over here? He will never accept Nadine, and he’ll disown me!”
“Those are my terms,” Daniel said firmly. He looked at Eric. “Have you even told them about Nadine or the baby?”
“No,” Eric admitted.
“Eric, that’s not right,” Daniel insisted. “Call them now. Ask them to come to the church. Since you haven’t told them about the baby, don’t tell them on the phone. Just tell them that you are over here with me, and you need them to come. Nadine, you do the same thing. All you can do is ask them to come and talk. If your parents refuse to come, tell them you’re marrying Eric. I bet they’ll show up then.”
“Yes, sir,” she said. “Can I ask my sister to come over, too?”
“Of course,” he said, watching them pull out their cell phones.
Daniel Ferguson sat back in his chair. He knew that he was in for a long night.
CHAPTER 14
FACING PREJUDICE
Gracie Vanderleigh considered herself an observant woman. She had to admit though that she liked this Jeremy more than she wanted to let on.
When she first saw him, she was impressed that he met her head on. She liked that in a man. He didn’t back down. He stood his ground. It meant that he was strong. He didn’t flinch from her or her questions.
However, he was white, and he was a pretty boy. She didn’t trust pretty boys, and she didn’t trust white people. He had a double strike against him. She also knew men, and she concluded that Jeremy was most definitely a man. She watched him carefully and decided that there was not a gay bone in his body. She saw it in his eyes when he looked at her granddaughter. He tried to hide it of course, but the raw need and lust was apparent to her. He watched her every move, like a hungry lion watches its prey. She had to laugh to herself when she observed him discreetly gazing at her behind on more than one occasion when Aura walked by him.
Still, it was hard for her to accept him as her granddaughter’s choice, and it was hard for her to accept that this white man with a good job and a pretty face would be faithful to Aura and not hurt her. Aura, after all was her favorite grandchild. Gracie felt that Aura looked like her own father who was from Nigeria, dark and beautiful. Gracie herself had married a dark man and had hoped to keep the Nigerian heritage alive for future generations, but then Aubrey had married a yellow woman and now this! She sighed shaking her head in disappointment.
The dinner had gone well, and now Aura and Jeremy were in the den with Bree. She still didn’t like the idea of an interracial marriage… too much baggage. However, Aura was right; there was nothing she could do about it. The one positive thing about it was that at least he was self-supportive. He wouldn’t be depending on Aura to take care of him.
She walked into the den and found Jeremy and Aura sitting together on the sofa, his arm around her.
“Well, you love birds, I’m going to call it a night,” she said. “I am heading back to Rochester tomorrow.”
Jeremy smiled at her, revealing perfect white teeth. Gracie was still amazed at the perfection and physical beauty of this man. His large, blue eyes were warm and sincere. “Have a safe trip, Mrs. Vanderleigh.”
“Thank you. I guess you want to know what I think,” she said, looking at Aura. “Or do you care what I think?”
“Of course I care, Grandma,” she said, smiling.
“I think you’re all right… for a white boy,” she said, looking at Jeremy. “I don’t like the idea of this marriage, but I can see that you love her, and there’s nothing I can do about it.” She looked at Jeremy. “You’re determined to do this, I suppose.”
“Yes, I am,” he said.
“Well, just know I’ll be watching you, so you’d better treat her right,” Gracie threatened, trying to sound stern but failing miserably.
She then turned and left the room.
“Well I guess that went fairly well,” Aura said, snickering “No blood was shed.”
“She’s a softie,” Jeremy concluded. “She just likes to act like she’s a badass.”
“I’m impressed,” Aura said, shaking her head. “You are a smooth operator for sure.”
Daniel David Ferguson had faced challenges in ministry before. He had dealt with plenty of domestic violence situations, drug and alcohol addiction, and even thievery in the church itself. However, this situation would be his greatest challenge to date.
His brother and Charlotte’s sister had agreed to come over. Eric had not elaborated and only told them that he had come for counseling and he needed both of them to come to Daniel’s office.
Convincing Nadine’s parents had been more difficult, having already been informed of the situation. They had refused to come, and Nadine had done as Daniel requested and told her parents that she was marrying Eric. Both of her parents had then agreed to come to the church, as well as her sister Maxine. Her parents told her outright that they planned on stopping the wedding.
Daniel hoped that since they were all meeting at the church, everyone would remain civil. Since both sets of parents had their own prejudices to work through, they would hopefully choose their words carefully ins
ide the sanctuary.
He arrived at the church with Eric and Nadine following him. He opened the church and led them to the large meeting room. He then went to the front door and waited.
His brother and sister-in-law arrived first. They got out of the car and rushed to the door when they saw him standing there.
“What’s this all about?” Matthew asked as he and his wife approached Daniel.
“You’ll know soon enough. Hold your horses,” Daniel responded.
“Is Eric in some sort of trouble?” Rachel asked.
“Nothing that can’t be worked out,” Daniel replied. He quickly led them to an empty classroom. “Wait here a minute.” He sat them down and quickly shut the door behind him when he exited the room.
Daniel then went to the conference room and asked Nadine to wait for her parents and sister by the door and to bring them into the conference room when they arrived. He had her stand at the glass door that was locked and could only be opened from the inside of the church.
He then went back to the classroom and got his brother and sister-in-law and led them to the conference room where Eric was waiting.
“What in the world is going on, Eric?” his father asked, sitting down across from his son. “Why are we here at church this time of night and why did we have to wait in the other room? You call me and tell me to come down here. I thought something had happened to you. Are you in some sort of trouble with the police?”
“You’d better tell them, Eric, before Nadine gets back,” Daniel said, looking at Eric.
“Who is Nadine?” his mother asked. “What’s going on, Eric?”
“Look, Dad, Mom. Sit down. I’ve got something to tell you,” Eric said. He looked at each of them and then back to his uncle.
He waited until his mother sat down and took a deep breath. There was no way to tell it but to just lay it on the line.
“Nadine is my girlfriend. We’ve been together since the tenth grade basically. I went to Uncle David because we want to get married.” He paused and waited for them to recover from the shock.
The Preacher’s Son Page 13
