The Preacher’s Son

by B. D. Anderson

  She stared at it a moment, looking at the license and then back at him. Matthew wanted to say something else but decided it would be best if he just held his tongue. There was no need to prolong this painful ordeal.

  “Fine.” She looked at Penny. “Penny, I’ll take care of this. I need you to check the numbers in the Pilates class.”

  Penny gladly relinquished her seat, and Max sat down. She typed into the computer and then scanned a card and gave it to him.

  “Stand on the X you see in the floor,” she instructed.

  He complied, and she took his picture. “Thank you, Mr. Ferguson.”

  She looked at him. “Have you already had the tour, or do you need someone to show you around?”

  Matthew knew that he needed to be shown the facility. He had been in a hurry when he came earlier. He just didn’t want it to be her.

  “I’d prefer a male since I’d like to see the locker room,” he replied.

  “Of course.”

  She picked up the phone and made a quick in-house call. An older man came to the front. “James, will you please show Mr. Ferguson our facility?” she said in her most professional voice.

  She then picked up the phone and began to dial out, and Matthew knew that he was dismissed. He did not know why she was able to get under his skin, but she did.

  He followed James, half-listening to him as he showed him the facility. So she ran this place? He was surprised because when he met her, he thought that she most likely didn’t work or worked in some menial job. She did not look like an educated woman to him. He glanced at the card. He would do a little research on Miss Maxine James himself!

  He smiled to himself. Maybe she wasn’t educated. Maybe she just slept her way into this job. She looked like the type, all mouth. His mind wandered, and he wondered what other things she did with her mouth besides talk.

  “Mr. Ferguson… uh, did you hear me?” James asked.

  “I’m sorry, what did you say?” Matthew replied, bringing his focus back to James.

  “I asked if you wished to see the locker rooms,” James said.

  “Of course.”

  He followed James into the spacious locker room that had a door that led to the showers and restrooms and another that led to the pool.

  “Is there anything else you’d like to know?” James asked.

  Matthew looked at him a moment. “Yes, tell me—off the record, of course—about your boss.”

  “You mean Ms. James?” he asked cautiously. “There’s not a whole lot I know.”

  “I know you’ve only been open a couple of weeks,” Matthew said. “I was just wondering if she has hired all the help she needs.” He really wasn’t interested in that, but he could see James was hesitant. “She seems a little standoffish. I am just not sure how to approach her,” he lied.

  “Well she’s pretty straightforward,” James said. “She’s a nice lady. She hired me; I replaced Brian. He quit after a few days.”

  “I think that was the guy who signed me up,” Matthew said. “What happened? He didn’t like his boss or something?”

  “No, he got a better job offer, I think,” James said. “If you would give me your card, I’ll be happy to pass it along if you don’t want to approach her directly.”

  “Thanks, I’ll think about it,” he replied.

  James left, and he put his things in a locker and walked out on the floor. He looked up front and saw that she was no longer at the front desk. He decided to do thirty minutes on the treadmill.

  As he was running, he saw her walk by talking to another customer. She had her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She had removed her makeup, and he was surprised that she was more beautiful without it. The red tank top fit her full breasts snuggly, and he couldn’t help admiring them as well as her full, round hips. She had the perfect hour-glass shape, as her waist was tiny. Her legs were long and shapely, and he was glad that he could get a full view of them.

  She looked over at him, and he looked away, wondering if she could feel him staring at her. He changed the song on his iPod and picked up the pace on the treadmill.

  Maxine tried to ignore Matthew while he was there. Of all the people to join the gym, it just had to be Eric’s bigoted brother.

  She looked over at him as she was showing a new customer around and found him staring at her. What was his problem? She wanted to go over there and tell him off but thought better of it. She would just ignore him. He wasn’t worth the trouble.

  She glanced his way again and saw that he had picked up the pace on the treadmill. He really did have a nice body, and he was rather good looking. Too bad he was such an asshole!

  She returned to her office and began sorting through some paperwork that she hadn’t completed. She didn’t know why her mind kept wandering back to the irritating Matthew Ferguson, but she made up her mind that she was not going to give him the time of day.

  CHAPTER 22

  FAMILY MEETING

  Joan Fleming was surprised at the change in Jeremy. He came back looking more relaxed. There was something different about him, and she wondered what it was.

  The temperature in the studio felt like it was about fifty-five degrees. That was the nature of this business. It was now June, and in June they did Christmas work. At Christmas, they did summer work. It was a life of opposites.

  She glanced over at Jeremy as he came out of the dressing room wearing a thick pullover sweater and jeans. He slipped on a long leather coat, and the makeup artist was fussing with his hair.

  Damn, he was handsome! She still wanted a least one good time with him. How in the world had that fiancé of his been able to put him on lockdown so well?

  She zipped up the boots she was wearing and the fake fur. Jeremy came over to her.

  “Are you ready?” he asked, smiling at her.

  She was surprised. “What’s with you?”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “You seem mighty… smug I guess is the word.”

  “Let’s go, people!” Michael yelled over to them.

  They returned to the scene of fake snow and the decorated Christmas tree. They were positioned several different ways for different shots. Jake the cameraman came over and positioned Jeremy’s arm against the fake snowman. It was at that moment that the lights reflected off the gold ring on his finger.

  He was wearing a wedding band.

  Jake went back to the camera and then paused and walked back over to them.

  “What’s this?” he asked, pointing to the ring.

  “What does it look like? It’s a wedding band,” Jeremy replied.

  “Yeah, we can work with that… Joan move in closer,” he said. “That was a great idea, Jeremy!”

  Jeremy did not reply, and Joan knew that he did not have the ring on for the reason that Jake thought.

  “So… you’re a married man now?” she whispered as Jake returned to his camera.

  “Yep!”

  Jake came over and moved them apart. “Where’s your ring?” he asked, looking at Joan.

  “I’m not the one that’s married,” she replied tartly.

  Realization came over him as he looked back to Jeremy. “So are you telling me you’re really married?”

  “Yep!” he replied smugly.

  Jeremy looked as if he was about to burst out in a jig or something, and Joan was irritated to no end.

  “You may have to take that off if Joan doesn’t have a ring,” Jake replied.

  “I don’t think so, Jake,” Jeremy said. “Chaz can get her a band. I’m not taking mine off.”

  Jake exhaled. “I’m not going to argue with you, Jeremy. I can work around it for now.”

  He returned to his picture taking. “All right. That’s enough of this shot. Go change,” he instructed.

  Jeremy walked toward
the dressing room, and Joan ran over to catch up with him. “So when did all this happen?”

  “Over the weekend,” he said, pulling off the leather coat.

  “What about the promotion? Chaz wanted us to look like we were an item. There’s a lot of money involved, Jeremy! You may not care, but I do. I’m not getting any younger, and I need to make money while they want me!”

  Jeremy turned to her. “Look, Joan, I can’t put my life on hold for Chaz. They don’t own me.”

  “That type of attitude can cost us a new contract! I will do what I have to do, and you ought to do the same!” she snapped.

  “I’m going to do what I feel is best for me. If you feel so strongly about it, just get a band and put it on your finger.” He then turned and walked in the dressing room and shut the door.

  Daniel Ferguson looked at his watch. He had invited his entire family over for dinner. He hoped that they would come. They all needed to band together to help Eric and Nadine.

  He had arranged for Eric to pick up his Grandma Nellie from the assisted-living facility in Surfside. That was his trump card.

  Charlotte had baked a big batch of spaghetti, and he had burgers and hotdogs for the grill. He told everyone to be at his home by seven.

  The cars started arriving at six thirty. His brother Matthew and Rachel arrived first. He knew that Rachel had demanded that he come because his brother did not look happy. Nathan and Janice were following them. He wondered if Matt Jr. would show up.

  By seven thirty, Reverend Ferguson was quite pleased with himself. Eric came in with Grandma Nellie, and everyone was surprised to see her. Some thought that they were invited over so that Grandma could be with all of her family.

  His uncles, Charles and Wilber, were there as well as some cousins.

  He had only invited Charles and Wilber, but Wilbur’s son and daughter had come along with them.

  “Thanks for coming, everyone,” Reverend Ferguson said. “It’s good for all of us to get together. It’s good that Ma is feeling well enough to participate. We have a great dinner ahead, but there are a few things we need to discuss first.”

  Reverend Ferguson picked up a pad that he had made notes on.

  “First, as you have probably heard, Eric has married his high school sweetheart, and they are now proud parents of twin girls, Erika and Derika. The babies weigh two pounds six ounces and two pounds nine ounces respectively.” He looked around the room, and no one said anything.

  “They are doing well, but they will need to be in the hospital a few more weeks. I want us as a family to come together and try to help them. They are going to need things for these babies.”

  “I don’t see why we have to do anything. I mean, I don’t mind giving a gift, but Eric made this choice,” his cousin Walter said, looking around.

  Reverend Ferguson looked at Walter. “Well, I’m not insisting anyone do anything. I am asking. I am sure, Walter, if you needed help and your family could help you, you’d want them to.”

  “I think a lot of us are just shocked at Eric… I mean, getting married to that girl, having babies… it was all so sudden,” Walter’s sister, Ingrid, replied.

  Reverend Ferguson tried not to be irritated. After all, he had invited Charles and Wilbur and not Wallace and Ingrid, but he held his peace.

  “Sudden or not, the babies are here,” he said, looking around. “And as for him getting married to ‘that girl,’ as Ingrid put it, that was his choice.”

  Just then the doorbell rang. Nathan got up and opened it. It was Matthew.

  “Come in, Matt,” Reverend Ferguson said. “I was just making an appeal to the family on behalf of Eric.”

  Matt came in and took a seat, nodding to his relatives as he looked around.

  “I will help my brother, Uncle David,” he said. “However, for the record, I don’t agree with this marriage one bit. Eric was too young, he doesn’t have a steady job, and those babies are going to need a lot of care. Sure they will probably get on welfare, and that’s coming out of our pockets! What is it that you want us to do? I’ll help my brother because he’s my brother. I won’t give him and that girl a free ride.”

  “Eric has not asked for anything,” Reverend Ferguson said. “I’m shocked at you, Matthew. That’s your brother. Nadine is his wife’s name, and you all ought to use it and stop calling her ‘that girl.’ She is his wife, and I know a lot of you don’t like it because she’s black.”

  Matthew stood up. “Well now that we’re addressing the six-hundred-pound elephant in the room, I am sure that a lot of us feel that Eric has made a bad choice and brought trouble into his life with this interracial marriage. Just because your son did it and you accept it doesn’t mean the rest of us have to.”

  Eric stood up. Everyone was talking as if he wasn’t in the room, and he was angry.

  “Look, I appreciate what you are trying to do, Uncle David, but it’s obvious how the majority of people, including my father and brother, feel about me and my family. For those of you who wonder why I married Nadine, I did it because I love her. We have been sneaking around for two years, walking on eggshells, worried about what people will say. Well I don’t care anymore! I have two beautiful daughters. We will make it with or without your help. I am not begging you for anything!”

  He started to walk out of the room, but Reverend Ferguson stopped him.

  “Look, son, I am you father, and I love you,” Matthew Sr. said, standing. “But you didn’t have to marry this girl. You are too young. Your marrying this black girl will hinder you for the rest of your life. You don’t realize what you’ve gotten yourself into. Not everybody accepts these types of unions. I just think that you have bitten off more than you can chew.”

  There were murmurs of agreement all around the room. Reverend Ferguson looked at Charles, who was nodding his head vigorously. He had heard and seen enough!

  “All right,” he said. “Everyone be quiet for a moment. I have something to say, and Ma can confirm it.” He looked over at Grandma Nellie.

  “Ma gave Jeremy some interesting information the other day. It seems that he took Aura over to visit Ma. He didn’t know what to expect with her being ninety-five years old. Well, he was a little shocked when Ma here said that she wasn’t a bit surprised because the Fergusons have been chasing black women for years. Imagine my surprise at that statement, Uncle Charles.”

  He looked directly at his uncle, who turned red. “Ma, why don’t you fill your family in on the family secret?” He walked over to his grandmother and stood by her. The room was completely quiet.

  “Now, I haven’t seen Eric’s new wife or the babies yet,” she said, looking around. “But Daniel here says that they are Fergusons for sure. Now some of you are upset because the girl Eric married is colored. I guess I am surprised only because he married the girl. Ferguson men, starting with my father-in-law, your grandfather Charles, and Wilbur had a colored woman and a child by her. Charles and Wilbur, you both know about your daddy’s brothers and how they chased women white and colored.”

  “But, Ma, they didn’t marry them,” Wilbur said.

  “No they didn’t, and that’s the way things were then. I guess they can marry now, so Eric married the girl he loved.” She looked at Charles. “What about you, Charles? Are you going to make Betty James a legal woman now that it’s legal for coloreds and whites to marry?”

  “What are you talking about, Ma?” He looked around nervously. “Ma must be getting senile.”

  “Boy, I can still slap the taste out of your mouth,” Grandma Nellie said. “I know about you and Betty James and those babies she had by you.”

  Charles looked dumbfounded and didn’t reply.

  “I know about you carrying on with Betty James and that Wilbur helped you cover it up. I got grandbabies I never even met before even though they now be about Daniel and Matthew’s age. I probably have
great-grands and even great-great-grands. You never married anyone else because you were in love with Betty, and you know it.”

  Matt Jr. stood up. “Look, Grandma, maybe it’s okay by you to air out the skeletons in our family closet, but I don’t see what that’s got to do with Eric. I think Eric has made a big mistake, and if anything, we ought to be applauding Nathan and Janice for having a normal, acceptable marriage, not upholding Eric and Jeremy because they are carrying on some secret family tradition!”

  “Matt’s right,” his father said. “At least Charles didn’t push that woman on the family and kept his business to himself. I know this is the new millennium and all that, but still, interracial marriages are a hard thing for a lot of people to swallow, including myself. I just can’t accept it, babies or not!”

  Eric turned to his father and started to speak, but his mother stepped in front of him. “Let me handle this, Eric.”

  Rachel looked at her husband. “I can’t believe you, Matthew! Those babies are your own flesh and blood! I am ashamed of both you and Matt talking about your brother like that. Grandma Nellie just said your family has been doing this stuff for years. Why is Eric now the black sheep, so to speak, because he chose to marry Nadine?”

  “Boy, you’ll probably be the next one,” Grandma Nellie said, nodding at Matt. “All you used to do was hug on the little colored girls in your class.”

  “Grandma, I was a kid! I didn’t know any better! I know better now, and I plan on marrying my own kind!” Matt said defensively.

  “Look, people,” Reverend Ferguson said, “I don’t want any fights breaking out. I just want to help Eric. If you don’t want to, that’s your business. Anyone who wants to contribute, see me before you leave. I have a list of things Nadine’s sister gave me.”

  “What about them… the girls’ family?” Matt Jr. sneered. “What are they going to contribute? I happen to know that sister of hers is a big-time manager over at the new Myrtle Beach Gym. She can afford to put out something! What about her family?”