Troublemaker

by Trice Hickman

  “Yes, you did. But you can tell me again.”

  “I love you, Dr. Parker Brightwood, II, and I know that I’m the luckiest woman alive to have you in my life. Now let’s forget about everything that happened this afternoon and enjoy this beautiful night of celebration.”

  They strolled hand in hand, taking in the smells, sights, and sounds of Nedine. Food carts lined the main street, supplying everything from cotton candy and funnel cakes to barbecue and collard greens. Vendors were selling paintings and jewelry, artists were drawing caricature portraits for the adults and painting faces for the children, and musicians were performing a in a variety of genres from bluegrass to soul. But the most dynamic part of all was the array of flowers displayed throughout downtown. The sight and mixture of tulips, wildflowers, roses, azaleas, and chrysanthemums was beautiful and the smell was intoxicating.

  Alexandria was glad to see that her parents were laughing and having fun, looking like a happy-go-lucky couple in love. Tyler and Samantha were checking out the African art display in the middle of the town square, Chase was rocking to the beat with a group of teenagers and young adults gathered in front of the stage where a hip-hop group was performing, and Uncle Maxx was sitting on a bench reminiscing with some of the town’s older residents whom he hadn’t seen since he was home for John Small’s burial service six years ago.

  Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, including Christian, who was engaged in what looked like an intense and flirtatious conversation with an attractive young woman sporting an Angela Davis–like afro. Alexandria couldn’t put her finger on it, but the more she looked at the two, the stranger she felt. She didn’t know if it was her brother’s dangerous and unpredictable energy she sensed, the woman’s, or both combined, but there was an aura hanging over them that she didn’t like. “Don’t let him stress you,” Alexandria said to herself.

  She erased the thought of Christian and his new girl-toy from her mind as she and PJ continued to stroll through the lively crowds. They slowed down when they came up to a small coffee bistro nestled in between a clothing store and a gift shop. Alexandria could feel the vibes coming from the building just by standing outside, and when she looked through the large glass windows and doors, people were packed inside, lining the walls.

  “I wonder what’s going on in there?” Alexandria asked.

  “Let’s go inside and take a look.”

  They walked hand in hand inside the quaint coffee shop, inhaling the flavorful aroma of arabica, robusta, and liberica coffee beans. Every chair was taken, and some patrons were even sitting on the floor. To the side, beautiful pink colored roses and yellow daisies lined a large counter that was filled with cups, condiments, and paper products. When Alexandria heard melodic words being spun to the rhythm of an a cappella delivery, she instantly knew why the small coffee shop was so crowded. It was spoken-word night.

  “Ali, you should see if they’ll let you perform,” PJ said.

  Alexandria looked around the room of relaxed Southern hipsters and searched for the person who she thought was in charge of the lineup. “I wonder if they have a set program or if it’s open mic night?”

  “There’s only one way to find out.”

  “Okay, I’ll go up front and see if I can talk to someone.”

  Alexandria walked up to the front of the room and quickly found the owner. A tall, heavyset pale looking woman with long blond hair, and the thickest Southern accent Victoria had ever heard, stretched out her hand an introduced herself. “I’m Penny Simms, the owner, and this here is the Coffee House. Welcome.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Penny. My name is Alexandria.”

  Alexandria felt as though she was under inspection as Penny eyed her up and down, from her fuchsia-colored backless halter top, to the skinny jeans that hugged her thick thighs and sultry curves, to the jewel-toned sandals that adorned her feet. “You ain’t from ’round here, are ya?” Penny asked.

  “No, ma’am. I’m from Atlanta, and my family and I are in town for the Flower Festival,” Alexandria told her.

  Penny smiled, revealing small pink gums and teeth so large they didn’t look real. Alexandria thought she looked like a cartoon that had come to life. But there was no doubt that Penny was real, and she read Alexandria’s mind. “We’re havin’ open mic tonight. You wanna perform?”

  “Yes, how did you know?”

  “You look like one of them artist types, all flowery and pretty and such. I just kinda figured that’s why you wanted to speak to me.”

  “I’m a regular at a club called The Lazy Day in downtown Atlanta, and I’d love to perform for your audience here.”

  “All righty.” Penny smiled and then paused. “What’cha gonna speak about? World peace or somethin’? From the way you look, maybe somethin’ about fashion or a nice love poem? I only ask ’cause it seems like this is a hard crowd to please tonight.”

  Alexandria looked around the room and saw why Penny had made that statement. There was an eclectic mix of bohemians, hipsters, local good ol’ boys and girls, and sophisticated urbanites who were obviously only in town for the Flower Festival. Alexandria knew from experience that diverse crowds were the hardest because everyone’s tastes were so different. But they were also the perfect crowd for testing out new material, which she planned to do tonight.

  She thought about which new piece she should perform, and she knew she needed to pick a universal theme that everyone could relate to. It came to her. “I’ll perform a piece about love.”

  “Everybody needs a little love,” Penny said with a wink. “I’ll go up and introduce you now.”

  Alexandria stood to the side with anticipation as she looked out into the crowd. She always felt a rush of nervous energy when she was about to go onstage and tonight was no different. When she heard her name, followed by mild applause at best, she took a deep breath and walked up to the microphone across the room. She smiled when she saw PJ giving her a thumbs-up sign from where he was standing against the wall.

  “Good evening,” Alexandria began. “How y’all doing?”

  That question usually warmed up the crowd, as it forced a response that led to engagement, which then spurred interaction. But in this case most of the patrons simply sipped their iced lattes and looked on with bored expressions. She knew she was going to have to connect with the audience on a personal level, draw them in slowly, and then give it to them hard.

  “I’m visiting Nedine with my family, and we’re here not just because of the Flower Festival, but because this is where our roots were planted. My mother’s father lived here, and his father before him. So I come to Nedine standing on the life and legacy of family and love. And that’s what I’m going to speak about tonight. Love.”

  The crowd seemed to perk up a bit, and a few even put their drinks down to listen.

  “Love is just like the flowers this town is celebrating. It starts out as a small seed, and it takes time, patience, and careful attention to make it bloom. It’s a process. The soil has to be cultivated, the temperature has to be right, and the conditions need to be stable so the stem can take root and grow into this,” Alexandria said, pointing to the large vase of colorful flowers sitting on the table beside her. “A beautiful example of love in bloom. Tonight I’m going to talk about how love feels, what it can do, and the beauty it can bring to life.

  When she saw the crowd nodding she knew she had their attention. She looked out at PJ again, who was nodding his head and smiling. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, then opened them as she began.

  “This piece is titled, ‘You Make Me . . .’

  You make me . . . Dream—while I’m still awake, eyes wide open and aware, fully engaged, helping me walk through life without doubt or fear

  You make me . . . Feel—alive with passion, touching me the way I like, igniting a fire that only you can create, paying careful attention to my wants, making sure you give me what I need

  You make me . . . Smile—like a schoolgi
rl when you call my name, hold my hand, drape your coat around my shoulders, and tell me, ‘baby, it’ll be all right’

  You make me . . . Tremble—when you rest your hand upon the small of my back, whisper in my ear, slide your tongue across my lips, and kiss me like I’m the only woman you’ll ever touch or feel You make me . . . Want—to be a better person when you challenge me to be my best, call me out when I’m wrong, acknowledge me when I’m right, and encourage me in every small thing I do

  You make me . . . Proud—when you protect your family, show kindness to strangers, share your humanity with the world, and kneel beside me, head bowed in reverent prayer

  You make me . . . Believe—in fairy tales, and unicorns, and happy endings filled with a pot of gold at the end of a glorious rainbow you make when you smile and your sunshine clears away my tears

  You make me . . . Hope—with the innocence of a child, fighting like a warrior, standing in faith like a tree anchored in what is real, meaningful, and true

  You make me . . . Know—that I can do anything, be anything, and have every single thing I’ve ever hoped for or dared to dream of

  You make me . . . feel loved, worthy, wonderful, beautiful, and free . . . You make me know that I am simply . . . Loved.

  “Thank you,” Alexandria said as she bowed to applause. She stepped away from the microphone and walked back to where Penny was standing as the crowd continued to clap with approval.

  “That was fantastic, young lady! You really brought this crowd to life,” Penny said with a smile as she displayed what looked like a hundred teeth.

  “Thank you, Penny. I’m glad you enjoyed my performance.”

  PJ walked up to her and put his arms around her trim waist, giving her a big hug. “You were great. I loved it.”

  “It was about you, and the way you make me feel. You’re a part of me, and your love is embedded in everything I do.”

  They walked out of the Coffee House just as they’d come in, hand in hand, enjoying the energy and festivities of the night. As they walked back into the main hub of the festival, they could see that the crowd had grown even larger.

  “This afternoon got off to a rocky start, but this evening has been great,” Alexandria said.

  “Yeah, I’m having a really good time.”

  As soon as PJ declared his happy mood, his phone started buzzing. He sighed as he looked down and read his incoming text out loud. Right then, Alexandria knew that things were about to take another turn.

  “I’m here, at the corner of Second Street and Main,” PJ said, reciting the text his father had just sent him.

  Alexandria was glad that PJ had acted surprised when his father had called him earlier this afternoon and told him that he was in Nedine. Parker had explained that he’d decided to come at the last minute, partly because he was curious to get a look at the town where his future daughter-in-law’s roots had been planted, and also because his fatherly instincts told him he needed to be there. “When you’re a parent, you’ll understand where I’m coming from,” Parker had told him.

  Alexandria wished that the circumstances of Parker’s relationship with her parents were different, because if they were, his presence here wouldn’t be an issue. But as things stood, it was a huge issue, and an adversarial one at that. It was a conundrum she was afraid may not ever change.

  Over the last year she’d grown to love Parker like a second father, and just as he’d accepted her unique gift, she’d accepted his unique ways. Unlike PJ, who affectionately called her parents Mom and Pops, Parker preferred to be addressed as Parker—which was actually for the best, as Ted would’ve had a problem with a fatherly title. And there were other things about Parker that she’d discovered and found quite interesting.

  She’d come to learn that he was a little arrogant, a bit of a snob, and he had little patience for people or things who didn’t understand the world as he did. But she also knew and admired the fact that he was fiercely loyal, loved his family, and was a man of his word. Parker was an authentic straight shooter who didn’t pretend. Alexandria appreciated that last quality just as much as she did the fact that he’d raised PJ to be the kind of man she found so easy to love.

  She’d believed Parker when he’d told PJ that he wasn’t there to cause trouble, and that he would stay out of the way of their family’s activities unless invited. After PJ had told him about her conversation with her grandmother, and the purpose of the trip, Parker’s main priority was to make sure PJ was safe, and he was willing to put himself in harm’s way to ensure that nothing bad happened to his only child. But Alexandria also knew that although Parker’s main concern was for his son, he still had feelings for her mother, and she was afraid of where that could lead.

  Alexandria watched as PJ texted his father back. “I told him to give us ten minutes and we’ll walk over to where he is. But I can’t lie, I’m not comfortable with the fact that he’s here.”

  “He probably isn’t either, but there’s nothing we can do about that now.”

  “When I talked to him this afternoon, he told me that he couldn’t explain it, but he felt like he needed to be here this weekend. He said his gut told him to come so he had to listen.”

  Alexandria nodded. “I believe him, and I completely understand that feeling. Grandma Allene always says that your gut is God talking to you, and when He speaks, you have to listen. I can’t blame him for wanting to protect you. You’re his child. I’d go to the end of the earth and back to protect Gary.”

  “Me too.”

  PJ looked across the street at Victoria and Ted, who were laughing like little kids as Ted played the balloon and dart game, trying to win a prize for his wife. “We need to tell your parents that my dad is here.”

  “Yes, I suppose you’re right. It wouldn’t be good if they accidentally ran into each other, so it’s best my mom and dad know.”

  Alexandria put on a smile as they walked toward her parents. Although Victoria and Ted were only a few yards away, the distance seemed as though it were a mile. Alexandria was in no hurry to approach them, though, because she knew that once she did their entire mood and evening would change.

  “Hey, you two!” Victoria said with excitement. “Look what your father just won for me.” She held a huge teddy bear that had a big red bow tied around its neck in front of her. “Isn’t this the cutest thing!”

  Ted smiled. “Anything for you, my love.”

  Victoria gave him a soft kiss on his lips as she held her bear tightly. “This is the best night I’ve had in a long time.” She smiled wide as she looked at Alexandria and PJ. “I hope you two lovebirds are having as good a time as we are. I’m so glad we all came here to Nedine. This is just what our family needed.”

  Alexandria felt PJ’s hand tighten around hers as he cleared his throat. “I wanted to come over and let you know that my dad is in town.”

  Victoria looked at PJ as if he’d just asked her to solve a complex math equation, and Ted’s expression was equally as puzzling.

  “What?” Victoria asked.

  Ted dug his hands into the pockets of his well-tailored khakis and stared at Victoria. “You invited him here?”

  “Hell no!” Victoria immediately spat out. “Why would I do a stupid thing like that?”

  Alexandria knew her mother was upset because she apparently hadn’t taken the time to think about what had come out of her mouth, or how bad it would sound, before it had slipped out. Parker’s presence made both her parents uneasy, for different reasons, but it ended in the same result—tension.

  Alexandria wished she could turn back the hands of time. If she could, she would have never gone to visit her Grandpa John and Nana Elizabeth the summer that Victoria had narrowly escaped having an affair with Parker. She knew that her mere presence would have kept her mother from any free-time mischief. But hindsight was something she knew she shouldn’t entertain because, as her grandma Allene had always told her, intervening in things could end up making a bad situation ev
en worse.

  “If you didn’t ask him to come, why is he here?” Ted asked, looking at Victoria with suspicion

  PJ spoke up. “Last week, I told my dad that Ali and I were coming here to Nedine, for a family trip before the wedding. When he asked me why we’d decided to plan a trip on such short notice, just two weeks before the wedding, I told him what Grandma Allene had told Ali.”

  “Uh-huh,” Ted said in an even voice.

  “I think the unique circumstances of this visit made him feel a little uncomfortable and overprotective. That’s why he wanted to come here.”

  Victoria bit her bottom lip and listened, still looking confused and now slightly agitated. Alexandria could tell that her father was doing a remarkably good job of maintaining his composure, even though the vein in his right temple had popped up and was waving hello.

  “He’s not here to cause trouble,” PJ continued. “He said he’s not going to come around unless he’s invited. He just wants to make sure that I’m okay.”

  Victoria shook her head. “You’re a grown man. Why does he feel the need to come look after you like you’re a child?”

  Alexandria could see that Parker’s arrival in town was more upsetting to her parents, especially her mother, than she’d thought. She knew she had to step in. “Mom, if someone like me told you that Christian or me, or anyone you love, was going on a trip because a nearly two-hundred-year-old ghost told them to, wouldn’t you be concerned about our safety?”

  Victoria turned her head to the side and looked off into the distance as she mumbled to herself.

  “Where is he?” Ted asked.

  “He’s up the street on the corner of Second and Main . . . waiting for us . . . Ali and me.”