by Phenomenon
Shortly after lunch, Kenisha was called into the office. The manager asked if she was talking about religion. Kenisha informed him that she wasn’t until the coworker offered to pray for her so she politely informed the lady that God loved her too. Kenisha explained that the there was no controversy and that the lady was simply offended that a lesbian could have the audacity to claim God’s love for herself. Kenisha explained that she would’ve never discussed religion which was a forbidden policy at the company, had the young lady not began the conversation enabling Kenisha to believe that she was receptive. The manager understood the situation but after reviewing the matter, he had no choice but to suspend them both.
Taurus
Around 3:00pm while Ginger was making lunch, Taurus heard Kenisha come through the door. She could tell by the look on Kenisha’s face that something was wrong. “What’s wrong? Why are you home so early?” Taurus asked.
Kenisha placed her things on the floor by the door. “They suspended me without pay for responding to a girl who heard about our wedding and said that she would pray for us. When I told her that God loved us too, she complained to the manager and he suspended us both for discussing religion on the work floor.” Kenisha pressed herself into Taurus’ chest and folded like a child. She was stressed unhappy with the situation. It seemed to keep piling up. “How could this happen? I did what God told us to do. I was just trying to be the hammer. Was I wrong?” Kenisha asked as Ginger and Fillmore watched from the sidelines examining the dynamics of their daughters’ marriage. “No honey. You were right to tell her that God loves us too even if she didn’t want to hear it. And her prejudice got her suspended as well so at least she learned a lesson.” Taurus said as she comforted her.
Fillmore spoke from the chair at the breakfast nook. “Some of the time God changes things up in a way that we can’t understand until much later. If God told you to share that message then He won’t penalize you for doing His will. This is what He designed. So I guess now is the perfect time to discuss the festival.”
Ginger responded quickly. “What festival?”
“Well, I don’t know what to call it just yet.” Fillmore admitted. “But when you shared with your mother everything that had been going on here I went into prayer and talked to God about it and it came on my spirit to have this festival. I reached out to some of my very popular minister and pastor friends and told them what I’d been called to do and they wanted to join in and its’ gotten much bigger than I thought it’d be. We’re gonna come together here in Chicago and do a large festival where we invite everybody and specifically those in the gay community and welcome them into the Body of Christ and just love on them. Minister Knight is sponsoring it with me and it’s going to be free. We’ll just ask for donations but it won’t be required. We’ll have music and performances and an altar call in the middle of Washington Park. We called in some favors yesterday and got the permit for a month from now. We want to make it as huge as possible. All we need is a name.” Fillmore opened the floor for ideas.
Without further consideration Kenisha threw her hands up to signify everyone to stop thinking. “God Loves Me Too! That’s the name of the festival. It’s the God Loves Me Too Festival! We’re calling all odd balls, outcasts, regular folks, gay folks, bisexual folks, transgender folks, molested folks, prostitutes, drug addicts, drug dealers, alcoholics. Everybody! We call everybody together and teach ‘em to say God loves me too! Because that’s the first step; it’s believing that God loves us enough that we too can come to Him and invite Him in. We’ve always been told that if you do this and that then God won’t do this and that for you and that’s asinine to think that if we aren’t perfect that God won’t want us. He said come as you are, not fix yourself and then come to me. That’s where the fixing gets done, in God’s face. I’m saying though, if the Wizard of Oz accepted broken people and then fixed them, how can people try to tell me that we can’t skip down the road to see God so that He can give us some courage, a heart, and a brain?! Yes! That’s the name of the festival and that’s all there is to it!” Kenisha dusted off her hands and went into the kitchen to help Ginger finish cooking. Everyone looked at her certainty and dared not to challenge her. They all smiled and went with it.
Chapter 24: The Shadows in the Window
Corey
Corey had been home in hiding since his mother’s name came out on the dead girl’s closeted lesbian list. Every person in every church inside and outside of the city and on Facebook and on Twitter was talking about the suicide note that Sister Rochelle had left behind. It’d sparked a debate about the treatment of homosexuals in the black church seeing that the young lady did choose to take her life on the altar as a sign that something was wrong…on the altar. It was even featured on the front page of Yahoo for 2 days in a row. Corey never cared to know about his mother’s sexual exploits but he then understood what his friend Drew was referring to in their conversation weeks prior. Corey hadn’t spoken to Kenisha about it but he’d decided to go by his mom’s place to check on her. Things couldn’t have been easy for her at that time. She was just moments ago harassing Kenisha and Taurus about their sexual orientation to only allow a few days to pass and then she was outted by a dead woman that she couldn’t combat.
Corey prepared to turn on the cameras to leave the house when he saw a blinking light. He didn’t know what the blinking light on the remote meant but after fooling around with it he was returned to the recorded footage of the day that Taurus visited. It clearly showed his friend Drew’s car pull in front of the apartment. Caroll leaned over the driver side with no one else in the car, pulled out the paintball gun and shot the side of Taurus’s door. She smiled deviously with her tongue hanging out of her mouth and pulled off. Corey dropped his keys and sat back down on the couch. He sighed and poured a drink of Cognac as he picked up the phone to give his sisters the terrible news. He’d finally understood that he couldn’t be a positive person and stay in his mother’s life. She had nothing positive for herself so she had nothing positive to give her children.
Kenisha
Kenisha had been trying to forget that she’d ever heard about her mother’s name on that list. There was too much going on for her to stop to consider her mother, especially since her mother rarely to ever stopped to consider Kenisha. When the phone rang Kenisha saw her brother’s number and felt sixk to her stomach. She knew that he was calling about their momma in some shape or form because Caroll had been the bane of their existence since they were born and whenever happiness showed up, Caroll would show up to ruin it. Yet and still Kenisha answered anyway. “Hey Bro!”
Corey gave a hollow greeting. “Hey sis. Listen I need to talk to Taurus but I gotta tell you first. I caught the person who shot her car on the new camera system. It was momma. So she needs to pay for the damages and stuff so I’m gonna tell Taurus now. Can you put her on the phone?”
Kenisha slowly handed the phone to Taurus in front of Reggie and Ginger. The look on her face was that of exhaustion. “Good God! What now?!” Said Reggie. After Taurus finished the call and thanked Corey, Taurus hung up the phone. She told her parents who’d vandalized the car and even explained about the suicide list and everything in between. Taurus then stood up and grabbed her jacket. She asked Kenisha to ride with her over to Caroll’s house. When Taurus motioned toward the door she heard God’s voice. “Sit Down!”
Taurus threw herself back into the seat. Kenisha looked at Taurus like she’d lost her mind. She was about to ask her what her problem was when God then spoke to Kenisha. “Go! And take Ginger!” Kenisha was thrown off. She didn’t understand God’s reasons but she knew better than to do the opposite. She asked Ginger to come with her to her mother’s house to request that she pay for the damages of the car. When they pulled out of the driveway Fillmore watched them from the window and said to Taurus. “Should we be praying about this?” Taurus looked at Reggie, handed him a glass of wine and said. “Oh yes!” Then they laughed in unison.
&nbs
p; Ginger
Ginger was pissed. She had been waiting to meet this heifer that had some grown man fighting her baby girl. Then had the nerve to shoot up her car claiming to be so self-righteous and straight while she was screwing some boy child and sleeping around with women on the side. Ginger also didn’t know the whole story of Kenisha’s childhood but she could imagine how terrible it was. Ginger knew that she wasn’t perfect but she didn’t begin having problems with Taurus until she was older and she never stopped loving her. Kenisha’s mother had some problems that no one really wanted to discuss but Ginger was about to confront those problems head on with no regret or restraint. She was ready to get some!
When they arrived it was dark outside and the evening had begun to set in. Caroll was sitting on the front porch. She noticed Kenisha’s car and walked down the stairs to get a closer look. Kenisha and Ginger stepped out of the car and Caroll wondered who the familiar looking woman was. Something about her was familiar but Caroll knew that she’d never seen her before. Ginger walked so close in Caroll’s face that she appeared to tower over her with the mimicking height of her daughter Taurus. Caroll was intimidated and said nothing. Close enough to feel Caroll’s breath on her face, Ginger said. “Let me tell you one got damn thang!” Kenisha knew that it was immediately about to jump off so she moved a few steps back. Ginger continued with flailing hand gestures that brought about attention from the eavesdropping neighbors. “The next time you wanna start a fight with somebody you come get down with me cause if you drive your old homely looking ass over to my daughter’s house or anywhere else that you know her to be and shoot her car with a paintball gun like a little coward and drive off, I’mma whoop yo’ ass! How’re you out here playing holy Holly when you runnin’ round bumpin cats with some dead church chick? But you got to nerve to judge my babies.” The now obvious spectators gasped loudly and laughed at the reference to the suicide note with Caroll’s name. Ginger put her finger in Caroll’s face and demanded. “You will pay my daughter for her car door to be cleaned, every dime.”
Carol broke her silence and indifferent look with a harsh response that was no less ferocious that Ginger’s. “I ain’t paying for a muthafuckin’ thang hoe! Your daughter turned my daughter into a raging bull dyke and she deserves every thang she gets. I hope she burn in hell like the sorry piece of shit that she is.”
Reminiscent of the infamous scene in the movie 300, Ginger lifted her leg and kicked Caroll in the stomach sending her flying back onto the ground. She tried to catch her breath, finally pulling herself up onto her feet Caroll said. “Oh you wanna fight, well come on in the house and fight then!” Ginger was confused. “I just kicked you in the stomach outside. What do you have in the house? We can fight right now.”
Caroll ignored the question and continued to challenge Ginger to fight her inside her house. She offered so many times that even Kenisha was befuddled. “Look in the window.” God’s voice rang in Kenisha’s head. Kenisha turned to look inside one of the windows of the house. Although all the lights were on, it appeared that dark large shapes were moving past the window. The shapes appeared to be floating in many directions with erratic and oddly stretched movements. There were tall figures and there were countless numbers of them. The shadows almost completely blocked all of the light. Kenisha without hesitation grabbed Ginger and began pulling her toward the car. Ginger had decided to keep fighting. Kenisha grabbed her again and yelled. “There are demons in that house; all through it. That’s why she already has a black eye. That’s why she’s outside Ginger. Even she can’t stand to be in there.” Ginger stopped and looked at Caroll. Her face seemed tormented and it was something not right about her eyes. She was saying such harsh things but her eyes seemed to be pleading for help. Kenisha knew not to fall for the pleading look. What she’d learned over the years is that her mother will take everyone down with her but will risk her life to save no one. Kenisha left her mother there, forced Ginger into the car and drove off.
On the drive home Kenisha called Corey. When he answered she blurted out. “Whatever you do, stay away from momma’s house you hear me?! She is going to get you killed. We don’t have a mother anymore. You got it! We don’t have a mother?!” Corey heard his sister and she was always willing to do anything to protect him so he knew that if she was saying it, then it must’ve been true. “Come over to the house and I’ll tell you what happened. Spend the night with me.” Kenisha asked.
Corey confessed. “I can’t drive right now Kenisha. I’ve been drinking but I’ll call a cab if you want me to Big Sis.” Kenisha noticed that Corey’s words were slurred. She agreed that he should take a cab and agreed to pay for it.
Chapter 25: The Confessions of a Fatherless Child
Corey
When Corey arrived to the house, the rest of them had calmed down from the situation. Kenisha had filled everyone in and they had prayed over everyone to assure that no spirit had hitchhiked home with them. Corey stumbled into the house completely drunk with his bag half empty. He’d wasted the contents in the cab. The cab driver helped bring the things to the door and accepted Taurus’s apology in addition to the ride fare and a hefty tip. Corey didn’t know that Ginger and Reggie were in town. He smiled brightly and hugged them both. He slid into a seat and asked his sister for a glass of water.
“You seem pretty juiced there, boy.” Reggie said to Corey with a concerned smile. “Why’d you drink that much? It don’t take that much to get where you need to be.” Corey responded with the truth because he didn’t have the ability to lie anymore. “Well, my daddy was an alcoholic. I didn’t understand it cause he had it all.” Corey hiccupped in the middle of his explanation then slurred and continued. “He had a wife and two great kids. I don’t even know why he was drinking anyway but I guess the apple don’t fall far huh?” There was silence in the room for a moment and then Corey said while pointing toward Kenisha. “You know she shot ‘em don’t you?” Ginger’s and Fillmore’s eyes widened like cartoons but it didn’t stop Corey from talking. Kenisha felt ashamed as her brother continued with his drunken tale. “Yep. She…she shot ‘em right in front of me. He’d punch me in the eye and cut my lid and my eye was bleeding and black and my momma was outside naked and dad was drunk and Kenisha took me in the room to hide me and help me. Then he said…he said…he said” Corey began to crack. His voice changed slightly as he pulled himself back together to tell them the story. He stuttered and hiccupped more. “He said, I’m gonna kill you niggas. You too bitch! You stupid bitch! You gonna die bitch! You gonna die!” Corey imitated his abusive drunk dad talking to Kenisha on that night. It was even more surreal as Corey was doing it so well because he too was drunk. “Then she pulled out a gun and shot him two whole times. It…It…It was awesome!” Corey laughed while gripping his bottled water. He laughed with tears coming down his face. He turned to his sister who was fighting back her own cry. Corey said. “I always loved you for taking care of me. I don’t blame you. I would’ve done it for you too. I owe my life to you. I p..p..promise I’ll love you forever. I’ll never leave you. I’ll never leave you sister. Thank you for fighting for me. Momma never fought for me. She let him do anything to me when you weren’t there.” Kenisha couldn’t hold back her emotions. She started shaking and covered her face with her hands. The mere thought of the things that her brother hadn’t shared was too much to bear.
Corey sipped his water and crossed his legs in a cool way. He sat back with his arm on the back of the chair. “We ain’t got no daddy and now we ain’t got no momma. But let’s be honest. We ain’t never had a momma. That’s why it didn’t shock me that you ended up with a woman Kenisha, cause we both need the same thing…j..just a woman to love us. But we don’t have it. Nope, just two hood ass fuck ups that nobody ever wanted.”
Reggie jumped from his chair and grabbed Corey by the back of his shirt and hugged him. “Don’t you say that boy don’t you ever say that. You have a daddy! I’ll be your father. I will BE your father. I want you. I love yo
u!” Corey broke down on Fillmore’s shoulder. He wept saying, “I never knew what I did. Never knew what I did so wrong to him.” Fillmore hugged him and pleaded with him. “You have to stop drinking like this. You’re nothing like him. You’re better than him. Slow down, just slow down. I got you. I got you son!”
After a long embrace Reggie pulled back from him. He said, “You got a momma and you got a daddy. Now we ain’t perfect but we will love you and be here for you, teach you and build you up. You’re not thrown away, neither of you. Both of you can have us.”
Ginger wiped her face and stood from her seat. She hugged Corey tight like only a mother could. He called her momma. Ginger told him. “I’m not perfect but I love hard. I can cook and I can fight.” Corey pulled back from her and laughed. “That’s all momma’s need to do right?” And everyone in the room laughed and the mood was lightened. It was therapeutic for Corey to finally let out his pain. It was confirmed that although Kenisha and Corey had lost so much, they’d gained something that they’d needed for a lifetime. Once the emotions had leveled out, they all prayed together, had a bite to eat and retired to bed after the longest day ever.
