Family Business

by Vanessa Miller

  ~~~~

  As Saul touched down on earth, he closed his wings and adapted to his human form. Today he was working as a carrier for a local travel company. Saul had a very special package to deliver to the Executive Vice President of a small but growing tech firm. Garland Hansbro ran the marketing department and Calvin Johnson reported directly to him as Director of Marketing.

  “I have a package for Mr. Hansbro,” Saul informed the receptionist.

  Without looking up from her desk, she held out her hand. “Give it to me. I’ll make sure he gets it.”

  Shaking his head, Saul said, “I was told that only Mr. Hansbro could sign for this package.”

  The woman turned her head towards Saul, she looked, up, up and up. “My, aren’t we tall. What happened, did you blow your knee out or something?”

  “Huh?” Saul didn’t understand the woman.

  “You should be on somebody’s basketball court, dunking on poor defenseless seven footers. What are you doing delivering packages?”

  Smiling, Saul said, “It’s my job ma’am.”

  She pointed to a group of chairs that lined the wall. “Have a seat, I’ll see if Mr. Hansbro is available.”

  Within five minutes, the receptionist informed him that Mr. Hansbro would see him. She led him through a cubicle filled room. They turned a corner and Saul was greeted by a long line of offices. Mr. Hansbro’s office was at the far end. The man’s office was spacious with ceiling to floor windows that provided a perfect city view.

  Hansbro was 6’7. He stood up and shook Saul’s hand. “I need you to stick around for a little while so my team can stop thinking that I’m some freak of nature.”

  “I get that all the time,” Saul told him. But inside he was reminding himself to work on the height issue next time he needed to be seen on earth.

  Saul handed over the package. “I just need you to sign for this.”

  “What is it?” Hansbro asked, as he took the package.

  “It’s an all-expense paid trip to Myrtle Beach this weekend, for you and your wife. My company would like to meet with executives to show off our newly renovated resort. It’s the perfect place for an employee retreat because we not only have golf, dining and swimming; but we have several meeting rooms for break-out sessions or large employee meetings.”

  “Sounds great, I’d love to go.” Hansbro was getting excited. But then the light in his eyes slowly flickered out. “But my wife and I have plans with the kids this weekend. I wish this wasn’t so last minute.”

  “You can bring the kids along. Why don’t you give your wife a call and see if she can rearrange some things.”

  Hansbro was back to beaming. “If we can bring the kids, I’m sure she will want to go.”

  “And if she doesn’t,” the receptionist spoke up, “I’d be more than happy to take that package off your hands.” She tried to laugh it off, but she was serious.

  Hansbro got his wife on the phone, but she wasn’t having it. Saul could hear her scream through the phone, something about, “you always break your word to these kids. As far as I’m concerned, Gary’s baseball game and Brianna’s recital are more important than some fake vacation that will just turn out to be about business and not about the family at all.”

  “What am I supposed to do with this package? It’s totally free and you’re just going to pass that up?” Hansbro pleaded.

  “Yes, let’s pass it up. Give it to one of your executives and let them check the place out. If it turns out to be as wonderful as this guy says, then you and I can go there after Gary’s last game this season.”

  Saul smiled as Hansbro hung up the phone. Hansbro looked confused by the fact that his wife would pass this trip up. But Hansbro didn’t know about the angel Saul had dispatched to his home earlier that morning who’d convinced her that children come first, vacations can wait.

  Shaking his head, Hansbro said, “It’s a no go. But thanks so much for thinking of us.”

  “You really don’t want to pass this up, Mr. Hansbro,” Saul said. “Do you have another person you would feel comfortable sending on the trip?”

  The receptionist was jumping up and down, with her hand raised. “Pick me... pick me.”

  “I’m sorry,” he told her. “If it’s an executive trip, I have to send one of my directors.”

  She stopped jumping and put her hand down. “I understand.”

  “Can you ask Calvin Johnson to come to my office, please,” Hansbro told her.

  Saul looked to heaven. He could feel Captain Aaron’s eyes on him as the mission was about to be completed. Katherine Johnson was a praying woman, she’d covered her son in prayer since he was a child. So, Saul wasn’t going to let Don Shepherd get his hands on what belonged to God.

  ~~~~

  Demetrius and the gang went to Denny’s for breakfast as soon as they woke the next morning. They were laughing and joking with each other as if they were on vacation, rather than running for their lives. But laughter was good like a medicine, so they laughed on.

  Coach and Katherine excused themselves from the table. They wanted to find a pay phone so they could call their son to let him know they were coming for a visit.

  Once they were gone, Angel asked Demetrius, “What do you think is happening back home?”

  He leaned back in his seat, thought about it for a moment. “My father has figured out that I didn’t get on the plane. They’re probably looking for me... I wouldn’t doubt if they’ve found my SUV by now.”

  “But how, we didn’t leave it in Dayton.”

  “My father has connections all over Ohio. He’ll find it.” Demetrius’ lip twisted as he added, “I should have left the key in it. Lord knows what they’ll do to my SUV if they can’t drive it.”

  “What do you think your dad will do about Coach Johnson?”

  “Once they see that Coach Johnson doesn’t plan to come back to town, Dad will let it go. There’s no reason to kill Coach if he’s not asking for his money, right?”

  “Right,” Angel agreed as she put her hand over Demetrius’ hand. “I don’t think I even thanked you for what you’re doing.”

  “You don’t need to thank me, Coach means a lot to me.”

  She shook her head. “I’m not just talking about what you’re doing for Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. I want to thank you for keeping your word about taking me home to see my mother.”

  “Girl, when are you going to realize that I am a man of my word?”

  “I’m starting to get it. But forgive me for being a little slow to catch on. I haven’t had many examples of men who keep their word.” Her eyes filled with sadness as she added. “I used to be able to count on my father, but then he changed.”

  Coach Johnson and Katherine slid back into the booth.

  Demetrius asked them, “Did you talk to your son?”

  Katherine shook her head. “No one answered. I even called his office because he works at least one Saturday out of the month, but no one answered the phone there either.”

  “Maybe he’s just out for breakfast like us,” Angel said. “I’m sure they will be home by the time we get there.”

  ~~~~

  Angel nodded off in the car. As she slept she kept hearing someone tell her, “Don’t go to Colombia, you need to go home first.” Over and over she heard those words until she was jolted out of her sleep. She saw the sign for Winston-Salem and pointed at it, “Turn off here.”

  Demetrius’s brow rose. “We’re going to Columbia first, remember?”

  Vigorously shaking her head, Angel told him. “I’ve got a real bad feeling about this. We need to go to Winston-Salem before we drop the Johnson’s off. I don’t know why, but I feel it in my gut.”

  “That might be God trying to tell you something,” Katherine said. “I know a lady who gets premonitions. I think we should take the next exit,” Katherine said firmly.

  Demetrius took the exit to get off the highway.

  Angel had Demetrius drive over by the Wake Forest Un
iversity Resident Hall. Since her mother divorced her father, all she’d been able to afford was rent on a seven hundred square foot, two bedroom home that the college students didn’t even want.

  “Your mom lives here?” Demetrius asked.

  Angel nodded. “When dad left, he took his money with him.” The sadness in her voice must have been thick, because Katherine reached from the back and put a hand on her shoulder.

  “Don’t you worry about that. God has a way of taking care of the injustices of this world. I’ve trusted Him all my life, and won’t stop until they put me six feet under.”

  Angel was astonished by Katherine’s statement. The woman was fleeing for her life because her husband was a gambler, but she still trusted in God. Meanwhile, Angel had lost her faith and trust years ago.

  Angel was nervous about seeing her mother after being gone for so many years, but somehow Katherine’s presence gave her the strength she needed to see this through. “Thank you for allowing us to come to Winston-Salem before driving on to Columbia. I know you want to see your own family, but it means a lot to me to have you are here.”

  Katherine smiled at Angel and she said, “I’m enjoying my road trip with you, so don’t give it a second thought. Now you go see your mother. She’s waited a long time for this moment. Don’t make her wait any longer.”

  Angel got out of the SUV and slowly walked up to the house. She hesitated a moment as all of her brokenness replayed itself in her head. She was still so very ashamed of what she had become. But this was her mother, she wouldn’t judge her... just love her, because that’s what moms do. She shook the nervousness off and knocked on the door.

  A tall black boy wearing a Wake Forest University jersey opened the door and stared at her.

  “Um... I’m looking for Maxine Barnes.”

  He kept staring, but said nothing.

  “She’s my mother,” Angel explained further. “She lives here with my brother Ronny.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s no Maxine or Ronny here. This is my house. I’m a medical student at Wake Forest.”

  Deflated, Angel got back in the SUV and told them. “She doesn’t live here anymore. My own mother moves and I didn’t know anything about it.”

  “When’s the last time you spoke with your mother?” Coach Johnson asked.

  “I left home when I was sixteen. So, it’s been almost three years. But I always pictured her here in this house, peering out the window, waiting on the day I decided to come back home. But I guess they moved on without me.”

  The door to the house opened and the guy she’d spoken to ran over to the car. He knocked on the driver’s side window and Demetrius rolled it down.

  “One of my buddies knows your mom,” he told Angel. “He said she’s normally at Full Gospel Church on Saturdays and Sundays.”

  “But that’s my father’s church,” Angel said, thinking that there was some kind of mistake.

  ~~~~

  “Ain’t nobody home, Al. The beds are made, no dishes in the sink. I don’t think they’ve been home all night. But nothing in the house indicates they had travel plans. Because most people leave something in the trash, on the table or a desk with hotel or flight info. We didn’t find a thing.”

  Al was holding the phone listening to the report. He bit into the tooth pick he had been picking his teeth with and spat it on the ground. “Okay, just stake out the place for a while to see if his son shows up.”

  Don was standing next to Al as he hung up the phone. “Nothing?”

  “Like they just disappeared or something,” Al confirmed.

  “Maybe Sam called and told his kid to get out of dodge.” Don’s lip curled in anger as he crumpled up the cup of coffee he’d been drinking and threw it in the trash. “You know what burns me up? When Demetrius was a kid, Johnson was always patting him on the back... giving him “atta boys” for practically nothing. So, now my kid thinks that Johnson is some great guy, and I’m just the scum who put clothes on his back and made sure he didn’t go hungry.”

  “Always some Do-gooder getting in the middle of family business and messing things up.”

  “Exactly,” Don agreed. “But this time Johnson is going to pay for causing my boy to disrespect me like this.”

  Al was down for whatever. He said, “What do you think we should do next?”

  “Let’s go visit Mo. See if Demetrius confided in his friend.”

  Fourteen

  Angel had been twelve years old the last time she stepped foot inside Full Gospel Church. It was the day that her parents announced to the church that they were divorcing. Her brother had only been ten at the time, but even so, he and Angel held onto each other and bawled their eyes out. When they wouldn’t stop crying, her dad, the great pastor of Full Gospel Church had asked the ushers to remove them from their spot on the front pew.

  He’d acted as if they had done something wrong, when all the time it had been him. He had been the one who cheated. He had been the one who hadn’t even fought for his marriage, just allowed her mom to throw him out. She had vowed that day, as she and her brother had been relegated to a back room so that the congregation wouldn’t see just how badly his actions had torn up the family, that she would never step foot into this church again.

  But what Angel didn’t understand is why her mother had come back? The guy at their old house said that her mother was here every Saturday and Sunday. Why? Angel didn’t have long to ponder the question, because when she opened the doors to the sanctuary she saw her mother behind the pulpit. She wasn’t standing though, she was seated in a chair, her voice booming as she talked passionately to a crowd of about a hundred people;

  Maxine Barnes was saying, “I thank each and every one of you as we all stand together against the sex trade that is going on, not only in faraway countries, but also in our own land. We might have children who are out there lost and being forced to sell their bodies, but I truly believe that God is smiling down on us as we work to rescue other children out of this land of darkness. And one day, we too shall be reunited with our own children.

  “So, as we head out again today, please remember, that what you do for someone else, God will make happen for you. Ever since the day my niece told me that my little girl was trapped in a world of prostitution, I’ve been on the battle field. It’s been many years, but I still believe that God will answer my prayers. Do you believe it too?” she shouted out the question.

  Those in attendance raised their hands and shouted back, “I believe.”

  Katherine whispered in Angel’s ear. “I don’t think she forgot about you.”

  “But she’s got it all wrong,” Angel protested. “I’m not a prostitute.”

  “You don’t know what the devil would have gotten you into on them streets if it hadn’t been for your mother praying.” Katherine told her.

  Oh yes, Angel was well aware of the many things ‘the devil’ had gotten her involved in and the things Demetrius had saved her from. But now she wondered if Demetrius had been the one to save her or if it had been her mother’s prayers. She immediately scratched that thought, because if God had wanted to do something for her, He could have done it when she was twelve years old and constantly praying that her parents would get back together.

  “Grab a stack of pamphlets as you head out today. Those girls might be afraid to talk to us for fear that their pimp might see them. But if they read the pamphlet, it tells them where to go for shelter.”

  Angel then noticed that her mother was slow to stand. She pointed at something towards the front pew and then her father ran up to the podium with a cane. Maxine then used the cane to stand up and then her father helped her down the three steps.

  “What happened to my mother?”

  Demetrius thought Angel was asking the question of him, he shook his head as he asked, “She wasn’t using a cane before you left?”

  “Not at all. She was very active and vibrant.” Angel didn’t wait any longer, she ha
nded DeMarcus to Demetrius and then rushed down the aisle to see about her mother.

  Maxine’s head lifted as she descended the last step. Her voice could be heard through the sanctuary as she screamed, “Oh my Lord. It’s my baby. She’s come home... Thank You, Jesus. Angel has come back home!”

  ~~~~

  Demetrius gave them a minute, then he and DeMarcus followed Angel down the aisle. As he got closer he heard Angel say to her mom, “I’m not a prostitute, why are you telling people that I am?”

  Her mother looked confused. Her arm had been around Angel. It dropped as she looked into Angel’s eyes, as if she would find the truth within the depths of those beautiful brown eyes. “The week your cousin went to jail, she called her mother asking for money. I drove my sister all the way to Dayton so we could visit her. I begged her to tell me where you were. But she said she didn’t know... told me that some man was taking you from city to city selling you for money.”

  Demetrius shook his head. When you can’t trust family, you can’t trust nobody. Angel could have already been home with her mother, if that snake in the grass had just been honest. He reached the group and handed DeMarcus to Angel. She smiled at him.

  Angel switched DeMarcus from one hip to the other. She then turned to her mom. “I came home because I wanted to introduce you to your grandson.”

  Maxine and Marvin were both silent as they stared at the toddler. But then Maxine reached out. “Can I hold him?”

  Angel handed DeMarcus over to her mother as she told him, “Go to your grandmother.”

  Maxine light heartedly corrected her. “He can call me Nana. I’m too young to be called grandmother.”

  Meanwhile, Marvin was looking directly at Demetrius. His beeper had gone off twice while he was standing with them. He’d glanced at it and saw that Mo was sending him 911 signals. He ignored it and hooked the beeper back to his pants.

  Then Marvin asked his daughter, “Who is this young man standing next to you, Angel?”

  Angel’s eyes shone with love as she looked up at Demetrius. She put an arm around his waist as she gulped hard and then said, “This is my fiancé. I know that we’ve done things a little backward by having DeMarcus first. But don’t worry, because we will be getting married very soon.” Her face looked like it would break from smiling so hard as she told those lies.