My Wife My Baby...And Him

by Shelia E. Bell

  Holy Rock, under his leadership, was moving forward. Almost every Sunday, and sometimes during midweek services, they were taking in new members. Hezekiah was carving new ground for himself and setting a new standard of operation for the mega church.

  He had made a vast number of changes to Holy Rock, which he believed would improve the growth of the church and at the same time allow him to add his own set of pastoral footprints to the ministry. He had ruffled a few feathers along the way, first by replacing Stiles’ longtime assistant, Sister Gloria with a much younger, and Caucasian assistant, named Juliana Webb.

  Juliana was not a member of Holy Rock when he first met her. It was while attending a Pastor’s Prayer Breakfast sponsored by one of the other churches that he was introduced to her. She was one of the volunteers who helped plan the annual citywide Pastor’s Prayer Breakfast. In talking to her, he learned that she had been an executive assistant at a major company, but because of economic problems, the company was forced to close its doors, leaving Juliana unemployed. Hezekiah decided to bring her on board, believing that she would be loyal to him. He wanted a fresh group of people around him who would be just as dedicated and committed to him as those Stiles Graham surrounded himself with.

  He replaced the armor bearers with men he felt would better serve him. Hezekiah didn’t stop there. His biggest revamping came when he dismissed and then replaced eight of the twelve deacons who had served with Pastor and Stiles. Eyebrows raised and shockwaves spilled through the church when members heard that Deacon Jones was one of them, along with four of the seven trustees. This was all done as part of what Pastor McCoy called the Church Revitalization and Reorganization Ministry, which in layman’s terms meant nothing more than getting rid of the old and replacing it with the new – his crew.

  Hezekiah, unlike his predecessors Stiles and Pastor, was a hands-on type of pastor who insisted on studying the financial records himself, seeing that he held an associate’s degree in accounting from a community college outside of Chicago. It was almost as if he was treating Holy Rock like a small church where the pastor assumed the role of treasurer, secretary, building engineer, the whole nine yards. Only Hezekiah mostly concentrated on the financial aspects of Holy Rock.

  Fancy addressed her concern to Hezekiah about him being too involved with the church finances. She reminded him that it was his illegal financial dealing at previous churches that led to them doing prison time. She emphasized the importance of allowing the finance administrator to carry out his job, and for him to concentrate on being the shepherd of Holy Rock.

  Hezekiah dismissed his wife’s warnings. He had his own agenda, and it included making sure he had total access to the church’s financial records. He received, in addition to his salary, two high limit credit cards, one primarily for his use and the other for Fancy. He made sure that he signed off on all financial transactions. Unlike large congregations such as Holy Rock, Hezekiah could withdraw money from the church’s bank account without the approval of the trustees or deacons.

  Despite her concern about some of the changes Hezekiah made, Fancy was having just as good a time as Hezekiah. She fitted the role of a first lady too, in Hezekiah’s eyes. She was not only jazzy in her dress, in the way she carried herself, but she was smart and ambitious. She had basically revamped several of the ministries at Holy Rock, starting with the Marriage Ministry and the Youth and Young Adult Ministry.

  When Detria was the first lady, she worked more with the children’s ministry, but Fancy loved working with the older kids, something that surprisingly Xavier seemed to enjoy. He had met new friends, and even called himself having a girlfriend. Yes, things were working out for the McCoy’s.

  Khalil’s time at the detention center was coming to an end in the next several weeks. Fancy looked forward to the day she would have both of her sons with her in Memphis.

  “Hezekiah.” Fancy walked over to where her husband was perched behind his mahogany desk.

  “What is it, baby?”

  “When are we going to properly christen your office?” She stood behind him and wound her arms around his neck, leaning over and kissing him on each side of his face.

  He looked at the signature watch on his wrist. “I have a sermon to preach in an hour.”

  “So?” she said seductively. “A christening doesn’t take long. I promise.”

  “Fancy, you’re bad.” He reached up and tenderly caressed a lock of her hair that rested against the nape of his neck. “Real bad.”

  “Is that right?” Fancy tilted her head and looked at him longingly. “So what are you going to do about it?”

  “You’re going to have to pay dearly for that.” He turned around slowly in his office chair, pulling her down on to his lap.

  ***

  “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will it be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. That’s what God’s Word tells us. Holy Rock, let’s be a giving church. My vision is for us to be 100% tithers,” he told his congregation during Sunday morning service.

  “God loves a cheerful giver. Are you giving? And if you are, are you giving your all? If we want to see this church grow beyond measure, then we have to learn how to be givers. The church doesn’t run on love; it has obligations and bills to pay….”

  The burly, short, casually dressed man named George sat in the middle section of the sanctuary next to his wife, listening intently at Hezekiah preach about money, money, and more money. It reminded him of the song “For the Love of Money” by the O’jays. Considering himself somewhat of a music connoisseur, George easily recalled the words to the old R&B song. “Talkin' bout cash money - dollar bills y'all - come on, now…”

  George and his wife had relocated from Chicago to be closer to their daughter and grandchildren after he retired his position in felony law enforcement. He was not a churchgoing man and did not consider himself religious, but his wife was just the opposite. During their thirty years of marriage, there was rarely a Sunday she missed going to church. George couldn’t understand why his wife was so into church or Christianity for that matter, but God and the church was not a priority for him. It never had been.

  Moving to Memphis didn’t change his wife’s routine. The first Sunday she visited Holy Rock, to his surprise, she joined the church. To keep his home life in check, he went to church with her, but certainly not every Sunday. He attended just enough to appease her and keep her off his back.

  Seeing what he saw in the streets during his years in law enforcement reinforced his belief that if there was a God, then he certainly couldn’t care about the human race or he wouldn’t let so much evil go on.

  Sitting in church, trying to keep from dozing off, he watched the charismatic man in the pulpit, amazed at how thousands of people packed the sanctuary Sunday after Sunday to hear this guy.

  George didn’t mention it to his wife, but the pastor and his wife looked familiar. He’d seen them somewhere other than Holy Rock. His cop intuition rarely failed him. It was once his job to be highly observant. He decided to make it his personal mission to delve deeper into the McCoy’s past. Perhaps, doing a little investigating of the power couple would help him be able to sit through the Sunday ritual he hated.

  George watched Hezekiah closely as he hooped and hollered from the pulpit. He didn’t forget a face easily, and he had an uneasy feeling about this so called ‘man of God.’ He already distrusted men of the cloth, seeing them only as wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing. Listening to this morning’s sermon about money only added to his philosophy that all preachers were no more than bonafide hustlers, trying to get over on naïve people. If it was the last thing he did, he was going to find out just how much of a hustler this Hezekiah McCoy was and if there was something he was hiding.

  Chapter 51

  “You can only fully understand what you've done to others, when someone does the same to you.” Nishan P
anwar

  Detria couldn’t believe the time had passed so quickly. Elijah was a thriving seventeen month old, and in Detria’s eyes, the sweetest little boy ever. He made being a mother easy. She didn’t want to compare him to Audrey, but there were times she found herself doing exactly that. Audrey used to have temper tantrums, rarely slept through the night, and constantly worked Detria’s nerves to no end. Elijah was just the opposite. He had a calmness about him, rarely cried, and had been sleeping through the night since the day Detria brought him home from the hospital. He was quite the happy child.

  Skip adored his son. He came to see Elijah almost every day. The more he came over to spend time with his son, the more at ease Detria became around him. She was almost back to acting like her old self since she’d let Skip back into her life.

  She was still doing therapy five days a week. Lately there had been remarkable improvements in her mobility. She was getting stronger daily, probably because she pushed her body to its max, determined to walk again. Much of the tingling feeling in her legs was gone and she could stand for minutes at a time with an assistive device. It was much harder since she had no use of her right arm, but she was not going to give up. Soon she was able to take tiny steps, then bigger ones, until she could walk several feet. One day she would be able to walk without the support of the crutch, but for now, she was starting to feel happy again.

  Many Sundays she went to church with Donna, one of her occupational therapists. Much to her surprise, she enjoyed the quiet, warm, and gentle-spirited people at Donna’s church. The woman pastor was soft spoken, yet her messages were practical to everyday living. Detria liked that.

  Her bouts of grief were becoming less and she gave the credit to having Skip and Elijah in her life. Sometimes she thought about her ex-husband, and wondered if he still blamed her for their daughter’s death.

  When Brooke told her that Stiles had moved out of town a few months ago, after resigning his position at Holy Rock, Detria wondered if he’d run off to find solace in Rena. That was unlikely since Rena was married with kids, and probably no longer interested in him. Then again, Detria would never put anything past Stiles when it came to Rena.

  She also found it hard to believe that Stiles had really moved out of Memphis. The Stiles she knew would never leave Holy Rock. The fact that he had stepped down as Senior Pastor didn’t mean that he had left Holy Rock altogether. Not Stiles; Holy Rock was his life, which as far as Detria was concerned, was the main reason their marriage couldn’t survive, though Stiles would never admit that truth. He seemed to find it easier to put the blame all on her.

  ***

  Skip walked into Detria’s considerably large bedroom. She was seated on the sofa in the sitting room area of the bedroom. Her wheelchair was parked next to the sofa.

  “Hey, where’s my mini-me?”

  “Priscilla just put him down for a nap.”

  “I wish you had let him stay up a little longer so I could see him.”

  “Believe me, I tried, but you know how he loves his sleep. He was up playing longer than usual.”

  “That’s because he’s growing.”

  “Yeah…he is.”

  Skip’s eyebrows raised and he smiled a devilish smile. “Well, well, what do you suppose we can do until he wakes up?”

  Detria leaned her head back, resting it on the back of the sofa. “Uhh, I have no idea,” she responded in a seductive tone.

  Skip walked over and sat down next to her. In one swift move, he gathered her into his arms and started kissing her. He didn’t stop, despite her subtle protests. Unable to move her legs on her own, Skip took the liberty and guided her body back on the sofa. Using one hand to lift her left leg, he put it up on the sofa, giving himself easy access to where he wanted to go.

  For a moment, Detria felt the bout of low self-esteem attack her as she imagined how it used to be between them. Before the car accident their lovemaking had been wild, brazen and uninhibited.

  “Skip…”

  “Ummm,” was his answer.

  “I love you,” she cried as she felt the electricity of his touch. “I love you so─”

  She gasped, as he silenced her words with his mouth on top of hers.

  Chapter 52

  “Little by little one walks far.” Peruvian Proverb

  The sun was shining but the temperature still hovered just above freezing. A light snow had fallen the night before, blanketing the ground and trees in a spectacular display of beauty.

  Brooke drove cautiously through the city, understanding that since the accident, Detria would sometimes have panic attacks when she rode in a car. They were rare, but there were no warning signs when one would come.

  “What are you going to do with all that money?” Brooke asked her sister as they left Detria’s attorney’s office.

  After going back and forth with the insurance company for the past year and a half, Detria’s attorney made a high seven figure out of court settlement with the trucking company responsible for Detria’s injuries and Audrey’s death, quickly thrusting her into the multi-millionaire’s club. She was set for life, but no amount of money could restore the use of her arm, help her walk again, or bring her little girl back.

  Her doctors told her that they were confident that the day of being wheelchair bound would soon pass; they just didn’t know how much longer that would be. So, she continued to work hard with the physical and occupational therapists.

  “Well, I know we are going to have the best Christmas ever,” Detria answered as she looked out the passenger window at the busyness that was attributed to the season. The streets were laced with cars, filled with people preparing for the holiday.

  “Before I do anything, I’m going to meet with a financial advisor. I need to know how to handle this much money, where to deposit it, and what to invest it in. I can’t just go to the bank and deposit it into my checking and savings account. The FDIC only guarantees up to $250,000, you know.”

  “I never thought about anything like that. No wonder when people win the lottery, you don’t hear from most of them right away. I guess they’re busy trying to figure out what to do.”

  “My lawyer did suggest that I look into depositing it into what’s known as a Certificate of Deposit Account Registry.”

  “A what?” asked Brooke.

  “A CDAR. From what I understand, my money would be put into CDs issued by members of their network. That way the principal and interest are eligible for FDIC insurance. I would still get one regular consolidated account statement.”

  “Never heard of it.” Brooke looked baffled, shaking her head.

  “Me neither, until now, that is. Anyway, once I get all of that settled, I’m going to pay off my mortgage, Mom and Dad’s mortgage, and any other bills they have. I’m going to do the same for you and John. I’m going to make sure we’re all totally debt-free.”

  “Oh, my gosh! Really?” Brooke screamed with joy. “Oh, Detria,” she cried. “I can’t believe you’re going to do something like this for me. It’s going to give me, John, and the boys the kind of life I’ve always dreamed of. Thank you, Sis.” Brooke leaned over and quickly pecked her sister on the cheek.

  “You deserve it, and so do Mom and Dad.” Detria smiled, but didn’t say much after that. She focused back on the cars zooming past.

  Brooke turned on the street leading to Detria’s neighborhood. She stopped at the Stop sign and looked over at her sister. Placing her hand on top of hers, she said, “I know no amount of money can change what happened. I know this has to be hard for you.”

  Detria turned and looked at Brooke. Tears were streaming down her face, landing silently on her teal winter coat.

  “I’m okay. It’s just hard to be happy when I’ve lost so much in the process.”

  Brooke pulled off from the Stop sign and continued driving to Detria’s house. “Yeah, I know, but, hey, let’s not think on that. Let’s just go home and see Elijah.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” D
etria responded.

  They arrived at Detria’s house. Priscilla greeted them at the door, and helped Detria inside.

  “Would you like me to prepare something for the two of you to eat?” Priscilla asked.

  Detria looked over at her sister as they went into the family room. “You want something to eat?”

  “Yeah, that’ll be cool.” Brooke looked at Priscilla. “Do you have something already prepared, Priscilla?” I don’t want you going out of your way for me.”

  “It’s no problem. I can fix my famous club sandwich with fresh romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and bacon, with chips on the side, and a cup of my special spiced hot herb tea.”

  “Oh, my Lord,” Detria remarked. “Priscilla’s club sandwiches are to die for, Brooke.”

  “Okay, sounds good to me,” Brooke replied.

  “Okay, two turkey club sandwiches with chips coming up.” Priscilla turned and left the sisters in the family room to talk.

  Detria enjoyed Brooke’s company, that is, until Brooke started talking about her relationship with Skip. That always hit a sore spot with Detria. She didn’t understand why Brooke had to be all up in her business, when she never questioned or interfered with her and John’s marriage.

  “How much time does he spend over here?”

  “Duhh, not that it’s any of your business, but he comes almost every day. His son lives here, remember?”

  “I’m just saying, Detria.”

  “Just saying what?”

  “That he’s the reason for your divorce. I know he should be able to see his son. That’s understandable. But why can’t he pick him up and take him to his house? I mean, after all, he is the reason for a lot that has gone wrong in your life, and I just wish you’d stop messing around with him.”

  “Who say’s I’m messing around with him? I told you, he comes to see Elijah.”

  Detria wasn’t about to tell her that she and Skip were intimately involved again, and had been for months. It wasn’t Brooke’s or anybody’s business about her personal life. She loved Skip and he loved her. They had even talked about getting married a few times, but she wanted to wait until she had fully recovered and was able to walk totally on her own. If she was going to be a bride again, she wanted to walk down the aisle, not roll down it.