The Other Side of Divine

by Vanessa Davis Griggs

  “I am all right. You’re correct. I just overdid it, that’s all. But I’m finished with everything now, so I’ll be fine from here on out,” Miss Crowe said. “But you and Zachary were supposed to leave for your honeymoon on Monday. Listen: Your flight doesn’t leave until the afternoon. I’m sure they’re going to release me first thing Monday morning. Jasmine and I will be fine together. So—”

  “We’re not going on a honeymoon.”

  “Oh, yes, you are!” Miss Crowe sat up straight. “I’m not going to allow you to put off your honeymoon because of me. I’m not. I wanted everything to be perfect. You and Zachary have tickets and reservations and you’re going to use them. If you don’t, then why did I come back from the other side?”

  Gabrielle laughed. “We’re not going. And that’s that. I’m sure Zachary agrees with me. Until we know you’re okay, the honeymoon can wait. Because you know what?”

  “What?” Miss Crowe said.

  “I’m married now.” She held up her hand with her ring finger and twisted it in the air. “And I married the man of my prayers and my dreams. I had a wedding I thought I could only fantasize of having someday. But because of you, a dream world stepped right out of a fairy tale book and became a reality for me, little ol’ me. And so, I have everything I need right here in good old Alabama. My husband, my daughter, and now my new aunt. So, Aunt Esther, stop arguing with your new niece.”

  Miss Crowe smiled and smiled some more.

  Gabrielle hugged her. “I love you, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  Miss Crowe didn’t want to let go. “I love you, too. I love you, too. And there’s nothing you can do about that, either.”

  Epilogue

  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

  —Revelation 1:3

  A year later, much had happened in the lives of Zachary and Gabrielle, the least of all being the new baby that arrived on March 30, 2012, the exact same day as Jasmine’s birthday. When the baby boy made his screaming debut on that day, Gabrielle was a little concerned with how Jasmine might take having to share her birthday with a new baby brother.

  “Are you kidding me?” Jasmine said. “My baby brother was born on my birthday. Now how awesome is that?! And you want to know what else?” Jasmine had said in the hospital room on her eleventh birthday, holding her little brother as Gabrielle sat on the couch with them.

  “What?” Gabrielle said.

  Jasmine looked down at her brother as she spoke. “It’s really a blessing from God that little Zachary chose to be born on my birthday.”

  “How so?”

  Jasmine looked up at Gabrielle. “Well, my mother, or should I say my adoptive mother, died on my birthday. It kind of made my birthday sad after that. But now, something wonderful has happened. Of all the days that my brother could have picked to be born, he and God got together and decided it would be on this day, my birthday. That really says a lot. Don’t you think?” She smiled.

  Zachary and Gabrielle debated what they really wanted to name their little boy. Jasmine was already calling him Little Zachary, but they weren’t sure they wanted to make the baby a junior. But after Jasmine was so insistent that he would be thrilled about it, Jasmine decided she needed to help them with their apparent dilemma.

  “If you don’t want to name him Zachary Wayne Morgan Jr. then what about Zachary Wayne Morgan the Second?” Jasmine stood over his portable crib in the hospital room when she made that declaration. She then grabbed the baby’s hand and shook it lightly. “What do you say?” She suddenly bent down with her ear to his mouth. “What’s that? You say you like it? What? Ohhhh, I’m sorry. You said you love it!” She turned to Gabrielle and Zachary. “He loves it.” She grinned.

  “Well, then,” Zachary said to Gabrielle, “looks like you and I are outnumbered?”

  Gabrielle frowned and pulled back a bit. “How is two to two outnumbered?” Gabrielle asked, pointing first to Jasmine and the baby and then her and Zachary.

  “Actually, it’s three to two,” Zachary said. “Jasmine, the baby, and God.”

  Gabrielle chuckled. “God, huh? Okay. So Zachary Wayne Morgan the Second it is.”

  Then there was Tiffany, divorced from Darius, now dating Clarence Walker with their relationship appearing to be serious and moving with promise toward a possible wedding altar.

  Fatima and Trent’s baby girl was born on December 3, 2011, as healthy and as pretty as could be, looking like the both of them.

  Darius was still slowly recovering from the burns he’d incurred during the meth lab explosion. He could have gone to jail, but no charges were filed against him or Divine. The four people who died from the fire (two on the scene and the other two in the hospital) were the only ones who could have definitively fingered their true involvement. But needless to say, because Divine knew she was being watched, she’d dropped her illegal activities, which meant she no longer had the money to live in the lifestyle to which she’d grown accustomed. Darius couldn’t work because he was recovering. They had been evicted from the mansion and were presently residing in an old run-down house that once belonged to Divine’s parents.

  From what Tiffany was being told by Darius (who was trying to make up with her and get her to remarry him and throw their divorce nonsense out), Divine wasn’t the woman she was when they first met. She didn’t take care of him. He was definitely having a hard time. He confessed that he hadn’t realized what a wonderful woman he’d had in Tiffany until he’d lost her. Tiffany reminded him that he hadn’t lost her; essentially, he’d thrown her away. There was a difference in how those two things were viewed, as one man’s loss can be another man’s gain. She told him she would continue praying for him and Divine. She even took the children to see him on occasion. After all, he was still their father. She would support her children. But when it came to her and Darius? That chapter was over, and she’d already turned the page.

  Aunt Cee-Cee was convicted of fraud. But because it was her first offense (that she’d been caught doing anyway), they only made her spend sixty days in jail with three years of probation, and she had to pay back all the money she’d stolen plus a hefty interest. Miss Crowe admitted she’d likely never see a dime of the money. But still, if there was an opportunity to collect any of it, she was going to, and happily so. “People need to learn to stop taking stuff that doesn’t belong to them and not caring about how it affects the one they took it from,” Miss Crowe said. “I absolutely positively forgive her. But she’s still going to pay.”

  Bennie was now living in the house left to Jasmine by her late adoptive mother. Someone had to keep the house up. Gabrielle had intended to let him stay there for free, but he insisted on paying his way, so she let him. Not because she was greedy or needy for money. But because it allowed her father to be a man, the man he desired to be. He was working full-time at the church and loving it as much as they seemed to be loving him and the work he was doing keeping up the grounds. And of course, the day Miss Crowe came home from the hospital after her heart attack, she blasted Bennie.

  “I told you not to call me Esther Mae. I heard you when I was being carted off,” Miss Crowe said. “You’d better be glad I was flat on my back or I would have kept my promise and clocked you one.”

  Bennie grinned because he’d done that on purpose in hopes of causing just the reaction it had: that she would open her eyes and fight.

  Paris and Andrew were still together. Gabrielle didn’t understand why he felt the need to tell her that a month after her wedding. It was as though he was confessing that there was a reason he and his wife shouldn’t have still been together. But Andrew loved Paris. And Paris did appear to have changed a lot. Gabrielle attributed some of Paris’s transformation and growth to her being a member of the ministry led by Pastor Landris and his anointed teaching.

  “I mean, if you can sit under the true Word of God and not s
ee a change in your life,” Gabrielle said to Zachary concerning Paris, “then there’s something fundamentally wrong with you.”

  “Or mentally wrong,” Zachary said.

  Reportedly, Andrew and Paris were actively trying to have another baby.

  Lawrence got Jasmine some weekends. They never forced her to go or made her feel guilty if she didn’t want to go. It helped that she and Imani were so close. Imani loved her little sister and refused to call her a half-sister.

  Jasmine relayed what Imani had said to her the first time she was there for an unsupervised visit. “We have the same marrow, the same blood type, and we’re children of the same God. That means: In every sense of the word, we’re full-blooded sisters.”

  Miss Crowe (now Aunt Esther) was doing better than ever. In fact, she was keeping Jasmine and Little Zachary while Gabrielle and Zachary were gone for their one year anniversary. They were finally making good on that honeymoon they didn’t get to originally take.

  “Just know,” Miss Crowe said to Gabrielle and Zachary, “that when you two get back from your little honey over the moon, Jasmine and I are going to Disney World to see Mickey and Minnie and, of course, Cinderella and Prince Charming.”

  And when the not-so-new newlyweds returned two weeks later, the following week Miss Crowe and Jasmine did just that. The two of them had a special bond indeed.

  That Sunday after Miss Crowe’s near-death experience, Jasmine had taken a picture she’d drawn and colored to the hospital for Miss Crowe, who looked at it, and nodded. She then grabbed Jasmine and hugged her tight.

  “You’ve been there, too, haven’t you?” Miss Crowe said, gazing down at the picture. It was a picture of rows and rows (as far as the eyes could see) of white clouds on top of an indigo blue sky, and a male figure with arms open wide surrounded by a bright light of such magnitude it was difficult to see Him.

  Yep, the other side of Divine might not be as great as the actual Divine that for many is to come. But there were always places and special moments where one could experience a little bit of Heaven right here on earth. Amen?

  Amen.

  A READING GROUP GUIDE

  THE OTHER SIDE OF DIVINE

  Vanessa Davis Griggs

  ABOUT THIS GUIDE

  The questions that follow are included to enhance your

  group’s reading of this book.

  Discussion Questions

  1. Miss Crowe is back! Discuss your feelings about her relationship with Gabrielle, Jasmine, and the rest of the people who happen to cross her path.

  2. What were your thoughts when Benjamin Booker showed up? Would you have trusted him? Would you have allowed him to stay? Why or why not? How did you feel about the way he and Miss Crowe interacted with each other? What were your feelings about him by the time you reached the end of the book?

  3. Discuss the things that happened between Darius Connors and his wife, Tiffany, then with Paris Simmons-Holyfield, and with his newfound friend Miss Dee Vine.

  4. What were your thoughts about Miss Divine? What did you think about her when it came to Darius’s children?

  5. Paris had a lot on her mind these days, with the baby coming and all. Discuss everything she dealt with. What were you thinking when it came to the baby both before she delivered, then afterward?

  6. Discuss the things that went down at Lawrence Simmons’s house when Gabrielle and Jasmine came over for dinner. What were your thoughts about that?

  7. Everybody seems to need to talk about the various dilemmas in their lives. Touch on the many discussions conducted throughout the book and how you felt about them. To get you started: Johnnie Mae Landris and Paris, Jasmine and Jade, Gabrielle and Zachary (when it came to what she should do about Jasmine and how much she should be told and when), Miss Crowe and Gabrielle, Gabrielle and Bennie, Bennie and Zachary, Lawrence and Deidra, Andrew and his mother Paula, Tiffany and Darius.

  8. Discuss Divine, Aunt Cee-Cee, and Jesse and what they were up to.

  9. Zachary didn’t trust Bennie. What were your thoughts when it came to the two of them?

  10. Paula Holyfield also didn’t trust Paris. Talk about what was going on with them prior to Paris giving birth. Do you think that at any point Paula was wrong or out of line? What about when it came to the discussions between Paula and Andrew about Paris?

  11. The DVD player came up missing. Discuss everything surrounding that incident.

  12. Discuss what’s going on with Darius and whether or not you agree with the course Tiffany decided to take in the end. Did your opinion of Tiffany change from the first time you may have encountered her? Elaborate.

  13. Talk about your favorite part(s) of this story. Were you satisfied with how things turned out in the end? Discuss.

  Thank you for going on this journey with me. I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have enjoyed bringing it. My ultimate goal has and will always be to give you a great reading experience. My prayer is that, as we come to a close, you’ve felt that here.

  Don’t miss Vanessa Davis Griggs’s

  The Other Side of Dare

  Available wherever books are sold

  Turn the page for an excerpt from

  The Other Side of Dare . . .

  Chapter 1

  Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you:for he shall not be able to deliver you.

  —Isaiah 36:14

  “The devil sure is busy. That’s really a lot going on.” Tiffany Connors paced from one end of the couch to the other as she talked on the phone. “Yes, I definitely know that God is busier. Pastor Landris reminds us of that enough. But in my thirty years on this earth, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the devil as busy as he seems to be right now. It’s like he’s messing with pretty much everyone we know, all at the same time. Poor Gabrielle. She’s dealing with some stuff these days, that’s for sure.”

  Thirty-three-year-old Darius Connors sat in the den at his computer listening intently to his wife’s conversation about Gabrielle Mercedes while trying to pretend that he wasn’t. She was talking to Fatima Adams, a fellow dancer in the church’s dance ministry. Oddly, he wasn’t listening so closely because he’d once had a three-year-long affair with the now thirty-six-year-old Fatima that consequently ended about five years ago. He thought for a second. Today was April 29, 2010. He counted back to 2005, the year Fatima ended things. Yes, May 14, her birthday, it would be five years.

  He felt pretty confident Fatima wouldn’t tell his wife about them, not at this point anyway. Not since Tiffany and Fatima had become friends through the dance ministry. If Fatima was going to spill the Kool-Aid, he figured she would have done it already. Telling Tiffany now would most certainly put their friendship in jeopardy with questions like why Fatima didn’t tell her in the beginning, and why she’d gone a whole year with them knowing each other on a friendly basis and she still hadn’t said anything. It would cause more than just mere tension and not just in the dance ministry, but in church. Knowing Fatima like he had, he knew she wouldn’t want to be responsible for anything like that. Not little pristine Fatima.

  Tiffany glanced over at him and flashed him a big smile, then winked. He quickly realized he must have been staring harder than he’d intended. He really wanted her to think he wasn’t listening at all. Generally, that’s what she accused him of: not listening to her at all. He quickly began to tap on the keys on the computer to give the impression he hadn’t been staring down her throat, trying to capture every word that was coming out of her mouth, but instead purely absentmindedly thinking.

  “Well, it’s now the end of April, and I know you were looking forward to Gabrielle’s return from her leave of absence and fully taking back her position as the director over the dance ministry. But you’ve been doing a fabulous job in her absence these past few months. Fabulous. You have. Everybody in the ministry is saying so. And I’ve told you that if you need my help with anything, I’m merely a phone call away.” Tiffany walked over to the end table where the base of
the phone resided.

  “All right, Fatima. Well, keep me informed. You know how much I love Gabrielle. Yes, we all love her. And we’ve all been praying for her and that precious little girl. You know what they say: If it’s not one thing, it’s another.” Tiffany shook her head. “I don’t know why things happen to good people, either. But one thing we do know, and that is that God is still on the throne. What Satan may mean for bad, God will use it for good. Yes, He will.”

  Tiffany listened, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll talk to you later. Call me if you need me now. All right. Bye now.” Tiffany carefully placed the cordless phone back into its base.

  Darius continued to type as he looked out of the side of his eye. He didn’t want to give Tiffany the impression that he was waiting for her to get off the phone to pounce on her. But he was definitely anxious to find out what had been said on the other end of his wife’s conversation.

  Tiffany walked over to Darius and placed her hand on his shoulder. “What’cha doing?” There was a touch of sweetness in the low register of her voice.

  Darius stopped and turned fully toward his wife whose straight, jet-black hair was hanging down to her shoulders. “What I’ve been doing for the past seven months now: looking for a job. You know I need to hurry up and find something. I need a job so I can take care of my family.” Darius got up from the computer, grabbed Tiffany’s hand, led her over to the couch, and pulled her down onto his lap.

  Tiffany let out a quick yelp, then giggled like a schoolgirl. “Now what are you doing?”

  Darius smiled. “Well, according to Pastor Landris: If you have to ask, then that means I haven’t been properly taking care of my business at home.”