by E. N. Joy
On the way back from the bathroom, Helen noticed some movement outside in the parking lot, which she could see through the clear glass church doors. Afraid someone might be trying to break in one of the members’ cars, she crept to the door to go check things out. That’s when she saw Maeyl transferring Tamarra’s dry cleaning from his car to hers, with Tamarra standing right there next to him.
“Well, well, well,” Helen said snidely. “Looks like someone is on the creep. Guess she even left some of her clothes at her little boyfriend’s house on the times she’s spent the night with him. How nice of him to take the liberty of having them dry cleaned for her and hand delivered. Now that’s the kind of man I need,” Helen told herself.
Helen shook her head and continued her conversation with herself. “Man, I tell you, these women of New Day walk around here like some holier than thou wannabe divas. All the while, they all got skeletons in their closet, or should I say under their big hats?” She chuckled. “But I bet no one would ever believe it.” Just then Helen’s phone vibrated. “Phone . . . yeah . . . that’s it,” she said, reminded that her phone had a camera on it. “They’d believe it if they could see it though.”
She had put her phone on vibrate before coming into the church. She looked at the caller ID and said, “You’ll just have to wait, Lynox. Right now I need my phone for something more important than hearing your same ol’ same ol’.”
Helen hit a couple buttons, and then the phone flashed, and right on time as far as she was concerned. At the very minute she took a picture with her camera phone, Maeyl and Tamarra had been holding hands with their eyes closed, appearing as though they were going in for a kiss. Helen took several more pictures as Maeyl and Tamarra opened their eyes, released hands, and went in for a hug.
“Everything okay, Sister Helen?”
Helen quickly put her phone away and turned to address the voice that had startled her. “Oh yes, Mother Doreen. I thought I saw something going on out in the parking lot with one of the cars. I was just checking to make sure everything was okay. And it appears as though everything is. But you can never be too sure.”
“Yeah, I’ve told Pastor that with that carryout across the way and all them youngins hanging out, we probably need a security ministry to watch over the parking lot when activities are going on.”
“Well, until pastor decides to move on that suggestion, let’s just thank God that He has His angels out there standing post. Amen?” Helen said.
“Amen,” Mother Doreen said before she turned and headed toward the direction of the bathroom. Talking over her shoulder, she said to Helen, “You better go on and get back in there. They are about to finish up the last section of those bylaws, and you don’t want to miss anything. Hopefully you’ll decide to become a member and even get the privilege of voting on them.”
“I’ll get right in there, Mother Doreen,” Helen told her before saying under her breath in a menacing tone, “I don’t want to miss a thing at all.” Helen headed back toward the classroom. A smile rested upon her lips. She’d quickly come to the conclusion that joining the Singles Ministry just might not be so bad after all. With the way things were looking now, she’d be able to kill two birds with one stone. Helen patted her purse where her cell phone rested. “And if these old maids can ever get any men to join,” she said to herself out loud, “I just might be able to make it three.”
Chapter Fifteen
“You nervous?” Paige asked Blake as he drove down Interstate 70 with her on the passenger side.
“No,” he replied without letting two seconds go by before repenting. “I take that back. I lied. I repent. I’m nervous as heck.”
Paige laughed. “I knew it.” She flipped down the sun visor and ran her fingertips across her freshly waxed eyebrows. They were arched so thin they looked drawn on.
“It’s that obvious, huh?”
“You haven’t said two words in the last ten minutes.”
“I guess I’m just rehearsing in my head what to say to them. It’s not everyday a guy gets invited to meet a girl’s parents.”
“Oh, trust me, my mom and dad are harmless. It’s my girlfriends that you’ll have to look out for,” Paige teased.
“So tell me about your friends. We’ve been seeing each other for almost two months, and I haven’t met any of them yet.”
“Well, I really only have a couple. There’s a sister from the church named Deborah. She and I aren’t tight, but we talk here and there. Then there is Mother Doreen, everybody’s spiritual mother. And of course there’s my best buddy, Tamarra. My spiritual sister in every sense.”
“I’d love to hang out with you and your best friend. Perhaps we can all go out sometime, on a double date or something . . . when Tamarra isn’t busy catering an event, of course.”
“That sounds nice,” Paige agreed, not even realizing she hadn’t once mentioned to Blake that her best friend was a caterer.
“Honey, before you sit down, grab me another roll from the basket. I know I’m going to need another soon to slop up all this delicious homemade gravy you done made up.”
That’s one thing Paige noticed her father always did; compliment her mother while he was slaving her around. As if he had to butter her up to get her to do anything for him. Her mother would jump off the Empire State Building if that man asked her to; trusting on everything that God would be there to catch her and save her since she was only doing it out of obedience to her husband. Talk about obedience being better than sacrifice.
“Oh, no problem, Samuel,” Paige’s mother said gladly, just before she sat back down to dinner, she turned to retrieve the requested roll.
Thus far, her mother had only been able to sit at the table long enough to participate in grace. Immediately after he’d said, “Amen,” Paige’s father had already started to, what Paige thought was purposely, have her mother miss a hot meal, only to enjoy a lukewarm one. Paige shook her head at the fact that her mother had managed to give new meaning to the term “lukewarm Christian.”
“On second thought, you better make it two rolls.” Paige’s father then looked over to Blake. “Son, you need another one while she’s up? I’m telling you, my wife’s homemade rolls and this gravy, they go hand in hand.”
“No, sir, I’m fine,” Blake responded.
Paige’s mother placed the rolls on her father’s plate, then headed back to her chair to sit down.
“Susie, go on and grab the young man another roll before you sit down.” It was as if Mr. Robinson hadn’t even heard Blake decline.
“Oh no, really I’m fine,” Blake said to Mrs. Robinson, who then took her seat.
“Trust me, son,” Mr. Robinson said to Blake, “them rolls will make you wanna slap my mamma. I say my mamma because Susie uses my mama’s recipe, and it belonged to her mama, and so on. That recipe has got to be about four or five generations passed down.” Mr. Robinson took a bite of one of his rolls. “Delicious as always.” He looked to his daughter but was still speaking to Blake. “You’re going to have to get Paige to make you up a batch.” He paused as if in thought. “Although I don’t think this one ever learned how to make these rolls. She gon’ be the one to break the tradition.”
“Mama never taught me the Robinson family recipe, or any other recipe for that matter.” Paige tried to contain the anger she always felt when ever she thought about her younger years as a growing girl. “She was too busy wearing herself ragged waiting on you hand and foot.”
Blake cleared his throat just to create a sound that would interrupt the few awkward seconds of silence that had circled the dinner table. “So, Paige tells me that you’re retired from the construction business,” Blake said to Paige’s father.
“Oh yeah,” Mr. Robinson said proudly. “Thirty-five years in the business. Now my son runs the company.”
“Is that so?” Blake sounded genuinely interested. “A family business. What a blessing.”
Paige hadn’t told Blake that her family owned a business
. She knew he would wonder why she wasn’t a part of it. And just as if Mr. Robinson could read Blake’s mind, he addressed Blake’s curiosity.
“Tried to get Paige here to get involved ever since she graduated high school, but no, she was too highfalutin for the construction business,” he joked. “Instead, she decided to use that business degree of hers and sell movie tickets.”
Although it hadn’t been her father’s intention, Paige felt degraded by his comment. Then again, maybe it had been his intention. Paige had watched him degrade her mother with snide little comments such as that for more years than she cared to remember. Someone had planted in this man’s mind that women were beneath men. He didn’t seem to care how many degrees his daughter had. His son would always rank higher than Paige. He hadn’t spent a day in college, but got into the construction business his senior year of high school, working part-time after classes.
“I don’t sell movie tickets, Dad. I’m the general manager of the theatre,” Paige huffed.
Mr. Robinson gave a puzzled look that went from Paige to her mother. “But honey, you told me Paige met this young man when she sold him movie tickets.”
“Well, that’s what I was told,” her mother confessed, then looked over at Paige for backup, clarification, or something. “She told me she sold him two tickets, and she ended up going to the movies with him.” Mrs. Robinson smiled. “Such a beautiful story.” She looked at Blake and winked. It was an expression of approval.
“Yes, I did sell Blake two movie tickets,” Paige explained, “but that was only because I’d just lost an employee, so I had to cover ticket sales until I replaced her. But now I’ve hired someone, and I don’t work the ticket booth anymore.”
“Two tickets?” Mr. Robinson questioned, not purposely changing the topic of conversation, but nonetheless, doing so indeed. “Why were you buying two tickets in the first place?” he asked Blake. “If you didn’t meet my daughter until you got to the ticket booth, then how did you know to buy two tickets? How did you know she’d join you for a movie? Or had you planned on taking someone else?”
Paige watched Blake shift uncomfortably in his chair as they all waited for his answer. Up until now, she honestly had cared less about who Blake was supposed to be meeting at the movie theater that evening. She hadn’t even questioned him about it, especially since he’d made it clear that he did not like to discuss past relationships. Leave it to her father to try to stir up confusion in her blooming relationship. That’s another reason why she never brought any of her past dates to meet her parents. Well, that and the fact that none had ever lasted this long.
“Umm, these rolls are delicious,” Blake said as he quickly stuffed one in his mouth, hoping that with a full mouth, no one would expect him to reply to Mr. Robinson’s inquiry. “I think I will have another one.” He removed the napkin from his lap in preparation to stand to go retrieve his roll.
“Sit on down, son,” Paige’s father ordered him. “Susie will get it.” He looked at his wife who was about to put a forkful of food in her mouth. “Susie, go get the young man another roll.”
Mrs. Robinson dropped her fork and prepared to get up.
“Oh, that will be all right,” Blake said before Mrs. Robinson could rise. “I don’t have a problem getting it myself.”
Paige, try as she might, couldn’t keep her lips from stretching into a wide grin. Oh yes, this man was heaven sent all right. He was everything her father was not, which in her opinion meant that he was the perfect man for her.
Before Blake walked away from the table, he looked at Paige’s mother who had only one bite of her roll left and asked, “Mrs. Robinson, can I grab you another one while I’m up?”
Mrs. Robinson almost choked. Had this man just offered to serve her? This was a first unless she’d been out at a restaurant and their server was male. “Uh, no, son, I’m fine. But thank you anyway.”
The expression on her mother’s face didn’t go unnoticed by Paige. Too bad it was Paige’s man instead of Mrs. Robinson’s own husband who had done so, offered to serve her. It made Paige warm inside to be able to witness her mother see that in this day and age, a woman deserved to be catered to just as much as a man did.
Paige smiled as she dug into her food. What a blessing Blake was. He continued to validate why he was the only man she’d ever brought to her parents’ home. He was perfect; unflawed like all those other men she’d dated that could hardly get past date number two. But Paige was convinced that Blake was different, even though during one of the Singles Ministry meetings Deborah had told her many times that if she were waiting for God to lead her to the perfect man, she would be waiting forever and a day. Well right now, at this very moment, her forever and a day had arrived. Blake was perfect in her eyes. How could he not be as he was part of God’s divine set-up? God’s divine plan in her mission to find a husband? But beneath it all, her perfect encounter with the perfect man wasn’t so perfect at all. She’d been set up all right, in more ways than one, and by the person she’d least expect.
Chapter Sixteen
“Who could have done such a thing?” Sister Deborah asked Mother Doreen through the phone receiver. “And I thought there was a moderator that had to approve all postings to the church Web site.”
“There is,” Mother Doreen assured her, “but I don’t think everything goes through the moderator first. I think they just have the ability to delete things if need be. Because whoever thought a church Web site would need to be manned in such a way? I mean, this is just another way the world has turned one of God’s creations into something perverted. The Internet is supposed to be a source to do Kingdom work, to spread the gospel, but man has tainted it.”
Deborah could visualize Mother Doreen wiping away sweat beads as they spoke. In all honesty, Deborah had pretty much had to do the same thing herself when she got the call from the church secretary about the recent photos posted to the church Web site on the Singles Ministry page. To see Tamarra and Maeyl in such a compromising position made her blush with embarrassment. She could only imagine how Tamarra must have felt when she saw them.
“Tamarra!” Deborah thought out loud. “Has she seen or heard about the photos?”
“Oh my. I’m not sure,” Mother Doreen replied.
“Well, hopefully the Web site moderator will get those things deleted before Tamarra has a chance to see them.”
“Well, they couldn’t get a hold of him this morning.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s why the church secretary called me this morning; thinking either you or I had the capability to remove the photos,” Deborah assumed. “Who is the Web site moderator anyway?”
Mother Doreen cleared her throat. “Uh, that, would um be, Brother Maeyl.”
“What? Are you serious?”
“I’m telling the truth to shame the devil. Brother Edmondson used to be the moderator, but just a couple months ago the Finance Committee was going over church expenses and noticed several Internet charges. After making a few phone calls, they discovered that several of those nasty ol’ pop-ups were being accepted, and the fees to view the Web sites were automatically charged to the bill.”
“Do you mean those pornographic pop-ups?”
“Those would be the ones,” Mother Doreen confirmed. “Pastor asked him to step down from his duties as overseer of the church Web site and has been counseling him on his porn addiction.”
“But his wife, Sister Tonetta, she’s so beautiful. I can’t imagine him finding a more beautiful woman to look at on the Internet.”
“It ain’t about flesh and blood, child, need I remind you. It’s just one of those demonic things that Satan uses to steal, kill, and destroy. Funny thing is, until Brother Edmondson started spending so much time on the church computer as part of the New Day Computer Ministry, he’d never in his life looked at porn.”
“Umph, umph, umph.” Deborah shook her head. “Now I’m not that computer savvy. I can write on them, edit, etc . . . , but I know there is a prog
ram that disables certain sites from being viewed. There are also pop-up blockers. Why is it we don’t have these things in place?”
Mother Doreen took a deep breath. “Once again, dear, who would have thought we’d need to take such precautions in the house of the Lord? I guess Pastor gave church folks the benefit of the doubt.”
“Pastor has a good heart, and I know Pastor doesn’t like to make waves with folks, but I pray God uses these incidents to show that Pastor needs to walk in God’s given authority.”
“I hear you, child,” Mother Doreen agreed. “When God gives you an assignment or puts you in authority over something, sometimes you can’t be caught up in folks’ feelings. At least that’s what God told Jehu in Kings 1 or 2. I can’t recall off the top right now.”
Deborah was in agreement with Mother Doreen, but felt, in a sense, that Mother Doreen held some of the same “save face” characteristics that their pastor did. It often showed in how she handled the women in the Singles Ministry. There were times when Deborah just wanted Mother Doreen to jump up and put those women in check on the spot, but she never did, at least not in the in-your-face manner in which Deborah had wanted to see it done.
“I know you’re probably saying to yourself, ‘If that ain’t the pot calling the kettle black,’” Mother Doreen said. “I, too, sometimes don’t walk in my God given authority.”
For a minute there, Deborah feared she’d spoken her thoughts out loud.
“But that’s something I’m working on myself,” Mother Doreen admitted. “There’s been plenty of times God has told me to go give a word to someone, but the word sometimes seemed so rough and harsh, I just couldn’t confront the person with it.”
“Well, I’ll pray in that area for both you and Pastor, Mother Doreen. But in the meantime, I’m going to try to get a hold of Tamarra. Whether the moderator gets the photos off the Web site before she sees them or not doesn’t really matter. You know folks are going to get to talking and make it seem worse than it really is.”
