by E. N. Joy
There was dead silence as Norman and his mother sat in the living room alone. The silence became agonizing torture to Mrs. Vanderdale. “So are you going to disown me now? Are you and your wife never going to return again? Am I never going to see my grandchild?”
Norman waited a moment before replying. “I, my wife, and our child will always return to the place I call home. Whatever that spirit is that has a hold of you will not get rid of us, but we will get rid of it. Especially now that we have Dad on our side as well. The Bible says that when two or more gather in His name, touch and agree—”
Mrs. Vanderdale put her hand up to halt Norman’s words as tears fell from her eyes. “You don’t have to finish. I’ve heard Nettie say it a million times before when I walk by her room and hear her praying.” Tears continued to spill from her eyes. “Do you know she prays for me?” She swallowed. “I guess this right here is that moment Miss Nettie’s been praying about for years. I think she calls it deliverance. And here I thought she was praying my designer gowns would be delivered on time for my affairs.” Mrs. Vanderdale chuckled and Norman joined her. She looked up at him. “I’m sorry, son. I must apologize to Paige as well.”
Sensing it was genuine pain, hurt, and remorse his mother was demonstrating, Norman felt he no longer needed to make this about his feelings, but make it about his mother. He went and sat next to her on the couch.
“Mom, please.” Norman didn’t want to see his mother so torn like this. “I forgive you. Please don’t cry.”
“I just feel no better than my ancestors right now. Because when you mentioned the fact that Paige was pregnant, my skin just . . .”
“Well, Mom, if you’d let me finish, you would have learned that the baby Paige is carrying isn’t my baby.”
“What!”
Norman couldn’t tell if it was shock or relief in his mother’s eyes. Nonetheless he continued to tell her the entire truth about his marriage to Paige, including the situation with her being pregnant by her abusive ex-husband.
“Can I ask you something, Norman? And please don’t take this the wrong way,” Mrs. Vanderdale said. “It’s not your baby, but you and Paige have decided you are going to play the role of the baby’s father by signing the birth certificate and everything. This child is going to be one hundred percent African American. God forbid anything ever happens to Paige, but if it did, how on God’s green earth are you going to raise a black child?”
Norman opened his mouth, but nothing came out, as that thought had never crossed his mind. And for the first time ever his mother planted a seed in Norman’s mind that made him question whether he’d bitten off more than he could chew.
Chapter Fourteen
“Whoa, this is a lot of stuff!” Norman looked around his decent-sized two-bedroom apartment that now looked like the overflow of Babies“R”Us. Between the baby shower her mother and church had given Paige, and the one her job had just hosted today, neither of which his mother attended, he was rethinking their choice of moving into his apartment together versus Paige’s house. But Paige said if she didn’t want to keep the man’s last name, she certainly didn’t want to live in his house, so just last month, when Paige was nearing her eighth month of pregnancy, the house sold. She’d moved into Norman’s place a month prior to that though. It was as if everything was lining up in divine order. Maybe the old scripture, indeed, was correct about God not putting on a person more than they could bear. What Paige initially thought was going to be way too much, God had managed to lighten the load.
“Tell me about it,” Paige huffed as she struggled to sit down comfortably on the couch. “But we got some awfully nice stuff though. And expensive. Like that stroller your sister bought—”
“No, my parents bought it. Samantha just brought it over since my mother couldn’t make it.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right; her standing tea social with the ladies,” Paige said, not buying her mother-in-law’s excuse for one minute. “When my mom and the church had theirs it was her standing hair appointment that kept her from coming.”
“Hey, at least she sent a gift. Let’s give her some credit. Baby steps. She’s trying here. Okay?”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Paige agreed with a shrug. Norman had shared with Paige the conversation he’d had with his parents when breaking the news about Paige’s pregnancy. Paige figured with that many folks now praying for her mother-in-law, the chains were bound to be broken eventually. Hopefully before Paige exploded and let that mother-in-law of hers know how she really felt. As far as Paige was concerned, God needed to hear their prayers and answer them quickly before she was left alone in a room with that woman.
“So do you want me to start hauling these things off to your and the baby’s room?”
“Ummm, I don’t know. It’s already tight in there with my double bed and the crib,” Paige said.
“I told you I felt we should have just set up the bassinette for now.” He gave her an “I told you so” look.
“Husband, I think you might have been right.” When Paige referred to Norman as husband, it wasn’t in a romantic way or anything like that. It was just basically his title in her life. And even though they agreed that it only made sense to live as husband and wife, who, legally, they were, they didn’t share the same bed. Norman had given Paige and the baby his master bedroom and taken the guest bedroom for himself.
They’d talked of maybe getting a place together but decided to table that notion and revisit it later. A couple months before the two got married, Norman had just signed a two-year lease to receive a discount on his rent, so it wouldn’t have made sense to lose all that money he’d have to pay out to his landlord for terminating his lease early. And again, Paige couldn’t get out of that house she and Blake had shared as husband and wife soon enough.
“What? Should we mark this as a milestone in our marriage?” Norman said. “You saying I’m right?”
“Oh please. I’ve always been woman enough to admit when I’m wrong . . . eventually.” Paige and Norman shared a laugh. “Owee.” Paige grabbed her stomach.
“You okay?” Norman rushed over to her side.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Paige lay back on the couch. Norman sat down and lifted her legs onto his lap, removed the slippers she’d been wearing, and began to massage her feet. “Is that better?”
“Yeah, I just think I overdid it a little today is all. This baby is not due for two more weeks and I need all fourteen of those days to get ready for it.”
“I hate referring to the baby as ‘it.’ I wish you’d just gone on and let the doctor tell you the sex during your last ultrasound.”
“No, I wanted it to be a surprise,” Paige said. “As if life hasn’t given me enough surprises.”
“Well, this is a good surprise,” Norman said while patting her feet. “Let me go make you some tea, then I’ll get to putting away all this stuff ” Norman exited the living room and went and put on a pot of water to boil.
“Ouch. There it goes again.” Paige hunched over.
“What is it?” Norman came racing back out of the kitchen. “Do you think you could be going into labor?” Norman was concerned.
“No. I’m not sure what labor pains feel like, but from the way my mother described them, it would feel far worse than this.” Upon telling her parents that she was pregnant, Paige was relieved not to have to deal with the same reaction from her mother as she’d had to deal with upon telling her about the marriage. Surprisingly, Mrs. Robinson had been ecstatic that she was about to become a grandmother. Since then she’d kept Paige on the phone for at least an hour daily sharing with her the joys of motherhood. She’d made it a point to share the pains as well—labor pains, which was how Paige knew that if she was in labor, the pain would be much more severe, according to what her mother had told her.
“Well, maybe I should at least call the doctor just to make sure,” Norman suggested.
“Norman, it’s Saturday. Let that doctor be. Besides, I’m feeling
better already.” She got up from the couch. “I’ll come to the kitchen with you to get that tea.”
Norman and Paige went into the kitchen. Paige leaned against the counter while Norman stood over the pot of water, waiting for it to come to a good boil.
“You know what?” Paige said. “Why don’t we play around with some baby names? I’ll list five girl names and you list five boy names. We’ll both agree on the top three from each of our lists. But if it’s a girl, I get to pick the name from the top three girl names and vice versa for you if it’s a boy.”
“What? Really?” Norman was astonished as he placed tea bags into the two cups he’d set on the countertop. “You’re going to give me that much power?”
“If it’s a boy. And I’ll have all the power if it’s a girl. Talk about girl power.” Paige held up a fist to the sky. “Got any boy names you’ve been thinking of?”
“Well, Norman III of course.” He poured the boiling hot water into their cups.
“Okay.” Paige didn’t dismiss it, but the fact she just nodded and couldn’t look Norman in the eyes were signs of dismissal enough.
“Just kidding.” Norman decided to let her off the hook.
“You little . . .” Paige began laughing and playfully swatted Norman. “Oh my!” She grabbed her stomach.
“What is it? Is the pain back?”
“Well, no. It’s just that I just now laughed so hard that I think I peed my pants.”
Both Norman and Paige looked down at the liquid streaming down her legs to form a puddle at her bare feet.
“Paige, I don’t think you peed your pants. I think your water just broke. I don’t care what you say.” Norman rushed over to the phone on the kitchen wall. “I’m calling the doctor.” He found the refrigerator magnet the doctor’s office had given them with all the doctor’s contact information on it and began to dial. “Where are you going?” he called out as he saw Paige shuffling out of the kitchen.
“I’m going to call my mama.” She looked down at the liquid still slightly flowing down her legs. “And to see if one of those packs of diapers we got as a gift is big enough to fit me!”
“It’s a girl!” Norman ran into the waiting area and yelled. “The most beautiful, head full of curly hair, brown little ball of joy I’ve ever seen in my life.” Tears poured from Norman’s eyes. It was evident that watching life come into the world had been something that had moved him beyond his wildest imagination. “She’s just beautiful.”
When Norman’s tears of joy started to include weeping, Mrs. Robinson went and embraced her son-in-law. “Now, now, son, it’s all right. I know.”
Norman wrapped his arms around his mother-in-law, wishing that his own mother could have been there to celebrate with him. He hadn’t even wasted his time phoning her. He had phoned his sister though, who had just arrived at the hospital about twenty minutes ago.
“I’m an auntie,” Samantha said. “Good job, big brother.” Samantha walked over and patted her brother on the back. Mrs. Robinson stepped away and allowed the siblings to share this moment.
“I love you, sis,” Norman told his sister. “Thank you for being here for me.”
“I’m not here for you.” Samantha pulled back and looked her brother in the eyes. “I’ve hated you ever since I was seven and you flushed my goldfish down the toilet to get back at me for setting that stupid hamster of yours free when you wouldn’t let me feed it. You think I’m here for your ugly mug? I’m here for my beautiful niece and don’t you ever forget.” A smile cracked across Samantha’s lips.
“Thank you, sis. This means the world to me. You’ve always accepted and supported me. But this, right now, your support means more to me than anything in the wor . . .” Norman broke down and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
Mr. and Mrs. Robinson embraced one another as they were touched by Norman’s exchange with his sister. Pastor Margie and a couple other church members huddled with tears streaming down their face. Samantha fought hard to keep the tears filling her eyes from falling. When she saw it was a losing battle, she excused herself from the room, claiming she needed to go to the ladies’ room.
“Son, can I talk to you for a moment?” Mr. Robinson approached Norman and asked.
“Sure,” Norman agreed, wiping the moisture from his face.
The two men stepped off to the side of the room for some privacy.
“I just wanted to let you know that I see right through you,” were Mr. Robinson’s words to his son-in-law.
Norman was a little stumped by Mr. Robinson’s words. “Excuse me, sir?”
“You may have everyone else fooled as to why you married my daughter, but, son, you ain’t fooled me one bit.”
“Mr. Robinson, I . . . I . . .”
“And don’t call me Mr. Robinson.”
Norman remembered upon meeting Mr. Robinson months ago he’d told him to call him by his first name. “I’m sorry.”
“You claimed you married my daughter because of that baby.” He pointed toward the doors where the delivery rooms were. “But that’s a lie. Mr. Vanderdale, I ain’t too fond of liars.”
The stern look Mr. Robinson initially had on his face did not let up, not one bit. Norman had no idea where this attitude was coming from nor why Mr. Robinson would try to steal the joy of the moment.
“Mr. Robinson—I mean, Samuel—I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Mr. Robinson put his hand on Norman’s shoulder. “Don’t call me Samuel either. You don’t have to pretend with me anymore, son. I’m on to you. This marriage to Paige wasn’t all about Paige and that baby. No matter how much you deny it, there was some selfishness involved as well. I see it in your eyes. Son,” Mr. Robinson said, “you love my daughter.”
“Of course I do,” Norman said, swallowing hard.
“No, I mean you looooovvve my daughter.” He looked Norman dead in his eyes. “You are in love with my daughter.” The corners of his mouth just slightly curved up into a smile.
Norman exhaled. He was relieved. One, because he thought he was about to get beat down by his father-in-law, and two, finally, someone had taken notice and was now forcing him to confess the feelings he’d been harboring for Paige for some time now, even prior to her divorce. The look of relief that rushed across his face said it all.
“Ah, ha ha. I knew it.” Mr. Robinson clapped his hands. “But don’t worry, son, your secret is safe with me. I think that’s something she needs to hear from you for the first time.”
“Tha . . . thank you, Samuel.”
“Didn’t I tell you don’t call me that?” Mr. Robinson’s voice was stern again.
“Well, sir, you said not to call you Mr. Robinson, and I can’t call you by your first name. I’m, uh, not sure what I should call you.”
“Son,” Mr. Robinson said proudly, placing his arm around Norman’s neck and bringing him in for a hug, “call me Dad.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Isn’t she just so precious?” Paige said as both she and Norman stared down over three-week-old Adele Monique Vanderdale. The baby girl was sleeping soundly in her bassinette, the one Norman had substituted her crib for.
“That she is,” Norman agreed, taking his thumb and rubbing it down the baby’s soft brown skin. “She looks just like you, Paige, even though she’s this tiny. All your features are just so prominent that it’s eerie.”
“Yep, eerie,” Paige said out loud, but thought, or a prayer answered. From the minute she decided she was going to give birth to the baby, she prayed to God every day that the baby would look nothing like its biological father. She just didn’t know if she’d be able to handle looking into Blake’s eyes every day. That might have been just a tad too much to bear, and God must have known it. God must have known Paige wouldn’t have been able to handle that. Maybe some other mother, but not her.
“I’m going to go change out of my work clothes.” Norman had rushed right in from work to do what he did all the time: lay eyes on his
new bundle of joy.
During her pregnancy, Paige had often wondered if, once reality hit, if once her little black baby by another man was born, Norman would be able to deal with it. His conjuring up the idea for the two to live in holy matrimony for the sake of the baby had been a good deed indeed. But no good deed goes unpunished. Would he be tortured by looking at the reminder that Adele was not his, yet he was claiming her as his own? This could hinder him from moving forward in future relationships. There was really no turning back. Norman had signed the birth certificate. Besides, in the state of Ohio, the husband is automatically considered the father unless tests prove otherwise. As far as Paige was concerned though, there would be no test. Blake, due to the restraining order, was not allowed to make any contact with her whatsoever. With that being so, she’d never have the opportunity to tell him about Adele. Not any time in the near future anyway.
Sure Paige knew that one day she’d have to tell Adele the truth, but it would be on her timing and terms. And of course Adele would have the free will of seeking out her biological father if she so chose. But Paige had a feeling that after hearing the full details about her father and what kind of man he was, that would be something Adele would have to think long and hard about. Paige didn’t plan on bad-mouthing and running Blake into the ground to his daughter, but for safety reasons, she owed it to her daughter to let her know what type of man she’d be dealing with, which was violent.
“I’ll get your plate ready and warmed up,” Paige said to Norman as he left her bedroom and headed to his own. Paige made her way into the kitchen where she warmed up Norman some fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, greens seasoned with ham hocks, and a slice of cornbread. Soul food wasn’t anything new to Norman’s palate, having grown up with Miss Nettie in his house.
About ten minutes later, showered and wearing only his plaid pajama bottoms, Norman entered the kitchen just as Paige was turning around from the microwave with his plate in hand.
“Oh, God!” Paige said as his plate came crashing down to the ground.
