by Dynah Zale
Olivia closed the door behind Tressie. “When will my sister learn that all she has to do is quit smoking and she wouldn’t have to do these things?”
When Tressie stepped into the dining room she sucked her teeth at the sight of numerous wedding materials scattered around. “Please don’t tell me this is going to be another night of wedding planning,” she wailed while pulling out a chair. “Why did you hire a wedding planner when we’re doing all the work?”
“Stop complaining.” Val placed a pile of unfolded programs down in front of her.
Olivia chuckled at their innocent bickering.
Danyelle finally joined them at the table. “If you can’t keep those dogs under control I’m going to have them picked up by the animal shelter.” Danyelle sneered at them from across the room. “Anyway, guess what I did today?” Danyelle expected the girls to fall out in surprise when she shared with them her news.
“You guys will never believe this. I still don’t believe it.” Tressie sat up straight in her chair so she wouldn’t miss their reaction.
Danyelle cut her eyes at Tressie. “I applied to Bible College.”
A hush fell over the table. Val and Olivia eyed one another before breaking out into a hearty laugh.
“Right, stop playing with us. What did you really do today?” Olivia couldn’t stop laughing.
“I told you they weren’t going to believe you.” Tressie placed her first finished program in the pile.
Shock filled Olivia’s face when she realized Danyelle was serious. At a loss for words, she looked to Val to rescue her.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while,” Danyelle said.
Olivia wasn’t sure what to say and was glad when Val finally spoke up, “What brought on this decision?”
Danyelle’s decision to enroll in college was so sudden she couldn’t explain it herself. Recently, episodes of uneasiness nagged at her soul. She prayed, fasted and studied the scripture, looking for peace.
Suddenly, His plans for her life poured into her heart like the feel of a refreshing ice-cold glass of spring water on a hot, sweaty summer day.
Danyelle was considered an expert when it came to exploring facts, memorizing scripture and interpreting meanings within the Bible. She believed her intellect came from smoking at least one blunt a day, until it dawned on her that her wisdom was one of her God-given talents that was supposed to be used to glorify Him.
“Did you think I was going to work at the drugstore forever?”
The three of them slightly nodded their heads in agreement.
“Okay, I must admit, college has never been a part of my game plan, but I feel like I’m standing on the sidelines watching the three of you advance in your field while I’m stuck in a bottomless pit. Val’s in law school. Tressie is a child counselor working toward her masters in psychology. When Reverend Baxter spoke at our church it was plain to see how close his relationship with God is. A part of that is because he understands the Bible. I want that relationship. I want that insight.”
Olivia got up from her seat, walked around the table and wrapped her arms around her sister. “I’m so proud of you. I believe you can do anything you set your mind to, and that includes school.”
Academically, Danyelle had been labeled the underachiever in the family. Mediocrity was acceptable for her, and she never strived for anything greater. Olivia saw her potential and realized the initiative it took for her to enroll in Bible College. This was not only a blessing, but a miracle only God could do.
“Did you choose a major?” Val asked.
“I’ve decided to take on a double major in biblical studies and children’s ministries, and I’ve chosen to minor in church music.”
“Big sister, don’t take on too much,” Olivia advised before taking her seat again.
“I won’t. I’m fully prepared to battle this small hurdle.” Danyelle was proud of herself, and she wasn’t going to allow anything to hinder her calling from God.
Tressie’s head was bowed down working on wedding favors, but she shifted her eyes up. “You know they don’t allow drugs on college campuses.”
“That’s okay. Because I plan to smoke before I get there.” Danyelle had decided that the day she received her acceptance letter. “Tressie, will you go to the school with me during registration? It’s the second week of January. You know how hard it is for me to make a decision.”
“Sorry. I’ll be out of town. Right after the New Year my boss has me scheduled to fly to Milwaukee. An eleven-year-old cut his classmate’s throat and killed her,” Tressie said as if she were giving a weather report.
“Doesn’t it bother you that your job is to get inside the minds of kids who have committed such violent crimes?” Val asked.
“Of course not. Tressie’s used to it. She used to date them.”
Everyone looked at Danyelle because her joke wasn’t funny.
“It gets a little disturbing sometimes,” Tressie admitted.
“Sometimes when I speak with these children, some have no remorse. It’s like they have no value for life and I’m looking straight into the eyes of an empty soul. The others act like they have no idea of the seriousness of what they’ve done. They play head games, and sometimes they are so smart that I get confused. It’s a hard job.”
“We live in a horrible world,” Olivia said out loud.
Everyone gathered around reflected on her words.
The girls talked and worked well into the early morning hours. They managed to finish folding the programs, assembling the wedding favors and even helped Val memorize her wedding vows. In the end everyone was tired and ready for bed.
In the process of everyone cleaning up their mess, Val’s cell phone rang.
“Hey, baby!” The fatigue Val felt a moment ago disappeared at the sound of her fiancé’s voice.
“Hey, baby!” The girls mocked her in unison and laughed at her. They knew it was Julian on the other end. It was customary for him to call her after every game.
Val rolled her eyes and fled to Olivia’s room for privacy.
“Did you watch the game?” Julian screamed over his celebrating teammates in the locker room.
“Yes, I did. I wish I could have come with you.” Val missed him so much. She hated being away from him. “But there is no way I could leave with all the things that still need to be done before the wedding. I called the caterer and told him you wanted to have one last meeting with him to discuss a few minor details. At first he told me he wouldn’t have any free time until the day before the wedding. You know the holidays are the busiest season for him, but I told him you had to get in there sooner than that. It took for me to be a little persistent, but he’s going to go into work an hour early the day after Christmas. So we have to make sure we meet him at the restaurant no later than nine. So when does your flight leave?”
Julian kept trying to interrupt her, but she talked so fast.
“Valencia.” Julian knew his future bride was not going to be happy with what he had to tell her. “Baby, the weather is so bad here that I don’t think I’m going to make it.”
“I heard it was snowing there, but I didn’t think it was that bad. Did they close the airports?” Val’s temperature rose. She hated it when things didn’t go as planned.
“No, but my coach suggested I leave out tomorrow morning with the rest of the team.” He loved Val, but there were times she could be spoiled and intolerant.
“Julian, I don’t want to spend Christmas without you. You promised you would be here,” she reminded him.
“I know, but I’ll still get there in time for Christmas. I just won’t get there until late in the afternoon.”
“Late afternoon,” she repeated.
“Yes. You have to account for travel time and we’re in a different time zone.” He tried to explain, but his argument wasn’t very convincing. Julian was the kind of man who didn’t like to go back on his word, especially to his woman. He broke the uncomfortable silence ov
er the phone. “All right! I’ll catch the next commercial flight out of here. Once we get married you’re going to stop getting your way all the time.”
Val giggled. “Do you need me to pick you up from the airport?”
The sound of happiness in Val’s voice assured Julian that he had made the right decision. He couldn’t wait to pledge his love and life to her in front of God, family and friends. Val was a priceless jewel, and nothing in this world was more valuable to him than her. He vowed to spend his life making her happy.
“You don’t have to do that. I’ll catch a cab to my mom’s house and I’ll pick you up from Olivia’s. See you in the morning. I love you, Valencia.”
“I love you, too.” She disconnected the call and savored the moment. She couldn’t believe how the sound of Julian pronouncing her full name still sent chills down her spine. He refused to call her by anything other than Valencia.
Val reentered the living room just in time to see Tressie and Danyelle gathering their things to leave.
“I thought you two were going to stay with us tonight?” Val settled into the fluffy couch pillows.
“I can’t. My parents pressured me into staying the night at their house tonight. They miss having their only child.” Tressie reached out to give the girls a goodnight hug. “I think my mother is experiencing the empty nest syndrome.” She rubbed her temples and strolled out the door with Danyelle following close behind her.
Olivia put Bryce in the bed with her and told Val she could sleep in his room. Afterwards, Olivia checked to make sure all doors and windows were locked before heading to bed. As she passed by Bryce’s bedroom, she saw Val pulling the blankets over herself.
“Hey.” She walked into the room. “If I haven’t already said this”—She paused a moment—“I am so proud of you.”
Dimples formed in Val’s cheeks. “Why?”
Olivia walked over and sat on the side of the bed. “When Julian came home from Seattle I was sure you were never going to be able to forgive him. You treated him like dirt.”
They laughed together.
“But I’m glad to see that you finally found it in your heart to forget the past.”
“Livie, his lies and infidelity blinded me from seeing that just because he made a mistake he didn’t stop loving me. But it’s him who deserves all the credit for us being together. He was the one who made the sacrifice. He loved me enough to forgo his multi-million-dollar contract in Seattle to play in New York for only a third of what he’s worth.”
“The trials we endure in life can do nothing but make us stronger,” Olivia reminded her.
“I’ve learned that, although my last name will change, who I am on the inside will still remain the same. I’m going to be a wife and hopefully one day a mother, but I still want a life of my own. I will never put my life on hold like I did before. Don’t get me wrong, you know I will support Julian, but not at the expense of me falling back ten steps to push him forward two. Am I making any sense?”
“I understand and I’m jealous of you.”
Val gave her a puzzled look.
“God has blessed you because it’s not too many women who can say they have it all. You have the degree, the man and pretty soon you’ll be adding babies and a career to your resume. God has blessed you.” She wrapped her arms around Val. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” She pushed Olivia back away from her. “But I need to get some rest for tomorrow and so do you, miss maid of honor.”
Olivia’s insides tingled at her honorary roll in the wedding.
In the early morning hours, while the outside temperatures were still way below zero and the wind made the chill factor in Philadelphia feel like it was in the negative twenties, Olivia was awakened by the sound of someone pounding on her front door. She turned over to check on Bryce. He was sound asleep.
“My son could sleep through the second coming.”
She crawled out of bed and threw her robe on. Olivia was going to kill Julian for waking her up so early in the morning. She knew it had to be no one but him. He was the only person who would be up at this time in the morning. Julian lacked patience, which would explain why he couldn’t wait until later that morning to see Val. When she flipped on the living room lights the knocking became louder. She looked for Kennedy and Clinton, who were sleeping soundly under the dining room table. Then Olivia fixed her mouth to tell Julian to quiet down, but when she flung the door wide open it wasn’t Julian on the other side. It was Julian’s stepfather, Mr. McCormick.
The distraught look in his eyes made Olivia’s body tense up. She sensed that he was there to deliver bad news. This man who usually stood tall and strong like a tower was now bent over. He leaned his muscular body against the doorjamb for support. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, and Olivia could see his eyes full of tears. She was scared to ask what was wrong, because she knew it couldn’t be good.
He finally parted his lips to say something, but choked on his words. He held out his arms for Olivia, and she helped him into her apartment.
When they sat down together on the sofa, Mr. McCormick’s head fell down in front of him. He had cried the distance to Olivia’s house, and it took him another twenty minutes before he found the strength to get out of the car and to her door. Eventually he would have to tell her why he was there, and once he did, this nightmare would become a reality.
“Mr. McCormick, is Mrs. McCormick okay? She’s not sick, is she?”
He lifted his head so fast that the look in his eyes startled her. “It’s Julian,” he sobbed. “His mother sent me over here to tell her in person before she heard it on the news.”
“Heard what?” Olivia braced herself for the worst. Goose bumps broke out along her arms, and she prayed that Julian was all right.
“Julian’s plane crashed last night right after takeoff. We received a call about an hour ago. There were no survivors.”
Shaken to the core, Olivia fell back in her seat. Mr. McCormick hugged her numb body tight. She immediately assumed he must have been mistaken. Julian wasn’t dead. Just a few hours ago they were watching him on television. He was alive and well, jumping, running and slamming the ball into the basket.
Across the room sat over two hundred wedding favors and programs for a wedding that was not going to take place. “No,” she cried. The pain was too deep for her to contain, and she cried hysterically.
“How am I going to tell Val?” Olivia said more to herself than to Mr. McCormick.
“You don’t have to.”
They turned around and found Val watching them.
“I’ve known for hours.”
Olivia rushed to comfort her. She expected Val to cry, kick, scream or get mad. Instead she stood frozen, emotionless like a statue. Olivia helped her to sit down, but Val remained unmoved. Olivia figured she was upset and in shock. She and Mr. McCormick sat with Val until her parents arrived later that morning.
Chapter 3
Dark gray rain clouds hung suspended over First Nazareth A.M.E. church. A long black hearse sat parked in front of the church, several black limousines lined up behind it. The police blocked off the street, and barricades held back fans holding up signs expressing their condolences. News vans filled every corner with correspondents trying to get a glimpse of the coffin that held Julian’s last remains.
Inside, the church pews were full of Julian’s friends, family, colleagues and teammates all gathered together to say good-bye. The entire New York Knicks team stood in attendance along the back wall along with people from the NBA organization, including Commissioner David Stern. Even Owen Torres and a few of Julian’s old teammates from Seattle showed up. Flower wreaths surrounded Julian’s coffin and a soft melody drifted from the organ.
On the first row, Julian’s stepfather cradled his wife in his arms as she wept loudly.
The days following Julian’s death were hard on everyone. Mrs. McCormick wouldn’t leave the kitchen. She mourned her only child by baking cakes, p
ies, and loaves of bread all from scratch.
Mr. McCormick pulled out videotapes of Julian’s high school basketball games. For hours he locked himself inside his bedroom and watched Julian turn his basketball skills from average to phenomenal.
Val fell into a deep depression. She wouldn’t eat, sleep or talk to anyone. Her parents tried to convince her to get her mind off of things by getting her out of the house, but she refused to go anywhere. Even when Mrs. McCormick went to visit her she wouldn’t leave the confines of her bedroom.
When it came time for Val to attend the funeral her mental state hadn’t changed, so her parents chose to stay at home with her.
From the choir box Danyelle stared down at the closed coffin that held her good friend. She wondered why bad things happened to good people. Val and Julian were on the verge of making a commitment to spend the rest of their lives together, and on the day they were supposed to be standing in this church saying their I do’s, the groom was being buried.
“God’s ways are not our ways,” Danyelle softly recited to herself.
“You may not know how much it hurts my heart to stand before you this morning,” Reverend Simms stuttered from behind the podium. “I’ve watched Julian grow from a little boy into a man and to have him taken away . . .” Reverend Simms paused. “I’m sorry.” He wiped a single tear away from his eye.
Colin patted him on the back and told him to have a seat.
“I may not have known Julian as well as most here, but the few times that he and I did speak, I felt in my heart he was a man of God. He was a consistent figure in church, and it’s rare to find young men his age so committed to the Lord. The last time Julian and I talked he asked me to pray for him. He told me that he would be on the road for a few weeks playing away, and it was important for him to stay close to God while he was on the road. It’s a hard thing for a man not to be taken in by money, fame and power, and I commend him for that. I’m proud to say that now that he’s been called home he doesn’t ever have to worry about being separated from the Lord ever again.”
