“You don’t have to tell me that, Arykah.”
“Apparently I do. Do you really believe that God doesn’t want Miranda to sing to Him just because she’s pregnant? You think He wants her to stop worshipping and adoring Him because she’s pregnant? No, He doesn’t. If anything, the choir is exactly where Miranda needs to be. She needs to keep singing and praising and clapping and loving God. He forgave her of her sin, and He still loves her. Miranda is still His child. God hasn’t turned His back on her, so why are you trying to make her turn her back on Him? If you take that girl out of the choir and she leaves the church and gets into more trouble, that’s gonna be on you. You’ll have to answer for that. Now, you can mess around and let the mothers get you into trouble with God if you want to.”
Arykah turned toward her closet, then turned back around. “What about the boy that got Miranda pregnant? Doesn’t he sing in the young adult choir too? Was he told that he couldn’t sing ’til after his baby comes? Was he instructed to stand before the church and confess that he’d gotten a girl pregnant?”
“Mother Pansie didn’t mention anything about the boy.”
“That’s what I thought,” Arykah said. “So, it’s okay for Miranda to be yanked from the choir because her belly will grow and her sin will be exposed. But the young daddy can keep doing what he wants to do. You know that ain’t right, Lance. If you take Miranda out of the choir, then you take her baby’s daddy out of the choir as well. He doesn’t get a free pass. They both laid down and made a baby. Miranda didn’t do it by herself.” Arykah turned to walk away but stopped and turned around a second time.
“And shame on you, as a pastor and as a man of God, for letting Mother Pansie throw you under the bus. If Miranda’s soul gets lost, God will come after you, not Mother Pansie.” Arykah was finished with the conversation. She left Lance to his thoughts. She walked into the master bath and started the water in the shower.
Lance lay on the bed, on his back, looking up at the ceiling. He thought about everything Arykah said. Clearly she was hot and bothered. He wanted to try to talk more about Miranda’s situation with Arykah, but he knew she needed to cool off.
They showered separately, which was rare. Their shower stall was built for two, and Lance and Arykah looked forward to showering together every morning. Lance didn’t follow Arykah into the shower that morning, nor did she invite him in. In fact, they dressed for church in complete silence.
Lance was the first, as always, to be ready. When he saw Arykah hook the clasp to her diamond tennis bracelet around her wrist, he knew she was ready. “Are we driving the Benz, the Lex, or the Jag today?” he asked her.
“You go ahead and drive whatever you want. I’ll drive myself to church.”
Lance frowned. “Why?” Since they’d been married, they rode to church together.
Arykah looked into Lance’s eyes. “Because I said so.” She walked by him and left the bedroom.
Lance followed after her. “Arykah, that’s ridiculous. Why should we drive separate cars to the same church? What will folks think?”
Arykah stopped in her tracks and turned around. “Oh, now you’re worried about what folks will think when they look at you sideways? Well, how do you think Miranda feels?”
Arykah walked through the kitchen to the garage door and opened it. She grabbed the keys to the Lexus off the key rack, just inside the kitchen door, and pressed the alarm button on the remote. Silently, she got in the driver’s seat, shut the door, and pressed the button on the garage door opener above her head, on the sun visor. Then she started the Lexus and drove the car out of the garage and left Lance standing looking at her.
Lance was already seated in the pulpit when Arykah, Myrtle, and Monique walked down the center aisle to the front pew. That was the first time since they’d become man and wife that Lance and Arykah hadn’t walked into the sanctuary together on a Sunday morning.
When Lance knocked on Arykah’s office door at the church, then poked his head inside, he saw her sitting behind her desk. He announced that it was time for them to head downstairs to the sanctuary. Arykah told Lance that she wasn’t ready to go downstairs and he should go ahead without her. He looked at Monique and Myrtle sitting in the chairs opposite of Arykah’s desk. They wouldn’t give him any eye contact. He closed Arykah’s door and went down to the sanctuary alone.
Arykah purposely kept her focus away from the pulpit. Every Sunday, she and Lance flirted with each before he stood to preach his sermon. While praise and worship was going on, she would wink her eye at him or blow Lance a kiss, and he’d return the gesture with a wink and a smile. But right then, Arykah wasn’t giving Lance any eye contact whatsoever. He tried to send her a telepathic message by staring at her. Maybe she’d feel his gaze and look his way, but she ignored him completely.
After praise and worship ended, the young adult choir marched into the sanctuary and took their place in the choir stand. Arykah didn’t see Miranda, but she saw the young man who had fathered her baby. She had to restrain herself from going into the choir stand and pulling the young boy out by his ear. But Arykah knew that he wasn’t the problem. Her battle was with her husband, the pastor of the church. Arykah leaned over to Myrtle and whispered, “I am so mad. I should’ve stayed at home.”
Myrtle patted her arm. “It’s all right, Sugar Plum.” Arykah had shared with Monique and Myrtle the argument that she and Lance had that morning before church.
Both ladies understood her point and felt that Lance and Mother Pansie were wrong for sitting Miranda down from the choir. But Myrtle told Arykah that driving two separate cars to church didn’t help the situation. Fighting with Lance at home was one thing, but Myrtle warned Arykah that driving separate cars and ignoring her husband at church would send up flares. She advised Arykah to be careful to not alert the vultures at church that she and Lance were fighting because they would pounce on him like a cat on a ball of yarn.
Listening to the choir, Arykah couldn’t concentrate on what they were singing about.
She was so angry that she had begun to shake as if she had chills running through her body. The longer she sat there and watched the young boy who had gotten Miranda pregnant, the angrier she got.
She leaned into Myrtle again. “I’m going home. I can’t be here like this. My spirit is jacked up, and I ain’t gonna sit here and be fake.”
Myrtle pressed her index finger down on Arykah’s thigh to keep her seated. “That’s exactly what you’re gonna do,” she said sternly. “When you get back home, you can rip Lance’s head off, but right here and right now, you’re gonna pretend to be the happily married first lady that everyone thinks you are.”
Arykah got even angrier than she was five minutes ago. She sat straight up on the pew and pinched her lips together and looked forward, not gazing on anything in particular.
Lance saw the exchange between Myrtle and Arykah. He could tell by Arykah’s body language that whatever Myrtle whispered in her ear was obviously something Arykah didn’t want to hear.
His wife was upset, and Lance wondered what he could do to fix the situation.
Thinking back on everything Arykah had said that morning made him realize that she was absolutely right. Who was Mother Pansie to tell Miranda that she couldn’t sing in the choir just because she was pregnant? Lance remembered Arykah’s harsh words. If anything, the choir is exactly where Miranda needs to be. She needs to keep singing and praising and clapping and loving God. He forgave her of her sin, and He still loves her. Miranda is still His child. If you take that girl out of the choir and she leaves the church and gets into more trouble, that’s gonna be on you. You’ll have to answer for that.
Lance looked at the young boy who had fathered Miranda’s baby. He was singing and clapping and praising God. His life hadn’t changed. Was he told that he couldn’t sing ’til after his baby comes? Was he instructed to stand before the church and confess that he’d gotten a girl pregnant? So, it’s okay for Miranda to be yanked from the
choir because her belly will grow and her sin will be exposed. But the young daddy can keep doing what he wants to do. You know that ain’t right, Lance. Grow some cashews and man up.
Lance scanned the congregation until he spotted Miranda sitting next to Gladys in the rear of the church. Without hesitation, he stood from his seat, left the pulpit, and walked to the back of the church. Minister Weeks was quickly on Lance’s heels.
It wasn’t uncommon for Lance to disrupt the service and walk out of the pulpit to lay holy hands on the people. It was Minister Week’s job to move whenever Lance moved.
When Lance got to the end of the pew that Miranda sat on, everyone watched as he called for her to come to him. Arykah saw Miranda stand and excuse herself as she passed folks and stood before her pastor. The young adult choir was still singing when Lance turned to look at Arykah. In his eyes, Arykah knew Lance needed her. She slowly stood and made her way down the center aisle to where he and Miranda stood.
With Arykah by his side, Lance placed both of his hands on top of Miranda’s head and began praying for her. Tears came to Arykah’s eyes. After his prayer, Lance held out his left hand for Minister Weeks to pour holy oil in his palm. Lance then blessed the oil and poured it from his palm to Arykah’s palm. He instructed Arykah to place her hands on Miranda’s belly.
With tears dripping down her face, Arykah did as she was told. As soon as she touched Miranda’s belly, Arykah felt the fifteen-week-old fetus move. Immediately the Holy Spirit overpowered Arykah, and she began speaking in an unknown tongue.
Gladys saw the power of God moving through Arykah. “Thank ya! Thank ya!” she shouted in her seat.
When Lance saw that Arykah had finished blessing Miranda, he hugged Arykah. “You had my back, baby,” he whispered in her ear.
Arykah returned Lance’s hug. “And I always will.”
Lance kissed Arykah’s cheek, and she walked back to the front pew and sat down.
Then Lance grabbed Miranda’s hand and escorted her into the soprano section in the choir stand. Afterward, he returned to his own seat in the pulpit. Arykah turned around and looked into Mother Pansie’s face and sent her a message with her eyes. You ain’t runnin’ nothing.
Mother Pansie glared at Arykah. She’d gotten Arykah’s silent message clearly.
Mother Pansie crossed her arms over her chest and averted her eyes somewhere else.
Arykah turned back around and saw Lance looking at her. She winked her eye at him and Lance returned the wink, then smiled.
My wife is happy again, he thought.
Myrtle leaned into Arykah. “See what you would’ve missed had you left?”
“Thanks for making me stay, Momma Cortland.” Arykah was pleased. Lance made her happy. She saw Miranda in the choir singing and praising God just as she should be. Arykah stood up and started clapping and singing along with the choir.
Mother Pansie sat behind Arykah wondering how she had gotten Lance to change his mind about Miranda. When she had spoken with Lance on the telephone the night before, he told Mother Pansie that she had his full support. Mother Pansie looked at Arykah’s blond wig, her skintight scarlet-red dress, and her hooker heels. That Jezebel seduced him.
Mother Pansie was anxious for morning service to be over so that she could get started on the next plan to get Arykah out of Freedom Temple. But Mother Pansie was on her own now. Mother Gussie told Mother Pansie that she was done fooling with their pastor’s wife. Arykah was constantly showing up in Mother Gussie’s dreams in a bad way. The day Arykah came to the church and confronted her about the suit jacket fiasco when she tried to make Arykah believe that Lance had cheated on her, Mother Gussie had wet her pants. It was then that she realized that Arykah meant business. Mother Gussie believed Arykah to be the craziest woman she’d ever met. So crazy that Mother Gussie absolutely refused to come to church for work or morning service.
Lance hadn’t spoken with Mother Gussie in weeks. He assumed she resigned from her position as the church secretary.
Sitting in church, angry, Mother Pansie knew she had been defeated again. Lance had stripped her of her position of counseling the women in the church and assigned Arykah to do it. Mother Pansie was overruled when she confronted Arykah about having Miranda stand in front of the church and confess her sin. And now Bishop Lance, himself, took the girl and put her back in the choir.
Three times Mother Pansie had been defeated, but she refused to give up. Having to look at Arykah’s big behind, in a wig and dress that only a floozy would wear, Mother Pansie decided that she didn’t need Mother Gussie on her team.
Mother Gussie was weak, but Mother Pansie refused to be intimidated by Arykah. The fat broad had to go, and Mother Pansie would see to it. Come hell or high water, Lady Elect Arykah would soon be gone. For Mother Pansie, it had become a personal matter.
Chapter 16
Monday morning, Arykah was in the shower when she heard the house phone ringing. Monday mornings were when new listings of homes on the market came across Arykah’s desk at the realty office. It wasn’t unusual for her boss to call Arykah at home when he got a hold of the listings before any other agent came into the office.
Arykah ran from the shower into the bedroom, soaking wet. She snatched up the receiver from her nightstand before the call went into the voice mail. “Hello?”
“Lady Arykah?”
Arykah frowned at the voice on the other end of the telephone. What could she possibly want on a Monday morning? Of course she was calling to speak with Lance to try to get him to put a leash on his wife.
“The bishop isn’t here, Mother Pansie. Perhaps you should try him at the church.”
Arykah heard the call disconnect, then the line went dead. Mother Pansie had hung up on her. What the heck? Arykah’s first instinct was to call Mother Pansie back and ask what her problem was but decided against it. She had houses to sell. Arykah returned the cordless telephone to its base and was on her way back to the shower when she heard the doorbell ring. Now what? she thought.
She turned the water off in the shower, then grabbed her long quilted robe from the end of the bed and put it on. The doorbell rang again.
“Coming!” Arykah shouted as she left her bedroom and went to the front door.
“Who is it?” she asked, tying the belt to the robe in a knot around her waist.
“Delivery for Mrs. Howell,” a man said.
With her spending habits, a delivery from the United Parcel Service was at Arykah’s front door at least three times a week. She didn’t think to look through the peephole to see Rafael, the driver assigned to Arykah’s area. The same driver who always delivered her packages. Arykah had developed a trusting relationship with Rafael. Because her packages were often too heavy for her to lift, she would tip Rafael very handsomely to bring her boxes inside.
“You still married?” Rafael would ask Arykah in his Spanish accent every time he brought her packages. He flirted with her, and Arykah would assure him that as long as she lived in that big home, she would stay married.
“Okay, Rafael, I’m here,” Arykah said after the doorbell rang a third time. She opened the door and one punch to her nose sent Arykah flying backward. The impact was so forceful that the back of Arykah’s head slammed against the tile floor. She saw stars, and she saw a man’s silhouette.
“Rafael?” she moaned trying to get up.
“No. Not Rafael, b*@+h,” he muttered.
Arykah heard the front door slam. She tried to move but felt a kick to her ribs. She screamed out. The next thing Arykah knew, she was being dragged by her arms into the living room. She began kicking and screaming. She didn’t know from which direction the next punch came, but Arykah felt a blow to her right eye.
“Shut up!” he yelled.
Dazed and confused, Arykah’s vision was blurred. She felt her robe being snatched open.
“No!” she screamed. “Nooooo!”
The next punch knocked out two of Arykah’s front teeth.
; “I said shut the f*#k up!” He was on top of her. He positioned himself in between Arykah’s thighs. She felt his fingers force themselves inside of her.
Arykah screamed again. “Lance! Lance!”
“The bishop can’t save you now,” he said.
His breath was foul; his body odor was offensive. Arykah fought, kicked, and scratched. She wasn’t going down without a fight. But the more she fought and screamed, the harder his punches got. His fingers jammed in and out of her. Arykah felt his nails slice her inner flesh.
“Jesus! Jesus!” she screamed.
The next thing Arykah knew, he had traded his fingers for his manhood. He forced her body to accept his, to make room for him. She coughed up blood and had almost choked on her own teeth that had slipped to the back of her throat.
He had gotten a hold of both of Arykah’s wrists and extended them over her head. Violently, he pressed them on the floor. He moved in and out of her over and over again. Thrusting, tearing, forcing her to take him in.
Arykah couldn’t see his face. She couldn’t make out his features. He was a stranger in her house.
His thrusts became faster and faster; then he yelled out and suddenly stopped. And just as quickly as he had barged into her home, he was gone.
Arykah lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling, unable to move. Her entire body ached. Her nude, violated body was exposed. Blood had run from her nose and mouth down the sides of her face and onto the white carpet beneath her. Her womanhood burned. Arykah reached between her legs and felt a warm liquid oozing out of her. “Oh my God,” she cried. “Oh my God.” She couldn’t believe that she had just been violated in her own home. She had been raped.
With the little strength she had, Arykah turned over on her stomach and used her elbows to drag herself to the telephone on the cocktail table. Her thighs left a trail of blood behind her. It took Arykah four tries to get the number correct.
Lance saw his home number flashing on the caller ID on his cellular telephone. “You miss me already, don’t you?” he joked.
Lady Elect Page 19
