The Preachers Son

by Carl Weber

  I walked up two steps to the platform and leaned against the table where he had been sitting.

  “What are you doing here?” I still didn’t know if he was happy to see me, but he was definitely confused.

  I didn’t reply at first. I just shrugged my shoulders, trying my best to avoid eye contact. It was awkward for a moment, until I finally built up the courage to look at him and say, “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”

  A timid smile crept upon his face as he responded. “It’s aw’ight. I thought about it, and I probably wouldn’t have believed me either.”

  I let out a sigh of relief. “So we’re cool?”

  “Yeah, we’re cool.”

  He nodded, then surprised me by wrapping his arm around my shoulder, pulling me in for a hug that I didn’t resist. I wrapped my arms around his waist and closed my eyes briefly, taking in the sweet, masculine scent of his cologne. He lowered his head and I was hoping that he would kiss me, but things never got quite that far, because we were rudely interrupted by a woman’s voice.

  “Dante! What are you doing?” I opened my eyes and there was the woman from the desk. She had her hand on her hip and was staring at me like I was holding on to her man. “Get your hands off of him, you, you little…don’t you have any shame? This is the house of the Lord.”

  We both dropped our hands to our sides. I was upset at the fact that she had the nerve to blame it on me so loudly. After all, Dante was the one who wrapped his arms around me first. Thank goodness we were the only ones left in the church.

  “Anita, leave them young people alone. They weren’t doing anything wrong. Don’t you remember what it was like to be like that?” The one-armed man walked over and placed his arm around her. “I seem to remember us doing a lot more than that upstairs in the church pews,” he teased.

  “Hush, Deacon. That’s not the same. And they’re not in love.” She removed his arm from her shoulder.

  “So you and Anita were doing your thing up in the church, huh, Deacon Emerson?” Dante asked. Damn, people were nosy around here.

  “We had our share of fun before we were married, young fella, but some things we saved till after we were married.” He winked at Dante then smiled at his wife. “You ready to go, dear?”

  She nodded, but something about her expression told me she really didn’t want to let Dante and me out of her sight. “What about them?” she asked. “We can’t just leave them here alone.”

  He looked at us, then at her. “Why can’t we? He’s the one with the keys.”

  She was no longer staring at me. She was looking directly at Dante. “You gonna be all right? We can stay until everything’s locked up.” She was trying to sound sweet, but the way she was staring at Dante, I was sure something else was going on in her head.

  “We’re gonna be fine, Anita.” Dante placed his arm around my shoulder and I thought I saw a smirk pass across his face for a second. “Go on home with your husband. I’ll take care of everything here.”

  “See there, now come on,” the woman’s husband said. “Let’s go home. I wanna see what’s on HBO.” We watched the two of them walk out. Every few steps the woman looked back at us until they were finally out the door.

  “I take it that’s the Anita you work with?”

  “Yep, that’s Anita,” he said flatly. He stepped down from the platform and gestured for me to follow.

  “So how long you two been fooling around?” I asked.

  Dante stopped abruptly. His shoulders tensed and his face became flushed. It was clear from his body language that I’d hit a nerve. He turned, trying his best to sound innocent. “What do you mean? We’re not fooling around. She’s a married woman.”

  “Yeah, right. Don’t play stupid with me, Dante. That woman looked like she wanted to scratch my eyes out. It’s pretty obvious something’s going on between you two. The only one who can’t see it is her husband.”

  “We’re not fooling around.” I gave him a skeptical look and he fessed up. “Well, not anymore. I ended it about a year and a half ago. Right before she got married to him.”

  “You may have ended it, but it sure don’t look like she has.”

  “That’s not my problem.” He placed his hands around my waist and looked at me as if Anita was the last thing on his mind. “She made her choice. She married him. Now she has to live with it.”

  “You sound like you’re over her.”

  He lowered his head until his lips were inches from mine. “Let’s just say I’m ready to move on.”

  “Well, why don’t I just help you with that?” I gently pulled his head toward mine then I closed my eyes and kissed him like I’d never kissed anyone before. I was determined to make him forget that Anita ever existed, and if the way he kissed me back was any indication, I was well on my way to my objective.

  A few moments later he broke our kiss and smiled. “The poetry reading is over, but we can still hit Red Lobster if you want.”

  I looked up at him with a disappointed half-smile. “That sounds good, Dante, but I can’t go tonight.”

  He loosened his hold on me. He must have thought this was my way of getting back at him for breaking our date earlier, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

  “Don’t be mad.” I gave him a pleading look. “After you left my house, I called my boss and asked if I could come in. I can’t cancel on him twice. How ’bout tomorrow?”

  His expression relaxed. “Aw’ight. But can we make it Monday? I have something to do tomorrow.”

  I nodded and he smiled.

  “You need a ride to work?”

  “You can give me a ride to the train.”

  “You don’t want a ride to work? I’m not a stalker, you know,” he said half jokingly.

  “It’s just that I don’t mix business with pleasure. I try to keep my relationships as far away from work as I can.”

  “So what are you doing here? I’m at work,” he teased.

  “The sign outside says they only have Bingo two nights a week, and I know you don’t pay a note on that pretty truck I saw you driving off calling out Bingo numbers. Besides, you invited me to come here.”

  “I did, didn’t I?” He smiled and squeezed me a little harder as he kissed me again. “You know, I like you, Tanisha. A lot more than I wanted to admit at first.”

  “Good, ’cause I like you, too, Dante.”

  “I know you don’t have time for dinner but how about I buy you a cup of coffee before you go to work?”

  I smiled. I definitely liked the idea of spending more time with him. “Sure. There’s a coffee shop right by the subway.”

  He reached out and took my hand. “Then it’s a date. Let’s get outta here.”

  8

  Dante

  I pulled into my driveway feeling like I was floating on air. I’d had kisses before, but I’d never had a kiss like the one Tanisha laid on me at the church and again at the subway station. Her lips were so soft and she smelled so good she made every other woman I’d ever been with easy to forget, and that included Anita. We sat in my car outside the subway talking and I was enjoying it so much I considered begging her not to leave. I hate to admit it, but she had me open. I couldn’t wait for Monday so I could see her again.

  As I exited my truck, my thoughts of Tanisha were interrupted and I was nearly frightened to death. A dark figure appeared from the bushes surrounding my house. I was so scared that I jumped back, tripping over my own feet, and landed right on my ass. Whoever it was could have killed me in a snap if they wanted to.

  “Where have you been?” the figure growled.

  At first I thought it was my mother because the voice, although distorted, was obviously female. My mother had a tendency to trip every once in a while when I came in later than she expected, but when this person took a step out of the shadows, I couldn’t believe who I saw.

  “Anita?” I whispered in confusion.

  “I asked you a question, Dante. Where have you been?
The deacon and I left you and that little hussy over two hours ago.” She was acting as if she’d just caught me cheating.

  I ignored her question and asked one of my own as I got up from the ground. “Anita, what are you doing here?” I brushed myself off as I waited for her answer, glancing nervously toward my house.

  At first I thought maybe she and her husband had stopped by to see my parents after Bingo and she’d just stepped out back to smoke a cigarette. Deacon Emerson and my father were close, and that would have answered my question about the lights being on so late. But then I realized I wasn’t going to be that lucky. Anita was wearing a raincoat on a humid, eighty-degree night. I could only imagine what she was wearing underneath it, if anything. Despite the objections from my big head, my little head once again took over.

  “I’ve been waiting to talk to you. I’ve been waiting out here for almost two hours,” she growled with attitude. She made it sound like I’d stood her up and she was the one who should be upset.

  “You’ve been waiting here? For what? I never told you to meet me here.” This was starting to get a little scary.

  “I came here because you’ve been avoiding me, Dante. You won’t answer my phone calls, you avoid me at work, but bringing that tramp to Bingo tonight was the last straw. I will not be humiliated. Why are you doing this to me?” I couldn’t believe it. She was jealous.

  “How the hell am I humiliating you? I’m not the one who got married, Anita. You are. You had your chance, but you chose Deacon Emerson over me, so don’t get mad at me or Tanisha. Be mad at yourself because this is all your doing.”

  “I know that, Dante, and that’s why I’m here. I wanna make it up to you.”

  She walked toward me, and with each step she unbuttoned her raincoat until she was two feet away from me and I could see her completely naked body underneath the coat. Just like that day in my office, I knew I was in trouble, so I took a step back only to find that I was pinned between her and my car. I raised my hands to try and keep her at arm’s distance, but she grabbed my wrists, pulling my hands toward her breasts. I tried to resist touching them, but by now my little head had completely taken over. Her breasts were soft yet firm in my hands. I probably could have caressed them all night as she nibbled on my neck, but two things stopped me.

  One was the thought of my date with Tanisha. Obviously it was too soon for us to make any commitment to each other, but I saw potential with this woman. Sure, it had surprised me to feel it, but during the short time we spent together earlier that night, she proved to be much deeper than I had given her credit for. In spite of where she lived and the way her mother acted, Tanisha had something special about her. Something I hadn’t felt since me and Anita first got together. I wasn’t thinking marriage or anything, but I was definitely looking forward to getting to know her, and I wasn’t about to let Anita get in the way.

  The other thing that stopped me was the kitchen light that had just come on in my house. I grabbed Anita and dove onto the grass in the shadow of the bushes just as my mother pulled back the curtains and peered out the window.

  I think Anita took my action the wrong way because she started to plaster my face with kisses as she moaned, “Ohhh, Dante, I love it when you get rough. Take me. Take me, baby. Take me right here on the grass under the moonlight.” She opened her legs and wrapped them around me.

  “Shhhhh,” I whispered.

  “What? What’s the matter?” she asked.

  I pointed at my mother in the window and she froze. We watched my mother stare out that window for a good thirty seconds before she opened the door just enough to shout, “Dante? Is that you, son?”

  I don’t know if it was stupidity or what but I yelled, “Yeah, Mom. I’ll be in in a minute.”

  “Is there someone with you? I thought I heard you talking to someone.”

  “Ah, no, I’m just putting some Armor All on my tires, Ma.” It was a stupid lie, but she bought it.

  “Okay, come on in. I have something important I wanna talk to you about.”

  “Sure, Ma. I’ll be right in.” She closed the door and I pushed myself away from Anita.

  “Why the heck did you do that? She couldn’t see us,” Anita snapped.

  “I did it because she knows I’m home, Anita. She might not be able to see us, but she could see my truck. If I didn’t answer her, she would have come out here to investigate, and I know you didn’t want her to see you dressed like this.”

  Anita didn’t reply to that. She just got up from the ground and tried to hug me. I pushed her away.

  “Now what’s the matter?” she asked.

  “You need to go home to your husband.”

  “He’s ’sleep, Dante. He won’t be up for hours. Why don’t you go pacify your mother then come back out? We’ve got all night.” She tried to kiss me again.

  “No,” I said sternly as I sidestepped her grasp. I stepped out of the shadows and into the safety of the light where I knew Anita dared not come because of my mother’s prying eyes. “Anita, we’re over. We are through.”

  “This isn’t over, Dante. You know you want me, and I want you. It’s just a matter of time. That little hussy I saw you with tonight can’t do for you what I can.”

  I couldn’t help it. I had to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “You know, earlier tonight she said the same thing about you.” She glared at me. “But you’re right about one thing, Anita. I do love you. I’ll always love you. You’re the woman who made me a man. But my father always told me that the best way to get over someone you love is to find someone else to love. And that’s exactly what I’m trying to do.”

  “I’m not gonna let you go, Dante. You’re mine and you are always gonna be mine, so don’t think you’re just gonna walk away from me and be with some other bitch.”

  “You know, Anita, that’s exactly what I’m afraid of, that this whole thing could get real ugly and real personal.”

  “It’s already gotten personal, Dante. You tell that bitch to watch her back, because one of these days I might be standing behind her, and that’s the day she’s gonna get her ass whipped.”

  I turned and looked at Anita. Her expression was dead serious, almost scary.

  “If I were you, Anita, I wouldn’t sleep on Tanisha. She ain’t one of these scared church girls. You mess with her and you might be the one who gets her ass whipped. Now go home to your husband.” On that note, I walked away from her and headed into my house.

  9

  Donna

  I took the candied yams I had cooked and placed them on the counter with a smile. I loved Sundays and I loved cooking Sunday dinner even more. I guess it was because I was such a good cook and everyone complimented me, including my mother. If there was ever a day I needed a compliment from my mother, it was today. She was already angry enough with me for coming home late and not opening the church for Bingo the night before. Usually, after she got on me, I’d be moping around the rest of the day, but after making love to Terrance four times last night, I was in such a good mood I was humming. I guess that’s what good loving will do for a sister. Maybe I would talk to the bishop and see if I could get him to give my mom some. That might get her panties out of that permanent bunch. Yeah, some good hard loving was exactly what she needed. A sudden chill ran through my body at the image of my parents having sex. Now that was nasty.

  Anyhow, this Sunday after church, I had cooked pork roast garnished with parsley sprigs, a large pot of turnip and mustard greens, candied yams, golden brown corn bread, macaroni and cheese, and a peach cobbler. I could already imagine everyone seated around the table “throwing down,” reminding me of a scene from the movie Soul Food.

  “It sure smells good in here. Anything we can do to help?” The bishop smiled as he walked into the kitchen, inspecting the food. He was followed by his right-hand man and protégé, Reverend Reynolds.

  Reverend Reynolds, a much younger man than my father, was the youth and prison outre
ach minister. The last couple of years he’d been like family, coming over for Sunday dinner whenever he wasn’t out of town or at a conference. If it weren’t for my parents’ desire for Dante to be the next pastor, Reverend Reynolds would be the most logical choice. And I still wouldn’t count him out, especially since Dante was secretly yearning to be a lawyer. Reverend Reynolds was probably one of the most well-liked men in the church, and with the right woman by his side, he could end up being the pastor someday.

  “Dinner’s just abo—” I didn’t finish my sentence because I had to smack both their hands with the serving spoon when they tried to steal a piece of the roast pork I had just sliced.

  “Ouch!” Reverend Reynolds laughed. “You sure swing a mean spoon, Donna.”

  “I’ma swing more than that if you two don’t get out my kitchen. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Go and get washed up.”

  I pointed at the door with a smile and they both turned to leave, but not before the bishop reached out and snatched two pieces of pork, handing one to Reverend Reynolds.

  “Lord, you two should be ashamed of yourselves. You got what you came for, now get out my kitchen and tell Dante to come help me bring this food out.”

  I went back to the stove and stirred the pot of greens. I glanced up as Dante swept into the kitchen and bowed graciously like Jeffery, the butler on The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire.

  “Hey, sis, what’s up? Reverend Reynolds said you wanted me.”

  “Yeah, help me bring this food out for dinner.”

  “No problem.” He approached the counter and looked me dead in the eye. “So, where were you last night?”

  “Don’t start, aw’ight, Dante?” I groaned. “Mom is already giving me enough grief about that.”

  “She should. Guess who had to work Bingo with Anita and Deacon Emerson last night because of you? Do you know how unpleasant that was?”

  “Oops, my bad.” Now I felt sorry. “I had no idea she would call you when I didn’t show up. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.” I gave him a sincere smile.