Former Rain-Forsaken Box Set

by Vanessa Miller

  Cassandra walked over to JT and helped him up onto the couch.

  “Can you get me a pain pill?” JT asked Cassandra as he squirmed around on the couch, face still displaying the pain.

  “Yes, I’ll be right back,” Cassandra told him as she left the room.

  “Why can’t I open the present, Daddy?” Jerome wanted to know.

  “I think this present was meant for Daddy, Son. But Mommy and I will get you a present this weekend. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Jerome said as he ran toward his playroom, quickly forgetting what his heart most desired a second ago.

  Cassandra gave JT the pill and a glass of water. He swallowed the pill and then put the package on the table. “I need to open this. I’m not sure if you should be in the room when I do.”

  “I want to see what she sent you,” Cassandra said

  JT opened the box. He first saw an envelope. He removed it out of the box and sat it on the table. Before reading the note in the envelope, JT had to find out what that God awful smell he’d just caught a whiff of was. He pulled back the paper that covered the so called gifts and Cassandra started screaming just as they caught a glimpse of the dead rat that lay in the box with his head hanging loosely from his neck.

  Hyperventilating, Cassandra pointed at the box as she moved away from it. “Why would she do this? Why would Vivian give us a rat?”

  “There’s something wrong with that woman, Cassandra.” JT put his hands on his head as he lowered it. “I’m so sorry that I did this to our family,” he said, almost in a whisper.

  “What does that envelope say?” Cassandra asked as anger permeated her very being.

  JT picked it up, opened it and read, A dead rat for a filthy rat.

  “Mmph, I guess she’s got you pegged,” Cassandra said and then walked out of the living room.

  CHAPTER 20

  JT called the police to report that Vivian was stalking him. The police officer told him that he would have to come down to the station and file the report so he could get a restraining order against Vivian. But JT was in too much pain and feeling a bit worn out from the events of the day to leave the house again. JT went to his bedroom and fell asleep no sooner than his head hit the pillow.

  The next morning, JT couldn’t get out of bed. Cassandra brought him breakfast in bed and some more pain pills. She asked him, “Do you think you need to go back to the hospital?”

  JT shook his head. “I’ll be fine. I just think I need to rest today.”

  “I wish you hadn’t leaped across the room like that. You know that you are not fully healed yet.” She sat down next to his bed while he ate the eggs, bacon and biscuits that she brought him. “I do, however, understand why you did it, and I want to thank you for sparing Jerome the trauma of opening something like that.”

  JT put down his fork and shook his head in sadness. “I was so scared, Cassandra. I didn’t know what else to do. I had no idea what that crazy woman might have put in that box.”

  Cassandra stood back up, she looked away from JT and said, “Well, if you need anything just use your cell phone to call the house phone in case I’m upstairs and can’t hear you call out.”

  “I think I’m just going to stay in bed and read my Bible. But you can bring some of my ministry tapes and gospel CDs to this room when you get a chance.”

  She stood by his bedside for a moment with a bewildered expression on her face.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Oh, nothing. I was just remembering how you used to study the Bible and listen to your ministry tapes all the time when we were first married.”

  “I never should have stopped.” JT then asked her, “Would you mind driving me to church on Sunday?”

  She turned to face him and asked, “Do you think you’re up to handling church business right now?”

  “I don’t want to go to church to preach. I need to be ministered to. I want to sit in the service and listen to Elder Unders.”

  “You think you can do that?”

  JT nodded. “I need to do it. I’m fighting my way back, Cassandra. If you believe nothing else about me, I hope you believe that.”

  As she turned to walk out of the room, she said to him, “I think I’m starting to believe it.”

  ***

  Cassandra didn’t believe in divorce. As a matter of fact, she never even thought the phrase ‘I want a divorce’ would ever cross her lips. But she’d also thought that she would always be a Republican. As a Christian she agreed with the Republican stance on abortion and homosexuality. However, when Barack Obama, a black man, became the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, the Republican’s intolerance and racial attitudes shocked and sickened her. Now, Cassandra considered herself an independent and felt very comfortable with that label.

  So maybe being an independent woman wouldn’t be so bad either. As Cassandra stood at the sink washing dishes, she looked around at her beautiful kitchen. She had lovingly picked out the ceramic tile on the floor, the cherry wood cabinets and the granite counter tops. JT had been right when he bought this house in order to take their minds off of the tragedy they had experienced. Making this house her own had actually helped Cassandra to move past the pain that had settled in her heart after losing her daughter.

  She went upstairs and looked in on her children. Opening the door, she remembered the day she and JT found out that she was pregnant with Jerome.

  When she left the doctor’s office, Cassandra picked up fresh flowers at the florist. She went home, took the vase out of the kitchen cabinet, filled it with water and put her multi-colored flowers in the vase and set it on the dining room table. She then set two candles on the table and went back into the kitchen to make dinner. Tonight they were having pork roast, garlic mash potatoes and green beans. For dessert, Cassandra fixed peach cobbler.

  When JT arrived home from the church, saw the dining room table and then found out what they were having for dinner, he said, “You’re not getting ready to tell me that your mother needs to move in with us, are you?”

  Cassandra laughed, then said, “I hadn’t thought of that, but I can call and ask her if she would like to live with us.”

  “No, no. No need to call Mattie, I’d rather just know why you’re doing all of this on a Tuesday evening.”

  “Sit down at the table, sir. I will let you know what’s going on in due time,” she said as she took their plates to the table.

  JT sat down as Cassandra lit the candles, turned down the lights in the dining room and then sat down also. “Do we have any gravy?” JT asked.

  “Oh, I left the gravy bowl on the stove,” she said as she started to rise out of her seat.

  “Stay seated, I’ll get it,” JT said. He brought the gravy bowl back to the table and asked, “Does my queen need any gravy?”

  She smiled. “Yes, please put some on my roast and my potatoes.”

  JT did as she requested, then put some gravy on his own plate. He then sat down and tasted his food. “This is really good, honey. Sunday should come on Tuesday more often.”

  “I don’t think I’ll be able to work that out for you. I don’t know how many other Tuesdays I will find out that I’m pregnant.”

  JT had his face in his plate wolfing down his food. When they were first married, Cassandra used to hate how fast he ate his food. But then he explained to her about going hungry when he was a child. After that discussion, Cassandra never again said anything about the way JT wolfed down his food. Instead, she prayed that God would one day erase JT’s past hurts from his mind.

  JT dropped his fork. He pushed his chair away from the table and stood up. Walking toward Cassandra he said, “Did I hear you correctly?”

  She nodded.

  JT got down on one knee in front of her chair. Cassandra pushed her chair away from the table and turned toward him. “Are you sure?” JT asked as a tear rolled down his face.

  “Yes, Honey. It’s for real. My doctor confirmed it.”

>   JT laid his head on Cassandra’s stomach. He whispered, “Hey you, in there. This is your daddy. I want you to know that even though I just found out about you, I love you already.”

  Cassandra had thought JT loved her. But even while she carried their child in her belly, he had started having an affair. JT had destroyed her faith in humanity, and she really didn’t know how she would ever get that back.

  CHAPTER 21

  Elder Unders was behind the podium beginning his sermon when Cassandra and JT walked into the sanctuary through the side door. Betty had held two seats for them in the front row. JT didn’t want to attempt climbing the stairs to the pulpit area since he was still using his cane. As JT and Cassandra sat down Elder Unders told the congregation that the title of his message was, “Don’t Be Deceived”. His subtext was, “Be Careful When You Think You Stand, Lest You Fall”.

  Unders then read from Matthews 12:25: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”

  JT squirmed a little in his seat as he thought about how long he had been divided against himself. For years now he had stood behind that podium and preached a hollow word. He’d tried to encourage his members to live for God, when he wasn’t really sure what that meant. Because if he had been sure what living for God really meant, how could he have destroyed his family and humiliated his wife the way he had.

  He turned and looked at Cassandra. As far as JT was concerned she was more beautiful now, than the day he married her. He wanted her to forgive him, but really had no right to ask. Yet and still, JT leaned over and said, “Thanks for bringing me to church.”

  Still looking toward the podium, she whispered, “I wanted to come myself, so it’s no problem.” She hadn’t been to church since Diane Benson told her she had a baby by JT.

  JT wanted to say more but he didn’t want to stop Cassandra from soaking up as much of the word as possible. JT, himself needed as much of the word as he could get, but he was feeling as if a bull’s eye was on his head. Every time Unders talked about believers being deceived concerning where their relationship with the Lord was, JT felt hundreds of eyes on him. As if the entire congregation knew of his transgressions. JT then began to wonder if Unders had been led by the Lord to preach this message or if he only decided to preach about being deceived once he knew that JT would be in service.

  Unders looked out at the congregation and said, “Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 7:21-23. I want to show you how your deception doesn’t deceive the Lord. He knows where you are, even when you don’t.” Unders lowered his head and began to read:

  “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven.

  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?

  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

  Unders looked up from the Bible and asked, “Now do you really want to sit in church for years upon years, just to hear the Lord tell you that He doesn’t even know who you are?”

  That question haunted JT all through service and all the way home. He sat in the kitchen with Cassandra and asked her, “Do you think people can change?”

  Cassandra sighed. “I’ve wondered the same thing myself, JT. But to be honest with you, I just don’t know.”

  “Yeah, that’s kind of how I feel about it.” He shook his head as he tried to explain everything he’d been feeling these past few weeks. “I know I want to change. But I’m so worried that I’ll start off right, but then something will happen to turn me back the wrong way again. What Unders said today at church stuck with me.” He looked up at Cassandra and said, “I don’t want God to disown me. I mean, it feels as if He already has. But I keep thinking about King David and how he had disappointed God.”

  “But before it was all over, David had found favor with God again,” Cassandra said as she stood up and went to the refrigerator. She opened it and then looked back and JT and asked, “You want something to drink?”

  “Do we have any Pepsi?”

  She looked through the refrigerator and then told him, “I don’t think I bought Pepsi the last time I went to the store. We have Sprite and fruit punch.”

  “I’ll take some fruit punch,” JT said.

  Cassandra poured them both some fruit punch, grabbed the pretzels off the counter and came back to the table. “So what’s up, JT? What are you trying to say?” she asked as she sat back down.

  JT tapped his fingers on the table. He bit on his lip as he thought about Cassandra’s question. He didn’t want to just throw something out there. He decided that he wouldn’t answer with his head, but his heart. He opened his mouth and told her, “To be right.”

  “Don’t you think that’s kind of ambiguous?”

  Still tapping his fingers on the table he said, “The way I see it, if I’m right – as in, right with God, then I will be right with you and my sons. I would even be right with my church.”

  Cassandra put her hand over JT’s to stop him from tapping. “I know it bothered you when the members of the church avoided us after service today. But, I don’t think they were trying to be unkind to you. I just think they didn’t know what to say to us.”

  “I know that,” he said softly. “They’re uncomfortable with me, because of all the things they are hearing. But I never wanted to make my own congregation uncomfortable – I didn’t set out to do this, Sanni – I mean, Cassandra.”

  “Just look at it as another fence that needs mending,” Cassandra told him.

  “What about you, Cassandra? Do you think we could ever mend our relationship?”

  Before she could answer, the telephone rang. Cassandra picked up the phone and said, “Hello.”

  “Let me speak to, JT,” the woman on the other end demanded.

  “Who’s calling?” Cassandra asked in as polite a tone as she could muster for any woman demanding to speak to her husband.

  “You know who I am. Don’t try to act like you don’t know my voice.”

  “You’ve got about a second to tell me who this is, or I’m hanging up the phone,” Cassandra told the caller.

  “Oh, well if it’s like that, I’ll tell you who I am. This is the mother of JT’s youngest child. Now can I please speak to my baby’s daddy?” the woman said.

  “Diane?”

  “I thought you didn’t know who I was?” Diane said.

  “Look, don’t call my house –”

  JT raised his hand to take the phone. “Let me handle this, Cassandra. I know why she’s calling.”

  Reluctantly Cassandra passed the telephone to JT, but she didn’t move out of her seat.

  “What is it, Diane?” JT asked.

  “You know why I’m calling. Joe just brought these court papers over to me. Why couldn’t you pick up the phone and tell me yourself that you wanted a paternity test?”

  “I’ve been trying to recuperate from my accident, so I haven’t been on the telephone much at all. The only address I had for you is Deacon Joe Benson’s house, so that’s where my attorney sent the paperwork. I trust that you will bring the baby to the hospital lab on Wednesday for the test?”

  “I don’t have nothing to hide, JT. Me and your baby will be there. So, you might as well tell Cassandra to get use to the idea of having another baby in the family,” she said then hung up.

  He hung up the telephone and looked at Cassandra with a sheepish look on his face. “I’m sorry you had to go through that with Diane. But this will all be over soon. My attorney scheduled the paternity test for Wednesday.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked suspiciously.

  “Honestly, I didn’t want to bring it up before I needed to be there. I was thinking about telling you right before we had to go.”

  “That’s just m
ore deception, wouldn’t you say?” Cassandra asked.

  “I just didn’t want you to deal with this any sooner than necessary.”

  “Thanks for always thinking of what’s best for me,” Cassandra said snidely.

  JT pointed at her. “See, that’s exactly why I wanted to wait. I didn’t want you walking around the house mad for a whole week. But Diane had to call here and spoil everything. That woman is nothing but a troublemaker.”

  “Oh, okay, I got you. It’s Diane’s fault that you slept with her,” Cassandra said as she got up from the table and stomped out of the kitchen.

  ***

  Cassandra hadn’t spoken to JT in two days. And the only reason she spoke to him on the third day was because of the woman ringing her doorbell like a lunatic at six in the morning. While putting on her robe to go see who was at the door, Cassandra heard a woman screaming, “I’m not leaving, so you might as well open up this door.” Then the woman started banging on the front door with her fist.

  Cassandra started running down the stairs. However, JT had beaten her to the door. He swung it open and Cassandra saw Diane standing on the porch with a baby in her hands. She stopped midway down the stairs. She was stuck, couldn’t move.

  JT said to Diana, “Why are you at my house acting like a crazy woman?”

  Diane did the sistah-sistah neck roll as she said, “Why aren’t you answering your phone? Y’all over here living large while I’m staying with my sister in the ghetto.”

  “Nobody told you to leave your husband, Diane. You can’t blame me for this.”

  Diane started screaming at him. “You haven’t offered me any money, bought any diapers; nothing. I’m not putting up with this mess.” Diane pushed the baby in JT’s chest. “Here, take your baby. I’ve got my own kids to raise.”

  JT had the cane in his hand. He dropped it so that he could put his arm around the baby. “Why are you doing this, Diane? We have the DNA test scheduled for today. Why don’t you just let us find out who this baby’s father is before you start bringing her to my house?”