Johnnie Mae had opened it, but the things inside didn’t seem to mean anything to anyone. Now here sat Angela with the box once again.
“Let’s try and figure out what your great-grandmother may have been trying to tell us,” Johnnie Mae said when she came over and sat next to Angela.
Angela opened the box and began pulling things out. She stopped at a birth certificate. It contained the name Rebecca. There was no mother or father’s name listed.
“Rebecca was my mother’s name,” Angela said. She had seen the midwife’s log of a female’s birth. “That’s her date of birth. I saw it in one of Great-granny’s Bibles.” There were other mementos in the box, along with three sepia photos and two old black-and-whites. “What’s this?” Angela asked.
At the very bottom of the box was a notebook. Angela had to empty the box and turn it upside down to shake the notebook out.
“I didn’t know that was in there,” Johnnie Mae said as Angela held up the notebook. “It’s a good thing you saw it.”
Angela handed it to Johnnie Mae. “Great-granny left this box to you. Maybe it’s something she wanted only you to see,” Angela said.
Johnnie Mae took the notebook and opened it. Her instinct told her to look for a note addressed specifically to her. Sure enough, Pearl had written a note to Johnnie Mae dated just before she died. The note was safely tucked in the middle of the notebook.
It simply said, “Ms. Johnnie Mae, I know I have no right to ask this of you. But could you please help my Angel should she ever need it? And should she ever find herself needing help when it comes to her possibly trying to find or know more about her grandmother, my daughter, this is all I have left to offer in the way of help. I was wrong to have kept her from knowing about her grandmother. It’s too late for me to fix it now. I know you helped one person once with something similar. Maybe you can help again. When you finish with this, please pass it along to my Angel.”
Johnnie Mae scanned through the notebook as Angela sat patiently, not saying a word. She paused when reaching certain pages. Near the back of the notebook, Johnnie Mae found a single page torn out of a midwife’s book. She unfolded it, read it, then folded it back. When she’d finished skimming and after reading many of Pearl’s beautiful handwritten words, she closed the notebook and handed it to Angela.
“This belongs to you,” Johnnie Mae said.
Angela took the notebook. “Thank you.” She swallowed hard then spoke again. “If I may ask, what did you take out of the notebook?”
Johnnie Mae looked at it again then handed the paper to Angela.
Angela unfolded it and looked at it.
“It’s your mother, Rebecca’s, actual birth record. And this one happens to have a mother’s name listed on it. Arletha.” Arletha had been sixteen and unmarried. Her mother, Pearl Black Williams, had delivered the baby.
But even more telling in all of this was the listing of Arletha’s last name. It was Black, Pearl’s maiden name. That meant Pearl had Arletha before she married as well.
Chapter 28
The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord.
—Proverbs 21:31
Brent was waiting for Angela at the door. He kissed her as soon as she walked in. “I missed you,” he said as he hugged her tight.
She gave him a weak smile. She didn’t want him to let go of her just yet.
“What’s wrong?” Brent asked.
“Nothing. I just came from seeing Johnnie Mae.” Angela pulled herself away from his embrace, set the box and her purse down on the table in the foyer, and began taking off her coat. Brent helped her with her coat, then took it and hung it up for her.
He led her to the couch in the living room. “Okay,” he said. “What’s going on?”
Angela let out a sigh. “It’s this whole grandmother thing. I was talking to Johnnie Mae and we started talking about Arletha. I told her about me having gone over to see her.”
“Now, I told you I will be happy to hire someone to either check out this Arletha Brown or try and find out what happened with your grandmother. Whatever you want.”
Angela smiled and looked lovingly into her husband’s eyes. “I know. At this point, I’m not sure I should even keep pursuing this. When I went to Johnnie Mae’s house, she gave me a box my great-grandmother had given to her. Inside it was my mother’s birth record, a few photos, and a notebook my great-grandmother wrote in.”
“Have you read what she wrote yet?” Brent asked.
“Not yet. That’s what I’m praying about right now. I don’t know if I should read it or just leave all of this alone. I mean, Great-granny went my entire life without ever saying a word about my grandmother, her daughter. And now, here I am starting this wonderful life journey with you, and what am I doing? I’m chasing a ghost.”
“That’s a bit harsh, wouldn’t you say?” Brent asked.
“No, I don’t think so. Look, honestly, I don’t know whether Arletha is alive or dead. If this Arletha Brown really is my grandmother, she’s made it abundantly clear she wants nothing to do with me. At least, not in that capacity. Let’s say we find out she really is my grandmother. What am I supposed to do then? Make her love me? Make her want to have something to do with me?” Angela shook her head. “No. I’m not going to put us through this. Before I heard about this, I was fine. I’m not going to allow something like this to ruin our lives just because I don’t know when to walk away. I’m not.”
“Your wanting to find your grandmother, or at least to find out what happened, is not going to ruin our lives,” Brent said. “So what are you going to do about that notebook your great-grandmother left?”
Angela shook her head again, then shrugged. “I’ll read through it. If you knew my great-grandmother, you’d know how wise and funny she could be. I know whatever is in there will be interesting. But unless there’s something that points me to a definitive answer when it comes to Arletha, I’m not going to put us through this. That’s it.” Angela laid her head on his shoulder.
“Well, you know I’m here for you,” Brent said, snuggling up with his wife.
“I know.”
After a few minutes of holding her, he looked at her. “We need to buy a Christmas tree.”
“Yeah,” she smiled. “Our first Christmas as husband and wife.”
“Are you excited?”
Angela pushed him. “You know I am.”
“So do we get a live tree or an artificial one?”
“Live,” Angela said. “We can put it in here. It’s going to be a great Christmas this year. Let’s have a Christmas party and invite our friends.”
He looked at her and smiled as he played with her hair. “Sure, let’s have a party. It’s going to be a great Christmas. So what do you want for Christmas this year?”
“Oh, so you’re playing Santa Claus now?”
He grabbed her and pulled her onto his lap like Santa Claus. “Ho, ho, ho. What do you want for Christmas, little girl?”
Angela bit down on her bottom lip, then leaned in and kissed him softly. “All I want for Christmas is you,” she said.
“Oooh,” Brent said. “I see you’re being a naughty little girl.”
“No. I think I’m being very, very good, myself.”
He made a slight jolly sound. “You know, you’re absolutely right.” He stood up, holding her tightly in his arms.
“What are you doing?” Angela screamed.
“Taking my wife to dinner,” he said, then headed with her up the stairs to their bedroom.
“Excuse me, but the kitchen’s that way,” Angela said.
“Yeah, but I fixed dinner and we’re having it in our room.”
“Well, all righty then, Mr. Underwood. You’re the man.”
“Oh, I love the sound of that, Mrs. Underwood.”
Chapter 29
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God
maketh from the beginning to the end.
—Ecclesiastes 3:11
Marcus waited in his car for Sasha to get home. He was supposed to pick up Aaliyah on the first and third Fridays of the month, at six o’clock. It was now seven fifteen. He had called Sasha on her cell phone and she’d said she was almost there. He knew she wasn’t being truthful. He couldn’t say where she was, but she wasn’t on her way.
At seven thirty, she drove up and pulled into her garage. Marcus got out of his car and walked into the opened garage. Aaliyah unbuckled her seat belt as soon as she saw her daddy coming her way.
“Daddy!” Aaliyah said as she held her arms up for him to pick her up.
“Hi, Pumpkin. How’s Daddy’s little girl?”
“I’m fine,” Aaliyah said.
Marcus got Aaliyah’s backpack out of the car, then closed the door.
Sasha was closing her door and walking toward the trunk of the car.
“Do you need any help?” Marcus asked Sasha.
“No, I got it. But thanks,” Sasha said. She grabbed a Saks Fifth Avenue shopping bag out of the trunk and made her way to unlock the door to the house.
They went inside. Sasha clicked on the light. The kitchen was a slight mess.
“I don’t even want to hear it,” Sasha said to Marcus before he could say a word.
“Hear what?” Marcus asked, setting Aaliyah down gently on the floor.
“I don’t want to hear about me being late and you having to wait. I don’t want to hear about the kitchen not being clean. And I don’t want to hear a word about that bag I took out of my car and what I may have bought. I’m not married to you, and I don’t have to answer to you anymore.”
“Whoa, calm down. I can say something about having to wait all this time. As for your kitchen, it’s your kitchen,” Marcus said. “I just came to pick up my daughter.”
Sasha sat down at the kitchen table and put her hand up to her face as though she were crying. “I just can’t take this anymore!” Sasha said.
“I have to use the bathroom,” Aaliyah said as she patted her daddy on the leg to get his attention. “Daddy, walk me to the bathroom, please. It’s dark back there.”
Marcus looked at Sasha to be sure she was okay. “Come on,” he said to Aaliyah as they walked to the bathroom closest to the kitchen of the home they all once shared.
When he came back, Sasha was still sitting at the kitchen table. Marcus wasn’t sure what he should do at this point. He hadn’t planned on sitting out in the driveway for over an hour. And now Sasha was acting like he had just dropped by to chat instead of coming to get Aaliyah for their weekend visit.
“Where’s Aaliyah’s weekend bag?” he asked.
Sasha made a visible show of sighing, then looked up at him. “I’m obviously hurting right now and all you can ask about is some stupid bag?”
“Are you in physical pain?”
She stood up. “No, Marcus. I’m not in physical pain. There are other pains besides physical, you know. I’m tired of my stupid job. I wish I could quit that place. In fact, they got on my nerves so bad today I left work early.”
Marcus frowned, especially when he thought about how he had sat outside waiting for her. “You left work early?”
She brushed past him on her way to the refrigerator. “Aaliyah, do you want some juice?”
“Yes!” Aaliyah said. “Apple juice, please.”
Sasha opened the refrigerator door and looked inside. “We don’t have any more apple juice.”
“All right,” Aaliyah said a little disappointed. “Orange juice then.”
Sasha reached in and took out a plastic bottle. “We don’t have any orange juice either. You can have some cola.” Sasha went to the cabinet and took down one of Aaliyah’s cups that came with its own lid and had a place for a straw.
“I have juice at my house,” Marcus said. He didn’t really like giving Aaliyah a lot of sugary caffeine drinks like that, especially near bedtime. Sasha knew that.
Sasha poured the cola in the cup, located a straw in the drawer and stuck it in the cup, then handed it to Aaliyah. “Well, she’s thirsty now,” Sasha said. She then took down a glass, poured some cola for herself, and began drinking it.
Marcus could see Sasha was deliberately trying to aggravate him. “Where’s Aaliyah’s weekend bag?” he asked again.
“I haven’t packed it yet,” Sasha said. “I just told you I had a bad day. On top of that, I had to pay the day care people some extra money I didn’t have all because I was late picking Aaliyah up—”
“You were late picking her up? But you just said you left work early.”
“Don’t start with me, Marcus. I’m not in the mood tonight. I’m close to the edge. First, it was the people at work. Then I go shopping to try and make myself feel better, and I couldn’t get the dress I wanted at Saks because my credit cards are maxed out.”
Marcus looked at the bag sitting on the table she’d brought in.
She followed his eyes, went over, picked up the bag, and opened it up. “This,” she said, taking a brown colored top out, “is not what I really wanted. It was the only thing on the sale rack I could afford. I didn’t even like it all that much.”
“Then why would you buy something you don’t like?” Marcus asked.
“Because I was in Saks. I wasn’t going to leave without something. Didn’t you just hear me? It was the only thing I could afford.” She shoved the top into his chest. “If you gave me more money than what the court ordered you to pay for child support, maybe I wouldn’t be struggling the way that I am.” She walked out of the room and headed toward the stairs to go to Aaliyah’s room.
Marcus followed her. “Hold up,” he said, catching up with her. “You were the one who wanted a divorce. Fought for it, in fact. A divorce was the last thing I ever wanted. But you wanted to hang out with your girlfriends every weekend. You wanted to be free to, let’s see, how did you put it exactly? Oh, yeah, you wanted to be free to explore other options. You wanted to see what you were missing. Then you and your mother teamed up to get me out of the picture. I fought for our marriage, Sasha, and you know that. I believe your mother’s and your exact words were that you didn’t need me. You could do fine by yourself. Look, I pay my child support, happily, and on time. I provide a place for our child to come to when she visits with me. I buy her clothes and other things even though I pay child support. So don’t try to put your bad decisions off on me.”
Sasha walked up to Marcus. “I thought it was going to be different. I know you helped me around the house when we were married. I know you brought your money home and that you were a wonderful provider. Yes, I admit, I shouldn’t have listened to my mother. And honestly, had my father not died when he did, maybe things wouldn’t be so bad for me and my mother right now.” She poked her index finger into Marcus’s chest. “But now I’m having a hard time. You know my money is tight. You know it’s stressful raising a child by yourself.”
“You were not before you left me, and you are not now, raising Aaliyah by yourself. I do more than my part, and you know that.”
“Yeah, but you’re not here in the mornings to help me get her ready. You don’t have to go completely out of your way to pick her up from school or after-school day care. And then when I do find a guy I like, he turns out to be a jerk,” Sasha said, rambling all over the place. “And the next one is an even bigger jerk. I have all of these stupid bills to pay. When I was married to you and I worked, I could use my money however I wanted to.” She poked Marcus again. The force of that poke caused him to take a step back.
“My daddy took care of me and my mother like we were queens. When I married you, you did your best financially, but I still had my daddy in the background to make sure I never wanted for anything,” Sasha said. “Now, my daddy’s gone.” She poked him again. “And the money we all thought he had turned out to be bills stacked to the high heavens. And the million-dollar insurance policy he had for years? Well, it turns out he h
ad allowed it to lapse a year earlier. So when he died, there was nothing but debt and creditors. My mother didn’t even have the money to bury him. She had to ask folks to pitch in just so he could have a halfway decent burial.”
“I know,” Marcus said. “I gave your mother money to help out with his burial, even though she’d treated me with such disrespect and animosity. Even though she had been pushing so hard for you to leave me, then divorce me. Even though she knew the truth behind what was going on between us.”
“And what truth was that, Marcus?” She poked him in the chest again. “What truth, Marcus?” She poked him again and caused him to stumble once more.
“Stop, Sasha,” Marcus said in an even and calm voice. “Just go get Aaliyah’s things so I can go.”
“Stop what?” she said as she shoved his left shoulder. “What am I doing, Marcus?” she asked.
“You know what you’re doing,” Marcus said. “I didn’t come here wanting any trouble with you. I just came to get my daughter.”
“You mean our daughter?” She shoved his shoulder again. “What’s the matter, Marcus?”
“Sasha, please don’t start this. Okay, you had a bad day. I get it. You’re frustrated. I get that. But you need to calm down and think about what you really want, then move in that direction.” Marcus stepped away so she couldn’t touch him anymore.
“I’m not frustrated. I’m tired! Tired of no-good men who promise me things but don’t deliver. ‘Yes, Sasha, I love you.’ ‘Yes, I’ll do anything for you.’ ‘Of course I want to be with you. I want to take care of you.’ Blah, blah, blah, wah, wah, wah. ‘Stop it, Sasha.’ ‘You’re just mean, Sasha.’ ‘That’s why nobody likes you, Sasha.’ Well, I’m tired. I’m tired of all of you!” Her voice exploded.
“And that goes for my boyfriend Memphis. Oh wait. Let me say that again: my ex-boyfriend Memphis. That goes for my mother. My cousin Thelma with her phony, two-faced, slutty self. Always after somebody else’s man. And that was fine when she was going outside of the family to do it, but this sleeping with a guy you know your family member has been with is just plain nasty. Then you’re going to tell me you did me a favor? A favor? That at least you exposed him for the no-good dog that he is.”
Practicing What You Preach Page 18
