“Humph!” Sister James huffed. “I say if they can’t afford to buy a simple little uniform, then maybe the usher board isn’t right for them. I can’t stand a lazy Christian! Somebody who isn’t willing to make a tiny sacrifice for our Lord when He gave His whole life for us!”
Nikki knew there was no dissuading the woman.
“Too bad all our members can’t be as sweet and giving as you,” Sister James said, lightly tapping Nikki on the cheek. “You always do what I ask. You might not come to all the usher meetings, but I know I can always call on you to help me when I need it.”
Just as she had dropped whatever she was doing today to respond to Sister James’s call, Nikki had done the same thing many times over the past four years, offering to baby-sit for single mothers, visiting the elderly, and serving food to the homeless at Thanksgiving.
“You are such a delight,” Sister James said.
Nikki managed a smile. “Thank you, Sister James.”
“And you are doing a beautiful thing, staying home to raise that precious child,” the woman complimented. “So many of these young mothers stick their babies in daycare the first chance they get.” Sister James glanced at Psalm, sat at the table, quietly drawing on a sheet of construction paper.
“Thank you,” Nikki said, growing increasingly uncomfortable with the conversation. She didn’t want to be a stay-at-home mom, but knew she could not voice that. “As a matter of fact, I need to get her on back to the house. She’s not been feeling well lately.”
“Nothing serious, I hope?” Sister James inquired.
Nikki started to downplay her daughter’s condition, then decided to come clean. “Well, to be truthful with you, Sister James, I don’t know how serious it is. We just found out she has a medical condition that may require surgery.”
“Surgery! My word!” Sister James’s hand flew to her chest. “Well, I will certainly lift her up in prayer. Our Lord is still in the healing business. He healed a woman with an issue of blood when doctors gave her no hope. He healed Hezekiah and extended his days. He will heal your child. You just keep the faith.”
“Sometimes it’s hard, Sister James,” Nikki admitted.
“Hard? There is nothing too hard for God, child!”
“No, what I mean is—”
“Shhh,” Sister James said. “Don’t speak doubt. You just go forward and trust the Lord to bring healing to that girl. Now go on home. Get in the Word.”
Nikki wanted to say something more. She wished she could talk to someone about her doubts and her fears, but who would listen? Those around her seemed to be so much further along in their spiritual lives than she. “Come on, Psalm, let’s go home,” she said, and the child climbed off the chair.
They said good bye to Sister James and called for David, who was somewhere out back. They climbed into his car for the second time that day. Psalm began whimpering on the way back home. Nikki turned around to touch the child in the backseat. “Oh, baby, it’s all right,” she said.
“My tummy hurts,” Psalm whined.
“She had too many cookies at my mom’s house, huh?” David asked with a smile.
“No, actually, she’s been sick the past couple of days,” Nikki said, rubbing the child’s leg.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Did you put in a prayer request at church?”
“No. I just—”
“Oh, you should put in a request,” David said. “Let the prayer team offer your family up.”
“Yeah, I should,” Nikki said weakly. “I just hadn’t gotten around to it.”
“Oh, that’s a shame. That’s the first thing I do if ever I need something. The Lord can’t bless us if we don’t ask.”
“Well, I’ve been praying on my own,” Nikki said.
“It’s not the same,” David chided. “You need prayer warriors working on your behalf.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Nikki didn’t want to argue.
“Moommmyy!” Psalm’s wail pierced the air.
“Oh, that child is in some serious pain,” David said, and clucked his tongue. “It’s a shame you have been holding off on getting your blessing, Sister Broussard. You should get the prayer warriors praying for you soon. Stop standing in the way of your child’s blessing.”
By the time they returned home, Psalm had calmed down. She ran to play on her Dora the Explorer blanket. Nikki closed herself in the bathroom and sat on the edge of the double vanity. She buried her head in her hands. She broke down in tears and no words could get around the lump in her throat. The fear for her child’s life knotted her stomach and the heartbreak she felt at seeing Psalm suffer made her raise her fist toward the ceiling. “God, please!” She managed to get the words out.
“Mommy, are you okay?” A concerned Psalm knocked on the bathroom door.
Nikki quickly wiped away her tears. She mustered false cheer and called back. “I’m great, sweetie! Go back and play. Mommy’s in the bathroom. I’ll be out shortly.”
“Okay, Mommy,” Psalm called. “I love you!”
Nikki’s heart melted. “I love you, too, baby.”
She could hear the child scurry away. Nikki could not imagine letting her daughter go through another painful episode. Psalm didn’t deserve this pain. Nikki opened the door and walked to the nightstand next to her bed. She picked up the phone and dialed Danielle’s number. She knew what she had to do. She had put it off long enough.
Chapter 23
Danielle let her hand trail lightly across Troy’s naked stomach as he lay on his back next to her, the sweat still warm on his skin. “So, baby, do you think you can get a hookup at the hospital for Nikki?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know,” Danielle said. “Do whatever you do. Nikki needs some help paying for a surgery and she doesn’t have any money.”
“What? Don’t tell me Miss Goody Two Shoes wants a hookup.”
“Well, she’s not as innocent as she pretends.” Danielle toyed with the idea of laying her best friend’s laundry out before Troy, but refrained. “Yeah, she’s in kind of a bad way. Her baby is sick and she needs some money kind of fast. And you know I’ve got to help my girl out.”
“I don’t know if I want to give her anything,” Troy said. “She don’t like me too much.”
“If you do this for me, this could really help things along,” Danielle said suggestively. Troy had been on his best behavior as he tried to smooth things over with her.
Troy thought about this for a moment and then nodded. “Okay,” he said. “But she needs to keep this under wraps.”
“Oh, she won’t say anything,” Danielle assured and leaned in to kiss him. “But look, let me get out of here so I can scoot on to work,” she added and climbed out of the bed.
She hopped into the shower then slathered on thick, peach scented lotion as she got dressed for work. She rolled her eyes as she looked at the clock. Yep, she would be late, again. “I have got to get married so I can quit this dumb job,” she groaned inwardly as she heard Troy rustling about the next room.
“I’m headed out now!” Troy called to her.
“Okay, bye, baby!”
She heard the door slam, and then the condo was again silent. Danielle admired herself in her full-length mirror, pushing out her breasts and nodding at her flat stomach—well, it wasn’t as flat as it was a few years ago, but it wasn’t bad. She saw the beginnings of a pooch. At least I don’t look like some of those big, fat nasty women who act like they’ve never heard of a gym. The only workouts she had gotten lately, though, were always on her back. Her firm cheerleader’s body was morphing into a soft roundness that was still decent, but could easily get out of hand. But she shrugged the thoughts off; after all, she had always been beautiful. That was how she made her way in the world.
She worked hard to look good—she got her hair done every week, and nails too. Spa treatments kept her looking refreshed and expensive, designer clothes showed off her body. A woman’s power is in her lo
oks, she had always believed.
Danielle knew many women shunned such a statement and looked upon her with disdain for taking it to heart. “Those are just the ugly trolls,” she mumbled to herself. Danielle knew definitively where her power was. She recalled the first time she realized her looks could get her what she wanted. She had been five years old. She and her sister had been playing in the mirror while waiting for ice cream. Her sister wore a pink dress with the most beautiful lacy rose-colored ribbon Danielle had ever seen. Danielle’s dress was the same design, but yellow, with a matching ribbon. She thought her sister’s pink ribbon was prettier and tried to snatch it from her hair. When her sister protested, Danielle shoved her to the floor, causing the girl to bump her head. Their mother had spanked her and fussed, telling Danielle to go outside. The heart-breaker was when their mother said Danielle could not have any ice cream because she was on punishment for being mean. Danielle flounced out to the porch, angry and pouting. Her uncle smiled at her. “What’s the matter?”
“Mama says I can’t have any ice cream,” she said, looking at him with sad eyes.
He smiled and hoisted her onto his lap. “Well, a pretty girl like you can’t ever be found crying,” he said, situating her narrow behind over his lap. “Let me hold you just like this for a little while and I’ll take you to get some ice cream. You’re so pretty I’d do anything for you.”
And he had.
Danielle shook her head to clear the memory. Yes, looking good will get you anything you want. And now, finally, she had snagged someone who would give her what she wanted: a big house, a Range Rover, and enough money to quit that godforsaken job. Troy was fine and had a good job in sales. That little cheating episode—or whatever it was—was behind them. He knew he had a good thing. He wouldn’t dare be so ungrateful as to cast her aside. “As soon as I get back from my honeymoon, I’ll be telling that hospital where they can get off,” she mumbled.
Danielle hated nursing, and had only entered the field to be closer to doctors, thinking she would be able to snap one up in pretty short order. Nobody told her, though, when she signed up for nursing school, that most of the doctors were already married. That plan hadn’t worked.
She ran through a series of men and wasn’t sure how she ended up still single. Nikki goes out to one party not even caring about finding a man and ends up with a guy who immediately marries her. I go out every week and can’t meet anyone to take me down the aisle. But that’s all about to change now. The relationship with Troy was coming along nicely—that minor cheating episode aside.
Danielle had barely made it through nursing school, and would have flunked out if she hadn’t zeroed in on her advisor’s admiration of pretty things—or at least, pretty young women. Through a series of carefully placed coy comments and “accidentally” brushing against him, she had managed to get him thinking about her. She flattered the balding and overweight man with attention, and blew his mind with short skirts that showed off her lack of undergarments. Before long, she had convinced him to steal tests for her so she would have the answers and even to change her grades. In exchange, he got to taste her young body.
“You know, I think I’m starting to feel really bad about all this,” Danielle had said to the advisor, her eyes lighting on the smiling photo of the professor with his wife and two children. She touched his wedding band, which was nearly hidden in the fleshy folds of his hand.
“Oh, you’re just a sweet girl, you shouldn’t feel bad,” he had said, zipping his gray pants after a lunchtime quickie in his cluttered office.
“I’d really hate for your precious wife to be so hurt by all this.” Danielle straightened her clothes and fluffed her hair.
His eyes shot to her face. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m just trying to look out for your family,” she said sweetly, trailing her hand over his chest. The white shirt was transparent with big, sweaty spots. “Your dear, loving wife really has a right to know what’s going on. Maybe I should tell her.”
He grabbed Danielle by the arm. “You’ll do no such thing!” His breath was hot on her face.
“What you will do, is get your fat hands off me,” Danielle said. Her voice was low, but deadly. “Because, you see, I am the one with the power in this situation. You owe me.”
“Owe you? Owe you?” he sputtered, letting go of her arm. “I am the reason you even passed nursing school. If it had not been for me, you would have flunked out two semesters ago.”
“Precisely,” she said, stepping to the door with her purse in hand. “Which is exactly what I will tell the dean of the department if you don’t find me a job.”
His face slacked and looked deflated as he slumped back onto the desk they’d just used as a makeshift bed. Moisture beaded his pasty white forehead and he let out a defeated sigh. “Okay, okay. Let me, uh, make a few calls. I’ll have you a job by week’s end.”
She blew him a kiss. “Thanks, baby.”
And now, her affections would land her Troy. Already, he was doing her bidding by getting this surgery taken care of for Nikki. It would be only a matter of time before she got him down the aisle, Danielle mused.
Chapter 24
The next few days had seemed to crawl by for Nikki. She had just wanted the surgery to be done already. For once though, she had been glad William was so busy with the campaign and the computer business that he barely had time for anything else. Even the other day, when Nikki had told him she had found the money for the surgery, he had only half listened.
“Really? That’s good, baby,” he had said, kissing her absent-mindedly as he pored over poll results. “I knew you’d make the insurance company see things our way.”
She had not corrected his assumption. Even when they had driven to church Sunday, William’s mind had seemed to be elsewhere. They had ridden in relative silence.
But today was Monday, Psalm’s surgery day. Troy had told her to speak to a certain person at registration, and that’s what Nikki did when they arrived ten minutes early.
“May I speak with Denise, please?” she asked now as the woman at the counter prepared to pass her a clipboard. A woman quickly hurried over to where Nikki stood. Nikki checked the woman’s nametag to confirm her identity. Yes, this was Denise.
“Oh, I’ll take care of her paperwork,” Denise said to her coworker, who shrugged, dropped the empty clipboard on the counter, and walked away.
“Suit yourself.”
“Baby, can you go get me some water?” Nikki looked for an excuse to get rid of William.
“Sure,” he said. “I need to make a call right quick, anyway. I’m going to step outside, make the call, then I’ll get you a water. Okay?”
“Sounds good,” Nikki said hurriedly.
William disappeared.
The woman pulled out paperwork that was already filled out. “All you have to do is sign here,” she pointed to a line.
Nikki held her breath as she scribbled a name on the line. Troy had told her what name to use. He had told her that this was the person who was going to take care of the bill for her. Nikki let out her breath when the woman took the paperwork and nodded. “Okay,” she said. “You’re all set.”
Nikki glanced around to make sure William was still nowhere around when she saw Spencer’s wife coming her way. Nikki had forgotten the woman worked there. Nikki quickly lowered her head. Denise handed Spencer’s wife Nikki’s paperwork.
Spencer’s wife never flinched. Nikki and the woman had met a long time ago, shortly after Nikki and her family relocated here from New Orleans. The woman hadn’t taken too kindly to Nikki then, and Nikki wasn’t interested in developing a relationship with anyone connected to Spencer. Now, Nikki let out a shaky breath to steady herself. Maybe she doesn’t recognize me. Nikki knew that was close. While she didn’t know all the details of Troy’s hookup, Nikki knew enough to be afraid of being found out—especially by Spencer’s wife.
William returned from his errand and extended a bottl
e of water to Nikki. “Here you go, baby,” he said.
Nikki shook her head and held up her hand, forgetting she had requested the beverage.
William frowned. “I thought you wanted some water?”
Nikki, remembering she had sent him for it, apologized. “Oh, yeah,” she said. “I’m sorry. I’m just so nervous about the surgery.”
William put his arm around her. “It’ll be fine. You see, God blessed us to get the surgery. He would do no less than bless the hands of the doctors.”
Nikki nodded. William didn’t know about her part in making the surgery happen, and that made her wince inside.
William’s mother was standing next to a window when they entered the waiting area. “Hey, Ma,” William said and leaned in and hugged her. “Thanks for coming.”
Nikki smiled at the woman and gave her a stiff hug. They waited the entire morning to hear word. Nikki paced the waiting room and William stood stoically near the door.
“Stop all that pacing,” William’s mom chided Nikki.
“Mama, leave her alone, please.” William defended his wife before Nikki could respond. His mother folded her arms across her chest but said nothing more.
As Nikki strode from one end of the room to the other, she tried to comfort herself by reciting scriptures, but kept getting the words mixed up as she fished in her memory for specific references. She could not concentrate. Each time someone entered the waiting room, her eyes flew to the doorway. But none of those who arrived came with news of Psalm.
Sister James and two other ushers stopped in and prayed with them. Reverend Chance dropped by briefly and gave a few words of encouragement before heading to a campaign event.
William strode to his wife. He put his arm around her and they embraced without words. Stepping back, William smiled. “It’ll be all right.”
Nikki tried to smile back.
“Mr. and Mrs. Broussard?”
They whipped around to see the doctor standing before them.
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