by Shawn James
ISIS:
Death of a Theta
By Shawn James
Copyright © 2013, 20l6 Shawn James
Published by SJS DIRECT, Bronx, NY, 10456
Chapter 1
December 1973
I bop my head to The Jackson Five song playing on the 8-track stereo as my cherry red 1969 Mustang convertible maneuvers around the winding roads of Oneonta County. With the way this car handles the curves, I should be there right on time for the emergency meeting Alma called.
My baby purrs as I stop the car in front of the tall black wrought iron gates in front of the Theta Estate and reach into the glove box for the remote control that opens them. When I press the button, the gates open and I hit the gas and race up the pebble lined driveway up the hill to the sprawling estate. I park the car in front of one of the garage ports and inhale the sweet dew in the afternoon air as I grab my cane and use it to help me steady myself as I step out of the car.
It’s a long shuffle down the pathway and up the limestone steps up to the tall mahogany doors of the grand Grecian styled mansion’s facade. Forty years ago I’d have made this trip in a quick sprint. These days when I come to the Theta House I have to take a moment to catch my breath before I buzz the doorbell. After a few seconds pass, the door cracks open and I’m greeted by the Thetas’ housekeeper Esmerelda. The petite bronze skinned Indian woman dressed in a black formal maid’s uniform gives me a smile as I meet her brown eyes with mine.
“Miss Robinson. It’s a pleasure to see you.”
“As it is you Esmerelda. Have the other Sisters arrived?”
“They’re in the ballroom.”
All the way at the other side of the house. “They couldn’t have used the dining room?”
“Alma says you need the exercise.”
I thought I was getting enough of a workout getting out of the car and heading down the walkway to the house. If I knew things were going to be this hard years later, I’d have built Alma a town house instead of a mansion. Esmerelda keeps her eyes on me as I shuffle through the grand white marble vestibule. She gets the tall mahogany door for me and I make my way onto the parquet floors of the main hall. I’m halfway to the ballroom when I hear her rushing behind me. “Wow, you’re fast for a woman your age.” Esmerelda says.
“You should have seen me doing the hundred meters at Spelman.” I reply.
Esmerelda chuckles as she opens the tall mahogany doors of the ballroom for me. When we step into the grand room it’s decorated with Black tablecloths and curtains. With it being Christmastime, I thought Alma would decorate it with more festive colors. We only use Black linens here when we’re either examining pledges or when we’re disciplining them.
Seated at the banquet table are the senior officers of the Theta Sorority. Senior Grand Mother Alma Travis, Senior Dean Mother Edna Flowers, and Dean Mother Millicent Anderson. They’re all wearing elegant black sheath dresses, heels, and church hats along with the platinum and diamond Theta pins on the breasts of their dresses. My friends greet me with somber looks as I approach the table. They must have some really bad news to report.
“Good afternoon ladies.” I greet. “What’s with all the black?”
Before anyone says anything, Alma gives Esmerelda a look and she walks out closes the door behind us. “Because it’s a sad time for us all Andi.” Edna says.”
My eyes grow wide as I look over at Millicent. I hope nothing happened to her baby. “Is Colleen okay-”
“No, Colleen is fine.” Millicent replies. “She’s with her father upstairs.”
“Then what’s got everyone upset?” I ask.
Alma’s dull brown eyes meet mine. She chokes back tears. “Isis, we appreciate everything you’ve done to establish this sisterhood for us. How you’ve helped countless young Negro girls grow up to become great young women and even greater mothers. But there’s no way you can continue on with our organization.”
Chapter 2
I’m taken aback by the words coming out of the mouth of one of my oldest and dearest friends. As kind and compassionate as they are, they still feel like a knife going through my heart.
“You want me to step down as Senior Grand Mother?” I bristle.
“There’s no way you can continue on as Andrea Robinson Isis.” Alma continues. “The pledges are starting to get suspicious.”
“What would make them suspicious?”
“Come on, Andi, you’re supposed to be 98-years-old. But when you’re with the kids you use slang like an eighteen-year-old.” Edna says.
“And you eat like a sixteen-year-old.” Alma jabs. “At my age I can’t eat half the stuff you scarve down. Heck, I can’t even digest half the spicy stuff you scarve down anymore.”
“Hey, I just don’t want to come off as a stuffy old lady-”
“I’d say you’re doing that too well.” Edna continues. “Not that many senior citizens your age have the dexterity to drive a Mustang convertible.”
“Edna, you know that Lincoln Continental convertible I bought just doesn’t handle as well. Powder blue piece of crap-”
“But that’s what dignified older women like you are supposed to drive.” Alma says.
“Come on Alma, I still have a good forty years left in me-”
“But if you stick around The Thetas won’t have another forty years left in it.” Millicent says. “Some of the pledges are eventually going to figure out that you’re more than human.”
“You only figured that out because you walked in on me lifting up my dresser with one hand when you were little-”
“There were other tells.” Millicent continues. “But the point is someone else may walk in on you doing something a 98-year-old woman wouldn’t be able to do.”
“And there’s a chance that one of them may slip and reveal that fact to someone outside of our sisterhood.” Edna says. “Now we’ve made efforts to keep your secret so that you can continue to do your philanthropic work.”
“But none of us can guarantee what the next generation of Theta sisters will do.” Alma says. “And we’d all hate to see all of your good work compromised.”
I hate to admit it but they’re right. If I remain here as Andrea Thomas Robinson I could wind up destroying everything I’ve built over the past seventy years. If my cover is blown, it could have a ripple effect throughout the Black community.
“Guess I have to take one for the team.” I sigh.
“It would be for the best.” Alma replies.
“I just wish I didn’t have to leave now.” I continue. “You really need me to help you fight those feminists-”
“You have to have faith in us to preserve your legacy.” Edna says. “God sees all the good work you’ve done. I know He’d want it to continue.”
“And we’d all make efforts to keep teaching our daughters what we learned from you over the years.” Millicent says.
“So when do you want to announce my retirement?”
“We’ll let the other Theta Sisters know in a few weeks.”
Chapter 3
I know stepping down as the leader of the Thetas is the right thing to do. But I still wish I could have gone on a little longer. There’s still so much more work for me to do.
Sure Negroes have made a lot of progress over the last decade or so. With Jim Crow abolished, Black people are finally getting jobs in places they never got before, going to colleges they never could get into, and they’re able to go shopping and eat in places that were once White only. But during this time of great change, I feel that the Theta Sisterhood still needs my guidance more than ever. With the Black woman being the one who teaches culture and history to her children, someone older and wiser needs to help her teach our daughters and grand
daughters what they need to know in order to preserve their families and their households from the numerous corrupting influences of that decadent progressive White society.
My greatest fear is that feminism could be the thing that destroys the family structure among my brothers and sisters. With so many of our young pledges learning that abominable belief system in high school and college these days they could start incorporating that poisoned way of thinking into the Theta culture when they become Sisters and Dean Mothers a few years from now. If that happened, it could compromise the entire mission of our sisterhood in the future.
The Sisters gracefully ease out of their chairs and approach me with proud smiles. I paste on a smile as they shift out of their formal roles as Theta officers back into my closest friends.
“We’re gonna take care of you Andi.” Alma says.
“You don’t have to do that.” I reply.
“You deserve something for all your hard work.” Edna replies. “If it weren’t for God working through you many of us wouldn’t be the women we are today.”
Seeing them become the women they are today is all the reward I want for my hard work. “But you don’t have to give me anything Doc. I’m pretty well taken c are of.”
“We know your father is an Egyptian god, but I doubt he’s going to be able to pay your bills here in the United States.” Edna says.
He could cover me, but I like being able to take care of myself. “I’ve got a pretty good pension and Social Security payments from my years teaching at Spelman.”
“That can’t go on forever.” Alma continues. “Sooner or later you’re going to have to retire this alias. “You may as well have the money ready to take care of your heir whenever she decides to appear.”
Good old Alma. Always thinking five steps ahead. Even in her old age she still understands the game is chess, not checkers.
“And it’s better that we take care of the paperwork now rather than later.” Millicent says. “It’ll keep people from asking questions.”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to take money from the pledges-”
“I doubt they’d miss it.” Edna says. “Besides, you earned most of that money. Don’t you think you should enjoy some of it?”
“If I enjoyed my money, none of the sisters would be able to have fun here when they pledge.”
“I believe we’d find a way to have a good time.” Edna continues.
“So what are your plans for after you retire?” Millicent asks.
“I’ll let you guys know in a few weeks. Right now I just want to see the baby.”
Mille smiles back at me. “I just put Colleen down for a nap. But I think she wouldn’t mind seeing a visitor if she were quiet.”
“I’ll be light on my feet. I’ll be back to talk shop with you in a minute Doc.”
“We’ll be out on the patio.” Edna says.
After we all leave the ballroom, Edna and Alma head further down the hall out to the patio while Millie and I head towards the tall mahogany doors that lead out to the vestibule. As our heels pound into the parquet floors, Millie’s eyes wander around looking up at the ornate carvings in the ceiling. “Wow.” She blurts.
“The architecture here is breathtaking.” I reply.
“I used to think we lived in a church when I was little. When did you buy it?”
“Buy it?” I snicker. “We built it.”
Millicent’s eyes grow wide. “Built it?”
“Hey, it was the twenties. Money was flowing like water back then. Alma inherited the land and I built her a house as a birthday present.”
“Where’d you get the money?”
“Oil, gold, diamonds in foreign countries, and investments in Black businesses during Jim Crow.” I answer. When Alma’s father passed away, he gave her this plot of land and the hill it was on.”
“This is Grandaddy Blackfoot’s land?”
“Yep, this little hill is sovereign Indian land. Which means the government doesn’t have any jurisdiction over it.”
“Man, you ladies were really clever.”
“Well, you had to be during Jim Crow.” I continue. “White folks were always looking for ways to take colored folks money back then. If you had a business that was doing well, they’d try to use their laws to shut you down unless you did things on their terms. And if you stood up to them, they’d send their Klansmen after you.”
“Wow. They sound worse than the Mafia-”
“We didn’t have to deal with those Italians much.” I continue. “Before that, our biggest problem up here were the White folks and the Iroquois who sold out to them.”
“All this was Indian land?”
“Pretty much. The remnant of Tribesmen that was left sold their property off for a fifth of whiskey and a night with a White whore.”
“Except Grandaddy Blackfoot.”
“Yes. Your grandaddy was one of the last of the Braves. The White Men would own all of this valley if it weren’t for him. Now he really didn’t like the idea of his daughter marrying a Buffalo man, but he realized your daddy was a better choice for Alma than some alcoholic who’d piss away his people’s legacy in the gutter in a few years.”
I can tell from the way Millie’s eyes are lighting up she’s really into my story. “The way you tell it you sound like you persuaded him to see different.”
I did twist his arm. Literally. “Earl truly loved Alma with all his heart.” I continue. “And he wanted to use his education and business skills to preserve this hill for his people and ours.”
“Is that how you met Mom and Dad?”
It was my first stop on the way to building my fortune in America. “I thought I’d be safe coming up here to start a new life. But I ran into the same old racism I ran into in the south.”
“The same kind of people like the Klansmen who killed your husband and son.”
“Yeah.” I sigh. “But this time I knew how to fight them.”
“Did Daddy know your secret?”
“Secret?” I laugh. “Come on, you got me sounding like one of those superheroes from the comic books-”
“Well, you kinda are. I mean the way you tell it sounds like some fantastic adventure-”
“Hey, we were people just trying to live. The only fantastic thing was God working to help us back then.”
“It still sounds amazing.”
I take a deep breath to choke back tears. I’m gonna miss moments like this. Being able to connect with my students. Being able to share our history and show them can see how it’s relevant to them today. Being able to show them how people like us can overcome the greatest adversity with only our courage and our faith in God.
“Nothing amazing about it. The greatest deeds are done by ordinary people who have the faith to believe they can do extraordinary things.”
“I doubt anything I do could be as extraordinary as what you and mom have done-”
“It’s not about big things Millie. It’s the little things people do that have the greatest impact on others. You’d be surprised how you make a difference in the lives of others.”
“Maybe one day I can be as great a woman as you are.”
“I believe you already are.”
Millie gets the door for me as we step out into the vestibule. When we walk out onto the white marble floors she pauses to study the two portraits of a younger Alma and myself hanging on the wall underneath the plaque that says: HONORING THE FOUNDERS OF THE THETA SISTERHOOD.
“Is that what you looked like when you were younger?” Millicent asks looking at the elegant picture of me sitting with my hands in my lap wearing a black dress and pearl necklace.
“It’s what I look like right now.” I reply.
Millicent gives me a piqued look. “You must be hiding all that beauty behind those wrinkles.”
“Nah, just a magic spell. But you’re just as much the looker your mother was in her prime.”
Millicent gives me a smile on the compliment. “I’m hoping Collee
n will inherit our beauty.”
“From what I saw in the hospital, it looks like she’s on her way.” She’s got her mother’s face and her grandmothers’ eyes.”
“And her father’s appetite.”
“She’ll outgrow that.”
Millicent turns to approach the stairs and notices the empty space on the wall across from the sofa. “You know, this wall over here could use something to balance out the room.”
“We’re saving that space to put up the portraits of Sisters of exemplary character.”
“No one meets the standard just yet?”
I definitely would say she’s in the running the way she’s spent the past ten summers here giving back by helping other pledges. “There are some sisters who show promise. We’re just looking over their records before we commission their portrait.”
Millie smiles at me eagerly as we head up the grand white marble staircase upstairs. As we make our way up to the second floor she picks up her pace. I know how she feels, being away from your baby for just a minute feels like it’s too long.
We turn the corner and stroll into Millie’s suite. Millie’s husband Jack watches dotingly over his sleeping daughter in her bassinet until he hears our soft footsteps treading onto the carpet. The handsome caramel colored man dressed in a tailored black business suit, white shirt, and red tie smiles as he gently slides off the bed to greet us.
“Is the meeting over ladies?” Jack asks.
“Yep.” Millie replies.
“Doesn’t look Andi here is too broken up about things.” Jack says.
“I take things in stride Jack.” I say flashing him a smile.
“I think I’d be pretty upset being asked to step down from an organization I helped found.”
“When you’ve lived through watching your house burned down, your watching your husband getting lynched, and seeing son your son murdered before your very eyes, being asked to retire from a job you love hurts about as much as a skinned knee.”
Jack smiles back at me. “When you put it in that perspective it sounds like you deserve a nice long retirement.”
“I wish I didn’t have to take a break right now.” I sigh. “There’s still so much work for me to do-”
“Yeah, I know those women’s libbers.” Jack continues. “We have a few of them in the secretarial pool at Anderson Financial. Giving me fits-”
