by Shawn James
“I guess people have to miss you in order to appreciate you.”
“You’re coming to Andrea’s funeral this Sunday?”
I guess a spirit would make an appearance at a funeral to spend time with their friends one last time before going on into the afterlife. “You guys are moving fast-”
“I want to get Andrea’s funeral taken care of before my granddaughters’ first Christmas. The last thing I want to do be sitting across from Millie and Jack while they’re morose at Christmas dinner.”
I can’t blame her. Who’d want to be miserable this time of year? Jack and Millie should be focusing on Colleen’s first Christmas and how much fun it’ll be. “I might be there but you might not see me.”
“You’re gonna cloak yourself?”
“I feel it’d be the best way to pay respects to all the people I loved.”
“Yeah, it is a little early for everyone to meet Isis Tamara Robinson-”
“Way too early. Maybe I’ll introduce you to the rest of the Theta Sisters when I sponsor you to pledge Theta in a year or two-”
“Sponsor? You’re being awful generous-”
“Not really. You owe me three hundred dollars for all that catered food at Andrea’s retirement dinner.”
I should have known she’d make me pay for my own retirement dinner. “I guess we’re even for the TV Horus broke-”
“Oh I’m still buying you the TV. Least I could do for the chance you gave me to spend time with that big sexy, strong brother of yours-”
“Almie…”
“Let’s just say I slept very well that night. Very well.”
“Of course you slept well. You were too tired from playing with your instrument-”
“I hit a few high notes I was only able to reach when I was in my twenties.”
You didn’t wake up Esmerelda did you?”
“She thought I was having a heart attack.”
We share a laugh. “She probably thought women your age probably didn’t-”
“We had a nice little talk about what old people can and can’t do over breakfast.”
“I remember having that talk with my sensei over a thousand years ago. Oh the things I learned-”
“Is that why you’re so mirthful all the time?”
“My skill at making music is one of the reasons why I always have a smile on my face.”
“I thought you’d be filling out applications and trying to get into Spelman next semester-”
“Nah, I’ve just been lying on the beach and listening to the waves crash into the shore the last past couple of days.”
“Finally taking a break from all the social crusading-”
After close to 70 years of fighting the good fight, I’m enjoying just laying out in the sun.”
“That’s what I’d be doing if I had a bikini body like yours-”
“Who says I’m wearing a bikini?”
I smile hearing Alma’s gasp into the phone. “I take it you don’t have any tan lines.”
“That’s one of the perks of having your own private beach.”
“I wish I could join you. But I’ve got to head to the funeral home and pick out your casket.”
“Knowing you, you’re gonna put me in the cheapest pine box they have-”
“Oh, no, I’m getting Andrea the deluxe model. Consider it my Christmas present to you.”
Her actually spending more than twenty dollars on someone that isn’t family is a Christmas present. I appreciate the thought behind the gift.
“A new color TV and a top-of-the line coffin. You haven’t spent this much money since Millie’s wedding-”
“Hey, my best friend deserves the best.”
So does she. I’m gonna have to get her something extra nice for Christmas. “I’ll see you after the funeral.”
“We’ll meet by Earl’s tombstone.”
Chapter 20
To my surprise the Church was standing room only for Andrea’s funeral. Along with my Theta Sisters people from Oneonta County and as far as Japan came to pay respects to my former alias. As I stood in the corner listening to the service I was brought to tears. Not from lamenting the passing of Andrea Robinson but from knowing how much everyone in that room loved me.
Our old friend Reverend Lawrence Cherry gave a beautiful eulogy and Alma, Edna, Jack and Millicent all made beautiful speeches telling everyone about our life-long friendships and the impact Andrea had on their lives. I think Margaret would have said something, but she was too busy crying. She was so emotional at one point she had to go to the bathroom to compose herself. But I think she could have been acting. She reeked of marijuana walking by me after she came out of the bathroom.
When the service at the church ended, I kept my distance and flew over the cars in the funeral procession to the cemetery to Oneonta Plains Cemetery. Thankfully for me, the plot of Earl Travis wasn’t too far from the one Andrea was being buried in. So I was in earshot of Reverend Cherry and all the mourners. He said some Psalms and some kind words about Andrea being a suitable help meet who did what she could to support her community and that God now wants us to help ourselves by honoring her memory. That seemed to console everyone as Andrea’s body was interred into the burial plot.
As most of the crowd of mourners disperses and heads back to the cars in the funeral procession, I peer down at Earl Travis’ headstone. I’m surprised when a dozen red roses drops at my feet.
“Boo.” Alma teases.
I let down my cloak and greet my best friend’s playful smile with a smile of my own. Only she’d find a way to use her samurai training for a laugh during a somber event.
“Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?” I retort. “After all, I’m supposed to be the ghost.”
“Did you enjoy the service?”
“I did. Thanks for saying all those beautiful things about me.”
“I wanted everyone to know how much I love you.”
“Are the roses for me or for Earl?”
“Earl. It’s been a year since I last came to visit him.”
“I still miss him and his jokes-”
“I just miss him.” Alma continues. “And now that I’ve lost my best friend, life’s gonna get a whole lot lonelier.”
“You’ll have your Theta Sisters-”
“It’s not the same as having you and Earl around-”
“It’s not. But they’re gonna need you to lead them like I used to lead you-”
“Be strong like you used to be when all your friends passed away.”
She’s lucky. She’s only going to have to deal with this kind of pain once in her lifetime. I’ve had to deal with it a dozen times in my life. And it doesn’t get any easier with each group of friends I have to let go. “I always kept the memories of those I loved closest to my heart. That’s what kept me going when things got hard.”
“It’s what’s going to have to keep me going when you’re gone.”
“That’ll allow you to share the love you had for me with them.”
“I could’ve been a totally different woman if I hadn’t met Andrea Robinson all those years ago.”
“I don’t know. You were pretty determined to get off that reservation when I first met you-”
“That place was a hell hole. You could smell the death in the air-”
“Even though everyone was alive.”
“If it weren’t for God working through you and showing me a different way to live, I don’t think I’d have made it out of there alive-”
“You’d have killed yourself?”
“I’d have probably given up on life if I hadn’t met you Andi. You made me a rich woman.”
“Hey, Earl helped you get rich-”
“I’d say I’ve had a richer life thanks to you. I would have never learned how to smile, laugh or have fun if it weren’t for you. I’d have never learned to love myself if it weren’t for you showing me how to have faith and courage during those hard times.”
“You wouldn’
t have become the great woman that you are today.”
Alma gives me proud smile as she looks into my eyes. “That’s why I thank God for letting you come into my life.”
“Thanks for letting me be a part of it.”
Alma looks over at Millicent, Margaret, Jack and Colleen and realizes she has to get back to hostessing. “Well, I can’t leave my guests waiting. They can’t start the luncheon without me.”
“Yeah, you are the Senior Grand Mother now.”
“And the show doesn’t start until I say so. Time to get it on the road.”
I give my best friend a hug filled with love. As she heads back over to her family and the procession of mourners, I disappear in a flash of light. My work here is done.
Requiem for a Goddess
Sometimes I don’t want to write a story. But I realize that sometimes I have to write that story so readers can get a better understanding of a characters’ history.
An astute reader who read The Thetas, Isis, Isis: Amari’s Revenge, and Isis: The Ultimate Fight could easily pick up the pieces and figure out that the Andrea Thomas Robinson referenced in those books who died in that mysterious tragic accident was Isis’ previous alias. But I felt I needed to tell this tale so the blanks could be filled in for those readers who wanted to know what really happened during that fateful day in Oneonta County in December 1973.
Death of a Theta is kind of a book end for Isis. A way to give closure to readers who wanted to know what happened to Isis during that hundred year gap between Isis and Isis: Amari’s Revenge. I know readers of the new Isis books had a hundred questions regarding her return. What did she do during that time? Did she get involved in the Civil Rights struggle? Or did she follow her fathers’ orders and sit out? And if she did get involved, how did she participate in the fight for equal rights for Black people?
I set out answer all those questions with Death of a Theta. Under her second American alias Andrea Thomas Robinson, Isis has been actively building her fortune during the early turn of the twentieth century, and involved in the Civil Rights movement at the middle of it. With the help of her best friend Alma Travis, she founds the Theta Sorority to teach two generations of Negro women a wealth of knowledge so they could support their families, manage their households and family businesses during Jim Crow.
In Isis and Isis: Death of a Theta we see Isis’ humanity in her passion for helping Black people. And how she still has a hard time letting go and letting others pick up where she left off. With her being a young immortal she still struggles with the mortal concept of passing on one’s legacy to the next generation and letting them carry on doing the work of their mothers and grandmothers when they die.
One of Isis’ great character flaws is that she cares. And that she cares too much sometimes. There’s a fine line between passion and zealotry, and Isis often walks a tightrope in between those extremes in her social activism. She often thinks that she has to be in control of things in order to make sure they go right, not understanding it’s ironically her need for control that leads to the thwarting of her best laid plans. While her Theta Sisters compassionately try to make this point, it’s only with the tough love of her New Heliopolitan family that Isis finally realizes that she’s trying to be a god over Black people again.
In an ironic plot twist, she comes to understand how she’s compromising her own mission and how her further involvement in the Black community would sabotage all her hard work. That’s when she lays down her purse (symbolizing her human identity) and realizes she has to return to the realm of gods and let her human friends Alma Travis, Edna Flowers, and Millicent and Jack Anderson continue Andrea’s legacy of helping Black people.
A legacy that continues on in the pages of The Thetas with Millicent’s daughter Colleen.
For me, Death of a Theta was a very unique and complex tale to tell. I started this story asking a simple question: Is an alias a real person to the person assuming it? And if that “person” died, would the pain of the loss of that alias be real to the person assuming the false identity?
I took a few ideas from The Superman The Animated Series episode The Late Mr. Kent and mixed them in with concepts of my own. The Late Mr. Kent showed how the death of Clark Kent had an impact on the life of Kal-El the Kryptonian. Moreover, it detailed how much Clark was a part of Who Kal-El was. Clark was the human side of Kal. What made him relate to people on Earth. What made him connect to them and form friendships with people like Jimmy Olsen and Batman and fall in love with Lois Lane. What made him care about them enough to protect them as Superman.
Just like Clark was Kal’s connection to the people in his, Andrea Thomas Robinson was Isis’ connection to the people in her life. She was the way Isis expressed her humanity. The way she connected to people like Alma Travis, Edna Flowers, and Jack and Millicent Anderson. The person to make her understand that as a goddess she serves the people, that the people don’t serve her.
Andrea made Isis’ life that much richer. She gave her the ability to love others and understand their struggles. And it’s that unconditional love for her friends that’s the main reason she’s willing to sacrifice the life of her human alias.
The great fear Isis has in Death of A Theta is that if she loses her human alias that she’ll lose her connection to the people she loves. It’s only when she realizes that those people will always love her even after Andrea passes that she’s finally able to let Andrea go.
This story was a tough one to write. It dealt with a lot of hard emotions regarding, death, loss, and the fear of dying. I wanted to deal with the subject of death in a sensitive and tasteful manner. I wanted readers to understand how much her friends all loved Isis and how much she loved them that she’d lay down her life for them.
The passing of a loved one is often a sad event in peoples’ lives. However, it’s that love for that person that allows them to show their respect for them by going on and living the best life they possibly can.
***
If you enjoyed this story, then read the story about the next generation of the Theta sorority in:
The Thetas
Nineteen-year-old rich socialite Colleen Anderson has just completed her sophomore year at New York University. On the last day of the semester she receives a mysterious letter on fancy salmon colored stationery with a single Greek letter on it. It’s a letter that will change her life and redefine the woman she’ll become.
The Isis Series
Isis: Trial of the Goddess
Crime and Punishment in the realm of the Egyptian Gods.
For the first time since the trial of the evil god Seth, The Court of the Elders is brought to order. Ra, Chief Justice of the Elders has issued a warrant for the arrest of Isis, the long-lost daughter of Osiris. Teleported from the remains of her North Carolina home, she’s brought to justice for allowing hatred in her heart and forsaking her heritage to worship another God, crimes punishable by death.
Grieving the tragic loss of her family and dealing with the shocking revelation that she’s a goddess, Isis has no idea how to defend herself in the Court of the Elders. Born of a mortal woman and raised in human culture, Isis is about to be taken advantage of by Ra when Queen Isis intervenes. Acting as her counsel, the Queen helps the young goddess adjust to the culture of New Heliopolis and plan a defense for court in the realm of the gods. Will the gods offer her a second chance to be redeemed? Or will she be judged to suffer the same fate as Seth?
Isis
A lost goddess.
A heritage Found.
A greater destiny to be achieved.
In the aftermath of a horrible tragedy, Isis the long-lost daughter of Osiris, has committed a heinous crime. Because she didn't receive guidance from her father, the elder gods show mercy on the young goddess by stripping her of her powers and imprisoning her on an uncharted island in the South Pacific.
Osiris and Queen Isis reunite with his long-lost child to begin the difficult process of establishing a familial r
elationship. Hoping to guide Isis towards the greater destiny she's supposed to fulfill, her parents begin teaching her the ways of the gods. However, Seth's herald E'steem lurks in the shadows offering the young goddess freedom for a price. Caught in the middle of a never-ending war between the gods, Isis must choose to either return to the troubled world she knows all too well, or take a journey down an unknown path where faith is her only guide.
The Temptation of John Haynes
Death kills the flesh.
Compromise kills the soul.
The Devil doesn’t like John Haynes.
To take his soul, Lucifer recruits E’steem a beautiful black she-demon to seduce him. If she can get John to compromise his beliefs and values, he’ll allow her to join his Elect, a cadre of powerful demons in his inner circle.
To balance the playing field in E’steem’s favor, Lucifer isolates John by having him fired from his job and forces his fiancée Colleen to leave him. Unemployed and emotionally vulnerable, John eagerly takes what he thinks is the job opportunity of a lifetime as CEO of Morris Phillips. Distracted by his new high-powered job and its many duties, he has no idea that Lucifer secretly controls the multinational corporation or that his beautiful live-in assistant is a she-demon placed there to corrupt him. However as E’steem becomes romantically involved with John, she’s torn between achieving her theocratic aspirations and saving the man she loves from eternal damnation.
Isis: Amari’s Revenge
Art Attack! Isis comes face-to-face with danger when a statue of Queen Amari comes to life on the floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Returned to life through a magic spell, Amari seeks revenge on the woman she believes stole the heart of her Prince and her kingdom two thousand years ago.
Isis: The Ultimate Fight
Girlfight! Nemesis, the undisputed Queen of the Octagon is hungry for competition. After defeating twenty-four of the world’s best MMA fighters, she’s out to prove to both man and god that she’s the best in the world. Traveling to the Island of Solitude she issues a challenge to the goddess Isis to fight her in the eight-sided chain-link roofed steel cage where the only way to win is to knock your opponent out. It’s a war of the gods as New Heliopolis’ Sword of Nubia takes on the Greek goddess of Retribution in a no holds barred brawl for it all.
