Something Old, Something New

  Grinning, he gave her another potent kiss, pulled her close, and they resumed watching the Stevie Wonder concert on PBS.

  On Sunday Henry Adams awakened to rain. The wind blew, the temperature plummeted, and folks knew to start paying closer attention to the forecasts on the Weather Channel again because winter was coming. The scheduled work on the Clark home was canceled due to the inclement day, so after calling everyone to notify them of that fact, Trent called Lily to invite her and Devon over for breakfast.

  Amari met them at the door and let them in.

  Lily said, “Morning, Amari. Smells good in here.”

  Amari nodded a greeting at Devon, who didn’t return the gesture.

  “Dad’s in the kitchen.”

  Lily said, “Okay. I’ll go and see if he needs help. Devon, hang out with Amari for a minute.”

  Amari looked like he’d prefer another option, but said to Devon, “Come on. I’m watching SportsCenter.”

  Devon took a seat on the sofa. While Amari reclaimed his chair, Devon looked at what was on the TV and asked, “Why are you watching with the sound down?”

  “I’ve got the closed captioning on. It helps me with my reading.”

  “Oh, that’s right. I forgot you can’t read.”

  Amari shot him a look. “I can read. I just need to get better.”

  “I want the sound turned up.”

  “Then go home. This is my house.”

  “You’re stupid.”

  “And you’re a dork. Chill out before I have Zoey kick your butt again.”

  Devon crossed his arms and pouted. “Stupid.”

  “You say that again, and I’m telling.”

  “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”

  In the kitchen Lily was setting the table while Trent finished up the eggs and bacon in the skillets on the stove. “Thanks for talking me down last night about Davis.”

  “No problem.”

  She walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist before placing her cheek gently against his strong back. “Can you teach me to be calm like you?”

  He turned around. “I can teach you anything you like.”

  She grinned. “You are so good for me.”

  “I know.”

  “Modest, too.”

  “Another one of the July family traits.”

  She snorted, and then, looking up into his eyes, said, “I love you very much.”

  “After all we’ve been through, you’d better.”

  She punched him, and he bent down and gave her a kiss.

  Amari’s voice interrupted. “Hey. Hey. Hey. Cut that out. Kid in the room.”

  They broke the kiss and grinned his way.

  Trent asked. “You need something?”

  “Yes. Somebody to check Devon.”

  “What’s he doing?” Lily asked.

  “Dogging me about not being able to read well. If he calls me stupid one more time, I’ll be on fence duty because I’m going to knock him out.”

  Lily threw up her hands and sighed.

  Trent gave her the spatula. “I’ll talk to him.”

  And he did, very sternly, and made him apologize.

  After Trent left the room, a satisfied Amari went back to the TV.

  But even though it was Sunday morning, the devil was riding Devon. He looked around for a piece of paper and something to write with. He found a pad of sticky notes by the cordless phone near the door. Using the pen next to it, he wrote the longest word he could think of, blasphemy, and walked back into the room. “Can you read this?”

  Smoldering, Amari turned to Devon, looked at the word, and slowly got to his feet.

  Devon sneered, “You can’t, can you?”

  Amari snatched the paper out of his hand, balled it up, and threw it in Devon’s face as hard as he could. The fear that leapt into Devon’s eyes gave Amari a little bit of satisfaction, but not enough, so he stormed up the steps to his bedroom and slammed the door.

  Needless to say, it was not a very good morning for anyone, except maybe Devon. Now that he knew for sure that he wouldn’t be spanked, he planned to make everybody around him miserable until either they sent him home or he found the bus that would take him there.

  However, he forgot about another long word, consequences. When he and Ms. Lily returned home, she refreshed his memory by informing him that not only would he be writing a three-page letter of apology to Amari, which had to be a real letter this time, he was also on punishment for the rest of his life. As she left his bedroom, she said, “You’ll be twenty-five before you see television in this house again.”

  The punishment also negated his afternoon of baseball watching with Mr. Mal. That really stung, and made parts of Devon rethink his whole devil persona thing. But the pain-filled, hurting parts of himself thought about the hidden fifty dollars that would be taking him home and decided Ms. Lily and everyone else could kiss his butt.

  Trent rapped quietly on Amari’s door.

  “Come in.”

  He was stretched out on his bed with his arms folded behind his head, staring up at the ceiling.

  “How are you, champ?”

  Amari swung his head in his direction. “I’m still mad, but I’m okay.”

  “I came to commend you on your restraint.”

  “I wanted to pop him so bad.”

  “I know, but you didn’t. That took maturity.”

  “Maturity’s overrated.”

  Trent smiled with affection. “Sometimes it is, but you did good, son.”

  “What was that stupid word anyway?”

  “Blasphemy.”

  “What’s it mean?”

  “Being disrespectful to God.”

  “From the Bible, right?”

  “Mostly.”

  Amari sighed and looked up again. “I should’ve known.” A few moments of silence passed before he asked, “Do we have to add him to the family?”

  “He and Lily are a package deal.”

  “How about we keep her and trade him to the Clippers for a draft pick and a player to be named later, like in the NBA?”

  Trent chuckled.

  Amari’s voice grew thick as he whispered, “He really hurt my feelings, Dad.”

  Trent walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed. The pain in Amari’s eyes tore at his heart. He placed a hand on his son’s shoulder. “I know.”

  “Being here is making me lose my edge.”

  “You think so?”

  “I know so. I never felt like this on the street. People dis you, you cuss them out, you punch them out, you move on. I’m not down with having feelings.”

  “They help mold us.”

  “If you say so.”

  “Knowing that Lily probably put her foot up his little behind makes me feel better.”

  “I suppose. I just want to clock him, just once. Now I see why Zoey went off. How’s she doing, by the way? Do you know?”

  “They’re supposed to be back in a few days. Reg told me on the phone yesterday that she has to baby her voice for now and not use it too much.”

  “Good. Can’t wait for them to get back and hear what she sounds like.”

  Trent was pleased to see his mood lighten. “How about we go to the garage, work on the T-Bird, and turn on the game? New England’s playing.”

  “Can we get burgers and fries from the Dog?”

  “You bet.”

  “Then sign me up.”

  Trent ruffled his hair and headed to the door.

  “Dad?”

  Trent turned back. “Yeah?”

  “Thanks for coming up to check on me. You made me feel better.”

  “It’s all part of the job, son. See you downstairs in a few.” Trent closed the door behind him and walked back to the staircase with a smile.

  At her wit’s end, Lily put in a call to Paula. After a few minutes of relaying her concerns about Devon and his behavior, Paula agreed to talk with him. “But I can’t do it today. I’m having dinner this eve
ning in Franklin with Pastor Donovan and his wife. How about Monday, right after school?”

  Lily was disappointed that she couldn’t come immediately, but there was nothing she could do about it, so she said, “Okay. That’s fine.”

  After ending the call, she went up to his room.

  He was stretched out on his bed.

  He looked over at her and then away.

  Lily ignored that and asked with all the confusion she felt inside, “Why are you being so mean all of a sudden, Devon? This isn’t like you.”

  “I want to go back to Mississippi. I don’t like Kansas anymore.”

  “There’s nobody to take care of you there, honey.”

  “Ms. Myrtle will.”

  “Who’s Ms. Myrtle?”

  “My grandma’s best friend.”

  “I see.”

  “I know she’ll let me live with her. I just have to ask her. I bet she knows where my parents are, too. They’ve probably been looking for me.”

  Lily shook her head sadly. No one had stepped up to claim him after his grandmother’s death, but how do you explain that to a child so that he’d understand and not become more heartbroken? As for his parents, there was no information in his file about them. In fact, he didn’t even have a birth certificate, something no one down in Mississippi had been able to explain when she called the Human Services Agency about the missing document after Devon’s initial arrival in Kansas. He looked so unhappy. She was trying to be a patient and loving parent, but he was testing her big-time. “Dinner will be later.”

  Downstairs, she stood in front of the patio door and looked out at the pouring rain. Her mood matched the dank gray day.

  Paula was feeling pretty gray herself. She’d agreed to have dinner with the Donovans knowing full well the man was going to test her faith and patience, but she’d agreed to the invitation anyway. Bad move. The afternoon began in his church. He introduced her to the five-person congregation, and the service began. The Anglican/Episcopal service that Paula presided over in her home church on Sunday mornings took ninety minutes, tops, and that was with the sermon. Pastor Donovan’s sermon alone was ninety minutes long, and most of it was devoted to the proper way to worship God. As he proceeded to attack her church’s doctrine and denounce its spirit of openness as godless and misguided, she forced herself to remember that she was a woman of God and therefore should feel no malice. In reality, she wanted to turn over his pulpit and walk out. She’d never been so openly and blatantly insulted in her entire life.

  After the service, as he drove Paula and his silent wife through the pouring rain back to their home for dinner, he asked, “How’d you like my sermon, Reverend?”

  She responded from the backseat. “It was certainly filled with lots of fervor.”

  “I felt moved this evening. Sometimes the Spirit takes over and speaks through me, and when it does, and you’re on the wrong side of the Lord, too bad if you get your feelings hurt. The truth has to be voiced.”

  Paula silently prayed for patience and tolerance, even though Donovan seemed to have neither. One of the things he’d pointed out during the sermon as a failing of her denomination was that Episcopalians didn’t bring Bibles to church. “Pastor Donovan, do you know why we don’t bring our Bibles to church?”

  He grinned at her in the mirror. “No, but I bet you think you have a legitimate reason.”

  “I’ll let you decide that. Sixty percent of our liturgy every Sunday is taken from the Bible. That’s more than any other Christian denomination.”

  She saw his wife give him a hasty glance of surprise.

  Paula continued. “We recite the Psalms, have readings from both the Old and New Testaments, and, depending upon the priest, the sermon is usually tied to the Gospel reading of the day. So when you take all of that into consideration, we don’t really need to bring our Bibles, because most of our service is the Bible.”

  Silence.

  Paula knew that up in heaven God was shaking His head, but she saw this as a teaching moment, and she really felt the need to get this man’s attention. She’d ask forgiveness when she said her prayers at bedtime. “As for your disdain for our embracing our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters . . . We practice via media.”

  “What is that, some kind of Internet mess?” he asked impatiently.

  Paula kept her voice even and kind. “No, it’s Latin for ‘middle way.’ We don’t presume to know how God feels about certain issues, but you and I both know that the one thing Jesus stressed was love thy neighbor. Period. So that’s what we practice and preach.”

  “But you have Episcopal churches that don’t believe gays belong in the church, either.”

  “True, and as a family we’re working on that. If you look at it from a historical perspective, Black people were considered unfit for the church at one time, too.”

  With that, she had nothing else to say. Apparently, Pastor Donovan didn’t either, because he remained silent for the rest of the ride.

  Chapter 15

  On Monday morning everyone went back to work and to school, and no one was happier than Lily. Devon had made her insane with his uncharacteristic behavior, but once she entered the Power Plant, she felt the stress lift. As she recounted the details of the volatile weekend to a concerned-looking Bernadine, though, it returned.

  “You’ve talked to him?”

  “Talked, prodded, hugged, punished. You name it, I’ve tried it.”

  “What’s Paula saying?”

  “She’s going to talk to him after school. I feel as if bringing her in on this means I’ve given up.”

  “No, it just means you know that you’ve done all you can do. Maybe a professional like Paula will see something in Devon that we haven’t and know how to fix it.”

  Lily sighed. “I’m going to my office. Maybe work will help me take my mind off all this.”

  Mid-morning she got a call from Marie, who asked, “Are you busy?”

  Lily prayed this wasn’t another crisis. “No,” she responded in a voice she hoped sounded cheerful. “What can I do for you?”

  “I want you to drive me up to Hays this afternoon.”

  She wanted to scream about having another chore put on her plate, but kept her voice even. “To the airport?”

  “No, my son’s flying in for a conference. He wants me to meet him at his hotel.”

  Lily’s mood brightened. “That’s great news, Marie.”

  “Yes, it is,” she said happily. “After last week I could use some good news.”

  “Amen. What time does he get in?”

  “Around two. He wants me to meet him around three.”

  “I’ll pick you up at one. Is that okay?”

  “Perfect.”

  “Is Leo going with us?”

  “No. He’s at a meeting in Franklin, and even if he wasn’t, I’d rather you go with me.”

  That warmed Lily’s heart. “Okay. I’ll see you later.”

  Turning back to her computer screen, she said, “Finally, some good news.”

  Lily let Bernadine know she was leaving for the afternoon, and when she got in her car, she checked her wallet to make sure she had some money just in case she needed cash during the day. Her wallet was empty. She thought that over for a moment and swore she’d had forty bucks and tried to remember where she’d put it. She glanced at her watch. There was no time to run to the bank in Franklin, but she did have time to swing by the ATM inside the Dog.

  The place was filled with the late lunch crowd, and ironically, the O’Jays were wailing “For the Love of Money” via the speakers when she ran in. Smiling, she stuck her card in the machine’s slot just as Mal walked to the cash register.

  She told him, “This machine is a godsend. I misplaced some money, and this beats driving over to Franklin.”

  “Must be contagious. Misplaced ten dollars myself sometime this weekend.”

  “We must be getting old.”

  “Speak for yourself,” he countered with a
grin.

  The ATM burped out two twenties. Lily stuck them in her wallet and waved good-bye to Mal.

  On the drive to Hays, Marie had on her poker face as she rode shotgun, but Lily sensed the nervousness beneath the calm exterior. Conversation had been sparse. Lily didn’t want to talk about Devon or Davis not coming to the wedding and add her own personal drama to whatever Marie was feeling inside. “So how did your son sound when you talked to him?”

  “A little guarded, but that’s probably to be expected.”

  “He’ll be here just overnight?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did he say where home was?”

  “Memphis.”

  “Wow.”

  “Not sure how he ended up down there, but that might be something we can talk about.”

  “Are you nervous?”

  Marie grinned. “I can barely sit still.”

  Lily totally understood. “We’re almost there.”

  When they arrived at the hotel, Lily drove to the door with the intention of letting Marie go in alone. “I brought some work,” she explained. “I’ll sit in the coffee shop or somewhere until you’re ready to head back. Just hit me up on my phone.”

  “Oh, no. You’re coming with me. I’m not meeting him alone.”

  “Marie?”

  “Park, missy, and let’s go in. I don’t want to be late.”

  So Lily parked, and they both went inside.

  He was waiting in the lobby. He was tall, brown-skinned, and a bit out of shape. He wore his age well, though. “Ms. Jefferson?”

  “Yes, I’m Marie.”

  He seemed to be as nervous as she was. “I’m Brian French.”

  Marie opened her arms for a hug, but he cleared his throat as if embarrassed and offered her his hand to shake instead.

  Lily saw Marie’s embarrassment as she shook his hand. “This is my goddaughter, Lily. She drove me down.”

  He nodded her way. “Pleased to meet you.”

  “As am I,” Lily replied and shook his extended hand, too.

  He glanced around the lobby, and after spotting a quiet corner, gestured them toward the burgundy chairs positioned there. “How about we have a seat?”

  They sat, and an awkward silence followed.