Preston shook his head. “This is so not going to work.”
“Cheer up, maybe she’ll hear something or change her mind and we won’t have to worry about it.”
“We don’t have to worry about it now.”
“Yeah, we do.”
“Why?”
“Because as cracked out as Crystal is, she’s part of our family. Remember the candles we lit?”
“I don’t think this is what that meant.”
“It did to me. When one of us needs something, we step up.”
“I thought you just said you don’t want to mess this up?”
“I don’t, which is why if and when the time comes we need to have a bulletproof plan.”
Preston scrubbed his hands over his eyes. “Okay, but we definitely need to keep this on the down low. If Ms. Bernadine finds out or God help us, Tamar, they’re going to line us up, give us a blindfold and a last cigarette, and have the colonel shoot us at dawn.”
Bernadine sat at the dinner table and watched the silently eating Crystal. She wasn’t sure how to deal with the moody and withdrawn young woman she’d turned into over the past few weeks. Granted the girl had always been a little edgy, but now she was spending most of her after-school time up in her room and never had more than a few words to say. She hadn’t been disrespectful, so far, but Bernadine wondered if the honeymoon period the foster parenting DVDs had described was coming to an end. “You’ve been awfully quiet the last few days. Something going on you want to talk about?”
“No.”
“If you’re sick, we can have Dr. Garland take a look at you.”
“I’m fine.”
“Sure?”
“Positive.” She finished the rest of the food on her plate and then pushed back her chair. “I’ll load the dishes and go finish my homework.”
“Okay.” Bernadine watched her leave the room.
After Crystal went upstairs to work on homework, Bernadine went next door to talk with Lily about what might be going on with Crystal.
Inside however, she found Lily seated at the kitchen table, her hands laced around a cup of tea. There were tears in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Bernadine asked with concern.
“Just got faxed a report on Zoey. Here—read this. I called the Garlands. They’re on their way.”
Bernadine took what appeared to be a copy of a police report. As she read, her shaking hand went to her mouth. “My Lord,” she whispered. “Rats?”
The Garlands came in.
Roni saw their faces and asked, “What’s the matter? We brought Devon back with us, Lily. He and Zoey are out on the porch swing.”
Roni and Reg read the report and tears welled up in both their eyes. “Oh no,” Roni whispered, “oh, my poor little baby girl.”
Reg asked, “Where’d this come from?”
“Miami-Dade Police,” Lily said. “Apparently, that initial report of where and how they found Zoey after her mother died never made it into any of the subsequent reports. Fell through the cracks, I guess. All anyone knew except the two officers who found her and dropped her off at the ER was that she was homeless and her mother was dead. She went straight into the state child protection system afterward.”
Lily added, “I just got off the phone with one of the officers. She said there were so many rats fighting over Zoey her whole little body was covered.” Lily began to cry. “She said she and her partner wouldn’t have even known there was a child under the mound of rats if they hadn’t heard her screaming.”
Roni sank into a chair and put her head in her hands. “I’m going to be sick.” She got up and ran to the nearest bathroom. Her husband hurried after her.
Bernadine wiped at her eyes. “So how badly was she bitten?”
“Not very, miraculously. The policewoman said the rats had turned on each other by the time they arrived—trying to keep each other from getting the prize, I guess. Zoey did have to have a series of rabies shots. She was in the hospital for quite some time.”
“Lord have mercy,” Bernadine said with a sorrowful shake of her head, “and she went through that all alone.”
“Yeah.”
Roni came back in the room. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Bernadine reassured her. “It’s awful.”
Lily then repeated the information about the rabies shots, and all Reg could do was sigh. “Had that been me with those rats, I’d be on heavy Thorazine to this day, maybe for the rest of my life.”
“Tell me about it,” Bernadine responded.
Roni said, “At least we now know the story. That helps. It hurts my heart real bad, but it helps. I understand a little better.”
They all did.
Bernadine added. “Lily and I have been trying to find a therapist who’ll come out maybe once or twice a month to help our kids. If you know anyone, let me know. We need to get Zoey and the rest of them started.”
“I have a few names. Let me make some calls and I’ll get back,” Reg said.
“Okay.”
Roni’s sadness was reflected in her eyes. “We’re going to head home. We’ll see you later.” Before she left though, she took a moment to give Bernadine a strong hug, and then Lily, “Thanks for all you do.”
“You take care, now,” Bernadine told her.
The Garlands nodded and departed.
When Bernadine returned home she went up and knocked on Crystal’s door.
“Come in.”
Crystal took one look at Bernadine’s face and asked, “Did something happen to my mom?”
“No, baby. It’s about Zoey.”
“Oh,” she said with impatient disinterest. “Now what?”
Bernadine cocked her head at her, “What’s wrong with you?”
“I’m tired of hearing about the little White girl’s problems. Every time I turn around, it’s Zoey this, Zoey that. I’m waiting for you to find my mom, dammit!”
Bernadine pulled in a deep breath in order to keep her temper in check. “Is that what all this moodiness and one-word answers have been about for the past few days? You think I’m not looking for your mother?”
She remained sullenly silent.
“And if Zoey is nothing more than just a little White girl, why are you so nice to her all the time?”
Crystal couldn’t hold Bernadine’s accusatory stare for long, so she looked away.
“I have people looking for your mother all over this country, Miss Thang. Technically, you aren’t even supposed to have contact with her until you’re eighteen, but I’m willing to try and get around that—for you.”
The guilt filling Crystal burned her from the top of her weave down to the soles of the cute new boots she was wearing.
Bernadine’s voice was ice-cold. “My people are going to keep looking for your mother, but you won’t have to worry about me telling you anything else about the little white girl and her problems. You made it real clear that you don’t care, so good night, Crystal. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She walked out. Bernadine wanted to slam the door so bad but didn’t because she was supposed to be the adult. When she got to her room she sat on the bed and wiped away the angry tears filling her eyes. She knew this was going to be hard, but not this hard, this fast.
Crystal was in her room crying. She couldn’t believe what she’d said about Zoey because she did care. Everything was all so mixed up and so messed up inside of her, she thought that maybe it would be better if she did leave. She’d never seen Ms. Bernadine so mad. Every word she said made Crystal feel like the ungrateful little witch she’d been acting like lately, but she couldn’t seem to help it. Sometimes it was like she was the only person in the world that mattered and the next minute she was fine. Maybe it was because of the new environment and being out here in Green Acres. Maybe she was losing her mind, but whatever the reason, she’d hurt Ms. Bernadine’s feelings and she’d hurt them bad, and she didn’t think a simple apology would fix that.
Roni sat at the piano looking at the keys. Reg was across the room watching, silently. When she glanced over at him, his eyes were serious. He knew what she was attempting to do and in a way why. Then Zoey came into the room. She had on her green Shrek nightgown. Seeing Roni seated at the keys, she walked over to Reg and stood by his side.
Roni looked to her and said, “Zo, Mama Roni used to sing and play the piano, but one night, something really awful happened and I stopped because I got scared. Now, I have you and you had something terrible happen to you one night too. I really want to help you not be scared anymore, but I can’t help you until I stop being scared, myself, so…”
She began to play. The first selection seemed to spring from her fingers without thought. It was one of her favorites, a suite of hymns by Duke Ellington that she’d often played in the past to uplift herself. She played them slow and beautifully just like the great Duke composed them, and she felt the tears begin to flow. She switched next to gospel, then slid into the familiar old-school hymns of the A.M.E church, letting the rising notes fill the house and soothe the hurt she’d carried inside for so long. Her fingers moved over the keys with the God-given gift born in her just as it had been in Zoey, and she played on.
Quiet as a ghost, Zoey left Reg’s side and walked over to the piano. She climbed up on the bench.
When Roni quietly ended what she’d been playing, Zoey began the familiar cords of “Amazing Grace.” Roni joined in, but after the first few notes, Zoey stopped. Zoey started the hymn again, and just as Roni began, Zoey stopped once more. Roni looked to her husband for an answer. He shrugged. Zoey began again, but this time loudly and with force. Her fingers were spread wide as she pounded the keys. And then Roni got it. She placed a hand over Zoey’s to stop her, then said quietly, “Start again.”
This time when the notes began, the multi-award-winning recording artist Roni Moore opened her tear-filled throat and sang emotionally, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, to save a wretch like me…I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see…”
CHAPTER
26
The air was pretty tense in the Bernadine and Crystal house after Crystal’s award-winning performance. Bernadine was so mad, she wanted to shake the teen until her weave fell out, but she kept it together. She didn’t scream, shout, or otherwise act out, but underneath she was seething.
Lily summed it up best when the ladies were having lunch that day at the Paynes. “Teenagers are crazy. Insane. From the time Davis was fourteen until his senior year in high school, I prayed every day, ‘Lord, let me make it through another day without killing him. Amen.’”
The ladies laughed. Reg and Barrett were at the rec center gym. The kids were in school, so the women had gotten together to share some Girls’ Time.
Lily said, “You all think I’m playing. And you have male children too? Wait until they start becoming allergic to soap and think a bottle of cologne will make folks overlook the fact that they haven’t washed in days.”
Bernadine chuckled, “So how’re Preston and the colonel getting along, Sheila?”
She shrugged over her coffee cup, “Still circling each other like two guys in a Kung Fu movie, but so far, there’s been no blood. They share a love for books and history, and that’s got them both freaked out. I’m sitting back enjoying the show.”
Roni said, “I have good news. Called my producer this morning. I’m going back into the studio.”
They cheered and raised their cups and hugged her and cheered some more.
“And,” she added, “I’m looking at building a recording studio here so I don’t have to be away while we work on the new CD. Once word gets out on how state-of-the-art it’s gonna be, we’ll rent it out, make the town a little bit of money. Put Henry Adams on the music map.”
“Wow,” Bernadine said. “I like that.”
While the others listened to Roni talk about the upcoming CD project, Bernadine’s mind slipped back to Crystal and the darkness she sensed on the horizon. If her mother’s whereabouts weren’t discovered soon, the girl was going to run. Bernadine knew that as sure as she knew God was good.
Sitting in the classroom, Crystal was supposed to be working on a history lesson, but instead she was trying to figure out how and when to leave Henry Adams. Although she liked Ms. Bernadine a lot, even more than a lot, she needed to get out of Dodge. She thought about her pretty room back at the house and decided that all the bling and glitz wasn’t her style, anyway. The lifestyles of the rich and famous was for White people and big-money Black people like Ms. Bernadine and Oprah, not for ghetto-raised girls like herself.
But some kind of way she was going to have to convince Amari to take her out to the highway, first. She planned to hitchhike south from there. She didn’t want him getting into trouble on account of her, but she had to go. The people Ms. Bernadine hired weren’t ever going to call back, so it was up to her to handle her business alone.
There was a mile-long walking track behind the rec center, and Lily used it as often as she could. She’d just finished her first quarter of a mile when she spotted Trent behind her on the track jogging in her direction. Back in the day when they were on the high school track team and he’d run up on her slow like he was doing now, her heart would do flips at the sight of him in his warm-ups and cleats. Sort of the same way it was doing now.
“You trying to make a brother chase you to Topeka,” he asked when he caught up.
She kept up her pace. “You chasing me?”
He stopped. “Yeah. I think I am.”
She stopped. Speechless for a moment, she studied his face. “As in chasing me, chasing me?”
He nodded. “Unless you have a problem with it.”
She had to shake her mind loose so she could make her mouth open and say, “No. Uh, no.”
“You sure? You look a little rattled.”
“Well, yeah. I wasn’t expecting this, I guess.”
“I wasn’t either, to tell you the truth. Decided to stop fighting it, though.”
“You’ve been fighting it?”
“Since the day you first drove into the garage.”
“You acted like you wanted to shoot me.”
“I did, or at least that’s what I told myself.”
She looked off into the distance and thought about what might have been had it not been for her. “Can we take it slow?”
“Slow as you want.”
The hurt she’d caused him still nagged at her, though. “I’m sorry,” she offered softly, one more time. And she was.
“Let’s call it a remix. A lot of people never get a second chance.” He smiled down at her. “I don’t have a track medal this time.”
“It’s okay,” she said remembering. The last time they’d done this, he’d given her one of his track medals on a chain. He’d placed it around her neck and she’d worn it proudly to let everybody know she was his lady. “I don’t need one.”
“Sure?”
“Positive.”
“How about we do dinner together this evening at my place? I’ve got some steaks in the freezer I’ve been wanting to grill. Devon’s invited too, of course.”
“Sounds good. Should I bring anything?”
“Nope. Everything is on the house.”
She nodded, smiling.
“See you tonight.”
“See you tonight.”
He jogged off and you could have knocked Lily over with a feather, but she wanted to jump up and down and yell to the world about just how happy she was.
The dinner was fun. He grilled, she sat and let him wait on her.
Amari and Devon watched them both from the seats at the outdoor table. “Did you know anything about this?” Amari asked Devon.
“About what?”
“Ms. Lily and Trent.”
“What about them?”
Amari shook his head, “Never mind. I forgot you’re only eight.” But he kind of liked the idea of the two of them getting together. br />
At the end of the evening dusk was settling, and Trent realized how big of a turn his life had made; first Amari and now Lily, his Lily. Watching her as she and Devon got ready to go home, he could finally acknowledge how much he’d missed her, her smile, her being near. For some reason they’d been given a second chance. He agreed with her about taking it slow because he wanted to savor every moment the future had in store.
“Devon and I are going to take off.” Lily now understood why she’d been so hesitant about committing to Winston. She’d been waiting for this—Trent to come back into her life.
“How about I walk with you?”
“I’d like that.”
Amari and Devon were staring up at the two adults as if the encounter was being played out on a movie screen.
Without taking his eyes from Lily’s, Trent said, “Amari, I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Okay but curfew’s at ten, remember.”
Trent chuckled. “Go on in the house.”
Amari grinned. “Bye, Ms. Lily. See you in the morning, Creflo.”
“Bye, Amari,” Lily replied, tickled by his antics.
With Devon walking between them they crossed the street to her house. They both knew that this short time together hadn’t been enough, so when she reached the porch, she said, “Come on in.”
She sent Devon up to his room to take his shower, and she and Trent went out back to the deck. He took a seat on one of the chaise longues and she walked to the railing and looked up at the sky. The stars were out.
“I remember the very first time I saw you,” he told her quietly.
Amused by that, she turned his way. “Do you?”
“Yep. Track practice. Sophomore year. Didn’t know who you were then, but thought you were cute. You had on a gray tee and your shorts. Had those nice track girl legs going on.”
“Well, I don’t remember the first time I saw you.”
“Wound a brother would you.”
“Telling you the truth. I knew of you, of course, all the girls did, but to me you were just this big-time four-sport jock with a swelled head.”