A Good Man (31 page)

“They sent us to the wrong place twice,” Darius said. “What did we miss?”

Everything! Sonya thought.

After posing with the baby rhino and a panda, Justin whispered, “Jazz, I’m real hungry.”

They decided on eating at a nearby Brigantine Seafood Restaurant where they ate the light lunch combo: half a swordfish sandwich, a cup of clam chowder, and a side spinach salad. Only one camera followed them in, two little microphones clipped to the table.

“Is that going to be enough for you?” Sonya asked as she looked at Justin’s empty plate and her half-full plate.

“Yeah,” Justin said. “I gotta cut down. Um, thank you for the date. My first in a long time. To be honest, I’ve never really had a date before.”

That’s so … sweet. What will he think later when he finds out his first real date was with a forty-year-old woman? “I find that hard to believe. Never?”

“Do church dates count?” Justin asked.

“Sure. They’re the best kind of date.”

“I’ve had plenty of them,” Justin said. “Just sitting with a girl in the pew isn’t exactly a date in my mind, though. I mean, a date is when you’re alone with someone, you know?”

“As if we’re alone now.” She nodded at the cameraman.

“Yeah.” Justin made a face for the camera. “Jazz, I’m the guy people hang with, have fun with. I’m not the guy girls want to be alone with.”

This boy is plucking at my heart. “You’re fun to be with, Justin. I had real fun today. And technically this was only my second date ever.”

Justin blinked. “Only your … second date … ever?”

I can’t tell him about Archie. “I don’t get out much.”

“But you were with Aaron last week,” Justin said.

“That wasn’t a date. That was a photo-op for him. This was fun.” She squeezed his hand. “And we have a group date at church in the morning, right?”

“Yeah.” Justin looked away. “Thank you, Jazz.”

“For what?”

“For making me feel special.”

“You are special, Justin.”

Justin turned back. “I mean, you didn’t treat me differently because I’m the size of a rhino.”

“You’re a big man in many ways, Justin. A woman would be glad to have someone who has your big heart, big laugh, and big smile.”

“Any woman?” Justin asked.

Danger, danger! Do not lead this wonderful man on! “Not just any woman. A woman after your heart. The right woman. The woman God made especially for you.”

“How do I know which woman is for me?” Justin asked. “I mean, what if it’s you?”

My heart is definitely not going this way, and I don’t want to hurt him. There’s something so innocent and pure in this man. I have to tell him the truth. “Justin, I like you very much.”

Justin looked down. “Like.”

“Hey, man, we just met,” Sonya said. “And I don’t like many people very much. You can ask my sister.”

Justin smiled. “You’re easy to like.”

“Thank you.”

He drank more of his ice water. “That rhino wasn’t really checking me out, was it?”

“It only had eyes for you.”

Justin laughed. “I need to lose more weight, huh?”

“No,” Sonya said. “I can’t see you skinny, for some reason.”

Justin nodded. “Neither can I. Um, Jazz?”

“Yes?”

“Can I … hug you at the door?” Justin asked.

So sweet! “Of course,” Sonya said.

And at the door, Sonya hugged Justin, the cameras mere feet away. “I had a blast, Justin.”

“So did I.”

She pulled his face down and kissed him on the cheek. “You earned that, man.”

Justin’s smile lit up the night. “Thank you.” He opened the door. “See you in the morning.”

“You know it.”

Justin walked past the great room entrance and took the stairs three at a time.

Lord, I think I just made that man’s day. Thank You for taking care of us, especially when that rhino started eyeing Justin.

Justin floated into the room and flopped on his bed. “Wow,” he said.

John looked up from his notepad, his Bible open to Nehemiah. “How’d it go?”

“Jazz is … Jazz is amazing.”

“Yep.” I expected no less.

“She makes you feel like you’re the only person on earth, you know?” Justin said. “I’ve never known anyone like that. My hands were sweaty the whole time. Every time she smiled, I started acting like a kid and saying the stupidest stuff.”

I know the feeling. “You were nervous.”

“Yeah.”

“Were you as nervous talking to the woman at church?” John asked.

Justin smiled. “You noticed, huh?”

“Hard not to.”

“Yeah, at first I was nervous,” Justin said. “But then we got to talking … and I didn’t feel nervous as much. Her name is Brandy. She can sang.” He rolled over and looked at the ceiling. “I know I don’t have a chance with Jazz.”

“We all have an equal chance,” John said.

“I don’t know,” Justin said. “She’s … she’s a lady, and I’m just a guy, you know? She had me eating healthy at a seafood restaurant. Normally, I see food and I eat it. Today I ate right.”

“She’s good for the body and the soul, isn’t she?”

“Yeah. And my weight. She makes me feel weightless.”

“I know what you mean, man,” John said.

I know exactly what you mean.

When the alarm went off in Sonya’s room at seven, Kim stirred. “Why are you getting up so early?”

“It’s Sunday,” Sonya said. “And I’ve already been up for an hour.” She took a scarf from her head. “And we are going to church.”

Kim slumped back into her pillow. “We aren’t going anywhere.”

Sonya dried her ears with a towel. “There are other we’s in the house. Justin, Gary, Tony, and John are going.”

“Not Aaron?” Kim asked.

Hmm. I can’t leave Kim alone in a mansion with a pool knowing there’s a man with octopus hands out there. She’ll put on that see-through bikini, and Aaron will be grittin’ on her snake and her dragon. “I’ll invite him.” She put on some deodorant. “What about you?”

Kim sat and stretched. “I guess I’ll go. What do I wear?”

Sonya pointed to the closet, her hand shaking. God, keep me calm. She’s about to go to church! “Just pick out any of the churchy outfits in there.”

Kim stood and opened the closet. “These aren’t outfits, Sonya. They’re uniforms.”

“But they’ll fit,” Sonya said. And cover up all your tattoos.

Kim held out a black skirt. “Can you see me in this?”

“Yes.” And I’ll take your picture and put it on the wall in my hallway for everyone to see. “Now get in the shower before the men take all the hot water.”

As soon as the bathroom door closed, Sonya hit her knees in front of her bed. Thank You, Lord! Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.

Kim stepped out of the bathroom completely naked. “Forgot a towel.” She snatched a towel from the dresser. “What you doin’?”

Praying. “Saying my morning prayers.”

“Oh.” Kim returned to the bathroom.

And, Lord, if somehow You could perform a miracle in that bathroom this morning and have her wash off all those tattoos, I’d be eternally grateful.

Sonya dressed quickly and went to the pool, where she found Aaron reading a newspaper. “Aaron, do you want to go with us to church?”

Aaron rolled his eyes. “First Artie last Sunday, and now you.”

John and I think alike, especially when we see lost people. “Will you go?”

“Y’all are such Holy Rollers.” He folded his newspaper. “Church ain’t for me, Jazz. Church has never been for me.”

“Why?”

“Why what?” Aaron asked.

“Why isn’t church for you, Aaron?”

He dropped the newspaper to the ground. “It’s a waste of time. It’s a waste of a perfectly good day off.”

“How often have you been to church?” Sonya asked.

Aaron tapped the arm of the chair. “Never been and don’t intend to go.”

“If you’ve never been,” Sonya said, “how do you know it’s a waste of time?”

Aaron blinked. “I just know, all right?”

That made no sense. “Do you believe in God?”

Aaron sighed. “No. God doesn’t exist.”

Yep. He’s lost, all right. “How do you know that God doesn’t exist?”

“Cuz of all the mess in the world,” Aaron said. “War, death, poverty. All that.”

“All that mess is man-made, Aaron,” Sonya said. “God created a perfect world, and we messed it up, not God.”

“Well, if God is truly God, He’d fix all that mess,” Aaron said.

“He did fix it,” Sonya said. “He sent His son, Jesus. He deserves our praise for that. And that’s why I go to church. To praise Him for what He’s done for me.”

“Oh, right.” Aaron scowled. “I’m supposed to give glory to God for what I accomplish. Where’s the logic in that?”

“Where’s the logic in your statement?” Sonya asked. “Didn’t God give you your abilities, Aaron?”

“God didn’t give me anything,” Aaron said with a scowl. “I earned everything I got. Where was God when I messed up my knee, huh? Was God out there keeping me safe or healing me afterward? No.”

Such bitterness. “You made it further than ninety-nine percent of the basketball players on this planet did. And God did heal your knee.”

“Physical therapy healed my knee, not God,” Aaron said. “And anyway, God could have kept me from hurting it in the first place, and then I wouldn’t be here talking to you. I’d be playing in the NBA.”

“But then you might not have learned perseverance, dedication, and hard work,” Sonya said. “You needed to learn all that. That’s why God gives us trials and tribulations.”

“Well, if there is a God,” Aaron said, “He doesn’t like me.”

That’s the first true statement he’s made. “You’re right.”

Aaron turned sharply to Sonya. “I am?”

“God doesn’t like you, Aaron,” Sonya said. “He loves you. God may not like what you do or what you say, but God will always love you.”

“Whatever.” He reached down and picked up the newspaper. “Is your sermon over?”

“That wasn’t a sermon, Aaron,” Sonya said. “That’s how I roll.”

“Rolling holy all the time, huh?” Aaron said.

“It’s the best way to roll.”

Aaron shook his head. “Y’all have a good time.”

“Go with us, Aaron.”

“No.”

Do I take no for his final answer? No. “At least go so you can logically say it isn’t worth your time.”

Aaron opened the newspaper. “You gonna ask me every week?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t bother, Jazz.” He turned a page.

“I will ask you every Sunday.” Every Sunday that you’re here, that is. “It will make me very happy if you go with us today.”

“No, thanks.”

I tried, Lord. Maybe today I was just supposed to bug him about it. I’m the bug in Aaron’s ear. “I’ll be praying for you.”

“Don’t bother, Jazz,” Aaron said. “There’s no one to hear you.”

Sonya smiled. “Then I’ll just have to pray louder, huh?”

She went back to her room to check on Kim’s progress. What she saw took her breath away. Don’t overreact, Sonya. Try to act casual. This is your daughter as you’ve always wanted her to be. Just stand behind her at the mirror and act as if you’re primping.

“How’s everything fitting?” Sonya asked. Wow. That black skirt, that sky blue blouse, those black flats, and hose, too? Put a Bible in her hand, and she can go door to door witnessing.

“The skirt’s itchy,” Kim said.

“You wearin’ a slip?” Sonya said. “There’s one in the drawer.”

Kim opened a drawer, found the slip, and instead of removing her skirt, she wormed her way into it. “That’s much better.”

Sonya saw a sliver of slip showing. “Your slip is showing.”

Kim wrestled it higher. “Better?”

Sonya nodded.

“How do I look?” Kim asked.

Such a loaded question. “Honestly?”

Kim’s eyes dropped. “Yes.”

Sonya hugged her. “You look like an angel.”

Kim stepped out of the embrace and started brushing her long black hair. “You’re just saying that.”

“Nope.” Sonya collected her Bible and purse. “See you downstairs.”

“’Kay.”

Sonya had to hold on to the banister all the way down the stairs. I just hugged my daughter, and she didn’t tense up. She let me hug her. Yeah, she turned around quick, but … for a moment, she wanted to be hugged. By me.

This is going to be a very good day.

During the service at Bethel, Kim sat next to Tony and paid more attention to Tony than to the service, but that was okay. She was in the building, she was in a pew, and she was even clapping and singing. When the sermon began, Sonya sent her Bible down the row to Tony so she could share a Bible with John.

And touch him, Lord, Sonya thought. Just to see if he’s still there.

Her hand brushed John’s leg, and John shifted his weight toward her. She slid her hand under the Bible. Is that his thumb? Yeah. My pinkie and his thumb are talking now. Oh, and now they’re hugging. I hope this sermon doesn’t end.

During the benediction, Sonya slipped her hand into John’s.

This is right, this is good, this is mine, she thought. I hope this is mine. What You have for me is for me, isn’t it, God?

When the benediction ended, she slipped her hand to her side.

“Make sure you hug someone on your way out,” Reverend Cox said.

She turned to John, but John was already hugging a little biddy in the row in front of them.

“You’re my favorite,” she said to John.

“Thank you,” John said. He turned to Sonya. “I’m her favorite.”

Sonya hugged John. “Mine, too,” she whispered in his ear.

The little biddy touched Sonya’s arm. “Who will you call a punk tomorrow night, honey?”

Sonya turned from the embrace but kept her hands on John. “I won’t call any man a punk.”

The little biddy smiled. “But if the shoe fits …”

Sonya turned to check on Kim and saw her embracing Tony for quite a long time. Gary had already gone to the back, Justin had gone to the front to talk to that singer, and only John was left in the pew.

“I, um, could use another hug, Sister Jazz,” John said.

Me too. And since no one is watching us … She reached around him, locking her hands. “I might not let you go this time.”

John pulled her closer. “Might not? This time?”

She pressed her head into his chest. “Just hold me, man.” She felt his arms pulling her dangerously close. She looked up. “Any closer and I’ll be behind you.”