Been There Prayed That (9781622860845) (12 page)

“Reen, this cake is beautiful,” Bethany complimented as she placed the birthday cake Mother Doreen had made for Hudson on the center of the table.

Both Bethany and Mother Doreen had been attempting to be cordial to one another these days. Embarrassed from when Sadie had walked in on them arguing, they wanted to make sure that it didn't happen again. Even this past Sunday at church when Pastor Davidson told them to hug three people and tell them they love them, the two sisters performed the act on each other.

“Thanks, sis, I just hope my nephew likes it,” Mother Doreen stated as she prepared a nice green salad.

“Oh, Hudson is going to love it.”

“Well, you know how these kids are nowadays. He's turning seventeen, so he might be insulted by a birthday cake. Might think it's for babies.”

“Well, like I tell him all the time, he is a baby, my baby. And he always will be.”

“Well, your baby is growing up. And it is a Friday night. I know we mean well by preparing him a surprise birthday dinner, but he might have other plans, you know. I mean, he's even got himself a girlfriend,” Mother Doreen told her.

“Girlfriend?” Bethany was none the wiser that her oldest child had been dating someone.

“Yep,” Mother Doreen confirmed. “I was walking through the house praying last week. You know how God sometimes pulls me from my sleep at ungodly hours to just walk around and pray? Well, as I was walking by his bedroom praying, I heard some mumbling. I finally came to the conclusion that it was Hudson on the phone with a girl.”

“And how did you come to that conclusion?” Bethany shot her sister a peculiar look.

“By pressing my ear up against the door and listening to him try to smooth talk her.” Both women laughed.

“Ain't nothing changed about you, Doreen, has it? I remember when you used to do that mess to me, and then blackmail me with telling Mama or Daddy on me for sneaking and talking to boys. And now history repeats itself.”

“Umm hmm. And you better keep an eye on that child. The boy's got game.” Once again, both women laughed. “But seriously, he does. Reminds me of my Willie.” She looked up. “God rest my Willie's soul.” She drew an invisible cross across her heart with her index finger, and then continued. “Now that man was as smooth as butter.”

“Indeed he was, and I didn't blame you for following him across the states to be with him.” Bethany paused for a minute. “I'm sorry for what I said that day about Willie.”

“It's water under the bridge, water under the bridge.” Mother Doreen smiled. “But let's just hurry up and get this dinner prepared before the kids and Uriah get home. I just can't believe God made it so that he can be here to celebrate his son's seventeenth birthday. Hudson is going to be so surprised, 'cause it's important for a boy's daddy to be around for occasions like this you know.” Mother Doreen stared off for a minute. “I take that back. I can believe God did it because that's the kind of God we serve. He can make anything happen.”

“Yeah,” Bethany stated. “It's crazy that Uriah's load got cancelled and he's able to come home.”

“For three whole days no less,” Mother Doreen added. “Hudson's birthday ain't but one day.” Mother Doreen walked over to Bethany, bumped her elbow, and then made googly eyes. “I bet God made it so that them other two days is for Uriah to be here for his wife.”

“Oh, Reen, now stop.” Bethany rolled her eyes and her face flushed with embarrassment.

“Girl, we grown women. And you're a married grown woman, so don't be embarrassed about doing the nasty.”

“Reen!” Bethany gave Mother Doreen a sisterly whack on the shoulder. “Stop it now, before I send you packing back to Malvonia, Ohio.”

“Please, you'd miss my cooking too much to send me away.”

“Don't flatter yourself. Just 'cause I don't be in the kitchen cooking full course meals every night don't mean I can't burn. How you think I hooked Uriah in the first place?”

“Well, if you hooked the man by switchin' in the kitchen, then I suggest that's how you keep him, by taking notes from me,” Mother Doreen boasted as she placed the finished salad in the fridge to keep it chilled.

“Oh, so I guess you think you're Chef Ramsey now, huh? You can burn, Reen, but don't get all puffed up about it. If you were that good, you'd have your own cooking show on the Food channel.”

“Ohhh, look at jealousy rearing its ugly head,” Mother Doreen teased. “I must be doing something right,” she said as she walked over to her sister and pinched more than an inch on her waistline, “because you look as though you done picked up a few pounds here lately.”

Bethany quickly brushed her sister's hand away in a nervous, uncomfortable manner. “Now stop it, and let's check on that lasagna you got cooking up. Hopefully it's done so I can get that garlic toast in the oven.”

“Oh, shoot, my lasagna.” Mother Doreen slipped on some oven mitts. “Messing around with you, I done almost forgot about it.” She opened the oven and pulled out her masterpiece, then placed it on the stovetop. “Yep, looks done to me.” Mother Doreen sniffed the air and inhaled the homemade sauce, while admiring the four different cheeses bubbling that had browned just right. “Umph, umph, umph, looky here.”

Bethany walked over to the lasagna, one of her favorite dishes. Ordinarily she could have stood over it and inhaled the aroma like it was a vapor. But today, as she inhaled deeply in an attempt to take in the delicacy, her stomach began to churn. The smell that had once been like a sweet fragrance floating through her open bedroom window on a summer morning was now like a whiff of fertilizer.

Grabbing her stomach, Bethany made a quick exit from the kitchen, barely making it to the bathroom in time.

“You all right, sis?” Mother Doreen called out, her feelings slightly hurt by her sister's reaction to her lasagna pie. When Bethany didn't reply, she made her way to the bathroom Bethany had treaded to. Knocking on the closed door, Mother Doreen asked once again, “You all right in there, sis?”

Finally, Bethany was able to speak from the other side of the door. “Yeah, Reen, I'm fine.” A couple of minutes later, Bethany reappeared from the bathroom. Mother Doreen still stood outside the door with a worried look on her face.

“You sure you're all right, Bethany?”

“Yeah, sis, I'm fine,” Bethany assured her as she walked slowly, rubbing her stomach. “I guess that breakfast I made this morning didn't agree with me.” Bethany let out a nervous laugh. “Suppose I do need you around to do the cooking after all.” Once again, Bethany allowed a nervous laugh to escape her mouth. Mother Doreen didn't return the laugh as she stood stone faced. “Oh, don't look so worried, sis. I'm sure I'll be just fine. It ain't nothing that a ten minute catnap can't fix. So if you don't mind doing the garlic bread for me, I'ma go lay down for a spell. All right?”

Mother Doreen nodded. “Yeah, sure,” she said as she watched her sister climb the steps and disappear into her bedroom. “You go right ahead and lay down,” Mother Doreen mumbled to herself. “I'm sure it ain't nothing a ten minute nap can't fix.” This had been the second time this week Bethany had needed a ten minute cap nap to make things all right. Mother Doreen walked back in the kitchen, keeping her last thought to herself, the thought that perhaps it was going to take more like nine months to fix what was wrong with her sister.

“Umm, I don't know about this dress either,” Tamarra said with her nose turned up. She had her back toward the full length mirror, looking over her shoulder to see how the long, chocolate brown gown looked from the rear. She'd stopped counting how many size twelve dresses she'd tried on after the first one.

Paige sucked her teeth. “Tamarra, this is the last of the five maid of honor dresses that I picked out for you, and you've given each of them the thumbs down. Now my ego is a little bruised. I'd like to think that I have halfway decent taste.”

Tamarra sighed. “You do, friend. It's not you or your taste, it's just me.”

“Maybe you're right. Some of those suits you wear to church are a little out dated, and those hats.”

“Tamarra sighed again. “Yeah, you're probably right. A little outdated. And those hats.” Tamarra turned to face the mirror. She looked at herself one last time before frowning with slumped shoulders.

“As a matter of fact, I think I'm just going to have Sister Lorain be my maid of honor. I'm sure she could work any of these dresses out.” Paige was testing her best friend to see if she were really focused on the task at hand.

“Yeah, Sister Lorain,” Tamarra agreed with a nod and sigh. “She'd work any of these dresses out.”

“Okay, that's it,” Paige snapped. “You're not even really paying attention to anything I'm saying. Your mind is a million miles away. Perhaps we should just do this another day. I thought picking out the maid of honor gown with my maid of honor was going to be fun, but it's been about as fun as watching paint dry.”

“I'm paying attention, Paige, really,” Tamarra tried to convince her friend. She didn't want to do it another day. In being honest, she hadn't wanted to do it today, but she knew she had to get it over with, and get it over with was what she wanted to do. How could she possibly enjoy? How did her best friend think could she could enjoy doing anything that had something to do with a wedding when her relationship with her man was pretty much history? Heck, if she were back in the world, she and her girlfriends would have been downing Apple Martinis somewhere and having an “All Men Are Dawgs” male bashing session. And it would have taken God's grace and mercy to get them back home safe and sound without wrapping their vehicles around a telephone pole or jeopardizing someone else's life. It was times like these that Tamarra was so glad she was saved.

“If you're paying so much attention, what did the first dress that you tried on look like?” Paige stood with arms folded, resting her weight on one side of her leg while Tamarra failed to recall any details. “Okay, what about the second dress?” Same result, Tamarra couldn't even recollect the red satin bow that wrapped itself around the chocolate brown gown and rested on her hind end. “The third? The fourth?” Paige walked over to Tamarra and covered her eyes. “What about the one you're still wearing.”

Tamarra felt ashamed. She was busted. She'd just stared at herself in the mirror for practically ten minutes in that dress and could only blurt out one final detail. “It's brown?” And she even said that with uncertainty.

“Just take it off.” Now it was Paige who sighed with great disappointment. “I'll just start from scratch and look for more dresses next week.”

“No, Paige, honey, I'm sorry. I can get into this dress shopping thing. Really I can. I'm sure all of these dresses are truly lovely. I just need to focus. I've got so much on my mind in dealing with my brother and Maeyl and all.”

“Brother? You don't have a brother.” Paige was confused. For the little over two years she'd known Tamarra, she knew of her to be an only child.

“Did I say brother?” Tamarra let out a nervous chuckle. “I meant mother,” she lied, hoping Paige would buy it. She'd never shared the fact that she had a brother with anyone because she herself never wanted to acknowledge his existence. But now it seemed as though her mother was going to force her to. But at least her mother had stopped calling her. It took her a minute, but she finally got the hint that Tamarra didn't want to talk to her or her brother.

“You're having issues with your mom? But I thought you two had really been getting along.”

“Yeah, we had been.” Tamarra dropped her head. “But turns out she's the same old Mom.”

“You should have told me what you were going through. We could have done this some other time. Or I could have been like any other bride-to-be and picked the dern dress out myself without even giving you a say.”

“Point taken, smarty pants.” Tamarra cracked a smile. “I know you were just trying to include your best friend in the process of one of the most special days in your life. And I don't want to ruin it. I just need to get my head right is all.”

“Well let's not let this day be a total bust. How about just for the fun of it we go looking for your dress at the mall? You never know what we might stumble upon. And if all fails, we can at least hit up the food court.” Paige bumped Tamarra's shoulder. “What do you say?” Paige's deep dimples sunk in her cheeks as she smiled.

“Why not?” Tamarra stated with a forced smile. She'd wished she'd just chosen one of the dang on gowns because all she really wanted to do was to go crawl in bed and sleep the day away.

“Let's just go to Tuttle Mall. Even if we don't find you a dress, we can still look for shoes. They have some cute ones here, but some of the prices are crazy ridiculous.”

“Sounds good.” Tamarra retreated to the dressing room and changed back into her street clothes before she and Paige headed to the mall. Twenty minutes later, the two friends had found themselves heading straight for the food court versus doing any shopping at all. They figured they'd be more enthused on full stomachs.

“I must admit, almost nine dollars for half a sub sandwich, an order of fries, and a drink isn't something I'd expect to pay for a meal at a mall food court,” Tamarra confessed, “but dang, it's good.”

“See, I told you,” Paige said with a mouthful of food, glad that she'd talked her friend into trying something she'd never had before.

“And being that I cook for a living, you know this must be good. I don't eat just anything you know.”

The two women managed to gobble down their lunch. They then stood up, gathered their trash to place on their ‘for here' trays, then walked them over to the trash bin. The women dumped their trash into the bin, and then placed their brown, plastic trays atop it on a stack that already existed.

“After we shop, I'm coming back for some cookies,” Paige said.

“You sure aren't the typical bride,” Tamarra chuckled. “I didn't eat for months before my wedding, all in the name of fitting into my wedding gown. It was a wedding gown that I'd gotten two sizes smaller than I actually was just to motivate me to lose weight.”

“Well—” Before Paige could reply, she was interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Sister Paige, Sister Tamarra? What a pleasant surprise!”

Both Paige and Tamarra turned around to find New Day's church secretary standing behind them with both arms loaded with shopping bags.

“Praise the Lord.” Paige hugged the elderly woman.

“Praise the Lord.” Tamarra nodded and smiled at the woman whom she secretly deemed a busy body. If ever anybody wanted to confirm a rumor or something that was going on around the church, they knew to go to her. Because nine times out of ten, she was the original source in the first place.

“Praise the Lord,” the New Day secretary replied. “I would hug you both, but as you can see, my arms are full.” She boastfully raised the bags as high as she could.

“Looks like you are getting your shop on big time,” Paige told her.

“Well, you know I loves Pastor. There's nothing like having a spiritual parent,” the secretary stated. “Pastor's birthday is one of those occasions where I can go all out to show how grateful I am for the years of being fed God's Word.” She observed both Paige and Tamarra's empty hands. “I take it that you two are just getting started with your shopping for Pastor's birthday.”

It was then that the women remembered their pastor's birthday was only three days away. With Tamarra's mind occupied with family and relationship matters, and Paige's mind occupied with wedding matters, the fact that New Day's pastor was about to celebrate a forty-seventh birthday had slipped their minds. That was another thing about the church secretary that bothered Tamarra; instead of doing what any other church secretary would have done and simply collected money to purchase a group gift from the church as well as discretely pass a card around for the congregation to sign for Pastor's birthday, she wanted to stand out as being one of the few who remembered and showed up bearing gifts. It was little things like that that often made some of the congregation members question whether or not the New Day church secretary was serving God and seeking His approval, or serving and seeking the approval of man.

“Uh, yeah, actually, we are just getting started,” Paige pretty much lied, and then looked to Tamarra to back her up. Tamarra didn't respond.

“Okay then, well, I'm gonna grab me a bite to eat. I'll let you two go ahead and get started. Have a blessed day,” the church secretary said as she began to walk toward an Asian food spot.

“You have a blessed day too,” Paige said as she started off, Tamarra right behind her.

“Oh, and sweetheart.”—the secretary grabbed Tamarra gently by the arm. She then whispered in her ear, while she rested her hand on Tamarra's shoulder. “Don't let that situation with Brother Maeyl and Sister Tasha get you down,” she said, mispronouncing Sasha's name. But Tamarra knew who she was referring to. “Pastor is doing everything under God's authority to help the two of them to get to the bottom of things so that you and Brother Maeyl can get on with a life that I know the Lord has ordained to be.”

Tamarra remained silent. It was obvious that the church secretary knew something that she didn't know. She figured she'd let her do all the talking while she listened, in hopes of perhaps learning something new herself.

“Now don't go thinking Pastor is putting y'all's business out there like that. I assure you that Pastor hasn't spoken to me, or anybody else, but God that is, about what's going on. But last Sunday, after church, the two of them were holding hands and praying. I could hear them praying from my office, which is right next to Pastor's you know. “They went into prayer before they went into Pastor's office for counseling. From the gist of Brother Maeyl's prayer, I pretty much figured out what was going on. Oh, and it was a powerful prayer indeed. Had me in tears. He wants God to take care of the situation speedily so that he can move on with the life he has planned for you and him.” She moved even closer to Tamarra. “I hope I'm not spoiling anything, but it sounded to me like the plan included marriage.” She winked, and then stood erect, as tall as her four foot seven inch frame would allow her to. “Well, I've probably said enough.” Now she was speaking loud enough for Paige to hear as well. “You two go on and enjoy your day. And stay blessed, ya hear?”

Paige and Tamarra watched the woman walk away, struggling to keep a firm grasp of her bags.

“So, where do you want to head first? Nordstrom? How about that one store that—No, let's get Pastor's birthday gift first. That way I wouldn't have been completely lying to—”

“I don't mean to cut you off, Paige, and please don't be mad.” Tamarra had the most regretful look on her face. “There's something I really have to do first. I know my mind hasn't really been into this all day, and now it's really not into it. I promise on everything that I'll make it up to you. We'll do this another day, and I'll be much better company.”

Paige had to admit she expected shopping with her maid of honor for a dress and shoes to be much more exciting and happy, yet Tamarra had been a total drag. But by the same token, she had been able to put a pretty clear scenario together from the words she'd overheard the secretary spill into Tamarra's ear. She completely understood Tamarra's urgency to make things right with Maeyl, but didn't want their day together to end either. Paige's face now mirrored Tamarra's and was just as regretful, if not more.

“I had truly been looking forward to this day, so I hope you don't get mad at me when I say—” Paige turned her frown upside down and smiled at her best friend before saying, “Girl, go get your man!”

Paige didn't have to tell Tamara twice.

“Thank you for understanding,” Tamarra said excitedly. “And I'll make it up to you, Paige Robinson. I promise, I really will. I'll even cater your rehearsal dinner if you'd like,” Tamarra exclaimed while she fumbled for her keys, glad that she'd met Paige back at the bridal shop instead of them riding together like Paige had originally suggested.