Cover Girls (11 page)

“No, you are
exactly
the one. You’re the one that stays on the phone—on personal calls—too long. You’re the one that’s rude to everybody like you don’t have any home training. You’re the one that thinks the sun and stars rise on your behind. You’re the wannabe princess who is about to cost me my job.” Tonya could feel her blood pressure rising. She was just going to have to go to the altar and ask God to forgive her later. “Oh, yes, Miss Thing, you’re definitely the one!”

Michelle’s neck went into overdrive. “Well, if you want to start slinging stuff, Miss Holier-than-Thou, what’s up with all those books and stuff? What are you trying to say? Are you stalking me now? And as for the sun rising and setting in me, don’t be mad because I love myself and my body and my self-esteem is intact.” She looked Tonya up and down. “Don’t get an attitude because I know how to dress. Just because you don’t have a life except for this chump job, don’t take it out on me. So sorry that you don’t have a man and I know it bothers you that I don’t have that problem, but don’t be jealous . . . it makes you look ugly! What you need to do is fix yourself up, get a man, and get a life!”

Fix yourself up! Get a life!
Tonya didn’t need to hear that, again, today. She didn’t need to and she wasn’t going to. “Look, Miss Michelle—”

“Hey! Hey, ladies!” Shadrach stepped out of an open elevator. “Just the women I wanted to see.” He grabbed them both by the arms, smiled like nothing was going on, and ever so quickly took them into the stairwell. Once they were behind the door, his smile faded. “I don’t guess there’s any point in asking what’s going on here?” He dropped their arms.

Michelle pointed at Tonya and told Shadrach how she had been trying to make amends, to begin a new era of cooperation. “She got all huffy.” Michelle rolled her eyes and turned her back to Tonya. “I don’t know why she copped an attitude.”

“She’s the one.” Tonya pointed at Michelle. She told Shadrach that Michelle had approached her, but that she came at her like she expected Tonya to apologize, and that was pretty clear or they wouldn’t be in the stairwell now. “I’m just not going to take any more of her stuff. I’ve had it.”

Shadrach looked from woman to woman and shook his head. “I guess I’ll never understand women. Why can’t you work together? Here are the two of you—both of you should be helping each other. What is the problem?”

He put his hands at his belt line and rocked back and forth as though he was about to start coaching. “Look, I know both of you got your own thing going on. But this—what you’re doing in this office—has to be a team effort. You all have to work together. You all are the only two sisters in your office. You should be helping each other. You have to put aside your individual issues so that you can work together to help each other grow. You see what I’m saying?”

Tonya looked at Michelle, who turned her eyes away toward the wall above Tonya’s head. Tonya followed suit.

Shad sighed. “No, I guess you don’t. Well, I’m going to take control of this situation.” He shook his head. “You two grown women, you two shining examples of beautiful black womanhood need a coach? Well, I’m signing on for the job. The two of you are going to get together and we’re going to work on this thing like you’re running drills to play in a game. You are going to get it together here.” He took their right hands in his two hands. “The first thing you’re going to do is shake hands.”

Michelle jerked her hand away. “I’m not shaking her hand. I tried to bury the hatchet.”

Tonya pulled her hand away from Shadrach’s hand. “Yeah, you tried to bury the hatchet all right. Right in my back!” She finally said out loud what she had been thinking before.

Shadrach grabbed their hands again. “That’s the last of that. You two are going to work together or else. I’m not asking you. I’m
telling
you. Now, you two shake hands.”

Michelle didn’t move, so Tonya didn’t move.

“I didn’t
ask
you ladies to shake. I’m
telling
you. Now, shake hands.”

Tonya and Michelle shook hands like something was going to rub off—some foul-smelling thing was going to transfer, some slimy substance was going to be exchanged when they touched each other. It was more of a hand touch or slide than a shake.

Shadrach slapped one of his hands to his forehead. “You two are worse than two little kids fighting on a playground. But I tell you what, I’m going to get you two together, or my name is not Shadrach Malone. Now, go to your separate corners—your separate desks—and we’ll meet tomorrow for lunch. And don’t bother bringing a note from home little girls. No excuses accepted.”

All that day, Tonya could hear Michelle whispering on the phone. The telephone would ring, then Michelle would begin whispering and looking in her direction. Tonya watched as she slammed drawers, pounded the stapler, and banged cabinet doors. Once her cell phone even went off. “I told you don’t call me on this phone during the day. You’re using up my minutes. Call me back on the other line.” When the phone rang, Michelle answered and began whispering again. Tonya couldn’t make out the words, but she knew Michelle was talking about her.

Tonya thought of approaching her about using the phone for personal calls. Really, for just being on the phone all day. She had the authority to write Michelle up—she should document it, write a memorandum for record—it was what she deserved and Mrs. Judson would approve.

No excuses accepted.
She had done everything she could to make things work with Michelle. It was impossible. But she would wait. If Shadrach wanted to try to coach them to some sort of reconciliation, she wasn’t going to be the one to mess it up—Michelle would take care of that. Shadrach would see soon enough what was going on with the ghetto princess. Tonya looked at Michelle, who was looking at her and still whispering on the phone.

No one would be able to accuse Tonya of casting the first stone . . . or of backing down this time.

Chapter Fourteen

T
he note, on a piece of white spiral notebook paper with frayed edges, lay in the center of the kitchen table.

Hey, Mom-bo!

I know you remember, but I wanted to remind you anyway that I left early this morning for the football trip.

Really, I’m writing because I hope you are thinking about what I said, okay? You know, about getting a life—a new life. You want great things for everybody else. You want everyone you come in contact with to have the best. You put your whole self into making everybody’s dream come true—with your prayers, your money, and your advice.

You know what makes me sad, though, Mom-bo? It’s that you give the best to everyone else and you barely give yourself the leftover crumbs. I want you to live, Mom.

If you can’t do it for yourself, do it for me. Just like you’re happy to see me explode—to see good things happen for me—I feel the same about you. I want to look at my Mom-bo and see her happy, you know? I know God wants to see you happy. And I think both of us want to see you get rid of that bun! Just kidding there, Mom-ster.

But seriously, Mom, I want to see you smile again. You owe it to me to let me see my mother shine. Let me see you come back to life. Come on, Mom. Don’t be afraid. Live! Let me see that there really is life after death—even after the death of a son.

Peace, love, and hair grease!

Malik

Tonya stuffed the note into her purse. It kept her all the way to work, into the building, and through the morning. The note made her feel good. It made her feel real good. Tonya didn’t know if she could explain to anyone why.

Maybe it was just having someone care enough about her to take time to write a letter. Maybe it was seeing God do what He promised—to see Him turning her little boy into a thoughtful, considerate man was a blessing. It might have been that in her son’s note she felt the caress of a new wind. Malik, like Isaiah the writer and prophet in the days of old, might be heralding that good news was on the way. He might be singing a praise of new life to come.

Whatever the case, despite the fact that Michelle still frowned and Mrs. Judson still threatened, Tonya felt herself responding to her son’s words. She walked down the aisles with just a little more spring in her step. She lifted the phone from its base with just the slightest bit of a flourish. She turned on her radio and started to hum—the faintest traces of a song had begun to bubble up from her heart.

Malik’s letter, his act of love, carried her through the morning and even walked her to the restaurant booth to meet with Michelle and Shadrach. “Good afternoon,” Tonya said when she slid into place.

Shadrach had chosen well. The restaurant was quiet and the eating spaces—surrounded by plants—had an air of privacy. The booth was
u
-shaped and Shadrach sat in the middle. The State Department could have made use of his diplomatic skills.

He looked back and forth at the two of them. “It’s good to be eating lunch with both of you ladies.” His eyes kept lingering on Tonya, as though he was trying to figure something out. “Did you do something differently, to your hair or something? For some reason, you look different.”

Tonya smiled. “No, just the same old routine.”

Shadrach looked again. “All right, then.” Michelle glared, but Tonya ignored her. Shadrach waved at the waitress. “Let’s get on with lunch and our meeting.” He checked his watch. “We’re still on the clock.”

He dipped a tortilla chip in the bowl of salsa that the waitress placed on the table. “So, do either of you have any ideas about how we ought to handle this?”

Michelle looked at Shadrach. “I thought you had all that worked out, Shad. I was looking to you to take care of it.”

He nodded. “What about you, Tonya?”

“I’m following you.”

“Okay, ladies. Well, I’m a straight-up kind of man. I don’t believe in sugar-coating things. You both know that about me. So, I figured the best approach was to face this head on. You know—to figure out what it is that you two are beefing about. There’s no way to do that without just coming at each other with the truth.”

Tonya nodded. Michelle pursed her lips.

“So, what I figured was we need to have some order to it. It doesn’t get anywhere going back and forth, doing the he said, she said thing. You all feelin’ me?”

The waitress came back to the table to refresh their chips and their drinks. “Is everything all right?” She was a pretty girl. “Are you ready for me to take your order?” They nodded and made their selections.

When the girl walked away, Shadrach resumed. “So, like I said, one at a time. One person says what they don’t like. The other person responds, not by telling the other person what’s wrong with her, but by responding to the comments. The last thing, is to come to some common ground.”

Michelle dipped a chip in the salsa. “What do you mean by common ground, Shad?”

“I mean areas that you two can agree need to be changed and ways that you’re going to get that change. It means finding the places where you
respectfully
agree to disagree. Ain’t no point in sitting here just jerking your jaws. You sisters are in trouble, whether you know it or not. You need something real to happen before somebody gets fired, locked up, or both.”

Tonya reached for a chip. “What we need is prayer.”

“Yeah, no doubt about that. You won’t get a fight from me on that one.” Shadrach nodded. “But you need more than faith. You’re going to have to do something. What is that saying about faith and works?”

Tonya spoke quickly. “Faith without works is dead.” Michelle frowned and looked away from the table. She looked as though she was feeling excluded.

“Yeah, that’s the one. Faith without works is dead. I’m going to leave you two ladies to let faith be your homework. From where I sit, you’re going to need faith to get you out of this one. Mrs. Judson don’t play, and I think the shoe is about to fall. But . . . you know, you all pray about it.”

Tonya stared at Shadrach while he spoke. She had never heard him say anything about God. He was a good person, but she had never heard anything from him about the Lord. You never knew about people.

You still got some hot years left.
Tonya thought about Malik’s letter. Could Shad find someone like her attractive? But, she and Michelle had more important things to think about—like whether they were going to be able to keep their jobs. Tonya moved her attention back to the conversation.

“So, like I said, you two ladies let that be your homework. What we’re going to deal with here is the works part. And you’re going to have to leave your attitudes and your feelings at home or at your desk. You don’t have time to waste, and I sure don’t. So, are we agreed?”

“Yes.” Tonya watched and waited for Michelle’s response. She was sure to show her true colors before it was all over.

Michelle rolled her eyes. “I guess so. But who’s going first?” It was unbelievable how much attitude flowed out of the girl.

Shadrach smiled at her. “Why don’t you go first, Michelle. It looks like you got the biggest issue at the moment.”

Michelle adjusted her seat. “Be up front, right?

“Right.”

“Just let out what’s on my mind?”

“Let it out, sister.”

“Well, since you brought up faith and praying, let’s talk about it.” Michelle glared across the table at Tonya. “I’m tired of being insulted, like nobody knows anything about the Lord or about the Bible but you. You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me or where I come from.”

Tonya felt like her face had been slapped. She looked at Shadrach, expecting him to say something. He simply looked back and forth between Michelle and her. Tonya cleared her throat. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Michelle mocked her, widening her eyes and dramatically pressing her hand against her bosom.

Shadrach folded his arms across his chest and looked at Michelle. “Okay, let’s set some ground rules here. You can be as blunt as you want to be, but don’t be mean just to be mean. I’m not here to watch you all just do what you can do without me.” Shadrach took a drink of soda. “Okay, let’s try that one again.” He nodded at Tonya.