Diary of a Mad First Lady (31 page)

Bertha’s questions came at me so fast, I didn’t know which to answer first. “Ms. Parker, I honestly don’t know how to begin to explain what happened between him and his first wife. Simply put, I think she was tired of the entire church arena and the life that came along with it. I believe the pressure of being the first lady ultimately caused her to choose a different path.” I paused. “I can’t say that I’m altogether upset about that, because after all, a beautiful relationship between us emerged as a result.”

I waited to see how they would respond to that last comment.

“Lady Johnson, you don’t have to apologize in any fashion for falling in love. As long as the two of you are happy, we are happy,” Bertha said.

Everyone else chimed in their agreement.

I released my breath. I was on a smooth journey downhill. It would be easy from here on out.

“So, is Pastor Johnson interested in being our next pastor?” Deacon Wilborn asked.

I placed a grape in my mouth. I wanted them to see a more relaxed side of me. “Yes, he is very much interested. As I stated to Mrs. Jiles prior to my coming here, he wanted very much to attend this meeting with me, but was already obligated to another preaching engagement.”

“We certainly understand that,” Deacon Parkinson said. “We watch him on the Word Network, and the way he preaches, it’s a wonder he has time for anything but that.”

“Yes, I can surely see why he’s in such demand. His sermons are so uplifting, but are applicable at the same time. Those type of sermons are the key to reaching people in this generation,” Alice said. She had been quiet the entire time. At one point, I’d caught her staring at me, and it had made me nervous.

“Well, I can tell you, Sister Manning, that people in Atlanta, Georgia love him to the ends of the Earth, and will travel that distance to hear him preach. If he and I weren’t riding together to church on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, I don’t think I would get a parking space. Folks are there almost an hour early sometimes, trying to make sure they get a good seat.”

“I know. The last time the broadcast came on, we saw that the place was packed from door to door,” Deacon Wilborn replied.

The broadcast. I had not thought about that. I hoped they hadn’t taken notice that Michelle was still being shown on the broadcasts. I made a mental note to do something about that.

“Those broadcasts don’t show you the overflow area. People are literally everywhere. There were talks about going to a third service,” I added.

“Lady Johnson, you don’t have to say any more. We know the quality of pastor he is. When our former pastor was alive, he would invite Pastor Johnson up every year to preach our Empowerment Revival. And every time he came, people were lining up to get in. And Lord knows the man can sing himself crazy,” Ruby laughed.

Everyone appreciated that point being brought out.

“Girl, you better be glad you married him before I found out he was single, because I would let him sing me to sleep any night,” Alice said sheepishly.

Ruby hit her on the arm. “Alice, get some dignity about yourself, woman. You do not say things like that in front of our future first lady.”

That statement brought a grin to my face. Her comment let me know they had pretty much decided Darvin was going to be their next pastor. I just had to get Darvin to come to that same conclusion.

I brushed off her comment with a wave of my hand. “Oh, it’s not a problem. I understand how you feel. I admired him from a distance myself. It was almost unbearable to see him go through what he went through with his first marriage, while standing in the background secretly being in love with him.”

“I’m sure it was,” Bertha said. “I couldn’t have done it. I probably would have just up and left town or something. I don’t see how you did it.”

If you only knew,
I thought.

Deacon Parkinson, bringing the meeting back around to the business at hand, said, “Lady Johnson, I’m sure you have already been made aware by Sister Jiles of the salary package we are prepared to offer Pastor upon his acceptance of our offer. Is that feasible for the both of you?”

Hmm. Let me see. Do I play hardball? Or do I show humility? Gosh, being a first lady might be hard after all.

“Deacon, you and I both know the asset that Darvin is going to be, not only to this great church, but to this area as well. The last thing I would want to happen is to not take that into deliberation while considering your offer.” I paused. “With that said, if you feel that is the very best that you can do, we are in a position to accept it—as long as you allot the opportunity for revisions in the future.”

The two deacons looked at each other.

“That sounds reasonable to me. I can’t speak for the entire board, but I’m sure that we will all agree to revisit the package in a year, and possibly add to it. I’m sure that finances will substantially increase at his taking over, so we have no problem at all making concessions to give him honor for that.”

I smiled a smile of satisfaction. This was probably the easiest thing I’d ever done in my life. I couldn’t wait to get back home and put the rest of my plan into action. Darvin would be delighted at this news. No pastor in America would turn down this opportunity. And I was going to see to it that he didn’t either.

I ate more grapes and pineapples while we made small talk. They asked about our plans for children. They asked about our families. They asked about everything they could, until I informed them that I was tired and would like to rest before my early morning flight back to Atlanta.

We concluded the meeting, and before I knew it, I was back in my hotel room, lying on my back, looking up into the ceiling as if my future were painted on it. And what I saw were the days that lay ahead, when I became the First Lady of Bethelite International Baptist Church.

I couldn’t have planned a better ending to my life’s story. I had coveted Michelle’s position as First Lady of Mount Zion, and God had something better for me the entire time.

At that moment, I wished I had a girlfriend to call and tell all of what the Lord was doing for me. But I had no one. However, it was okay. Just like the old hymn said.... What a friend we have in Jesus.

Chapter Thirty

Michelle

With taking DJ to doctor appointments and running my weekly errands, time had not been on my side as of late.

I parked my truck into its space at the office, grabbed DJ from the backseat, went inside, and whizzed by the receptionist. I had drunk two bottles of water on the way, and desperately needed to use the restroom. I waved at Sabrina on my way through to my office.

I didn’t even notice the troubled look she had on her face until I came back out to properly greet her.

“Sabrina, is everything all right?” I asked.

“No. Pastor is quite upset with all of us right now.”

“All of whom?”

“The entire staff is on probation. He found out we have all been interceding his calls from the people at Bethelite in Baltimore.”

My heart started racing against its own beat. How could they have found that out? I thought only a few people knew, and all of those I’d trusted to never breathe a word.

“He’s probably just huffing and puffing as he does sometimes. You know how he gets. He’ll get over it, Sabrina. Don’t worry about it.”

“I don’t think so, First Lady. He’s pretty upset. He made Ann give him the number, and said he was going to call and apologize for his staff’s incompetence.” She looked at the main phone system. “His light is on right now. He must be talking to them.”

I glanced at the phones, and sure enough, he was talking to somebody. I didn’t know who it was, but I intended to find out.

“I’ll be back. I’m going to talk to him.”

“First Lady, he knows that you were the one who told us not to alert him of their calls,” she said, dropping her head.

“And just how does he know?” I asked, perturbed.

“I think Dawn told him. She said something about running into an old friend who was here visiting, who also mentioned to her that Bethelite’s search team had been trying to get in touch with Pastor.”

Dawn had told him? Why was this woman always sticking her nose in places it didn’t belong? Why couldn’t she just leave well enough alone?

I left Sabrina and walked down the hall. When I got to Darvin’s office, I heard the muffled sounds of him talking to someone, so I knocked on the door. After he said nothing, I decided to enter.

What I saw had me seeing all kinds of shades of green. Dawn was perched on her broom, as any witch would be; only the broom was my husband’s nice leather chair. She and Darvin appeared to be engaged in a deep conversation.

I cleared my throat.

“Excuse me, am I interrupting something?”

Darvin cast angry eyes at me.

“No.”

“I knocked, but you didn’t answer, so I decided to come in.” I looked over at Dawn, who was looking at me as if I were the one out of place.

“Should I come back?”

Hesitantly, he said, “No.”

He was killing me with those one-word answers. He knew that infuriated me. So, he was mad. I knew that, but that was no excuse for giving me the cold shoulder—and especially not in front of Dawn Carlton.

I turned to Dawn. “I’m sorry, but can you give Pastor and me a few minutes alone? I need to speak with him in private.”

“Sure.” She looked around me to look at Darvin. “Pastor, I’ll be waiting outside when you’re done. I wanted to finish talking to you about what we were discussing.”

For the first time, I saw Darvin smile. “Sure thing. I’ll only be a minute,” he said pointedly.

What! Had he lost his mind? Was he openly disrespecting me in front of a member of our congregation? No sooner than Dawn could walk out the door, I whirled around to face Darvin.

“What is your attitude about?” I asked, putting my hands on my hips.

He got up and took a book from the bookshelf. He flipped through a couple of pages, as if trying to make me even more upset.

“I don’t have an attitude, Michelle,” he finally said.

Liar.

“Yes, you do. I already heard about the Bethelite situation.”

His gaze met mine. “What Bethelite situation? Because as far as I know, there is no Bethelite situation.”

The intensity of his stare made me shift on my feet. I lessened my resolve, and sat down in the chair opposite where Dawn had just sat.

“Baby, I know you’re upset, but you have to understand that I did what I thought best for you. For us.”

“How can you determine what’s best for me? Huh? Am I not the man of my house? Am I not the priest of my home? If I can’t pastor my own household, how can I pastor Mount Zion, Bethelite, or any other church, for that matter?” He slammed the book shut.

“Did you ever stop to think that just maybe I deserved to make my own decisions? Do you believe that after all of this time of hearing from God, He would either suddenly stop speaking, or I would stop listening to Him?”

He walked to his mini-refrigerator and took out a Red Bull. For every second he was drinking it, angst rushed through my veins. I knew I had been wrong in intercepting those calls, but I also knew that Bethelite was serious about acquiring him as their pastor, and I couldn’t let that happen. We couldn’t leave all of these people at Mount Zion. They were like our family. Besides that, our relatives were here, and Lord knows I needed them, especially after having DJ. No, they were just going to have to find another pastor. God bless Bishop Cloud’s soul, but it was not my fault that he died and they were now without a pastor.

“Sweetie, I didn’t think you wanted to be bothered with the affairs of Bethelite when so much is going on here at Mount Zion.”

“Would you just stop it? We both know that’s not true. You blocked those calls from getting to me because you were too selfish to think about anybody but yourself. You thought that I might consider going up there, and you didn’t want it to happen, so you told my staff to make sure I never knew about any of their attempts to reach me.” He tossed the Red Bull can into the metal trash bin.

“And to think Dawn Carlton had to be the one to tell me. Out of all of the people, Michelle, Dawn was the one who told me. I pay nine people to work for me, and not one single one of them, including you, could do the simplest thing: pass on a message.”

In one step, he was back sitting behind his desk, pretending to be engrossed in some paperwork.

“That’s not fair,” I said softly. “I try to never make selfish decisions. Even with all I’ve been through, I’ve still thought of others before myself. And since you mentioned Dawn, you can’t possibly be telling me that you’re now on her side. That you guys have teamed up and she has your best interests at heart. Because I would really question your judgment.”

“Well, question it,” he blurted out. “I’m not saying we’re a team or anything of the sort, but I am saying that my own wife was plotting behind my back to keep a brotha down.” He shook his head. “I never thought I would see the day that you would go to this level.” He leaned back into his chair. “I knew you weren’t particularly head over heels with this lifestyle, but I just never fathomed that you hated it so much, you would come between potential advancement opportunities for me.”