Heaven Forbid (29 page)

Kelvin wasn’t used to not getting what he wanted, especially when it came to females. Which was why not being able to reach Princess was so frustrating. Since praying for Little Kelvin, they’d talked on a fairly regular basis. He’d even invited her to Arizona for the Fourth of July. But she’d already had plans to visit her parents. Kelvin had been cool with that, even knowing that Rafael would be sniffing around her during the entire visit. Kelvin wasn’t worried. She tried to hide it, but Kelvin knew Princess was still in love with him. Just like he knew that they were going to get back together. It was only a matter of time.

And in the meantime, another of his girls was back. Stephanie and her family had handled the island controversy and, according to her, they could take up exactly where they left off. Until Kelvin got Princess back in his bed, that is exactly what he planned to do. He reached for his iPhone and began to dial Stephanie’s new number.
I need to program this shit in.
Just as he got to the next to last number, Fawn’s number showed up on his screen. He thought about not answering it but was always concerned it could be about his son.

“What up?”

“Kelvin, I’m at the hospital.”

Kelvin sat up. “Again? What’s wrong with him this time?”

“I couldn’t wake him up this morning and drove over to emergency.”

“And you’re just now calling me?” Kelvin jumped up and walked toward his room. He just needed to put his shoes on, and he’d race to the hospital.

“Can you come down here?” Fawn didn’t want to tell Kelvin why she hadn’t called immediately, that Guy had been by her side until now. The only reason he’d left is because his wife had called, gone ballistic as usual, and threatened to drag his name through the tabloid mud if he didn’t come home right then.

“I’m on my way.”

It was two hours before the doctor emerged from working on Little Kelvin. Both Fawn and Kelvin jumped up at once.

“How is he?” Kelvin asked.

“Is my boy all right? Is he going to live?” Fawn had been on edge since arriving at the hospital, and after no food and little sleep, she was near hysteria.

The doctor placed a reassuring hand on her arm. “Your son is stable,” he said gently but firmly. “Take a few deep breaths, Ms. Carter. There’s something I need to discuss with the two of you.”

Fawn took deep breaths and tried to slow her rapid-beating heart. The doctor directed them down a hall and into his office. Once they were seated, he got right to the point.

“Kelvin has hemolytic anemia, a condition where red blood cells are destroyed and removed from the bloodstream prematurely.”

“What’s that mean?” Fawn frantically asked.

“Let him explain!” Kelvin said.

“The red blood cells carry oxygen and remove carbon dioxide,” the doctor calmly continued. “In a normally functioning body, these cells are replaced every three months or so by new cells created in our bone marrow. However, when one has severe anemia, like your son, then the bone marrow fails to create new blood cells to replace the old ones. That’s why your son has experienced chronic fatigue, dizziness, and other symptoms.

“The good news is that while your son’s case is severe, it is treatable. But we have to act immediately.”

Fawn sat on the edge of her chair. “What do we need to do?”

“Kelvin needs a blood transfusion.”

“What?” Fawn jumped up, her heart racing once again.

“Fawn, stop trippin’!” Kelvin yelled. “We don’t need this hysterical bullshit. Now calm the fuck down!”

“I think you both need to calm down,” the doctor said slowly and clearly. “Your son is young and otherwise healthy. We’re confident that with the transfusion, he’ll make a full recovery.”

“So what do we do, Doc?” Kelvin asked.

The doctor explained. “I’ll have my nurse draw blood from both of you and see which one is the best match for your son. We’ll have your blood tested and do this procedure immediately. It’s relatively painless and shouldn’t take more than a few hours. Afterward, you’ll feel groggy and lethargic for a couple days. Other than that, you won’t even know that blood has been taken. Now, who wants to go first?”

It was early evening when the doctor asked Kelvin to join him in his office. He’d already consulted with Fawn, who believed the doctor had decided on Kelvin as the best donor match to give blood. Kelvin was more than ready to do whatever it took to make his son better. His back was straight, his stride purposeful, as he walked into the office.

“Sit down,” the doctor said, motioning to the chair that Kelvin had occupied earlier.

Kelvin sat. “You don’t even have to ask, Doc. I’m ready to give blood, do whatever to help my son. Just tell me where I need to sign and then where I need to go.”

The doctor sat down behind his desk and looked at Kelvin intently. “This is a rather delicate matter,” he said.

Kelvin didn’t doubt that. He’d spent more time in hospitals this past year than he had in his whole life. When it came to saving lives, it was not a game.

After another moment, the doctor leaned forward. “I guess there’s no easy way to ask this. But…is Kelvin your biological son?”

Kelvin sat back as if the wind had been knocked out of him. Surely he hadn’t heard what he thought he’d just heard. “Of course he’s my child! What kind of bullshit is this?”

“Kelvin Junior has a rare blood type, one that neither you nor Ms. Carter possess. It’s not uncommon for a child to have a different blood type than either parent, but…well, the fact is, the best donors normally come from within the biological family.”

“Look, Doc, I’m sure you know your job and all, but I’ve already taken a DNA test. Kelvin is my son.”

The doctor studied Kelvin a long time. “In order for us to be absolutely sure, do you mind taking another one?”

It was after midnight when Kelvin returned home. He was exhausted but tried yet again to reach Princess. He’d tried to reach her on the way home but had been unsuccessful. After taking a quick shower, he tried her again and was surprised when she answered.

“Hello?” Princess said in a groggy voice.

“I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“Kelvin?”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s late. Is something wrong with your son?”

“I just came from the hospital, but he’s going to be okay.”

“Oh, praise God. I’ve been praying.”

“That’s why I called you.”

Princess smiled. “To tell me my prayers are working?”

“No,” Kelvin said, his voice somber. “To tell you that Fawn lied to me. Kelvin is not my child.”

Mama Max sat in her living room, watching a rerun of
Murder She Wrote.
Her stomach was bothering her, much as it had for the past two weeks. Ever since Obadiah’s ultimatum for her to come back into his bedroom and, even more, into his bed. “The only reason I had all that other stuff is because I was trying to stay faithful to you,” he’d admitted during one of the most personal conversations they’d had in years.

“I ain’t never liked it,” Mama Max had responded.

“Never?” Obadiah had asked, wriggling his eyebrows.

“Well, not much anyway,” Mama Max replied. She would have blushed if she could.

Truth was, there were times in those early years when she wasn’t so opposed to Obadiah “doing his business.” But it seemed that once the babies started coming, part of Maxine—the sensual, passionate, womanly part—just went away. She’d always despised Dorothea, and that was partly due to how effortlessly that aspect of her nemesis’s personality came to her. It took her a while to admit it, but some of what Dorothea said in the parking lot had gotten to Mama Max. Obadiah had been a patient man when it came to…that. And even now, when she’d asked for a couple weeks to think about what he said and get used to the idea, he’d said okay.

“You want some ice cream, Maxine?” Obadiah asked from the doorway.

Maxine jumped. “Reverend, walking up on me like that. ’Bout to scare me to death!”

“Didn’t mean to.”

“Yes, I’ll take some ice cream. You want me to heat up some of that pecan pie to go with it?”

“That sounds nice.”

After warming up the pie, Mama Max and Obadiah settled at the kitchen table to eat.

“It’s been two weeks,” Obadiah said.

“I told you I needed time.”

You’ve had about fifty years. I think that’s time enough.
“I told you I wasn’t going to go on this way, Maxine.”

“And I told you that you didn’t have to!” Mama Max huffed, and her lips thinned before she forced herself to calm down. “I’m sorry, but this situation has gotten me all flummoxed.”

“How do you think I feel? Having to beg my wife to give me some lovin’.”

“Now, don’t you go off spouting nonsense, Stanley Obadiah. You know good and well I love you.”

“Well, prove it!”

“Remember when King and Queen were little?” Mama Max said, abruptly changing the subject. “And how we used to go pick pecans? You’d climb up in the tree and give it a good shake. The kids thought it was Christmas. They’d pick pecans awhile.”

Obadiah chuckled. “Then we’d find a big tree with lots of shade and pull out those cheese and bologna sandwiches the kids loved so much.”

“Not just the kids. You’d put back three or four yourself.”

“Wasn’t that how King broke his arm that time?”

“Unh-huh. Climbing trees and shaking them, trying to act like you.”

Obadiah reached over and put a hand on top of Maxine’s. “We’ve had some good times, Maxine. I’ll grant you that.”

Maxine looked at the man she’d loved for two-quarters of her life. How could she continue to deny this man the one thing that would keep their marriage going strong?

“Reverend, I—” Mama Max was interrupted by the phone ringing. She reached for it and frowned when she saw the caller ID.
This woman has some kind of nerve.
“Yes?” she asked when she answered the phone. “What in God’s name gives you the right to be calling my house? And how’d you get the number?”

“Uh, excuse me, Sistah Maxine. This here’s Deacon from over at First Baptist. Sorry to bother you, but Sistah Jenkins asked me to get a hold of Reverend Doctor. It’s an emergency. They just rushed Reverend Jenkins to the hospital. She asked if he could come right away.”

Five minutes later, Obadiah was reaching for his car keys on the table by the garage.

“I’m going with you,” Mama Max said, reaching for her purse, which was sitting next to the keys.

“No, now, this is preacher business. I’m going alone.”

“Not when it comes to Dorothea. I’m going with you.”

It took them less than ten minutes to reach the hospital. They walked straight to the desk, where Obadiah introduced himself as clergy and asked for Reginald Jenkins’s room.

“Sorry, ma’am, but you’ll have to wait here,” the nurse told Maxine when she prepared to follow Obadiah. “Right this way, sir.”

Obadiah knew it was serious as soon as he walked into the room. When Dorothea saw him, she rushed into his arms. Obadiah didn’t think twice about embracing her, even though a couple other of Jenkins’s church members were in the room.

“How is he?” Obadiah whispered, even as he relished how good Dorothea felt, as if she belonged there.

Dorothea looked up at Obadiah, her eyes shining with tears…and something else. “He’s dead.”

“No, don’t leave me,” Dorothea whispered as Obadiah shifted his position on her couch.

“I wasn’t going anywhere,” he said. “But my arm is going to sleep.”

It was nearly one in the morning, and Dorothea had barely left Obadiah’s side since he arrived at the hospital. As soon as he heard that Jenkins was dead, he’d sent one of the deacons out to tell Maxine and to tell her to go home without him. She’d protested, told the deacon she would wait, but when Obadiah and Dorothea walked into the waiting room almost two hours later, Maxine was gone.

Now, it was Obadiah who seemed unable to leave. Even as he sat in Reginald Jenkins’s living room, the man’s body not yet cold, his thoughts were untoward, on the warm, willing flesh cuddled up next to him.

“It was horrible, Obadiah, just awful!”

“Now, Dorothea, don’t get yourself riled up again.”

“I can’t help it. I keep reliving it over and over. How he begged me to…you know, have sex. We’d only done it once before because the man couldn’t get it up! But he kept asking, had been asking for almost a month. So I bought him some Viagra, and he could finally hold an erection. He got on top of me and started pumping, and the next thing I knew, he was slouched down and…and I could barely push him off me!”

Dorothea turned and buried her head in Obadiah’s shoulder, sobbing quietly. Obadiah reached up and patted Dorothea’s hair.
God forgive me.
Because for the life of him, Obadiah could not conjure up a sad feeling about Jenkins’s demise. Instead, all he could think about was how good Dorothea felt.

Dorothea turned herself more fully into Obadiah and began kissing his neck. “I need you, Obadiah,” she moaned. “I need you to help me make a new memory, to get that memory of Jenkins’s dead body out my head.”

“Now, Dorothea…”

“I need you, man! Please, don’t turn me down tonight.”

“I’m not gonna turn you down, Dorothea. I’m going to take care of you, girl.”

It was six o’clock in the morning when Obadiah pulled his car into the Brook garage. No sooner had he opened his car door than the kitchen door opened and Maxine lit into him.

“You done gone and done it now, mister! Shaming me to my face, knowing everybody saw you at the hospital with her, and some probably know’d that you spent the night. And don’t lie. Don’t even think about coming up in here trying to lie to me! ’Cause I know where you been, you filthy rascal. Whoremonger!” Maxine spat as Obadiah brushed past her.

“I am
not
the one! You not gonna treat me any kind of way and think I’m gonna just roll over and play dead. Aw, hell to the n-o, no! I’m getting ready to file those papers right back at the courthouse. I mean it, Obadiah, and I don’t care who knows it. You’ve been with that skank heifah bitch for the last time!”

At these words, Obadiah stopped and turned around. “No, Maxine. I’ve been with you for the last time. Don’t worry about filing the papers, ’cause tomorrow, I’m gonna file some of my own. And then I’m gonna spend the rest of my life with Dorothea.”