Hometown Favorite: A Novel (29 page)

Tyler and Sabrina had not had so much concentrated time
together since they parted company in Los Angeles. These new
circumstances and the new life each had started in Houston
had kindled something in each of them neither could define
except to name it as an awakening of love for the other. Sabrina had been shrewd in questioning her aunt about how to
know it was real when love came knocking, and Rosella gave
a mysterious answer: "You know it's love because you never
felt it before"

It had never really been love before with Sabrina and Tyler. It
had been lust, convenience, nothing better to do, status symbol,
or all of the above. With the role models of her aunt and uncle,
Sabrina saw what love could do for a person, and she began to
believe there might be a real future with Tyler. The way Tyler
and Sabrina had conducted themselves prior to this mission
trip had achieved a level of trust from Rosella and Dewayne
that had made Sabrina feel that she was gaining in maturity.
Now working side by side with Tyler for the good of humanity,
Sabrina felt strong romantic feelings rise to new levels.

Although Tyler did not take to the backbreaking labor as
readily as most of the others on the mission team, he responded
to the attention he was getting from Sabrina and returned her
affections with equal fervor. Each day the group was given free
time in the early afternoon when the heat of the day was at its
peak, and a couple of times Tyler would take the opportunity to
go into Dominical on his own, telling Sabrina he was on scouting missions for future work projects. He returned with tales of poverty and ideas for extended mission trips that thrilled
Sabrina's budding spiritual nature. Who would have thought
this young man could make such a transition? Nothing was
impossible with God.

In the late afternoons when the local children went home
after vacation Bible school and the mission group had had
its evening devotional, most in the group went into the city
on sightseeing tours and shopping sprees. Tyler and Sabrina
went once, but then opted for the chance to be alone. With no
transportation available and the beaches only a short distance
from their compound, the option was clear.

After a mile of amble under a moonless sky, Tyler and Sabrina lost connection from all human association, and with an
additional twenty minutes of strolling in and out of the tide,
they happened onto a lagoon that became their mystic hideaway
for the rest of their missionary experience. After the city lights
vanished behind the northern curvature of the beach and rocky
outcroppings, how separated from human sight the couple felt.
The touches began as gentle tests and discoveries, lying prone
on the soft sand, and grew with intensity. This was love, they
protested against any hesitation or hint of guilt. It was not like
the past, the destructive past so far behind them now, but the
present with its new understanding, its new commitment to
the new life that had dawned in each one's heart.

Each night this sea and sand and forest enclave became
an illusion of love, a hidden place that burned in their minds
during the scorching hours of orphanage construction, on
through the afternoons of teaching the children the virtues
gleaned from Bible stories, and into the evenings of group
devotions, until they could dash to this tropical finish line and
consume themselves in the images they had conjured in their
minds during the day.

Two months later the consequences of their passion were
evident. Sabrina called Tyler and asked him to meet her at
the city park near his office. Couldn't it wait until tonight? he
asked. His day was slammed. The response was an emphatic
no. School had been out only a few weeks, and Sabrina was
deep into her job at Jobe Enterprises, Inc. Because of a poor
high school scholastic record while she lived in Los Angeles,
she needed to go to summer school to fulfill her academic requirements in order to graduate and begin college in the fall.
Her days were equally slammed with work and school, but this
issue required immediate attention.

Tyler was not waiting for her at the bench beside the fountain
in the middle of the park where they had always met before he
reentered the Jobe family picture. She spied a suit coat, shirt,
and tie draped over a laptop on the bench, and after determining these clothes belonged to Tyler, she scanned the park for
him. The sound and vibrations of the vocals coming from the
street caught her attention, and she moved toward the metallic
two-toned shades of a blue and gold low-riding, high-sheen
chromed vehicle. A male form leaned on the outside of the
car, his head in perfect synchronization with four other heads
inside the car bobbing to the beat of the music pounding from
the console. The passenger in the front seat had to point her
out before Tyler noticed Sabrina standing behind him.

The startled look on Tyler's face was like a small poke in her
already tight stomach, and his face did not recover fast enough
to satisfy her or remove the invisible finger that punctured her
belly. He turned back around and leaned inside the window of
the car, exchanged a few words, and suddenly the normal street
noises were back in the air again. The driver of the car removed
the CD and handed it to Tyler. He needed a few days to finish
the transaction, he told them, and he would call to make the next appointment. Praise for Tyler's taste in women came from
the passengers inside the vehicle before it moved into the flow
of traffic.

"You're early," he said as he stepped toward the bench and
removed his do-rag.

"Why are you not wearing your suit?" Sabrina asked, following behind him.

"It's hot, baby. It's Houston hot. It's Costa Rican hot;" and
he turned around, threw his arm around her waist, and kissed
her hard.

That was the first time she had felt any aggression from Tyler,
reminding her of the old days, and she pulled back and licked
her lips. She tasted alcohol.

"Have you been drinking?"

"It's nothing. My homeboys are clients. Just showing some
respect. It's business, baby" He returned to the bench where
his wardrobe and laptop lay.

"It just surprised me not seeing you in your suit"

"I gotta dress the part ... when in Rome, baby." Tyler began
to slip into his shirt. "Suits make these guys uncomfortable,
and if niche music retail keeps growing like it is, I'll start my
own clothes line and put P. Diddy out of business."
"

"Well, you might want to think about starting a clothes line
for kids," Sabrina said, folding down the upturned collar of
his shirt.

I hear you, baby. That's a great idea. I'll put you in charge
of designing-"

"We can start with our kid"

Her words put an abrupt halt to Tyler's redressing. Sabrina
was smiling. She did not want to frighten Tyler with this announcement or give him any reason to plot a hasty retreat. She wanted one outcome, and she wanted Tyler to want it as
much as she did.

The scenario she had worked out in her mind after she had
taken her pregnancy test was sound and logical. Tyler just could
not go off, she had to keep him from going off, she knew the
brutal results when Tyler would go off, and this information
was as much of a sucker punch as that from Bruce with his
baseball bat. She was testing the hypothesis of God's transformative power within another human being.

"Are you saying you're gonna have a kid?" Tyler threw his
tie over his shoulders, slinging one end around his neck like
a scarf.

"I'm gonna have our kid"

Tyler began to hyperventilate. Sabrina placed a hand on
his shoulder, but he shifted his weight and slipped out from
under it.

Sabrina took that as a good sign; Tyler had not knocked her
hand away. She had to be patient and understanding. She must
remain calm and positive. This was dramatic news for anyone
to hear, and she needed to keep the focus on all the potential
good that could come from this.

Tyler jerked the tie off his neck and wadded it up.

"You're telling me this is my kid?" Tyler asked. "I mean, it
never happened before when we were in LA."

"We weren't ready then. Maybe it's God telling us we're
ready."

"Ready for what?" Tyler threw up his arms and dropped
onto the bench.

"It happened while we were in Costa Rica;" she said. "Isn't
that romantic?"

It was obvious from his expression, his body language, that
he did not quite see the romantic implications.

"You got one choice;" he said. "Get rid of it"

Sabrina pretended not to hear his retort. It was an impulsive response to unsettling news. It was not the reaction from
someone changed by God. It was the reply from the old Tyler,
and she was not going to let the old Tyler reemerge and swallow up the new Tyler.

"Baby, my aunt and uncle, my grandparents, they are all
going to be happy for us," Sabrina said, sitting down beside
him. "Even my mama will be-"

"You think your family is gonna be happy when they find
out I'm the one who did this? You think they won't throw my
past right in your face?"

"But that's just it. Your past is in the past"

Tyler bounced off the bench and up onto his feet. He began
to pace back and forth in front of Sabrina, expelling blasts of
air from his mouth. He was a locomotive building steam for
the long climb out of this valley.

"This is it. Your family ... it'll never work. You best get rid
of it. They'll never accept me. They'll never accept this baby."

Sabrina watched his vigorous gait. At points he seemed about
to explode and threw out an arm or kicked a leg to release the
swift buildup of energy. She could not watch and had to avert
her eyes. There was too much truth to what he was saying. There
had been too much realism in their history for her family to
react to an unplanned pregnancy with joy.

"I've got some money saved," she said. "We could go somewhere ... maybe"

"Maybe I should just leave," Tyler said.

She feared these words most. Her father left, and her brother's
father was never there to leave. He had appeared long enough
to impregnate her mother and disappear like some phantom.
This, Sabrina could not tolerate. She was not like her mother. Tyler was not like those other men, like so many other men
who refused to accept responsibility. Yet she could not lose
this baby. If she panicked, she could lose them both. If she was
wise, she might keep them both.

"You love me, don't you?" Sabrina was only semiconfident
of his answer.

As he continued to wear out the pavement in front of her,
that confidence began to wane, and the quicker the decline
in her confidence, the more she began to realize she might be
facing this situation all by herself. The family could reject her
as they had rejected her mother. The family would not allow
a second generation of shame. Was she just like her mother?
Would she walk the same path now that she was pregnant?
Would the account of her mother's ruinous actions be a version of her future?

She thought since her aunt and uncle had entered her life,
her future had changed, life had been generous and kind, and
in its generosity, it had brought Tyler back to her. He had to
love her. He had to be committed to her and to this child. God
had to be a part of this whole plot. In her mind, all the signs
of his participation were there.

Tyler came to an abrupt halt in front of her. "Do you love
me?"

Surprise and relief flooded Sabrina's face. Of course, she
loved him. Had she not proven it to him?

"And you want to keep this baby?"

Of course, they should keep this child. Their love had created this child.

"And you know down deep your family would never agree to
us getting married? They would never let me see you again"

Of course, she knew there was the issue of her family. It
would hit the fan when this news came to the light.

"And you don't want to do this alone; you want to do this
together"

Of course, they must be together for this. There was no
one else in the world with whom she wanted to walk into the
future.

All of this confirmed, he sat down beside her.

"I love you, and I want to keep this child," he said.

Sabrina surrendered to the burden of her overtaxed heart
and the sobs came in rippling drifts. Tyler tucked Sabrina's
head into his shoulder and brought his other arm around her
for support.

People rambling by cast snooping looks in their direction.
When she became calm, Tyler wiped her tears and kissed her
face. She had been frightened that the old Tyler might have
won the battle.

He placed his hands on either side of her face and spoke in
a calm, reassuring tone. "I have a plan to make this work"

Yes, the new Tyler had won, and the vice grip inside Sabrina's
heart began to loosen its hold.

Dewayne had been gone three days, pretending to catch passes
and run around tacklers in a studio for a series of football video
games, the first of which would debut in the fall. Technicians
wired his body from head to toe to record all his moves in
front of a green screen so the computer designers could draw
his likeness and make his image do far more amazing things
on-screen than he could ever do on the playing field. He hated
to be gone so long, but the company needed to shoot enough
action footage for animators to use in the first three videos; the
price paid for this level of success. There would be no words
of complaint.